Amid the sweeping sawgrass of Everglades National Park are sights and sounds that draw a million visitors every year: alligators and airboats.
Florida’s Native Americans paddled dugout canoes through the shallow waters of the “river of grass” past the gators, snakes, blue herons and egrets. In the last century, Florida’s “gladesmen” invented the airboat, making traversing the swamps far more efficient. South of the Tamiami Trail, gladesmen would hydroplane the propeller-powered airboats through the mangroves and sawgrass, hunting alligator and frogs or just enjoying the natural beauty of the swamp.
“You’re taking away something I’ve done for 60 years …”
– Jesse Kennon, ‘gladesman’
After Everglades National Park was established in 1934, hunting was banned along with motorized vehicles, except in one small sliver of the park known as the Eastern Extension. Even though it became part of the 1.5 million-acre park in 1989, air boating has continued. But that 1989 act of Congress also mandated the U.S. Park Service come up with a comprehensive management plan which included the government buying up 9,000 parcels of land and holding nearly 50 public meetings over the years. Now, that plan is ready to be implemented, and that means the end of private air boating in Everglades National Park.
continue http://www.foxnews.com/science/2015/09/18/gone-from-glades-federal-rules-to-put-florida-legendary-airboats-in-dry-dock/
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