Word: ecosystems
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From Duncan's little corner of paradise, the Everglades doesn't seem endangered. But just 40 miles to the northeast, the picture changes abruptly. Here there are no game fish, no white ibis and hardly any alligators. Where once a complex ecosystem flourished, there are only cattails, acre upon acre of them, stretching as far as the eye can see. Cattails are taking over the eastern Everglades, crowding out the saw grass and choking the algae at the base of the ecosystem's food chain. Cattails now cover 20,000 acres of what was once pristine wetland. Grown thick...
...June 21 deadline. Federal and state officials, environmentalists, Native Americans and farmers are still haggling over who will pay for the cleanup and the timetable. If no settlement comes this week, the issue is likely to go back to court -- where it could linger for years while the ecosystem deteriorates. "What's at stake is the biological future of the Everglades and the Florida Bay," says Dick Ring, superintendent of the Everglades National Park...
...When asked by an environmentalist what he meant by sustainable, a World Bank agronomist replied, "Fifty years of timber production." Even the rubber tappers of Brazil's Amazon rain forest, who along with their martyred leader, Chico Mendes, became symbols of the sustainable use of tropical forests, overexploit their ecosystem. Writing in the journal BioScience, John Browder notes that in search of food and sources of cash, these seringueiros can kill off wildlife and cut forests as much as settlers...
...immediate concern to people who use up natural resources. Given the high cost of modern fishing equipment, an individual fisherman is driven to catch every last fish rather than limit catches and ensure long-term supply. And no matter how good the plan to manage an ecosystem, some people will cheat...
...first rule of native-plant enthusiasts is to go for diversity. While a traditional garden may have a dozen species of plants, a well designed nativescape will have as many as 100 species in the same space. This variety ensures a healthier, heartier ecosystem because not all the plant life will be susceptible to the same diseases and pests. As an example of what happens when diversity declines, Dallas-based landscape designer Sally Wasowski cites the beetle-borne fungus that threatens to wipe out the majestic oaks that shade the homes and ranches of Texas hill country...