During the term of Florida Governor Napoleon Bonaparte Broward (1905-1909), political leaders debated and launched a variety of programs to drain the Everglades and other lands along the lower peninsula. The first massive effort to reclaim lands in Florida happened south of Tampa Bay. Image courtesy of Archives and Library, Heritage Village. Dredging operations transformed Boca Ciega Bay along Redington Beach and Madeira Beach. Perfect, that is, as long as the water stays where we have confined it.
From England to Japan, and South Korea to the United States, humans have transformed marshlands and wetlands into places of human settlement.Īs we remember the tenth anniversary of the tragic failure of the levees in New Orleans during and immediately after Hurricane Katrina’s landfall in August 2005, those who live in coastal communities of the greater Tampa Bay region should also know that many of the popular residential destinations in our area took shape during the early and mid-twentieth centuries as dredging projects intended to maximize that “perfect” waterfront view. Although Dutch efforts to drain lands and create polders over the past millennium are the best known to those of us who learned about windmills in elementary school, reclamation efforts extend far beyond the growth of the Netherlands. Humans living along coastal areas have reshaped the contours of land and water since the earliest civilizations.
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