Today, the sheet flow of water from the Lake Okeechobee basin is interrupted by development and drainage efforts. From Orlando to Homestead, 1,400-1,500 miles of canals, levees, and innumerable control structures predetermine the direction of nearly all water from the area. The drastic decline in wading bird populations in south Florida is an indication of the seriousness of the delicate nature of water quality, quantity, and the loss of wetlands. In 1930, there were approximately 180,000 to 245,000 wading birds in the Everglades. By 1976 there were only an estimated 50,000.
Water quality is critical to the Everglades ecosystem.
Everything from the oxygen-producing algal mat called periphyton, to the great blue heron depend on the ecostructure that has developed in this unique freshwater marsh. The Everglades plants and animals have adapted to the low nutrient levels of the original Everglades. Today, much of the original Northern Everglades and areas around Lake Okeechobee have been converted to farming. Draining and tilling of the land cause the peat to oxidize. This process, along with the addition of fertilizer and burning of the sugar cane fields, adds phosphorus, a plant nutrient, to the remaining Everglades.