While oil exploration continues in Big Cypress National Preserve in Florida, another drilling case has cropped up that, while not necessarily posing an imminent threat to Everglades National Park, sparks the question of how close is too close when the largest designated sub-tropical wilderness area in North America is at risk of contamination?

It just got a little bit more expensive to fish the waters of Florida Bay in Everglades National Park.

Some higher fees are coming to Everglades National Park early next year, as entrance fees will creep up slightly to help the park address deferred maintenance, an issue the Congress so far has failed to deal with.

Swirling clouds of blue, white, and pink once rose above the Everglades in drifts that practically stained the sky when herons, egrets, storks, ibises, and spoonbills that numbered in the hundreds of thousands nested in the River of Grass. They took to the sky in giant, whirling clouds of feathers, intent on providing their chicks with enough food to fledge.