An Everglades expedition follows in the footsteps of a legendary explorer

The expedition followed the path of Hugh de Laussat Willoughby through the once pristine Everglades.

In 1897, the explorer and amateur scientist Hugh de Laussat Willoughby climbed into a canoe and embarked on a coast-to-coast expedition through the Florida Everglades, a wilderness then almost as vast as the peninsula itself and as unknown, he wrote, as the “heart of Africa.”

Willoughby and his guide were the first non-Indians to cross the Everglades from the Gulf of Mexico to the Atlantic Ocean, and Willoughby’s meticulous notes, maps, and water samples would form the basis of scientists’ historical understanding of the fabled “river of grass.” . .”

Now a new expedition has followed his journey, aiming to measure the impact of modern humanity on a watershed that is today among the most altered on Earth and responsible for the drinking water of some 12 million Floridians. The expedition also commemorates the 75th anniversary of Everglades National Park, which was dedicated on December 6, 1947.

“We think we will see the full spectrum, from one of the most remote parts of the continental United States to one of the most urbanized parts of the United States — all in one basin, all in one trip,” said Harvey Oyer, co-leader of the four-man expedition and author of a series of children’s books about Florida’s historic frontier. “That, I think more than anything else, will illustrate the impact of humanity from the time of Willoughby to today.”

Willoughby’s thorough work provides a tantalizing opportunity to compare conditions in the Everglades then and now. During a six-day, 130-mile journey along the region’s rivers and canals, Oyer and the team collected water samples from the same spots as Willoughby, according to the coordinates he documented, sometimes from some of the most remote and hard-to-reach areas. parts of the region. subtropical region.

The water samples are being analyzed at the University of Florida for the same constituents Willoughby researched, such as magnesium and sulfates, along with nutrients now known to affect the Everglades, such as phosphorus and nitrogen. The samples are also tested for modern contaminants such as microplastics, perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), pesticides and pharmaceuticals. It will take several months for the analysis to be completed. The team completed its journey on November 2.

For the past 20 years, the US Army Corps of Engineers has been working to restore the Everglades.

At the time of Willoughby’s expedition, the Everglades were largely an unexplored, uncharted expanse of highly inhospitable terrain, characterized by relentless heat, mosquitoes, and swampy prairies of sawgrass sharp enough to cut into the skin. Now considered a vital ecosystem for the region’s drinking water and dozens of threatened and endangered species, the wetlands were then widely considered a worthless swamp and known only to the Seminole people and their Calusa predecessors. Willoughby completed his expedition just before Henry Flagler’s rail system would connect communities along the east coast of the peninsula, propelling Florida from border state to the third most populous state today.

Willoughby later wrote: “It may seem strange, in our days of Arctic and African exploration, for the general public to learn that we have right in our midst, in one of our Atlantic coastal states, a stretch of land one hundred and thirty miles long and seventy miles wide that is as unknown to the white man as the heart of Africa.

Restoring the Everglades and saving other Florida wetlands will be critical in combating climate change and sea rise.

Today, the Everglades, which begin in central Florida with the headwaters of the Kissimmee River and extend to the peninsula’s southern tip, remain the world’s largest subtropical wilderness. However, the region’s watershed has been drained to a fraction of its size. While drainage has made modern Florida possible, with the massive construction of some of the most complex water management infrastructure in the world, it has also led to a cascade of environmental problems, perhaps most notably chronic blooms of toxic algae.

The watershed has been at the center of decades of bitter water quality litigation and a multi billion-dollar restoration effort, one of the most ambitious of its kind in human history. Restoration will take many decades, but water quality in Everglades National Park has vastly improved since the first lawsuit was filed in the 1980s. The park’s water quality now meets or exceeds federal and state requirements, according to the South Florida Water Management District, the state agency that oversees the restoration of the Everglades.

The modern Willoughby Expedition, as it is called, began in Everglades National Park at the mouth of the Harney River in the Gulf of Mexico, where the relatively pristine environment would have been similar to what Willoughby experienced. The team on the project, who paddled the entire way in canoes, also noted egg clusters left behind by apple snails, the sole food of the endangered bird known as the snail kite. To protect themselves from the razor-sharp sawgrass, team members completely covered themselves and wore gloves like butchers wear, Oyer said.

These wetlands are on the fringes of urban development on the west side of Miami-Dade County.

“We still had some sawgrass,” he said. “We ended up, unintentionally, just as it managed, in sawgrass overhead, completely surrounding us for probably 10 hours, not consecutively but cumulatively, including four or five hours at night, which was not intended, of course. We had not reached our planned destination.”

Within a few days, however, the environment changed radically as the team stretched far into what is now Miami. As members approached the urban jungle and passed through a series of canals dug for drainage from the Everglades, the water quality went from pristine enough to drink to littered with detritus such as Styrofoam and plastic, indicating the high level of microplastics that water tests likely to cause to detect.

The journey ended in downtown Miami, at the mouth of the Miami River. Charlie Arazoza, who served as the expedition’s navigator, grew up in the Everglades and remains an avid paddler of the Grass River. “I spent a lot of time in the Everglades,” he said, “but for once I finally got to string it all together.”

“It’s really cool to bring all these historic waterways together in one trip,” he said. “It’s like stringing pearls.”

This story was produced in collaboration with the Florida Climate Reporting Network, a multi-editorial initiative founded by the Miami Herald, the South Florida Sun Sentinel, The Palm Beach Post, the Orlando Sentinel, WLRN Public Media and the Tampa Bay Times.

Group of students, explorers, scientists experience Everglades expedition that took place over 100 years ago

MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – We’re celebrating the 75th anniversary of Everglades National Park.

Recently a small crew of students, explorers and scientists recreated a famous expedition that happened there 125 years ago.

But this was no sightseeing tour.

This was research, to witness and document how this most important natural resource has been impacted by human activity over time.

Just before Halloween, a team of four Florida explorers and scientists set off on an arduous trek that no one had accomplished since American adventurer Hugh Willoboughy became the first non-indigenous person to canoe across the everglades, map it, and collect scientific data along the way back in 1897.

“(Willoughby’s) water analysis provides all of us the baseline water chemistry of the Florida Everglades that everyone has relied on for more than a century,” said expedition co-leader Harvey Oyer.

The team set out to retrace the exact route of original expedition.

They launched their canoes from the mouth of the Gulf of Mexico and up the Harney River, just as Willoughby had done.

Navigating the maze of thick mangroves became their first challenge.

Tracie Baker is an associate professor in the Environmental Global Health Department at the University Of Florida.

“The experience was amazing and exhausting,” she said.

It was her task to collect the identical water chemistry samples Willoughby had, but she was also looking for contaminants not present back then, such as pesticides, pharmaceuticals, forever chemicals, and microplastics.

“We saw so much plastic, single use plastic just floating in the river, we found balloons out in the Everglades, like in the most remote areas. One day, we found six balloons,” she said.

It is not the same Everglades. Less than half of the original ecosystem remains.

Over the past hundred years, humans have sliced and diced it, drained vast acres, diverting its natural flow to make room for agriculture and development.

“We literally cut the kidneys out of the state of Florida, and we wonder why we have dirty water and insufficient water and it’s us,” said Oyer.

The team spent the next three days paddling through thick, razor sharp sawgrass, setting up camp along the way to sleep and eat as they traveled east-north east looking for airboat trails that would lighten the resistance.

By day 5 the historical Everglades were long gone, paved over and built upon. The crew left the slough for the Tamiami Canal that flowed right by the campus of Belen Jesuit Prep School, where they received a hot meal, slept in a classroom, and picked up some academic hitchhikers.

A group of students from an environmental program at the school decided to paddle with the group for the final three days.

Advisor and chemistry teacher Maria Vilberg joined the five students, all thanks to team navigator Charlie Arazoza, a Belen alumnus class of 78.

“Unfortunately, we weren’t able to take them deep, deep, deep into the glades, but we were able to show him the entire canal system from the school out to the bay,” said Arazoza.

It was a hands-on, crash course in conservation.

As they paddled, the Belen students absorbed the history of the Everglades, learning about Willoughby and how to take water samples and collect data.

The canals, the Blue Lagoon Lakes and the Miami River became their classroom.

“We’re going to probably find that we’re more polluted now than 125 years ago,” said Belen junior Nicholas Hernandez. “Just complete disregard of our environment.”

“How we’ve damaged the everglades is really sad and it’s been important to me because we’ve been able to analyze the effects of our actions and how and hopefully be able to correct them with the data we gather,” said Belen sophomore Andrea Lievano.

After seven days and 130 miles, the expedition finally came to end right where Willoughby’s did, in Biscayne Bay, by what is now Bayside Marketplace.

The words of Everglades champion Marjory Stoneman Douglas have never been more hauntingly accurate: “The Everglades is a test. If we pass it, we may get to keep the planet.”

