Saving the Big Cypress Swamp

TO conservationists, Florida's Big Cypress Swamp, 35 miles west of Miami, is a watery treasure of solitude and variety. Covering 968,000 acres of wetland, forest, rivers and islands, it teems with wildlife, including such endangered species as the Florida panther, alligator, snowy egret and bald eagle. Moreover, the swamp is a major watershed that supplies the vast Everglades National Park, immediately to the south, with a constant flow of vital water. To land subdividers, on the other hand, it seems the next logical place in which to expand Miami's suburbs.

Last week President Nixon announced that he would ask Congress to authorize acquisition of 547,000 of Big Cypress' acres. The reason, he said, is to save them "from private development." Nixon thus outflanked Democratic Senators who already had mapped plans to protect the swamp. The cost of federal acquisition, said Interior Secretary Rogers Morton, will be "considerably in excess of $100 million," spread over the next decade.

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