page_title: Friends of the Everglades
section_title: Development
hierarchical_section_title: Friends of the Everglades / Development
caption_attribution_description: English: Marjory Stoneman Douglas
context_page_description: Friends of the Everglades is a conservationist and activist organization in the United States whose mission is to "preserve, protect, and restore the only Everglades in the world." The book Biosphere 2000: Protecting Our Global Environment refers to Friends of the Everglades as an organization that has fought to preserve North America's only subtropical wetland.
  The organization was created in 1969-1970 by journalist, author, and environmental activist Marjory Stoneman Douglas who wrote the book The Everglades: River of Grass in 1947, about the Florida Everglades. When the organization was first founded, it soon had 500 members, eventually reaching 6,000 members. Douglas was 79 when she founded the organization. Current membership is approximately 5,000.
  It outlines its goals as being to:
  Compel government agencies to comply with existing environmental laws, and resist any efforts to weaken such laws.
  Encourage politicians to recognize the long consequences of their actions.
  Spread awareness of the importance of the Everglades to the South Florida ecosystem.
context_section_description: Environmental activist Joe Browder and Browder's office manager Judy Wilson, were influential in persuading Marjory Stoneman Douglas to start an organization to protect the Everglades. The organization was started with a one-dollar membership contribution from Marjory Douglas as its first member. Governor Reubin Askew, who was Governor of Florida from 1971 to 1979 was supportive of Friends of the Everglades according to Douglas in her book, Voice of the River. While membership is now thirty-five dollars, Friends maintains its one-dollar contribution membership fee for the school-based Young Friends of the Everglades.
  What is now Everglades National Park was created in 1947, and is recently as 1998, has been referred to as "the most endangered national park in America."  Some of the environmental issues facing the Everglades are, disrupted water flow, a drastic decline in the wading bird population, invasion of exotic species and the survival challenges facing the Florida panther, of which there are only 160 left in the wild, an increase from 20 wild Florida panthers in the 1970s. Additionally, species such as the wood stork, the Cape Sable seaside sparrow and the manatee have an uncertain future in the Everglades as a result of environmental issues.  Former Secretary of Friends of the Everglades, Sharyn Richardson said that she got started with the organization, attracted by its philosophical ideals, stating, "when you see an injustice and you become aware of that injustice, you have to take responsibility for it."
  Friends of the Everglades is one of dozens of organizations involved in environmental efforts in the Florida Everglades, among which are the National Audubon Society and the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA).
caption: Marjory Stoneman Douglas was the founder of Friends of the Everglades. She lived to 108 and started Friends of the Everglades at 87 years of age.
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