“It’s not all doom and gloom,” said Oyer. “We’ve obviously had a lot of adverse impacts, but I think we’ve learned a lot and we’re doing a lot to correct our past mistakes.”

The results of all the data that was collected is not yet known, as it is still being processed.

The one takeaway that can be confidently shared is that those Belen students walked away forever impacted by what they experienced and have become engaged in the urgent mission to restore our Everglades.

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Not quite land, not quite sea, but all fearsome beauty: how Florida's Everglades has inspired artists

Celebrating its 75th anniversary, Everglades National Park is something of a guest of honour at this year’s Art Basel in Miami Beach. But the region’s conservation was hard-fought—and is still far from guaranteed

The story of the Everglades is one of blurred binaries—between water and earth, between freshwater and saltwater, between utopia and dystopia. It begins in the tributaries of the Kissimmee River, through which rainwater courses into Lake Okeechobee, in the centre of the state. Years ago, when Lake Okeechobee overflowed, that water would creep through the freshwater marshes of the Everglades to empty into the Atlantic Ocean.

That flow created North America’s largest wetland, and an ecosystem found nowhere else on Earth. However, since Florida annexed the Everglades through the 1850 Swamp Land Act, the state has drained sheet flow from Lake Okeechobee through a complex network of canals, pumps and levees. Today, the wetlands are less than half their original size. Marjory Stoneman Douglas, the journalist who rallied the Everglades conservation movement, once called the region a “river of grass”, as apt a moniker as can be imagined—not quite land, not quite sea, but all fearsome beauty.

A picture showing the swamps of the Everglades being drained, around 1910, in order to create agricultural land History Miami Museum

By contrast, humans have not just flowed through the Everglades, but called it home. The Seminole and Miccosukee tribes never surrendered to white settlers and evaded capture in the Everglades, its dense sawgrass and shallow water untraversable by most vessels. The region was also a haven for enslaved people fleeing the US via the Saltwater Railroad, a migration stream whisking escapees to freedom in the Bahamas. Later, years before Everglades National Park was established in 1947, Black Americans disproportionately made up the Civilian Conservation Corps, deployed to build infrastructure in the region after the Great Depression.

“They’d send people of colour to the most remote locations,” says Cornelius Tulloch, the creative director of the non-profit Artists in Residence in Everglades

(AIRIE). “There’s a lot of recent history to uncover about these communities and their relationship to the Everglades, which isn’t too far from where we are today.”

Tulloch is one of many artists who have made the Everglades their muse over the years. Some, like the wildlife artist John James Audubon and the photographer Clyde Butcher, brought an outsider’s eye and appreciation for the region; others, like the Seminole environmental activist and artist Samuel Tommie, document landscapes they have known their entire lives.

For more than two decades, AIRIE has partnered with the National Park Service to house boundary-pushing contemporary artists onsite at Everglades National Park. In a month’s time, artists will have produced an interdisciplinary project that centres the Everglades in some way. A former AIRIE artist in residence himself, Tulloch collaborated with other current and former AIRIE artists to create Passages, an installation tracing a sunset journey through the Everglades sawgrass. The installation, which will be unveiled on 2 December at the inaugural AIRIE Art and Environment Summit, coinciding with the national park’s 75th anniversary, recalls the fugitive journeys of those who traversed the Saltwater Railroad generations ago.

A striking Purple Gallinule, a wading bird found in the national park Cheri Alguire

“Honestly, I feel like my AIRIE residency never ended. I’m still in conversation with people who have stories I’d like to continue to follow up with,” Tulloch says. “Artists are becoming this bridge between things that the park hasn’t necessarily always focused on or had the time or resources to document.”

The ways that the park has documented the region come under a rare spotlight in an exhibition at the park’s Ernest F. Coe Visitor Center. Through Eminent Eyes brings the contributions of national park photographers to the fore, and is a sister exhibit to HistoryMiami Museum’s Traversing the Wilderness exhibition on transportation in the Everglades (until 12 February 2023). Many of the photos in Through Eminent Eyes position park rangers as avuncular guides, showing off regional flora or teaching youngsters how to pitch a tent. Others feature more plentiful fauna of the Everglades. “M. “Woody” Woodbridge Williams, a national park photographer in the 1960s and 1970s, captured tree frogs and a snoozing barred owl in his pictures.”

“Because these photographers were employees of the National Park Service (NPS), very often their work was not credited to them as artists. We know the name Ansel Adams, but these other incredibly talented photographers didn’t get the same billing because the photos were credited as NPS photographs. We wanted to say, ‘Hey, this person was significant’,” says Bonnie Ciolino, an archivist for South Florida’s three national parks.

The park service’s photo collection posits a somewhat bucolic, chummy view of the Everglades. What they do not document are the very real threats posed to the region by urbanisation and climate change, nor less-than-neighbourly frictions about how to conserve it.

The poet, artist and ordained minister Houston R. Cypress, of the Miccosukee Otter Clan, has created several works paying homage to the Everglades region: Inflection Points (2016), a ceremonial reunion, then repatriation, of water from 13 sites in the Everglades watershed; …what endures… (2021), a ruminative, spiritual short film; and the collaborative Every Step Is a Prayer (2021), which Cypress describes as a “cinematic land acknowledgement and prayer ceremony”. Cypress also leads airboat excursions in the Everglades through Love the Everglades, the advocacy organisation he founded.

An observation tower at Shark Valley, 30 miles west of Miami, provides panoramic views across the Everglades’ sawgrass marsh Andy Lidstone

But Cypress nurtured his connection to the land completely outside the park’s grounds, having grown up hearing stories about his grandparents being forced out of what is now Everglades National Park at gunpoint. Despite growing up on the adjacent Miccosukee Indian Reservation, Cypress did not feel comfortable visiting the park until his late 20s and early 30s.

“Between negotiating the entrance fees, talking to park rangers and dealing with activities around Everglades restoration that compels our tribal government to get into conflicts with the park, it always felt off-limits for me,” Cypress says.

Today, he says the state’s conservation priorities tend to diverge significantly from that of the Miccosukee Tribe’s environmental advisory committee, on which he serves.

“I like to characterise some state departments and agencies as water mismanagement, not water management,” Cypress says. “The South Florida Water Management District and others flood our tree islands to protect cities and big agricultural industries, sending polluted water down to where we live.”

Florida’s kidneys

To explore the extent of the region’s pollution, this autumn four explorers embarked on an expedition to collect water samples in remote corners of the Everglades, many of which were only accessible by canoe. The group traced a near identical route traversed 125 years ago by the amateur scientist and outdoorsman Hugh de Laussat Willoughby, who also sampled the water in the Everglades.

“The Everglades is the kidneys of Florida,” says the Willoughby Expedition member Harvey Oyer III, an attorney, explorer and archaeologist who has published extensively on Florida’s history. “What we do not know is how efficient those kidneys are. Does it filter just phosphorus and nitrogen? Does it filter microplastics? Does it get rid of PFAS [per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances, common synthetic chemicals that do not break down organically], petroleum, personal care products?”

Despite state-decreed initiatives such as the 1994 Everglades Forever Act, which implemented standards to monitor water quality in the region, the filtering function Oyer describes may not be able to withstand the sheer level of pollutants in the water.

“We’re filling in a missing link, because no one had gone into [these remote] areas to test the water,” Oyer says. “Does this answer all our questions? No. But will it contribute to a much larger composite understanding? Yes, it does. We’re just one small contribution to it.”

State, local and federal governments have come a long way from the 1850 Swamp Act in recognising the Everglades’ importance. But the region remains under constant threat from urbanisation. At the same time as the Willoughby Expedition, Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava locked horns with county commissioners over a controversial motion to move the urban development boundary (UDB) between the Everglades and Miami-Dade county to accommodate a new commercial complex near the city of Homestead. Cava vetoed the attempt to shift the boundary, which was last moved in 2013. As we went to press, the vote has returned to the county commissioners for deliberation.

South Florida now has nine million inhabitants, and is growing. Development skirmishes such as these will likely continue, not diminish—but threats to the Everglades mean threatening the region’s main freshwater source, not to mention the scores of endangered species and wildlife there.

Cornelius Tulloch, of AIRIE, hopes art can at least continue to spark action in the region, as it has for decades.

“I don’t really think we’ve fully grasped the ways [AIRIE is] providing spaces for, and access to, these stories,” he says. “In the years to come, I think we’ll see how much advocacy we’re inspiring, by just doing what we do.”

Expedition Retraces a Legendary Explorer’s Travels Through the Once-Pristine Everglades

In 1897, the explorer and amateur scientist Hugh de Laussat Willoughby climbed into a canoe and embarked on a coast-to-coast expedition of the Florida Everglades, a wilderness then nearly as vast as the peninsula itself and as unknown, he wrote, as the “heart of Africa.”

Willoughby and his guide were the first non-Native Americans to traverse the Everglades from the Gulf of Mexico to the Atlantic Ocean, and Willoughby’s meticulous notes, charts and water samples would form the basis of scientists’ historical understanding of the legendary “river of grass.”

