"FLORIDA EVERGLADES STUDY # 2 - ECO POND"

This original oil on stretched canvas gladescape was painted in 2006, and was signed by the artist, R.Geddings. This is a real and actual scene !

For lovers of birds and other aquatic wildlife Eco Pond cannot be beaten. This small lake is located in the extreme southern portion of the Everglades National Park near the Flamingo- area visitor complex.

Ibises and other birds roost in the surrounding trees and bushes. Collections of birds nesting in aggregations are called rookeries.

The Eco Pond area features a grassy section which runs completely around the ponds and allows visitors to walk easily and observe the abundant wildlife. This area provides views of small ponds and wet areas which often host wildlife like the Great Blue and the Great White Herons.

Eco Pond is also a favorite location for animals and insects including a variety of butterflies. There are about 100 species of butterflies in the Everglades.

As in many wet places in the park Eco Pond also has its share of alligators.

In addition to and along with this oil painting, the buyer received a
"CERTIFICATE OF AUTHENTICATION" signed and dated by the artist, R.Geddings.

Note of Interest:
National parks are not islands of land. Outside events shape their fates. Water management is the critical issue for the Everglades, whose watershed begins in central Florida's Kissimmee River basin. Summer storms flooding there once started a shallow, wide river flowing southward to the Gulf of Mexico. Elaborate water controls now disrupt the natural flow. Shortage of clean water at critical seasons, and in the correct quantities, the Everglades will die.

South Florida's freshwater supply comes from rain on the Kissimmee River basin and southward, mostly in May through October. Evaporation, transpiration, and runoff consume four-fifths of the rain, which may total 40 to 65 inches per year.

Slow and rain-driven, the natural cycle of freshwater circulation historically built up in shallow Lake Okeechobee. It averages 12 feet deep and covers 730 square miles.

Thus began the flow of the wide, shallow "River of Grass." Fifty miles wide in places, one to three feet deep in the slough's center but only 6 inches deep elsewhere, it flowed south 100 feet per day across Everglades saw grass toward mangrove estuaries of the Gulf of Mexico. A six-month dry season followed.

Everglades plants and animals are adapted to alternating wet and dry seasons. Water cycle disruptions ruin crucial feeding and nesting conditions.

During the dry season (December to April), water levels gradually drop. Fish migrate to deeper pools. Birds, alligators, and other predators concentrate around the pools to feed on a varied menu of fish, amphibians, and reptiles. This abundant food source is vital to many wading birds who are nesting during the dry season.

In May, spring thunderstorms signal the beginning of the wet season. A winter landscape dotted with pools of water yields to a summer landscape almost completely covered with water. Wildlife disperses throughout the park. Insects, fish, and alligators repopulate the 'glades, thus replenishing the food chain. By December, the rains cease and the dry cycle begins again.