Florida Weekly, September 5, 2024
Throughout the expanse, a 5,000-year-old ecosystem takes in all the water from sky and earth, sheds it in sheets to estuaries and oceans, filtering the rest in a slow crawl of 100 feet per day in some places all the way to the peninsula’s southern tip, where it can drift away toward Florida’s Keys.
The watershed has suffered significant damage in recent decades. To fix it, people have to understand it and understand their connection to it, says Begoñe Cazalis, communications director of the nonprofit Everglades Foundation in Palmetto Bay. But science may not offer a quick understanding — geography, topography, hydrology, marine biology — let alone the policies that are part of the fix.
So Cazalis and a Foundation team have adopted the ancient engine of oral storytelling. They chose 20 individuals, young to old, north to south, native to non-native, men, women and children, and harnessed their short reflections to video technology.
None more than about two minutes in length, each story describes in poignant and heartfelt terms — a 10-year-old here and an 86-year-old there — how one Floridian is connected both to the Everglades and to everyone else living on the peninsula.
“It’s been a labor of love, an amazing journey to get these 20 stories,” Cazalis said. “The issues with the Everglades are complex, there are many layers, and sometimes you do have to explain it to people with facts, with science, with the policies — and with maps. You have to show it to them visually, for people to get it.” There’s a “but,” however.
“But there’s something about a story to hit home, so you can understand how these issues impact each of us. They connect beyond facts, data, policy, science. They show how Floridians are impacted, how their livelihoods are affected — and also how we’re all connected to the Everglades through the watershed.”
People think the Everglades is just the national park, but it’s much more than that, she explained — and the stories show it.
Read the full story: https://bonitasprings.floridaweekly.com/articles/were-all-connected-to-the-everglades/
Watch our Everglades Stories From Across the Watershed: https://www.evergladesfoundation.org/stories