Now a new expedition has retraced his trek, with the goal of measuring the impact of modern humanity on a watershed that today is among the most altered on Earth and responsible for the drinking water of some 12 million Floridians. The expedition also commemorates the 75th anniversary of Everglades National Park, which was dedicated on Dec. 6, 1947.

“We think we will see the full spectrum, from one of the most remote parts of the continental United States to one of the most urbanized parts of the United States – all in one watershed, all in one trip,” said Harvey Oyer, co-leader of the four-member expedition and the author of a series of children’s books about the historical Florida frontier. “That, I think more than anything else, will illustrate humanity’s impact from the time of Willoughby to today.”

Willoughby’s thorough work provides a tantalizing opportunity to compare conditions in the Everglades then and now. Traveling the region’s rivers and canals over six days and some 130 miles, Oyer and the team drew water samples from the same spots as Willoughby, according to coordinates he documented, sometimes from some of the most remote and hard-to-reach parts of the subtropical region.

The water samples are being analyzed at the University of Florida for the same constituents that Willoughby examined, such as magnesium and sulfates, along with nutrients now known to affect the Everglades like phosphorus and nitrogen. The samples are also being tested for modern pollutants like microplastics, perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), pesticides and pharmaceuticals. It will be a few months before the analysis is complete. The team wrapped up its trip on Nov. 2.

At the time of Willoughby’s expedition, the Everglades were mostly an unexplored, unmapped expanse of very inhospitable terrain characterized by unrelenting heat, mosquitoes and marshy prairies of sawgrass sharp enough to cut the skin. Now viewed as a vital ecosystem for the region’s drinking water and dozens of threatened and endangered species, its wetlands were then widely regarded as a worthless swamp and were known only to the Seminole people and their Calusa predecessors. Willoughby completed his expedition right before Henry Flagler’s railway system would link communities along the peninsula’s east coast, putting Florida on a path from frontier state to the country’s third-most populous of today.

Willoughby wrote later: “It may seem strange, in our days of Arctic and African exploration, for the general public to learn that in our very midst, in one of our Atlantic coast states, we have a tract of land one hundred and thirty miles long and seventy miles wide that is as much unknown to the white man as the heart of Africa.”

Today the Everglades, which begin in central Florida with the headwaters of the Kissimmee River and stretch to the southernmost tip of the peninsula, remain the world’s largest subtropical wilderness. The region’s watershed, however, has been drained to a fraction of its size. While the drainage has made modern Florida possible, with the vast construction of some of the most complex water management infrastructure in the world, it has also led to a cascade of environmental problems, perhaps most notably chronic blooms of toxic algae.

The watershed has been the focus of decades of bitter litigation over its water quality and a multibillion-dollar restoration effort, one of the most ambitious of its kind in human history. The restoration will take many decades to complete, but the water quality in Everglades National Park has improved vastly since the initial lawsuit was filed in the 1980s. The park’s water quality now meets or exceeds federal and state requirements, according to the South Florida Water Management District, the state agency overseeing Everglades restoration.

The modern Willoughby Expedition, as it is called, began in Everglades National Park at the mouth of the Harney River in the Gulf of Mexico, where the relatively untouched environment would have been similar to what Willoughby experienced. The project’s team, paddling the entire way in canoes, also took note of egg clusters left by apple snails, the sole food of the endangered bird known as the snail kite. To guard against the razor-sharp sawgrass, the team members covered themselves completely and wore gloves like what butchers wear, Oyer said.

“We still had some sawgrass cuts,” he said. “We, not intentionally, just the way it worked out, wound up in sawgrass over our heads, completely surrounding us for probably 10 hours, not consecutively but cumulatively, including four or five hours of it at night, which was not the intention, of course. We hadn’t reached our scheduled destination.”

Within a few days, though, the environment transformed radically as the team reached well into what is now Miami. As its members approached the urban jungle, navigating a series of canals dug for drainage from the Everglades, the water quality went from pristine enough to drink to littered with garbage like Styrofoam and plastic, signaling the high level of microplastics that water testing is likely to detect.

The trip ended in downtown Miami, at the mouth of the Miami River. Charlie Arazoza, who served as the expedition’s navigator, grew up in the Everglades and remains an avid paddler of the river of grass. “I’ve spent a lot of time in the Everglades,” he said, “but for once I finally got to string it all together.”

“It’s really cool to put these, all these historical waterways, together into one trip,” he said. “It’s like stringing pearls.”

Meet the 2022 Willoughby Expedition Team and Learn About Their Journey Through the Everglades

Students across the School District of Palm Beach County will have the opportunity to learn more about explorer and scientist Hugh Willoughby, who became the first non-Native American to cross the Everglades in 1897 and the 2022 Expedition that followed in his footsteps.

An update about lessons learned during the recent expedition will be shared on Saturday, November 19, 2022, at the Cox Science Center and Aquarium in West Palm Beach.

In recognition of the 75th anniversary of Everglades National Park, an expedition team set off on a 130-mile canoe trip across the largest remaining American subtropical wilderness. The Expedition Team of scientists traveled along the same path Willoughby explored.

The 2022 Willoughby Expedition Team took water samples from the Everglades to test for chemistry changes, pollutants such as microplastics, and other effects of the modern world on this critical water system.

The Cox Science Center invited students to share their thoughts and questions with the 2022 Willoughby Expedition Team on the topics of PFAS, microplastics, human impact on the endangerment of the Snail Kite bird and surrounding habitats, discovery of antibiotic resistance genes in the water, as well as the importance of water conservation via video presentation submission.

On November 19, winners of the video contest (listed below), will gather at the Cox Science Center and Aquarium for a celebration and discussion with the Willoughby Expedition Team.

ELEMENTARY
• 1st Place – Jayden Chan, Limestone Creek Elementary School
• 2nd Place – Owen Walborn, Equestrian Trails Elementary School

MIDDLE
• 1st Place – Alex Martin, Jupiter Middle School
• 2nd Place – Milo Walker, Jupiter Middle School

HIGH
• 1st Place – Shaima Mamouni, Florida Virtual School
• 2nd Place – Raymond Wong, Suncoast Community High School

Explorers return from recreating Willoughby Expedition

History recently repeated itself in the Florida Everglades.

A team of four explorers made history Nov. 2 after completing a nearly 130-mile canoe trek across the Everglades to assess human impact on the world’s largest subtropical wilderness. The 2022 Willoughby Expedition team retraced a canoe journey that was first completed by explorer and scientist Hugh de Laussat Willoughby 125 years ago in 1897.

The journey began on the lower southwest coast of Florida, in Monroe County.

The explorers started at the mouth of the Harney River in the Gulf of Mexico on Oct. 27 and ended in down- town Miami on Nov. 2. They traversed the saltwater of the Gulf of Mexico, the brackish water of inland rivers, freshwater sawgrass, canals in suburban Miami, and ultimately, through the maze of skyscrapers to Biscayne Bay. The coast-to-coast expedition also commemorated the 75th anniversary of Everglades National Park.

“The expedition was a success not just in honoring our history, but in advancing the future of science,” Harvey E. Oyer III, expedition co-leader, said in a statement. “We are honored to have completed and traveled on the same trek that Willoughby did 125 years ago, witnessing the same beauty and facing similar challenges of the Florida Everglades. The testing and analysis of remote Everglades water is new, cutting edge research that we hope will give us more answers to human impact on this precious ecosystem.”

Tracie Baker, an associate professor of environmental and global health at the University of Florida College of Public Health and Health Professions, became the first recorded nonindigenous woman to ever cross the Everglades from the Gulf of Mexico to the Atlantic Ocean. Dr. Baker served as the lead scientist to sample and test for the same water constituents that Willoughby did more than a century ago. Willoughby’s charts aided in creating the first accurate maps of the region, and his water sampling provided the baseline water chemistry for the Everglades.

The 2022 Willoughby Expedition team also tracked water pollutants that Willoughby couldn’t have foreseen, including microplastics, perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), pesticides, pharmaceuticals, Environmental DNA (eDNA), and antibiotic-resistant genes, all of which potentially adversely affect plant and animal species globally. To help conserve wildlife, they also documented the abundance and location of apple snails, which are the primary food source of the federally endangered snail kite, a bird of prey.

The 2022 Willoughby Expedition aims to bring awareness to the major scientific and conservation goals of its more than 50 partners, including Florida Power & Light Co., University of Florida, National Park Service, Everglades National Park, South Florida Water Management District and Cox Science Center and Aquarium.

A UNESCO Wetland Area of Global Importance, the Florida Everglades is one of the world’s best-known and most visited watersheds, serving as the “environmental kidneys” of Florida by filtering and cleaning water from all over the central and southern part of the state. Everglades water quality directly impacts more than 12 million people and thousands of plant and animal species.

