The Everglades are a natural region of subtropical wetlands in
the southern portion of the U.S. state of Florida, comprising
the southern half of a large watershed. The system begins near
Orlando with the Kissimmee River, which discharges into the vast
but shallow Lake Okeechobee. Water leaving the lake in the wet
season forms a slow-moving river 60 miles (97 km) wide and over
100 miles (160 km) long, flowing southward across a limestone
shelf to Florida Bay at the southern end of the state. The
Everglades are shaped by water and fire, experiencing frequent
flooding in the wet season and drought in the dry season. Writer
Marjory Stoneman Douglas popularized the term "River of Grass"
to describe the sawgrass marshes, part of a complex system of
interdependent ecosystems that include cypress swamps, the
estuarine mangrove forests of the Ten Thousand Islands, tropical
hardwood hammocks, pine rockland, and the marine environment of
Florida Bay. Human habitation in the southern portion of the
Florida peninsula dat