EVERGLADES

Exploring the everglades, the author describes landforms and wildlife and recalls the past history of the enormous slow-moving swamp that runs hundreds of miles from Florida's Lake Okeechobee to the Gulf of Mexico. While still home to exotic wildlife, pollution and overdevelopment are threatening this unique biome. Lourie interweaves ecology, history, and a current true-life adventure. Buffalo Tiger, the guide for this journey, is a former chief of the Miccosukee Indians, who have farmed and fished the swamp since the 1820s when they were driven out of Northern Florida. Buffalo Tiger no longer poles the shallow swamp in a cypress dugout or lives in a thatched-roof, open-air chi-kee, but he does try to keep the legends and traditions alive for young Miccosukees who travel by air boat and live in modern houses in Miami. The author provides both contemporary color photos and black and white photos from the 1920s. While less compelling than the author's Yukon River: Adventure to the Gold Fields of the Klondike (1992), this will be appreciated by nature enthusiasts. (Nonfiction. 10-12)