To increase educational programming on the Everglades, the explorers shared a live feed from the Everglades to speak with students and educators from several schools and science museums. On the last three days of the expedition, a group of high school students from Belen Jesuit Preparatory School traveled with the explorers by canoe on the Tamiami Trail to Biscayne Bay to film the team’s historic achievement.

The water samples collected by the explorers will be researched by Dr. Baker and scientists at the University of Florida.

To learn more about the team, the course, the science, and the man who inspired it all, visit willoughbyexpedition.org.

Explorers Complete 130-Mile Trek Across the EvergladesA group of four explorers retraced a daring canoe journey by Hugh de Laussat Willoughby from 1897

In 1897, scientist and explorer Hugh de Laussat Willoughby set out on a canoe journey through the Everglades. This November, a team of explorers followed his daring route to gain insight on human impact in one of the world’s largest subtropical wildernesses.

The journey began on October 27th in the Harney River in the Gulf of Mexico and ended in Miami on November 2nd. The adventure commemorated the 75th anniversary of the Everglades National Park and provided an opportunity for research.

The 2022 Willoughby Expedition team tracked water pollutants like microplastics, pesticides, pharmaceuticals, antibiotic-resistant genes, and environmental DNA (eDNA). All of these pollutants have the potential to negatively affect plant and animal species.

"The expedition was a success not in honoring our history, but in advancing the future of science,” said co-expedition leader Harvey E. Oyer III.

The Everglades are the “environmental kidneys” of Florida and are responsible for the filtering and cleaning of water over the entire central and southern parts of the state. The lead scientist, Tracie Baker is the first non-Indigenous female to ever cross the Everglades. Baker’s focus on the expedition was to gather water samples to assess the chemistry of the Everglades water.

Within the month the research team hopes to gather their initial findings that will help them better conserve the National Park.

“The testing and analysis of remote Everglades water is new, cutting-edge research that we hope will give us more answers to human impact on this precious ecosystem,” said Oyer.

To read more click here.

Team studies human impacts on Florida Everglades

AP News feature on the Willoughby Expedition

https://apnews.com/article/videos-61c2901dde18413b9aee7bf1e70dbfb6

Scientific expedition to study human impact on Florida Everglades

A team of five that includes a female University of Florida professor as its lead scientist will embark Thursday on a dangerous trek across the Florida Everglades to assess the impact of humans on the world’s largest subtropical wilderness. The group will retrace an 1897 canoe journey that was first completed by explorer and scientist Hugh de Laussat Willoughby.

Tracie Baker, an associate professor of environmental and global health in the UF College of Public Health and Health Professions, has joined the team of experienced explorers and guides in a mission to sample and test for the same water constituents that Willoughby did more than a century ago. Willoughby’s charts aided in creating the first accurate maps of the region, and his water sampling provided the baseline water chemistry for the Everglades.

“This expedition is primarily focused on applying modern scientific investigations to one of the planet’s most important watersheds. However, we also hope to inspire future generations of scientists, explorers and all citizens to be better stewards of our shared environment,” said Baker, a member of the UF Water Institute. “My work focuses on multidisciplinary research that seeks to bridge and improve human, animal and environmental health. The Willoughby Expedition will provide critical primary research into that work.”

On the right, UF Professor Tracie Baker, DVM, PhD, works in the field with colleagues and students

To gauge humanity’s impact on the Florida Everglades, a UNESCO Wetland Area of Global Importance, the 2022 Willoughby Expedition team will also look for water pollutants that Willoughby couldn’t have foreseen, including microplastics, perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), pesticides, pharmaceuticals and antibiotic-resistant genes, all of which are adversely affecting plant and animal species globally. To help conserve wildlife, the expedition team will also document the abundance and location of apple snails, which are the sole food source of the federally endangered snail kite, a bird of prey.

Starting at the mouth of the Harney River in the Gulf of Mexico on Oct. 27, and ending in downtown Miami in early November, the coast-to-coast expedition commemorates the 75th anniversary of Everglades National Park. It will traverse the saltwater of the Gulf of Mexico, the brackish water of inland rivers, pristine freshwater sawgrass, canals in suburban Miami, and ultimately, through a maze of skyscrapers to Biscayne Bay.

The Florida Everglades is one of the world’s best-known and most visited watersheds, serving as the “environmental kidneys” of Florida by filtering and cleaning water from all over the central and southern part of the state. Its water quality directly impacts more than 12 million people and thousands of plant and animal species.

Historically, the Florida Everglades stretched from the north near modern-day Orlando to the south at Florida Bay. Willoughby completed his studies of the Everglades before large-scale drainage and reclamation programs began in the late 19th century. Today, the Everglades has been reduced to approximately one-third its original size to make way for the modern cities of South Florida and their millions of residents.

The 2022 Willoughby Expedition will bring awareness to the major scientific and conservation goals of its more than 50 partners, including the University of Florida, National Park Service, Everglades National Park, Florida Power & Light Company, South Florida Water Management District, Marine Industries Association of Palm Beach County, Palm Beach International Boat Show, and Cox Science Center and Aquarium.

To increase educational programming around human impact on the Everglades, the 2022 Willoughby Expedition is also partnering with school districts and cultural institutions in South Florida. Live feeds from the Everglades will be shared with schools and science museums, allowing students, educators, and museumgoers to interact directly with the expedition team.

“Public education and the live broadcasts are some of the most exciting and important aspects of the expedition,” said Harvey E. Oyer III, the 2022 Willoughby Expedition’s co-leader, who is also an author, archaeologist, fifth-generation Floridian, and former U.S. Marine Corps captain. “We want to share our passion for the natural world by giving the public an inside look at our work and igniting their passion to preserve the natural world.”

The Willoughby Expedition team includes:

• Harvey E. Oyer III, co-leader– Oyer is a former U.S. Marine Corps captain and member of the Explorers Club. He holds a master’s degree in archeology from Cambridge University and is the author of a bestselling children’s book about the Everglades that is part of the 4th grade curriculum in Florida.
  

• Christophe Vandaele, co-leader – A native of Belgium, Vandaele is a graduate of the Belgium Royal Military Academy and the Special Warfare Officer Training School at Marche-les-Dames. He served multiple tours in Africa and has participated in scientific expeditions in the Andes Mountains, the jungles of Guatemala, and at the North Pole.
  

• Tracie Baker, DVM, PhD, lead scientist– Baker, an associate professor at the UF College of Public Health and Health Professions, studies environmental contaminants. She is a former NCAA Academic All-American swimmer and has completed four IRONMAN races and more than 20 marathons. If the expedition is successful, Baker will be the first non-indigenous woman to cross the Everglades.
  

• Carlos “Charlie” Arazoza, navigator – Arazoza is a Cuban American attorney and CPA in Miami. A vastly experienced Everglades paddler, he has led many trips through the Everglades, served as chairman of the South Florida National Parks Trust and founded the South Florida Bush Paddlers Association.

Support team members include three other scientists, a chemist, a pilot and a filmmaker.

To learn more about the team, the course, the science, and the man who inspired it all, visit willoughbyexpedition.org.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Features Historic Expedition across the Florida Everglades to Research Human Impact

A team of five explorers will soon embark on a daring and dangerous trek that has not been completed in 125 years. The 2022 Willoughby Expedition team will attempt to retrace an 1897 canoe journey across the Florida Everglades that was first completed by explorer and scientist Hugh de Laussat Willoughby. Willoughby's charts aided in creating the first accurate maps of the region, his water sampling provided the baseline water chemistry for the Everglades, and his book is primary reading for all Everglades scholars.

To gauge humanity's impact on the largest remaining subtropical wilderness in North America and a UNESCO Wetland Area of Global Importance, the 2022 Willoughby Expedition team will sample and test for the same water constituents that Willoughby did more than a century ago. They will also look for water pollutants that Willoughby couldn't have foreseen, including microplastics, perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), pesticides, pharmaceuticals, Environmental DNA (eDNA), and antibiotic-resistant genes, all of which are potentially adversely affecting plant and animal species globally. To help conserve wildlife, the team will also document the abundance and location of apple snails, which are the sole food source of the federally endangered Snail Kite, a bird of prey.

Starting at the mouth of the Harney River in the Gulf of Mexico on Oct. 27, and ending in downtown Miami in early November, the coast-to-coast expedition will also commemorate the 75th anniversary of Everglades National Park. It will traverse the saltwater of the Gulf of Mexico, the brackish water of inland rivers, pristine freshwater sawgrass, canals in suburban Miami, and ultimately, through a maze of skyscrapers to Biscayne Bay.

Because the 2022 Willoughby Expedition will be a scientific research milestone for the Florida Everglades, The Explorers Club has awarded the team one of its flags. It is an immense honor for the 2022 Willoughby Expedition team to carry it on their journey. Flags from The Explorers Club represent an impressive history of courage and accomplishment. Today, there are 222 numbered flags from The Explorers Club, each with its own history. One of them was personally flown by Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong on humanity's first moon landing mission in 1969, and another was carried to the summit of Mount Everest by Tenzing Norgay and Edmund P. Hillary in 1953. 

