In the late 1800s, giant flocks of birds in the Everglades and surrounding bald cypress swamps were rapidly diminished by overhunting. The National Audubon Society was formed in part to save these birds and their habitats, and it hired wardens to patrol the swamps and stop poachers, dangerous work that cost some wardens their lives. Guy Bradley, who had begun as a plume hunter profiting from killing birds for their feathers, came to realize how quickly the flocks were being destroyed and changed course. He became Audubon's first warden and a well-known enemy of poachers in the Greater Everglades. In 1905, at age 35, poachers shot and killed him in the line of duty, and Bradley is remembered as part of Audubon's long history in the Greater Everglades and the price paid by a committed few for conservation.