1 00:00:01,920 --> 00:00:07,080 Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of iHeart Radio. Hey brain Stuff. 2 00:00:07,160 --> 00:00:11,800 Speaker 1: Lauren boglebam here. After the horrific Parkland, Florida's school shooting 3 00:00:11,800 --> 00:00:15,560 Speaker 1: in February of eighteen, Marjorie Stoneman Douglas became a household 4 00:00:15,600 --> 00:00:18,720 Speaker 1: name for all the wrong reasons. But let's take a 5 00:00:18,720 --> 00:00:20,920 Speaker 1: look today at the woman for whom the high school 6 00:00:20,920 --> 00:00:24,800 Speaker 1: was named. Marjorie Stoneman Douglas undertook a legendary fifty year 7 00:00:24,840 --> 00:00:28,560 Speaker 1: crusade to save the Florida Everglades. Born in Minneapolis in 8 00:00:28,640 --> 00:00:32,320 Speaker 1: eighteen ninety and educated at Wellesley College in Massachusetts, Douglas 9 00:00:32,320 --> 00:00:35,040 Speaker 1: moved to South Florida in nineteen fifteen after a brief 10 00:00:35,080 --> 00:00:38,160 Speaker 1: and disastrous marriage, to join her father, who was editor 11 00:00:38,200 --> 00:00:41,120 Speaker 1: and founder of the newspaper that would become the Miami Herald. 12 00:00:41,720 --> 00:00:44,360 Speaker 1: She was an accomplished journalist, short story writer, and an 13 00:00:44,360 --> 00:00:48,760 Speaker 1: outspoken advocate for women's suffrage, anti poverty campaigns, and ultimately 14 00:00:48,800 --> 00:00:53,120 Speaker 1: the cause that would make her famous, Everglades. Douglas's nineteen 15 00:00:53,440 --> 00:00:56,320 Speaker 1: seven ode to those wetlands, The Everglades River of Grass, 16 00:00:56,600 --> 00:00:59,200 Speaker 1: was published the same year that President Harry S. Truman 17 00:00:59,200 --> 00:01:03,920 Speaker 1: dedicated the Everglades National Park long before environmental scientists fully 18 00:01:03,960 --> 00:01:08,240 Speaker 1: understood the fragility and interconnectedness of the Everglades ecosystem. Douglas 19 00:01:08,280 --> 00:01:10,280 Speaker 1: railed against efforts by the U. S. Army Corps of 20 00:01:10,319 --> 00:01:13,520 Speaker 1: Engineers to drain and divert parts of the sprawling wetlands 21 00:01:13,760 --> 00:01:17,440 Speaker 1: to make room for agricultural and urban development. These efforts 22 00:01:17,480 --> 00:01:21,440 Speaker 1: continue today. The school was dedicated in nineteen ninety, when 23 00:01:21,440 --> 00:01:23,919 Speaker 1: Douglas was one hundred years old and still going strong. 24 00:01:25,160 --> 00:01:28,039 Speaker 1: With her book, Douglas provided a new way of understanding 25 00:01:28,040 --> 00:01:31,680 Speaker 1: the one point five million acre wetlands preserve. Rather than 26 00:01:31,720 --> 00:01:35,280 Speaker 1: seeing it as nearly a sprawling swamp, Douglas rightly described 27 00:01:35,280 --> 00:01:38,520 Speaker 1: the Everglades as a massive, slow moving river of shallow water, 28 00:01:38,840 --> 00:01:41,520 Speaker 1: draining north to south from Lake Okeechobee, down through the 29 00:01:41,600 --> 00:01:46,400 Speaker 1: Sawgrass prairies and emptying into the Florida Bay. In Moving Pros, 30 00:01:46,480 --> 00:01:49,280 Speaker 1: Douglas wrote of the hundreds of species of birds, fish, 31 00:01:49,320 --> 00:01:52,600 Speaker 1: and flora that thrived in the precariously balanced ecosystem of 32 00:01:52,600 --> 00:01:56,559 Speaker 1: the Everglades, the largest subtropical wilderness in the United States. 33 00:01:56,560 --> 00:01:59,440 Speaker 1: She rightly recognized that this area was largely responsible for 34 00:01:59,480 --> 00:02:03,680 Speaker 1: the rainfall in South Florida. Her book begins there are 35 00:02:03,720 --> 00:02:07,320 Speaker 1: no other Everglades in the world. They are They've always 36 00:02:07,360 --> 00:02:10,440 Speaker 1: been one of the unique regions of the earth, remote, 37 00:02:10,680 --> 00:02:15,280 Speaker 1: never wholly known. Nothing anywhere else is like them. A 38 00:02:15,400 --> 00:02:19,560 Speaker 1: tireless and often intimidating advocate, she founded the organization Friends 39 00:02:19,560 --> 00:02:21,800 Speaker 1: of the Everglades at age seventy nine to fight a 40 00:02:21,840 --> 00:02:25,080 Speaker 1: proposed jetport in the middle of the wetlands. The airport 41 00:02:25,080 --> 00:02:27,120 Speaker 1: plan was scrapped, and Douglas spent the rest of her 42 00:02:27,160 --> 00:02:31,480 Speaker 1: life defending the Everglades. John rath Child, who edited her 43 00:02:32,280 --> 00:02:35,440 Speaker 1: seven autobiography, Voice