The Ten Thousand Islands National Wildlife Refuge is one of the great mangrove preserves of the United States. In fact, here mangroves are spreading where they’re not wanted—into former freshwater swamplands that were drained for a grandiose housing project that failed to get off the ground. I travelled to the refuge with a Fish and Wildlife researcher who was gathering groundwater data that will help environmental managers make the right decisions about how to restore the unique ecology of the area. Our first day didn’t end up quite the way we’d planned, and it was all because of a banana ... Read more »