Mark Sanders love affair with the Florida Everglades began on family camping trips when he was a kid. He distinctly remembers the excitement he felt when it was time to pack up the tents, sleeping bags and most importantly, stock the tackle box and make sure the fishing poles were ready to go. The Sanders family would hit the road, leaving Tampa behind in the predawn darkness to avoid traffic and make their way to the Everglades, nearly 200 miles to the south.

Those trips were the foundation for his obsession with the Everglades and all they entailed. Tampa might have been Mark Sanders physical residence, but his heart was in the swamps and strands of Southern Florida. Obsessed by the fishing at an early age, as he grew, his appreciation of the details so different from Tampa became more finely tuned. One trip in particular, Sanders had damaged his fishing pole so badly that fishing was no longer an option. Forced out of routine, he quickly recovered by exploring the nearby hiking trails.

On the trails, he found the quiet to allow a new appreciation of the incredibly unique types of birds he was seeing and hearing. He claims to have spent hours marveling at the shear perfection of the Blue Heron as it hunted. Reaching up to 4 feet in height, the birds are nearly motionless when focused on the task of feeding. A solitary hunter, the bird would strike with precision, spearing fish, frogs, and salamanders, Sanders even claims to have seen one snatch up a baby alligator. The misfortune that stole his afternoon of fishing may have been the turning point that created one of Tampa, Florida’s most recognized experts of all things Everglades.

While most people immediately think of alligators when the everglades are mentioned. Sander’s never allows them to steal the spotlight from all the other amazing attributes of his favorite place in the world. Not to say he doesn’t have a huge respect for the prehistoric creatures, he just feels they don’t need his advocacy for attention. The incredible amount of wildlife that chooses the everglades as their home has lured Sanders out of Tampa every opportunity he gets.

Perhaps it took growing up in an urban environment like Tampa to make Mark Sanders appreciate the rugged dangers of the everglades. If his family wasn’t the type to camp or if his fishing pole had never broken, the everglades and all those who long to be entertained by tales of them might have missed out.