Gore Helps Rededicate Everglades National Park
12/6/97
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Headline: Gore Helps Rededicate Everglades National Park
Source: Reuters
Date: 12/6/97
Copyright 1997 by Reuters
MIAMI (Reuters) - Vice President Al Gore said Saturday at
ceremonies to mark the 50th anniversary of Everglades National
Park that the Clinton administration was committed to saving the
area.
Gore gave the pledge in a speech at the rededication of the
park before events in the coming week to highlight the history
of the Everglades, a vast sawgrass plain covered by a shallow,
slow-moving river, and debate the region's uncertain future.
``Our plan is to ensure that the Everglades remain a river
of grass,'' Gore said. ``President Clinton and I are deeply
committed to saving the Everglades.''
Everglades National Park, a U.N. World Heritage Site and the
protected center of a vast wetlands in southern Florida, is
under siege from farm pollution, population growth and urban
sprawl.
The 1.5 million-acre park was dedicated on Dec. 6, 1947, by
then President Harry Truman. It is home to more than a dozen
endangered wildlife species, including the wood stork, Florida
panther and manatee.
At the century's start, the Everglades covered 4 million
acres but have receded as developers drained the wetlands.