The environment of South Florida has undergone changes since the early part of the century. A 
typical account of the environment at that time is the one of Simpson (1920). 
■From 1882 till 1886 I made my home on the southwest coast of the State and have 
lived near Miami since 1902. When I first came to the State, the greater part of Lower 
Florida was an unbroken wilderness, and during the time I have been here I have quite 
thoroughly explored the territory described in this volume both as a collector and 
general naturalist. To-day most of its hammocks are destroyed, the streams are being 
dredged out and deepened, the Everglades are nearly drained; even the pine forests are 
being cut down. At the time when I first resided in the State, flamingoes, roseate 
spoonbills, scarlet ibises, and the beautiful plumed herons were abundant. Deer and 
otter could be seen at any time and the west coast waters were alive with immense 
schools of mullet and other fish, while manatee were not rare. The streams and 
swamps were full of alligators; in fact the wonderful wild fauna of our region filled the 
land and the waters everywhere. It has seemed to me fitting that some record of this 
life should be made, in view of the fact that it is so rapidly disappearing - and forever. 
Already a number of pscies of our animals and plants are exterminated from this the 
only area in the United States in which they have ever been found." 
3. INFORMATION GATHERING METHODS 
This document has been compiled using various sources and methods. Searches of electronic 
databases were performed to obtain listings of published citations concerning Florida Bay (Table 
3). The results of the electronic databases were cross checked against the bibliographies 
prepared by Tabb and Iversen (1971), Schmidt and Davis (1978), Mahadevan et at. (1984), and 
Schmidt (1991). The references listed in citations on Florida Bay were also cross referenced to 
the current compilation. In addition, information on specific subject areas, such as El Nino 
events and weather, was obtained from books, journal articles and other published sources 
without extensive subject coverage. Problems were encountered concerning the indexing used 
for Florida Bay. If the words "Florida Bay" were not used in the title, key words or text, 
searching of the databases resulted in a large number of citations on bays in Florida. The 
Boolean combination of "Everglades" and "coastal" or "marine" did not yield many citations. 
Also, there is a lag time of several months between publication and entry into electronic 
databases for some services. 
Selected citations on Taylor Slough, Shark River Slough, Buttonwood Canal, Whitewater Bay 
and the Florida Keys are included since these ecosystems are closely related to Florida Bay. 
This work, however, is not intended to have a comprehensive coverage of these areas. 
An anecdotal and historical chronology of events that affected the marine environment of the 
Florida Keys from 1714 to the present was prepared by The Nature Conservancy (DeMaria, in 
press). This time line contains information gathered from recent interviews of approximately 
75 individuals with 10 or more years of on-the-water experience in the Keys and Florida Bay. 
Selected information from this work on Florida Bay was incorporated in this time line. 
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