2026 Conservation Study Conference, Everglades National Park (ENP)

I attended the Conference in Miami, and everyone had a wonderful time together. It was extremely well-organized with almost 140 attendees from all over the country (except for the unfortunate few whose flights were cancelled due to the snowstorms!).

We heard from an excellent panel of speakers including:

• Yvette Carlo, Director of Education at ENP
• Michael Grunwald, author of The Swamp: The Everglades, Florida, and the Politics of Paradise.
• Erik Stabenau, Senior Restoration Scientist at The Everglades Foundation

They also set up a very interesting Q & A with a panel of experts including William J. Osceola, Secretary of the Miccosukee Business Council of the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida.

We bused out to the ENP, went on boat tours and learned how many groups are uniting to preserve one of the world’s most important and threatened parks. It is the third largest national park in the United States at over 1.5 million acres. It has nine distinct ecosystems and is designated as a World Heritage Site, International Biosphere Reserve, and a Wetland of International Importance.

Threatened by developers, sugar cane farms and invasive creatures such as the Burmese python (they can grow 16 feet long and have a girth as wide as a telephone pole with an appetite to match!). Ecosystems have been degraded by man-made flood control systems and development. A massive restoration project is underway, so there has been some improvement, but the battle to save the Everglades is not an easy one. It is critical to protect the Everglades not only for its incredible biodiversity but also for providing drinking water for millions of Floridians.

On the final day, we went to the Fairchild Tropical Botanical Garden.  Absolutely visit if you are in the Miami area! There’s a tribute to Marjorie Stoneman Douglas, who began working to save the Everglades when she was 79 and continued for 29 more years. They have a million orchid project where they are raising orchids in a lab and reintroducing them all over Miami to replace the ones that were all taken out of the trees. They are up top 750,000 re-installed already.

On the GCA website, there is a 10-minute video by the Everglades Foundation that is worth watching for more information. To access, click on Conferences and Events, click on Archived Conferences and scroll down to the 2026 Conservation Study Conference and click play on the black bar to start the video.

Please feel free to reach out to me for any questions or further information!

Paige Louthan

SGC Conservation Chair

plouthan@me.com