Historically, the Florida Everglades stretched from the north near modern-day Orlando to the south at Florida Bay. Willoughby completed his studies of the Everglades before large-scale drainage and reclamation programs began in the late 19th century. Today, the size of the Everglades has been reduced to approximately one-third of its original size to make way for the modern cities of South Florida and their millions of residents.

The 2022 Willoughby Expedition will bring awareness to the major scientific and conservation goals of its more than 50 partners, including Florida Power & Light Company, University of Florida, National Park Service, Everglades National Park, South Florida Water Management District, Marine Industries Association of Palm Beach County, Palm Beach International Boat Show, and Cox Science Center and Aquarium.

"This expedition is primarily focused on applying modern scientific investigations to one of the planet's most important watersheds. However, we also hope to inspire future generations of scientists and explorers, and all citizens to be better stewards of our shared environment," said Dr. Tracie Baker, lead scientist on the Willoughby Expedition team and an associate professor at the University of Florida. "My work focuses on multidisciplinary research that seeks to bridge and improve human, animal, and environmental health. The Willoughby Expedition will provide critical primary research into that work."

The Florida Everglades is one of the world's best-known and most visited watersheds, serving as the "environmental kidneys" of Florida by filtering and cleaning water from all over the central and southern parts of the state. Its water quality directly impacts more than 12 million people and thousands of plant and animal species.

To increase educational programming around the human impact on the Everglades, the 2022 Willoughby Expedition is also partnering with school districts and cultural institutions in South Florida. Live feeds from the Everglades will be shared with schools and science museums, allowing students, educators, and museumgoers to interact directly with the expedition team. 

"Public education and the live broadcasts are some of the most exciting and important aspects of the expedition," said Harvey E. Oyer III, the 2022 Willoughby Expedition's co-leader, who is also an author, archaeologist, fifth-generation Floridian, and former U.S. Marine Corps captain. "We want to share our passion for the natural world by giving the public an inside look at our work, and igniting their passion to preserve the natural world." 

The Willoughby Expedition team includes:

• Harvey E. Oyer III, co-leader - Oyer is a former U.S. Marine Corps captain, member of the Explorers Club, and holds a master's degree in archeology from Cambridge University. He is also the author of a bestselling children's book about the Everglades that is part of the 4th-grade curriculum in Florida.

• Christophe Vandaele, co-leader - A native of Belgium, Vandaele is a graduate of the Belgium Royal Military Academy and the Special Warfare Officer Training School at Marche-les-Dames. He served multiple tours in Africa and has participated in scientific expeditions in the Andes Mountains, the jungles of Guatemala, and the North Pole.

• Tracie Baker, DVM, Ph.D., lead scientist - Dr. Baker is an associate professor in the Department of Environmental and Global Health at the University of Florida. She is an expert on environmental contaminants, with studies that seek to bridge human, animal, and environmental health. She is a former NCAA Academic All-American swimmer and has completed four IRONMAN races and more than 20 marathons.

• Carlos "Charlie" Arazoza, navigator - Arazoza is a Cuban-American attorney and CPA in Miami. A vastly experienced Everglades paddler, he has led many trips through the Everglades, served as chairman of the South Florida National Parks Trust, and also founded the South Florida Bush Paddlers Association..

Support team members include three other scientists, a chemist, a pilot, and a filmmaker.

To learn more about the team, the course, the science, and the man who inspired it all, visit willoughbyexpedition.org. 

Yahoo News Features Willoughby Expedition Explorers to Make Historic Trek in the Florida Everglades to Research Human Impact.

MIAMI, Oct. 20, 2022 -- A team of five explorers will soon embark on a daring and dangerous trek that has not been completed in 125 years. The 2022 Willoughby Expedition team will attempt to retrace an 1897 canoe journey across the Florida Everglades that was first completed by explorer and scientist Hugh de Laussat Willoughby. Willoughby's charts aided in creating the first accurate maps of the region, his water sampling provided the baseline water chemistry for the Everglades, and his book is primary reading for all Everglades scholars.

To gauge humanity's impact on the largest remaining subtropical wilderness in North America and a UNESCO Wetland Area of Global Importance, the 2022 Willoughby Expedition team will sample and test for the same water constituents that Willoughby did more than a century ago. They will also look for water pollutants that Willoughby couldn't have foreseen, including microplastics, perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), pesticides, pharmaceuticals, Environmental DNA (eDNA), and antibiotic-resistant genes, all of which are potentially adversely affecting plant and animal species globally. To help conserve wildlife, the team will also document the abundance and location of apple snails, which are the sole food source of the federally endangered Snail Kite, a bird of prey.

Starting at the mouth of the Harney River in the Gulf of Mexico on Oct. 27, and ending in downtown Miami in early November, the coast-to-coast expedition will also commemorate the 75th anniversary of Everglades National Park. It will traverse the saltwater of the Gulf of Mexico, the brackish water of inland rivers, pristine freshwater sawgrass, canals in suburban Miami, and ultimately, through a maze of skyscrapers to Biscayne Bay.

Because the 2022 Willoughby Expedition will be a scientific research milestone for the Florida Everglades, The Explorers Club has awarded the team one of its flags. It is an immense honor for the 2022 Willoughby Expedition team to carry it on their journey. Flags from The Explorers Club represent an impressive history of courage and accomplishment. Today, there are 222 numbered flags from The Explorers Club, each with its own history. One of them was personally flown by Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong on humanity's first moon landing mission in 1969, and another was carried to the summit of Mount Everest by Tenzing Norgay and Edmund P. Hillary in 1953.

Historically, the Florida Everglades stretched from the north near modern-day Orlando to the south at Florida Bay. Willoughby completed his studies of the Everglades before large-scale drainage and reclamation programs began in the late 19th century. Today, the size of the Everglades has been reduced to approximately one-third of its original size to make way for the modern cities of South Florida and their millions of residents.

The 2022 Willoughby Expedition will bring awareness to the major scientific and conservation goals of its more than 50 partners, including Florida Power & Light Company, University of Florida, National Park Service, Everglades National Park, South Florida Water Management District, Marine Industries Association of Palm Beach County, Palm Beach International Boat Show, and Cox Science Center and Aquarium.

"This expedition is primarily focused on applying modern scientific investigations to one of the planet's most important watersheds. However, we also hope to inspire future generations of scientists and explorers, and all citizens to be better stewards of our shared environment," said Dr. Tracie Baker, lead scientist on the Willoughby Expedition team and an associate professor at the University of Florida. "My work focuses on multidisciplinary research that seeks to bridge and improve human, animal, and environmental health. The Willoughby Expedition will provide critical primary research into that work."

The Florida Everglades is one of the world's best-known and most visited watersheds, serving as the "environmental kidneys" of Florida by filtering and cleaning water from all over the central and southern parts of the state. Its water quality directly impacts more than 12 million people and thousands of plant and animal species.

To increase educational programming around the human impact on the Everglades, the 2022 Willoughby Expedition is also partnering with school districts and cultural institutions in South Florida. Live feeds from the Everglades will be shared with schools and science museums, allowing students, educators, and museum goers to interact directly with the expedition team.

"Public education and the live broadcasts are some of the most exciting and important aspects of the expedition," said Harvey E. Oyer III, the 2022 Willoughby Expedition's co-leader, who is also an author, archaeologist, fifth-generation Floridian, and former U.S. Marine Corps captain. "We want to share our passion for the natural world by giving the public an inside look at our work, and igniting their passion to preserve the natural world."

The Willoughby Expedition team includes:

• Harvey E. Oyer III, co-leader - Oyer is a former U.S. Marine Corps captain, member of the Explorers Club, and holds a master's degree in archeology from Cambridge University. He is also the author of a bestselling children's book about the Everglades that is part of the 4th-grade curriculum in Florida.

• Christophe Vandaele, co-leader - A native of Belgium, Vandaele is a graduate of the Belgium Royal Military Academy and the Special Warfare Officer Training School at Marche-les-Dames. He served multiple tours in Africa and has participated in scientific expeditions in the Andes Mountains, the jungles of Guatemala, and the North Pole.

• Tracie Baker, DVM, Ph.D., lead scientist - Dr. Baker is an associate professor in the Department of Environmental and Global Health at the University of Florida. She is an expert on environmental contaminants, with studies that seek to bridge human, animal, and environmental health. She is a former NCAA Academic All-American swimmer and has completed four IRONMAN races and more than 20 marathons.

• Carlos "Charlie" Arazoza, navigator - Arazoza is a Cuban-American attorney and CPA in Miami. A vastly experienced Everglades paddler, he has led many trips through the Everglades, served as chairman of the South Florida National Parks Trust, and also founded the South Florida Bush Paddlers Association.

Support team members include three other scientists, a chemist, a pilot, and a filmmaker.

To learn more about the team, the course, the science, and the man who inspired it all, visit willoughbyexpedition.org.