of the River, described her in the 44 00:02:35,440 --> 00:02:38,000 Speaker 1: book's introduction as she appeared at a public meeting in 45 00:02:38,040 --> 00:02:42,359 Speaker 1: Everglades City in ninety three. Mrs Douglas was half the 46 00:02:42,400 --> 00:02:44,880 Speaker 1: sides of her fellow speakers, and she wore huge dark 47 00:02:44,960 --> 00:02:47,640 Speaker 1: glasses along with the huge floppy hat that made her 48 00:02:47,639 --> 00:02:51,320 Speaker 1: look like Scarlett O'Hara as played by Igor Dravinsky. When 49 00:02:51,360 --> 00:02:54,079 Speaker 1: she spoke, everybody stopped slapping mosquitoes and more or less 50 00:02:54,120 --> 00:02:56,639 Speaker 1: came to order. Her voice had the sobering effect of 51 00:02:56,639 --> 00:02:59,640 Speaker 1: a one room schoolmarms. The tone itself seemed to tame 52 00:02:59,639 --> 00:03:02,519 Speaker 1: the rowtiest of the local stone crabbers. Plus the developers 53 00:03:02,680 --> 00:03:06,960 Speaker 1: and the lawyers on both sides. There are two seasons 54 00:03:06,960 --> 00:03:09,720 Speaker 1: in the Everglades, the dry winter and the monsoon summer, 55 00:03:10,000 --> 00:03:13,480 Speaker 1: and scientists now understand that seasonal fluctuations in water levels 56 00:03:13,480 --> 00:03:16,600 Speaker 1: are key to maintaining the delicate equilibrium between competing plant 57 00:03:16,600 --> 00:03:20,680 Speaker 1: and animal species, but that balance has been dangerously disturbed 58 00:03:20,720 --> 00:03:24,360 Speaker 1: by decades of habitat loss and short sighted water management tactics. 59 00:03:24,840 --> 00:03:27,160 Speaker 1: The River of Grass is no longer a free flowing 60 00:03:27,160 --> 00:03:29,640 Speaker 1: sheet of water, but sliced up and boxed in by 61 00:03:29,720 --> 00:03:32,840 Speaker 1: dams and dikes, creating floods in some areas and drought 62 00:03:32,880 --> 00:03:37,960 Speaker 1: in others. Congress passed the comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan back 63 00:03:38,000 --> 00:03:40,520 Speaker 1: in the year two thousand, but the funds to implement 64 00:03:40,560 --> 00:03:44,080 Speaker 1: the plan were never secured. In the meantime, Lake a Kochobee, 65 00:03:44,200 --> 00:03:46,680 Speaker 1: historically the water source that fed the southward flow of 66 00:03:46,720 --> 00:03:50,040 Speaker 1: the River of Grass, has become hopelessly polluted, largely by 67 00:03:50,080 --> 00:03:54,560 Speaker 1: agricultural runoff in. High levels of phosphorus and nitrogen in 68 00:03:54,560 --> 00:03:57,080 Speaker 1: the lake caused a toxic algae bloom that prompted the 69 00:03:57,080 --> 00:04:01,080 Speaker 1: governor to issue a state of emergency. Eric Eichenberg, CEO 70 00:04:01,200 --> 00:04:04,360 Speaker 1: of the Everglades Foundation and one time student at Douglas's 71 00:04:04,440 --> 00:04:07,600 Speaker 1: namesake High School, says that Congress will have to reauthorize 72 00:04:07,600 --> 00:04:10,280 Speaker 1: funding for the restoration, but that if everything goes well, 73 00:04:10,520 --> 00:04:12,480 Speaker 1: the River of Grass could be restored in as little 74 00:04:12,520 --> 00:04:16,280 Speaker 1: as eight years. He believes that Douglas, who died at 75 00:04:16,279 --> 00:04:18,960 Speaker 1: the age of eight, would be energized by the effort. 76 00:04:20,160 --> 00:04:23,240 Speaker 1: Among Douglas's many honors and awards was the Presidential Medal 77 00:04:23,240 --> 00:04:27,320 Speaker 1: of Freedom, conferred by Bill Clinton. In the year two thousand, 78 00:04:27,400 --> 00:04:30,279 Speaker 1: she was posthumously inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame. 79 00:04:30,839 --> 00:04:34,200 Speaker 1: Douglas's ashes were scattered in the Everglades National Park over 80 00:04:34,279 --> 00:04:42,919 Speaker 1: the Marjorie Stoneman Douglas Wilderness Area. Today's episode was written 81 00:04:42,960 --> 00:04:45,599 Speaker 1: by Dave Ruse and produced by Tyler Clang. Brain Stuff 82 00:04:45,640 --> 00:04:47,520 Speaker 1: is a production of I Heeart Radio's How Stuff Works. 83 00:04:47,880 --> 00:04:50,120 Speaker 1: For more on this and lots of other persevering topics, 84 00:04:50,200 --> 00:04:52,680 Speaker 1: visit our home planet how Stuff Works dot com, and 85 00:04:52,760 --> 00:04:55,000 Speaker 1: for more podcasts. For my heart radio, visit the heart 86 00:04:55,080 --> 00:04:57,599 Speaker 1: Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your 87 00:04:57,640 --> 00:04:58,320 Speaker 1: favorite shows.