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Introduction
When most people think of prairie they think of the midwest - flat land, wagon trains, Indian attacks, and farms with acres upon acres of corn or wheat swaying gently in the breeze. Few conjure an image of dwarf palmetto and wiregrass stretching to the horizon, interrupted only by sparse hammocks of cabbage palm and small seasonal ponds. Yet this is prairie in Florida, shaped by the sea, maintained by fire, and with its own history of Indian attacks.
When considering the Kissimmee Prairie one must first understand that the level of earth’s oceans has changed dramatically over the past two million years or so. Some 20,000 years ago sea level was approximately 400 feet lower than it is now. If you could travel back 100,000 years the sea would be about 25 feet higher than it is now. These changes in sea level correspond to the advance and retreat of glaciers.
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