Contact Information:
Chelsea Casagrande
Director of Public Relations
chelsea@venueadv.com
(561) 844-1778, ext. 120

Explorers to retrace 1897 Willoughby Everglades trek

History is about to repeat itself.

And it will mark a milestone along the way.

A team of five explorers will embark on a trek that has not been completed in 125 years.

The 2022 Willoughby Expedition team will attempt to retrace an 1897 canoe journey across the Florida Everglades that was first completed by explorer and scientist Hugh de Laussat Willoughby. Willoughby’s charts aided in creating the first accurate maps of the region, his water sampling provided the baseline water chemistry for the Everglades, and his book is primary reading for all Everglades scholars.

To gauge humanity’s impact on the largest remaining subtropical wilderness in North America and a UNESCO Wetland Area of Global Importance, the 2022 Willoughby Expedition team will sample and test for the same water constituents that Willoughby did more than a century ago. They also will look for water pollutants that Willoughby couldn’t have foreseen, including microplastics, perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), pesticides, pharmaceuticals and antibiotic-resistant genes, all of which are adversely affecting plant and animal species globally. To help conserve wildlife, the expedition team also will document the abundance and location of apple snails, which are the sole food source of the federally endangered snail kite, a bird of prey.

Starting at the mouth of the Harney River in the Gulf of Mexico on Oct. 27, and ending in downtown Miami in early November, the coast-to-coast expedition also will commemorate the 75th anniversary of Everglades National Park. It will traverse the saltwater of the Gulf of Mexico, the brackish water of inland rivers, freshwater sawgrass, canals in suburban Miami and through the skyscrapers to Biscayne Bay.

Historically, the Florida Everglades stretched from the north near modern day Orlando to the south at Florida Bay. Willoughby completed his studies of the Everglades before large-scale drainage and reclamation programs began in the late 19th century. Today, the size of the Everglades has been reduced to about one-third its original size to make way for the cities of South Florida and their millions of residents.

Organizers hope the 2022 Willoughby Expedition will bring awareness to the major scientific and conservation goals of its more than 50 partners, including the University of Florida, National Park Service, Everglades National Park, South Florida Water Management District, Marine Industries Association of Palm Beach County, Palm Beach International Boat Show, and Cox Science Center and Aquarium.

“This expedition is primarily focused on applying modern scientific investigations to one of the planet’s most important watersheds. However, we also hope to inspire future generations of scientists and explorers, and all citizens to be better stewards of our shared environment,” Dr. Tracie Baker, lead scientist on the Willoughby Expedition team and an associate professor at the University of Florida, said in a statement. “My work focuses on multidisciplinary research that seeks to bridge and improve human, animal, and environmental health. The Willoughby Expedition will provide critical primary research into that work.”

The Florida Everglades is one of the world’s best-known and most visited watersheds, serving as the “environmental kidneys” of Florida by filtering and cleaning water from all over the central and southern part of the state. Its water quality directly impacts more than 12 million people and thousands of plant and animal species.

To increase educational programming around human impact on the Everglades, the 2022 Willoughby Expedition is also partnering with school districts and cultural institutions in South Florida. Live feeds from the Everglades will be shared with schools and science museums, allowing students, educators, and museumgoers to interact directly with the expedition team.

“Public education and the live broadcasts are some of the most exciting and important aspects of the expedition,” Harvey E. Oyer III, the 2022 Willoughby Expedition’s co-leader, who is also an author, archaeologist, fifth-generation Floridian, and former U.S. Marine Corps captain, said in the statement. “We want to share our passion for the natural world by giving the public an inside look at our work and igniting their passion to preserve the natural world.”

The Willoughby Expedition team includes:

Harvey E. Oyer III, co-leader — Mr. Oyer is a former U.S. Marine Corps captain, member of the Explorers Club, and holds a master’s degree in archeology from Cambridge University. He is also the author of a bestselling children’s book about the Everglades that is part of the 4th grade curriculum in Florida. ¦

Christophe Vandaele, co-leader — A native of Belgium, Mr. Vandaele is a graduate of the Belgium Royal Military Academy and the Special Warfare Officer Training School at Marche-les-Dames. He served multiple tours in Africa, and has participated in scientific expeditions in the Andes Mountains, the jungles of Guatemala, and at the North Pole.

Tracie Baker, DVM, Ph.D, lead scientist — Dr. Baker is an associate professor in the Department of Environmental and Global Health at the University of Florida. She is an expert on environmental contaminants, with studies that seek to bridge human, animal, and environmental health. She is a former NCAA Academic All-American swimmer and has completed four IRONMAN races and more than 20 marathons.

Carlos “Charlie” Arazoza, navigator

— Mr. Arazoza is a Cuban-American lawyer and CPA in Miami. An experienced Everglades paddler, he has led many trips through the Everglades, served as chairman of the South Florida National Parks Trust, and also founded the South Florida Bush Paddlers Association.

Flex Maslan, photographer and documentarian — A native of the Czech Republic, Mr. Maslan has almost 30 years of experience as a paddling guide, leading trips through most of South Florida’s waterways. Mr. Maslan is also a professional photographer whose work has been published in nature and watersports books and magazines.

Support team members include three other scientists, a chemist, a pilot, and a filmmaker.

To learn more about the team, the course, the science, and the man who inspired it all, visit willoughbyexpedition.org.

PCKG joins as a sponsor in the upcoming historic Everglades Willoughby Expedition

PCKG, a South Florida packaging manufacturer, committed to supporting a team of five explorers, soon embarking on a daring and dangerous trip

FORT LAUDERDALE, FLORIDA, USA, October 20, 2022/ APnews.com/ -- PCKG, a South Florida packaging manufacturer, committed to supporting a team of five explorers, soon embarking on a daring and dangerous trip that has not been completed in 125 years. To better understand humanity’s impact on the most significant remaining subtropical wilderness in North America, PCKG, a consumer goods packaging manufacturer, will work with the 2022 Willoughby Expedition team to document and look for water pollutants that Hugh Willoughby couldn’t have foreseen, including microplastics, perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), pesticides, pharmaceuticals, and antibiotic-resistant genes, all of which are adversely affecting plant and animal species globally.

“Most packaging is currently designed to be used and discarded in a linear process, resulting in enormous waste and pollution,” says AJ Nelson, CEO of PCKG. While convenient for consumers, who do not currently have to bear the costs of this waste, it is a highly inefficient use of materials. Moving to more sustainable packaging requires thinking about the entire lifecycle of a product and its packaging so that the whole system can be circular by design. With PCKG facilitating, we can stay ahead of tightening regulations, improve growth prospects, and reduce the environmental footprint. “Documenting and studying how consumer goods packaging ends up in the environment will improve how we think and incentivize the way the circular economy needs to evolve,” says Nelson.

Nelson describes the growing push for recyclability and collectability: “For waste to turn into something useful rather than a pollutant or end up in a body of water such as the Everglades, it must first be collected and recycled. To date, a desire to reduce pollution, particularly plastic waste, has been the most critical driver in building out recycling capabilities.” “Reusing raw materials can dramatically reduce the carbon footprint of packaging, and packaging companies looking for ways to reduce their carbon footprint are turning to recycled raw materials. Using recycled plastic can almost halve emissions per tonne, while using recycled aluminum can reduce emissions per tonne by more than 75%. With glass, metal, and paper, all around 80% recycled. Plastic packaging is dragging the average down, as the multilayer materials that make it so good at providing a barrier and increasing shelf life make it very difficult to recycle.

About PCKG:

PCKG is a group of experts of manufacturers, engineers, designers, technologists, marketing, supply chain, and logistics for consumer packaged goods (CPG). Our industry experience gives us a unique ability to understand market trends and help brands like yours stand out and have your story heard through extraordinary design and packaging. To learn more about PCKG, visit pckg.co

About the 2022 Willoughby Expedition:

The 2022 Willoughby Expedition is a roughly 130-mile, coast-to-coast canoe trek across North America’s largest remaining subtropical wilderness. The expedition is in recognition of the 125th anniversary of Hugh de Laussat Willoughby’s daring Everglades crossing and the 75th anniversary of the creation of Everglades National Park. In an effort to document water chemistry changes resulting from human impact on the Everglades ecosystem that began in the late 19th century, the expedition team will sample and test for the same water constituents that Willoughby did 125 years ago. They will also sample and test for microplastics, PFAS, pesticides, pharmaceuticals, antibiotic-resistant genes, and other modern pollutants that Willoughby could not have foreseen adversely affecting plant and animal species.

To learn more about the team, the course, the science, and the man who inspired it all, visit willoughbyexpedition.org.

Elaina Vasile
PCKG

Sea Technology Magazine Features Willoughby Expedition

Expedition to Retrace 1897 Canoe Journey Across Florida Everglades

Posted on 10/19/2022

A team of five explorers will embark on a daring and dangerous trek that has not been completed in 125 years. The 2022 Willoughby Expedition team will attempt to retrace an 1897 canoe journey across the Florida Everglades that was first completed by explorer and scientist Hugh de Laussat Willoughby.

