Disaster Prevention For humans, floods, droughts and fires are disasters. For the Everglades, they are natural processes.
Fires Fires ignite in the Everglades through lightning strikes.
Until 1958, the National Park Service had a policy to suppress all fires in the Everglades. Then a study showed that fire was necessary to maintain biological diversity. As a result, the Everglades was the site of the first prescribed fire ever in a national park. Fire removes decaying vegetation and allows for regrowth. That new growth, plus nutrients released from the burn, increases food and habitat for wildlife.