Big Cypress National Preserve is a vast protected wetland in South Florida adjoining Everglades National Park, with cypress swamps, marl prairies, mangroves, and exceptional biodiversity including endangered species. Established on October 11, 1974, as one of the first national preserves in the National Park System, it followed decades of logging, poaching, and oil development, as well as the defeat of the proposed Miami Jetport. People have lived here for more than two thousand years, from early settlers and the Calusa to the Seminole, Miccosukee, and Traditional people, whose permanent rights to occupy and use the land were preserved. It remains both protected and contested.