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-A 7alle of iJwo Women
Marjory Stoneman Douglas and Mlaijoric 1larris Carr
Segment: Importance of Water
Source: Interview with Marjory Stoneman Douglas: a tale of two women / produced by Florida
International University Learning Resources for FIU/FAU Joint Center. Videotaped at the Douglas House
in Coconut Grove, June 15, 1983.
Length of Segment: 00:01:51
Transcript and audio recording are copyright 1983-2009 Florida International University.
TRANSCRIPT
Interviewer: (15:12) Can you describe how the living system in the Park relies on water supply? What is
the interaction between the water and the animals and the plant communities?
MSD: Well, if you don't have water they won't live: it's very simple. Same reaction there is with
anybody; if you don't have water, you'll die. So they don't get water enough in the Park, which is a
wetlands park. In the first place, if it doesn't get water enough, it dries, and it has been drying. And the
melaleuca and the Brazilian pepper have been coming in, even down where the mangroves should be; it
would be changing the whole nature of the Park. And of course the animals and the birds have to have
water, you've gotta have water. So its ridiculous that the water should not be sent down to the Park,
and instead what they've been doing is dumping the water out down the Caloosahatchee and down the
St. Lucie out to sea. Getting rid of it from the Okeechobee Basin without any consideration at all. Of
course it is a problem when there is too much water to know what to do with it, but they haven't
considered it properly. They haven't gotten together. This attempt on the part of Governor Graham to
get the heads of the state departments together is the first time people have come together to consider
the whole Everglades, and it's got to be a continuing process. And I, before, they could work with the
federal government, even. I applaud heartily the Governor's effort to get going with some conferences
on what must be done, not only to save the Park, but the whole system. (17:00)
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