The Swamp: The Everglades, Florida, and the Politics of Paradise Paperback – March 27, 2007

The Swamp is an extraordinarily well-written book, an upbeat treatise on the Everglades that lays out options for the future while dealing with changes in its integrity, politics, economics and the history, its people and plants, as well as being a great read.In this book Michael Grunwald presents a clear and convincing argument for the construction and conservation of filter wetlands in order to restore the Everglades to its original state. Referred to as, Stormwater Treatment Areas, these wetlands are essentially a front-line of resistance in the fight to filter out and bind nutrients that come from the intense agricultural production of crops like sugar. In the US such filter swamps are Congressionally-mandated under the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan, approved by former President Clinton and former Florida Governor, Jeb Bush. As Grunwald explains, more than 36,000 acres have been constructed in Florida, which to date have removed thousands of tons of phosphorus. Another 17,000 acres was added in 2004, making the area the largest man-made wetland in the world!A classic of its kind, The Swamp is a work of love. It reminded me of the ‘Patron Saint of Swamps,’ Henry Thoreau, for whom, “my temple is the swamp...far away from human society. What’s the need of visiting far-off mountains and bogs, if a half-hour’s walk will carry me into such wildness and novelty.”

This is an outstanding piece of history/journalism as the author traces the Everglades and surrounding south Florida from the earliest Indians to the very latest politicians. Anyone who lives in or visits S. Florida should read this towering book as the author describes the villains and heroes who had a role in impacting the Everglades. Surprisingly, we find that the environmentalists (who were called conservationists in earlier times) were often just as wrong and opportunistic as were the politicians and the fat cats. There's blame for everybody who had a hand in despoiling this unique environmental treasure and then, with dubious motives and bureaucratic bumbling, sought to restore it. A Washington Post journalist, Grunwald brings to the book a generally leftist perspective --he keeps, for instance, harping on the alleged predations of "the white man." But you can see that he at least makes an effort to restrain himself -- not always successfully. He even occasionally takes a shot at a Democrat or an environmentalist, but in general, his opinions are predictable and often cliched. This mild criticism, however, should not take away from the success and importance of this comprehensive, well-done, easy-to-read saga about the Everglades, wherein lies an instructive tale of how big things get done (or not done) in America.

An incredibly engaging look at what you might think is a dry (pardon the pun) topic. The book takes an in-depth look at the history of the Everglades from it's geologic beginnings to early colonial days and efforts over hundreds of years to drain the wetlands for farming and subdivisions and ultimately ending with recent efforts to reclaim the wetlands. I know it doesn't sound engrossing, but it is a fairly incredible story about mankind's stubborness and the (hopefully) resilience of nature. Well worth a read.

Well-written in a journalistic style. Follows all the twists and turns in the story of man's destruction of the Everglades. Would like to see an update of what has transpired since it was published in 2004. One can sense, from reading this book, that the forces of Nature will have the "last laugh" when it comes to restoring the natural hydrology of south Florida. How soon will the next big disaster occur?

I just finished Michael Grunwald's The Swamp: The Everglades, Florida, and the Politics of Paradise. The book left me filled with conflicting emotions. I feel pride for my adopted state of Florida and the people that have worked so hard to make it such a fine place to live, and for our species for recognizing what a remarkable natural resource that The Everglades are. As Grunwald notes in his epilogue, there is "only on Everglades, and we have just about destroyed it. It is our ability to recognize this, and to make amends, that sets us apart from other species" (369).It's a fine point, and one can't help but thank folks like Ernest Coe, Marjory Stoneman Douglas, Nathaniel Reed, Paul Tudor Jones, Lawton Chiles, countless leaders of the Seminole and Miccosukee Tribes, and an untold list of other journalists, politicians, environmentalists, and citizens that dedicated their lives to the restoration of the River of Grass.But I also feel disgust that the twentieth-century ethic of "slash, cut, dredge, and pave" has left the Glades a shadow of its once-majestic self. I spent some time looking at some of the most recent CERP findings (data set 2012-2017) and, while restoration has yielded some positive benefits, sprawl is still encroaching on the western Everglades and remains a threat to environmentally sensitive areas such as Big Cypress.South Florida is essentially built out. Grunwald notes this in his meticulously written book, which was published fifteen years ago, and that statement is even more true now. The limits for horizontal growth in South Florida have been met, and there will need to be drastic changes in how communities continue to plan and develop as we move forward in the new millennium.I loved this book, and I purchased a copy for my father--a hydrologist that spent more than forty years with the United State Forest Service watching commerce and conservation clash in communities throughout Oregon, Washington, and Colorado. Grunwald is both a lyrical science writer with an active prose style and a careful technical writer that is able to connect the dots between a vast amount of disparate research items. He covers the topic of the Everglades evenly and fairly, acknowledging the various usurpations and thefts of the American government toward the native people of the region with sympathy and pathos. Like many other chapters in American history, the attempted settlement of the Everglades isn't all butterflies and rainbows, and it's clear that various interests with both positive and nefarious intentions collaborated to severely damage America's Everglades.And yet, the text concludes on a slightly optimistic note by pointing toward a twenty-first-century dynamic of restoration and conservation that will allow the River of Grass to return to some semblance of its former glory. I hope I live to see that day, although the projections for restoring water flow to only 70% of its original capacity are still not scheduled to be met for another twenty years into the future.I hope to visit the Everglades in the coming months, even if only for a short time, and I wanted to post a quick review saying kudos to Michael Grunwald on writing an important book, and kudos to the various agencies now working to restore these great wetlands to their former glory.As Marjory Stoneman Douglas said, There are no other Everglades in the world.