Biscayne National Park

The recent oil spill in the Gulf brought me back to a long past trip I took to Biscayne National Park. Though the NPS maintains that the oil spill is not an "immediate threat" to the parks of South Florida, the staff from Big Cypress National Preserve, Biscayne National Park, De Soto National Memorial, Dry Tortugas National Park, and Everglades National Park are already preparing. The Biscayne National Park website states, "The National Park Service is focused on securing the safety of vistoris and responders, minimizing the impact of the land-bound oil on park resources, and working closely with local and federal partners until the threat is resolved." Gotta love the NPS for always trying to be one step ahead in protecting not only the environment, but its visitors.

Biscayne is a unique national park, in that it has four distinct ecosystems melt into one. It creates and "ecotone," or a rich edge community. The four primary ecosystems include: a narrow fringe of mangrove forests, the southern expanse of Biscayne Bay, the northern Florida Key islands, and the beginning of a coral reef. The existence of these four ecosystems allows for a plethora of species raning from fish found nowhere else in the U.S. to manatees and pelicans.

I didn't get to spend as much time as I would've liked at Biscayne National Park, but I did go in the off-season. They do have many things to do from snorkeling to canoeing to walking. Since it was the off-season, all I did was walk along the 1/4-mile jetty trail to Convoy Point. It's a beautiful area, and I would love to return sometime in the near future to see how it has changed over the years....