Everglades National Park (Usa) – Location, Significance, Facts

Everglades National Park protects an extensive subtropical wetland in southern Florida.

Everglades National Park, Usa.

Country: Usa
Coordinates: 25.3125° N, 80.6875° W

Everglades National Park overview

Everglades National Park protects an extensive subtropical wetland in southern Florida. Across its low limestone landscape, slow freshwater sheetflow connects sawgrass marshes with mangrove estuaries and the seagrass beds of Florida Bay.

Everglades National Park coordinates

Everglades National Park is commonly mapped at approximately 25.3125° N, 80.6875° W, or 25.3125, -80.6875 in decimal degrees.

Degrees: 25.3125° N, 80.6875° W

Decimal: 25.3125, -80.6875

Where Everglades National Park is located

Everglades National Park extends across the low western and southern edges of the Florida Peninsula, from south of Lake Okeechobee toward Florida Bay. The park adjoins the mangrove coast and Ten Thousand Islands complex, with Big Cypress and other federally managed lands nearby. Water from urban and agricultural watersheds farther up-gradient crosses the limestone platform toward the Gulf of Mexico and Florida Bay.

Why Everglades National Park is important

Sawgrass marshes, mangrove estuaries, and coastal seagrass beds form a connected freshwater-to-marine ecosystem within the park. Slow sheetflow over limestone sustains this continuum and makes the area important for long-term research into hydrology, estuarine ecology, and altered water delivery.

Post-glacial changes in sea level and groundwater produced a broad plain of marl and peat over limestone bedrock. Indigenous communities inhabited its coastal and interior areas for millennia, drawing on shell and freshwater resources and leaving archaeological traces on higher tree islands. Drainage, canals, and agriculture later redirected sheetflow and reduced surrounding wetlands. Federal designation protected large, contiguous parts of the South Florida ecosystem that remained.

Natural features of Everglades National Park

Everglades National Park’s dominant physical form is low, flat terrain underlain by oolitic and fossiliferous limestone that supports slow sheetflow of surface water. Observable habitat types include sawgrass marshes, marl prairies, deeper sloughs such as Shark River Slough and Taylor Slough, scattered tree islands, mangrove forests along estuaries, and the shallow, seagrass-rich waters of Florida Bay. Karst and solution features occur where limestone is exposed, and coastal flats transition to tidal channels and islands in the Ten Thousand Islands and Florida Bay regions.

Environment, protection, and monitoring of Everglades National Park

Everglades National Park is managed by the U.S. National Park Service within a regional network of federal and state protected areas. Management across its freshwater and marine environments centers on restoring natural hydrologic patterns, controlling invasive species, and monitoring habitat and species health. Conservation partnerships contribute to hydrological restoration and species recovery.

Everglades National Park facts

The federal designation of Everglades National Park protected large, contiguous areas of subtropical wetland that remained after extensive drainage and development elsewhere in south Florida. The park’s landscape extends from the southern margin of Lake Okeechobee to the mangrove-lined Florida Bay, linking inland freshwater sources to coastal seas. Indigenous peoples, including historically documented coastal communities, used and occupied tree islands and shell-bearing sites within what is now the park. Everglades National Park contains both freshwater marsh systems and marine habitats that support species such as estuarine fishes and salt-tolerant mangrove communities. The park holds formal international conservation recognitions that reflect its values as a wetland and world heritage landscape.

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