Willoughby’s charts aided in creating the first accurate maps of the region, his water sampling provided the baseline water chemistry for the Everglades, and his book is primary reading for all Everglades scholars.

To gauge humanity’s impact on the largest remaining subtropical wilderness in North America and a UNESCO Wetland Area of Global Importance, the 2022 Willoughby Expedition team will sample and test for the same water constituents that Willoughby did more than a century ago. They will also look for water pollutants that Willoughby couldn’t have foreseen, including microplastics, perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), pesticides, pharmaceuticals, and antibiotic-resistant genes, all of which are adversely affecting plant and animal species globally.

To help conserve wildlife, the expedition team will also document the abundance and location of apple snails, which are the sole food source of the federally endangered Snail Kite, a bird of prey.

Starting at the mouth of the Harney River in the Gulf of Mexico on October 27 and ending in downtown Miami in early November, the coast-to-coast expedition will also commemorate the 75th anniversary of Everglades National Park. It will traverse the saltwater of the Gulf of Mexico, the brackish water of inland rivers, pristine freshwater sawgrass, canals in suburban Miami and, ultimately, a maze of skyscrapers to Biscayne Bay.

Historically, the Florida Everglades stretched from the north near modern-day Orlando to the south at Florida Bay. Willoughby completed his studies of the Everglades before large-scale drainage and reclamation programs began in the late 19th century. Today, the size of the Everglades has been reduced to approximately one-third its original size to make way for the modern cities of South Florida and their millions of residents.

The 2022 Willoughby Expedition will bring awareness to the major scientific and conservation goals of its more than 50 partners, including the University of Florida, National Park Service, Everglades National Park, South Florida Water Management District, Marine Industries Association of Palm Beach County, Palm Beach International Boat Show, and Cox Science Center and Aquarium.

Learn more at: willoughbyexpedition.org. 

The Willoughby Expedition awarded the honor of flying The Explorers Club Flag during upcoming historic Everglades Expedition.

Vice President Martin Nweeia and the Flag and Honors Committee of the historic Explores Club headquartered in New York City were pleased to announce that The Explorers Club Flag has been awarded to The Willoughby Expedition. 

"The Flag represents an impressive history of courage and accomplishment. Our members have carried it to the Moon, the ocean's depths, and around the globe. It is both an honor and a privilege to receive this special recognition". Nweeia said.

"The Flag and Honors Team wishes the team of South Florida Explorers every success on their journey and looks forward to learning more about your accomplishments upon your return." John Bruno, President Emeritus of the Flag and Honors Team commented. 

The Explorers Club is an American-based international multidisciplinary professional society with the goal of promoting scientific exploration and field study. The club was founded in New York City in 1904 and has served as a meeting point for explorers and scientists worldwide. The Explorers Club has 32 chapters in the United States and worldwide, serving as local contact points for explorers, scientists, and students. Many chapters hold monthly dinners, lectures, and seminars, award field research grants to students, publish newsletters and organize expeditions, field trips, and educational events.

Florida Weekly Palm Beach Edition COX Science Center & Aquarium Launches Contest Seeking Junior Willoughby Explorers.

The Cox Science Center invites students to share their thoughts and questions with the 2022 Willoughby Expedition Team on the topics of PFAS, microplastics, human impact on the endangerment of the Snail Kite bird and surrounding habitats, discovery of antibiotic resistance genes in the water as well as the importance of water conservation via video presentation submission. At the end of the contest, winning videos by two students from elementary, middle and high school will be chosen to be discussed or answered by members of the expedition team. The winning students will be featured and have the chance to engage with members of the team in person at a future event hosted by the Science Center. Questions about this contest should be emailed to Kristina Holt (kholt@coxsciencecenter.org) or Chris Pait (cpait@coxsciencecenter.org).

About Willoughby: Explorer and scientist, Hugh Willoughby became the first non-native American to cross the Everglades in 1897. One Hundred and twenty-five years later, the 2022 Willoughby Expedition team will follow the same path and take samples to test for chemistry changes, pollutant substances (specifically microplastics) and modern effects surrounding this vital water system. For more information about the Expedition

Florida Weekly Features Local Explorers to retrace 1897 Willoughby Everglades canoe trek.

History is about to repeat itself.

And it will mark a milestone along the way.

A team of five explorers will embark on a trek that has not been completed in 125 years.

The 2022 Willoughby Expedition team will attempt to retrace an 1897 canoe journey across the Florida Everglades that was first completed by explorer and scientist Hugh de Laussat Willoughby. Willoughby’s charts aided in creating the first accurate maps of the region, his water sampling provided the baseline water chemistry for the Everglades, and his book is primary reading for all Everglades scholars.

To gauge humanity’s impact on the largest remaining subtropical wilderness in North America and a UNESCO Wetland Area of Global Importance, the 2022 Willoughby Expedition team will sample and test for the same water constituents that Willoughby did more than a century ago. They also will look for water pollutants that Willoughby couldn’t have foreseen, including microplastics, perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), pesticides, pharmaceuticals and antibiotic-resistant genes, all of which are adversely affecting plant and animal species globally. To help conserve wildlife, the expedition team also will document the abundance and location of apple snails, which are the sole food source of the federally endangered snail kite, a bird of prey.

Starting at the mouth of the Harney River in the Gulf of Mexico on Oct. 27, and ending in downtown Miami in early November, the coast-to-coast expedition also will commemorate the 75th anniversary of Everglades National Park. It will traverse the saltwater of the Gulf of Mexico, the brackish water of inland rivers, freshwater sawgrass, canals in suburban Miami and through the skyscrapers to Biscayne Bay.

Historically, the Florida Everglades stretched from the north near modern day Orlando to the south at Florida Bay. Willoughby completed his studies of the Everglades before large-scale drainage and reclamation programs began in the late 19th century. Today, the size of the Everglades has been reduced to about one-third its original size to make way for the cities of South Florida and their millions of residents.

Organizers hope the 2022 Willoughby Expedition will bring awareness to the major scientific and conservation goals of its more than 50 partners, including the University of Florida, National Park Service, Everglades National Park, South Florida Water Management District, Marine Industries Association of Palm Beach County, Palm Beach International Boat Show, and Cox Science Center and Aquarium.

“This expedition is primarily focused on applying modern scientific investigations to one of the planet’s most important watersheds. However, we also hope to inspire future generations of scientists and explorers, and all citizens to be better stewards of our shared environment,” Dr. Tracie Baker, lead scientist on the Willoughby Expedition team and an associate professor at the University of Florida, said in a statement. “My work focuses on multidisciplinary research that seeks to bridge and improve human, animal, and environmental health. The Willoughby Expedition will provide critical primary research into that work.”

The Florida Everglades is one of the world’s best-known and most visited watersheds, serving as the “environmental kidneys” of Florida by filtering and cleaning water from all over the central and southern part of the state. Its water quality directly impacts more than 12 million people and thousands of plant and animal species.

To increase educational programming around human impact on the Everglades, the 2022 Willoughby Expedition is also partnering with school districts and cultural institutions in South Florida. Live feeds from the Everglades will be shared with schools and science museums, allowing students, educators, and museumgoers to interact directly with the expedition team.

“Public education and the live broadcasts are some of the most exciting and important aspects of the expedition,” Harvey E. Oyer III, the 2022 Willoughby Expedition’s co-leader, who is also an author, archaeologist, fifth-generation Floridian, and former U.S. Marine Corps captain, said in the statement. “We want to share our passion for the natural world by giving the public an inside look at our work and igniting their passion to preserve the natural world.”

The Willoughby Expedition team includes:

Harvey E. Oyer III, co-leader — Mr. Oyer is a former U.S. Marine Corps captain, member of the Explorers Club, and holds a master’s degree in archeology from Cambridge University. He is also the author of a bestselling children’s book about the Everglades that is part of the 4th grade curriculum in Florida. ¦

Christophe Vandaele, co-leader — A native of Belgium, Mr. Vandaele is a graduate of the Belgium Royal Military Academy and the Special Warfare Officer Training School at Marche-les-Dames. He served multiple tours in Africa, and has participated in scientific expeditions in the Andes Mountains, the jungles of Guatemala, and at the North Pole.

Tracie Baker, DVM, Ph.D, lead scientist — Dr. Baker is an associate professor in the Department of Environmental and Global Health at the University of Florida. She is an expert on environmental contaminants, with studies that seek to bridge human, animal, and environmental health. She is a former NCAA Academic All-American swimmer and has completed four IRONMAN races and more than 20 marathons.

Carlos “Charlie” Arazoza, navigator

— Mr. Arazoza is a Cuban-American lawyer and CPA in Miami. An experienced Everglades paddler, he has led many trips through the Everglades, served as chairman of the South Florida National Parks Trust, and also founded the South Florida Bush Paddlers Association.

