After 13 years of meetings, discussion, and debate, Everglades National Park officials have released a General Management Plan to guide the park for the next 20 years. However, whether the park will receive the funding necessary to fully implement the plan is another matter.

A plan to open Everglades National Park up to the "Python Challenge" early next year is both wrong and probably illegal, according to Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, which wants the National Park Service to prevent the hunt from being conducted within the park.

Perhaps few people today remember Nancy Ayers, but I will never forget her. Certainly, on being informed of her death last winter, a flood of memories came rushing back. In her honor, I decided to reread Polly Welts Kaufman's National Parks and the Woman’s Voice. Although I recalled no woman in the book quite like Nancy, I owed it to her to reflect on our friendship. A book reminiscent of her qualities seemed the perfect touch.

At first glance, the latest foreign invader to threaten Florida ecosystems doesn't seem nearly as impressive as Burmese pythons, whose length can exceed twenty feet, or lionfish, whose colorful spines can deliver a venomous sting. Despite its small size, however, the wider impact of the "New Guinea flatworm" could eventually be even more serious than that of the pythons.