Ancient trash heaps gave rise to Everglades tree islands

American Geophysical Union ^ | March 21, 2011 | Unknown

[MichaelP]

You're right about those melaleucca trees. We planted one behind our house when I was a kid, where the washer dumped its water, and it thrived in that soapy, bleachy water. Years later, I tried to cut it down and found out how hard that wood is below the paper bark. The brazillian pepper trees are just as bad...

Mike

[GladesGuru]

“Idiots planted they to try to drain the everglades.”

How about:
“Government idiots planted them to try to drain the Everglades.”

The aerial seeding of the Everglades with Australian Melaleuuca tree seed WAS a gooberment project.

Typical of Gooberment AgencyPersons, there was a monument to that project in the city of Davie, Fl.

Long gone, vanished into the black hole of revisionist history.

[Vinnie]

I’m skeptical of this explanation. There’s so many ‘heads’ that I can’t imagine ancient human garbage accounting for them.
The phosphorus could have come from the huge phosphate mines N. W. of Lake Okeechobee and been carried in the aquifer.

[Secret Agent Man]

I say we evacuate the site and nuke it from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.

Seriously, if this is true, isn’t an EPA superfund cleanup site warranted?

/sarc

[Secret Agent Man]

Thanks for not mentioning “ancient” and “mound” together in the same sentence.

[Repeal The 17th]

“...This goes to show that human disturbance in the environment doesn’t always have a negative consequence...”
-
Stupid statement.

[GogogoStopSTOP]

Actualllllyyyy... what happened is that ancient man discovered the huge content of phosphorous in the human feces.

So these mounds, especially there size & proliferation, is the direct result of a concerted effort by our forefathers to crap there way out of the muck & mire of their lives.

[liberalh8ter]

They did the same thing with Australian pines in Palm Beach County. Now the taxpayers are paying to have those removed.

[bert]

Typically, archeologists capture the field and then occupy the language.

Tree Island = Hummock

The thesis is that the hummocks were where humans lived and left trash

[SunkenCiv]

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[bannie]

No...this just shows us that trees, like humans, are NOT part of nature.
;-)

[JerseyHighlander]

These trash heap middens go all the way north up the Everglades tributaries up towards Orlando FL and Shingle Creek. From Northeast of there they are shown again in the St John’s tributaries heading north toward the FL/GA border.

http://www.volusia.org/history/sitemap.jpg

I’ve visited afew of these places, beautiful spots, but I can’t believe the mosquitos didn’t cause endemic tropical diseases in the native population.

[Moonman62]

These middens, a mixture of bones, food discards, charcoal, and human artifacts (such as clay pots and shell tools), would have provided an elevated area, drier than the surrounding marsh, allowing trees and other vegetation to grow. Bones also leaked phosphorus, a nutrient for plants that is otherwise scarce in the Everglades.

Most nutrients are scarce in the Everglades. It's like a desert with water. I don't know why people get all misty eyed about it.

[1010RD]

Notes for reporters: ...distinctive havens of exceptional ecological richness in the sprawling marsh that are today threatened by human development...

That's their money quote.