Trump vetoes bill that would protect Miccosukee village in Everglades

In President Donald Trump's first two vetoes of his second term, he's denied one of Florida's two federally recognized tribes the ability to protect one of its camps in the Everglades. more

Florida’s Wild Python Eradication Footage Reveals the Aftermath Nobody Expected - Invasive Species

Escape to Paradise: Now Departing from the Big Cypress Swamp Detention Center

Forget Disney World. Forget South Beach. The hottest new Florida tourist experience isn’t a theme park or a beach—it’s a swamp. Specifically, the Big Cypress Swamp Concentration Camp™, proudly brought to you by the Trump administration and its latest innovation in human rights violations.

With tourism to the U.S. on the decline (turns out xenophobia isn’t a great brand strategy), local Everglades airboat operators have had to get creative. And by creative, we mean they’ve pivoted to a thrilling new service: underground freedom rides for immigrants detained in America’s very own jungle holding cell. It’s part humanitarian mission, part survival gig economy. Because in Trump’s America, you’re either a boot or you’re under it—or you’re trying to pay your mortgage with side gigs powered by moral whiplash.

Each escape package comes with a scenic moonlit ride across the sawgrass, with stars brighter than your future in ICE custody. Guests (formerly known as “detainees”) will enjoy the natural beauty of Florida’s wetlands, dodge the occasional gator (don’t worry, only the reptilian kind—we avoid the ones in uniform), and maybe even spot a bald eagle crying softly in the distance.

Where do these freedom tours end, you ask? Mar-a-Lago, naturally. Because if you’re going to flee a swamp prison in the land of the free™, why not end up at America’s gold-plated Versailles of moral decay? Sure, it’s trespassing, but at least the lobster bisque is hot and the beds have Egyptian cotton sheets—better than the aluminum-foil blankets and concrete floors back at Camp Isolation.

Of course, there are risks. You might get caught. You might get deported. Or worse, you might get recruited as unpaid staff at one of the “guest properties.” But hey—at least you’ll be doing it in style, gliding across America’s last remaining sliver of untouched wilderness, guided by a salty boat captain who once gave nature tours to Canadian retirees before the visas dried up.So book now—supplies (and civil liberties) are limited.

he Everglades: From Sanctuary to Detention

I spent a lot of time in The Everglades back in the 70s. I wish I could share the images I captured – endless sawgrass marshes stretching out in every direction, alligators drifting lazily in the sloughs, and birds with colors so vivid they seemed unreal. Those photos still sit on old slides, a quiet record of a place unlike anywhere else on Earth.

The Everglades has always been a place of life and resilience. A place where nature thrived despite human attempts to drain it, build over it, or exploit it. But now, it’s being used for something it was never meant to hold: a detention center for immigrants.

This new facility, dubbed by some as “Alligator Alcatraz,” is being built to detain immigrants who have been arrested and are awaiting deportation under new Trump administration policies. The irony is devastating. A place that has always been a symbol of wild freedom and unique beauty is now becoming a prison for people whose only crime was seeking a better life.

It makes me sad to see what The Everglades is being used for today – and how the media reduces it to sensational headlines. The land is more than a backdrop for human cruelty. When I think back to those quiet mornings with my camera, I remember a place of wonder and refuge. I can only hope we find a way to restore both the dignity of the land and the dignity of the people we are so willing to lock away.

Native American WARNS Trump "Testing Us" With Alligator Alcatraz Next to Reservation

Everglades photographer frustrated with opening of "Alligator Alcatraz" | Facing South Florida

Florida's LARGEST State Park Is Lonely (and a bit scary)

A race is on to restore the Florida Everglades

How the U.S. Government Broke the Everglades

Even my hard-headed dad understood the importance of Florida’s wetlands

We buried my dad last week. Oscar Pittman had a good, long life. He’d just turned 87, and he and my mom had celebrated 67 years of marriage. more

Why There’s a Massive Runway in the Middle of the Everglades

Friends Of The Everglades: Homestead is at a Tipping Point

HERE

Smoke in The Everglades

The Smoke Comes Every Year. Sugar Companies Say the 

Air Is Safe. here

The Everglades Need Your Help

And they want to use Congress 

to take more!

Alcee Hastings and Rick Scott, two Florida politicians in the pocket of Big Sugar, are trying to add language to the 2020 Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) to make Big Sugar’s cane fields the top priority for water flow. HERE

The Everglades Need Our Help

Sugar lobbyists trying to slip in language in Washington while no one is looking.

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Under the cover of a global pandemic, lobbyists for the sugar cartel are trying to slip in language to the federal Water Resources & Development Act (WRDA) of 2020 that will make toxic discharges more likely and starve the Everglades and Florida Bay of the freshwater they desperately need. INFO

FLORIDA: SILENT, SNEAKY SUGAR PLAN EXPOSED!

Under the cover of a global pandemic, lobbyists for the sugar cartel are trying to slip in language to the federal Water Resources & Development Act (WRDA) of 2020 that will make toxic discharges more likely and starve the Everglades and Florida Bay of the freshwater they desperately need. HERE

We cannot let them drill for oil in the Everglades

Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried calls it “outrageous” to allow oil-drilling on-shore in the Everglades and Apalachicola basin, a move that would put “precious water, popular beaches, and wildlife at great danger of being tainted 
by an oil spill.” HERE

Florida GOP not stopping on-shore oil drilling

State on the verge of allowing drilling in both the Everglades and 
Apalachicola basin.

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Oil companies have been far more successful with drilling on land in Florida. Under Gov. Ron DeSantis, the state’s Department of Environmental Protection has done little 
to stop them. HERE

Helen Frigo of Jensen Beach Asks

We can see Louisiana from space. The heel and sole of the “boot” is pretty much gone. Channelizing and controlling the Mississippi River has deprived the Delta (swamp) of land-creating soil. Has Florida been doing the same with its River of Grass? HERE

Young Florida Panthers with Mother