Flex Maslan, photographer and documentarian — A native of the Czech Republic, Mr. Maslan has almost 30 years of experience as a paddling guide, leading trips through most of South Florida’s waterways. Mr. Maslan is also a professional photographer whose work has been published in nature and watersports books and magazines.

Support team members include three other scientists, a chemist, a pilot, and a filmmaker.

To learn more about the team, the course, the science, and the man who inspired it all, visit willoughbyexpedition.org.

Boca Magazine Features The 2022 Willoughby Expedition Will Re-create a Historic Everglades Voyage

In 1897, famed explorer and scientist Hugh Willoughby made history as the first non-Native American to traverse the Florida Everglades from coast to coast. Traveling by canoe, the adventurer crossed through 130 miles of exotic wilderness, all the while studying the subtropical flora and fauna of Florida’s most beloved natural ecosystem. Now, 125 years later, a new expedition is set to follow in this legendary adventurer’s wake.

The 2022 Willoughby Expedition will follow the same path of the 19th century voyage, beginning on Oct. 27 from the Flamingo Campground in Everglades National Park and arriving in downtown Miami via the Miami River in early November. Along the way, the five-member team will be taking water samples to test for chemical changes and pollutants resulting from the human impact on the Everglades’ ecosystem.

“By calling attention to Hugh Willoughby’s historic trip and recreating it, we will conduct cutting-edge science that evidences modern human impact on one of the most important watersheds on the planet,” said Harvey Oyer, historian, author, adventurer, attorney and West Palm Beach resident.

Educators at the Cox Science Center and Aquarium are encouraging students with a passion for science to take a small role in the upcoming expedition by submitting videos detailing either a conservation project they are working on that aligns with the expedition’s goals or mentioning an outdoor adventure or conservation project they worked on in the past. Two winners from each school level will receive a cash prize and the opportunity to meet the expedition team in person at a future event hosted by the Cox Science Center. The deadline for submissions is Wednesday, Oct. 19.

For contest guidelines and to participate, click here. To learn more about the expedition, visit willoughbyexpedition.org.

Explorers To Research Human Impact on the Florida Everglades in Historic Expedition.

Everglades National Park – Florida (October 4, 2022) – A team of five explorers is soon embarking on a daring and dangerous trek that has not been completed in 125 years. The 2022 Willoughby Expedition team will attempt to retrace an 1897 canoe journey across the Florida Everglades that was first completed by explorer and scientist Hugh de Laussat Willoughby. Willoughby’s charts aided in creating the first accurate maps of the region, his water sampling provided the baseline water chemistry for the Everglades, and his book is primary reading for all Everglades scholars.

To gauge humanity’s impact on the largest remaining subtropical wilderness in North America and a UNESCO Wetland Area of Global Importance, the 2022 Willoughby Expedition team will sample and test for the same water constituents that Willoughby did more than a century ago. They will also look for water pollutants that Willoughby couldn’t have foreseen, including microplastics, perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), pesticides, pharmaceuticals, and antibiotic-resistant genes, all of which are adversely affecting plant and animal species globally. To help conserve wildlife, the expedition team will also document the abundance and location of apple snails, which are the sole food source of the federally endangered Snail Kite, a bird of prey.

Starting at the mouth of the Harney River in the Gulf of Mexico on October 27, and ending in downtown Miami in early November, the coast-to-coast expedition will also commemorate the 75th anniversary of Everglades National Park. It will traverse the saltwater of the Gulf of Mexico, the brackish water of inland rivers, pristine freshwater sawgrass, canals in suburban Miami, and ultimately, through a maze of skyscrapers to Biscayne Bay.

Historically, the Florida Everglades stretched from the north near modern-day Orlando to the south at Florida Bay. Willoughby completed his studies of the Everglades before large-scale drainage and reclamation programs began in the late 19th century. Today, the size of the Everglades has been reduced to approximately one-third its original size to make way for the modern cities of South Florida and their millions of residents.

The 2022 Willoughby Expedition will bring awareness to the major scientific and conservation goals of its more than 50 partners, including the University of Florida, National Park Service, Everglades National Park, South Florida Water Management District, Marine Industries Association of Palm Beach County, Palm Beach International Boat Show, and Cox Science Center and Aquarium.

“This expedition is primarily focused on applying modern scientific investigations to one of the planet’s most important watersheds. However, we also hope to inspire future generations of scientists and explorers, and all citizens to be better stewards of our shared environment,” said Dr. Tracie Baker, lead scientist on the Willoughby Expedition team and an associate professor at the University of Florida. “My work focuses on multidisciplinary research that seeks to bridge and improve human, animal, and environmental health. The Willoughby Expedition will provide critical primary research into that work.”

The Florida Everglades is one of the world’s best-known and most visited watersheds, serving as the “environmental kidneys” of Florida by filtering and cleaning water from all over the central and southern part of the state. Its water quality directly impacts more than 12 million people and thousands of plant and animal species.

To increase educational programming around human impact on the Everglades, the 2022 Willoughby Expedition is also partnering with school districts and cultural institutions in South Florida. Live feeds from the Everglades will be shared with schools and science museums, allowing students, educators, and museumgoers to interact directly with the expedition team. 

“Public education and the live broadcasts are some of the most exciting and important aspects of the expedition,” said Harvey E. Oyer III, the 2022 Willoughby Expedition’s co-leader, who is also an author, archaeologist, fifth-generation Floridian, and former U.S. Marine Corps captain. “We want to share our passion for the natural world by giving the public an inside look at our work, and igniting their passion to preserve the natural world.” 

The Willoughby Expedition team includes:

• Harvey E. Oyer III, co-leader – Oyer is a former U.S. Marine Corps captain, member of the Explorers Club, and holds a master’s degree in archeology from Cambridge University. He is also the author of a bestselling children’s book about the Everglades that is part of the 4th grade curriculum in Florida.
  

• Christophe Vandaele, co-leader – A native of Belgium, Vandaele is a graduate of the Belgium Royal Military Academy and the Special Warfare Officer Training School at Marche-les-Dames. He served multiple tours in Africa, and has participated in scientific expeditions in the Andes Mountains, the jungles of Guatemala, and at the North Pole.
  

• Tracie Baker, DVM, PhD, lead scientist – Dr. Baker is an associate professor in the Department of Environmental and Global Health at the University of Florida. She is an expert on environmental contaminants, with studies that seek to bridge human, animal, and environmental health. She is a former NCAA Academic All-American swimmer, and has completed four IRONMAN races and more than 20 marathons.
  

• Carlos “Charlie” Arazoza, navigator – Arazoza is a Cuban-American attorney and CPA in Miami. A vastly experienced Everglades paddler, he has led many trips through the Everglades, served as chairman of the South Florida National Parks Trust, and also founded the South Florida Bush Paddlers Association.
  

• Flex Maslan, photographer and documentarian – A native of the Czech Republic, Maslan has almost 30 years of experience as a paddling guide, leading trips through most of South Florida’s waterways. Maslan is also a professional photographer whose work has been published in nature and watersports books and magazines.

Support team members include three other scientists, a chemist, a pilot, and a filmmaker.

To learn more about the team, the course, the science, and the man who inspired it all, visit willoughbyexpedition.org. 

About the 2022 Willoughby Expedition

The 2022 Willoughby Expedition is a roughly 130-mile, coast-to-coast canoe trek across the largest remaining subtropical wilderness in North America. The expedition is in recognition of the 125th anniversary of Hugh de Laussat Willoughby’s daring Everglades crossing and the 75th anniversary of the creation of Everglades National Park. In an effort to document water chemistry changes resulting from human impact on the Everglades ecosystem that began in the late 19th century, the expedition team will sample and test for the same water constituents that Willoughby did 125 years ago. They will also sample and test for microplastics, PFAS, pesticides, pharmaceuticals, antibiotic-resistant genes, and other modern pollutants that Willoughby could not have foreseen that are adversely affecting plant and animal species.

The Everglades History.

At one point in history, the Everglades covered as much as 11,000 square miles of the southern portion of Florida. It was nicknamed the river of grass, as a continuous flow of water flowed from the Kissimmee River into Lake Okeechobee, all the way to the Florida bay. However, in 1905 a governor named Napoleon Bonaparte Broward decided to drain portions of the Everglades to make them suitable for agriculture and human development. Cities such as Miami and Fort Lauderdale sprouted, and large areas of swamp were destroyed in order to produce farmland.

In 1948 Congress passed the Central and South Florida Project Exit Disclaimer. This project is still, to this day, one of the most effective water management systems in the world. It uses various levees and canals to drain water into the ocean. This massive loss of water instantly began to affect the features of the marshland, along with the many species that dwell in the surrounding area. Salt water began to flow farther into the Marshes, and native plants began to be destroyed, foreign plants began to take root, and the continuous cycle of destruction continued. To this day, the everglades are about half the size that it used to be.