The Southeast feels alive with motion. In the Everglades, one of America’s most unique and endangered habitats, slow rivers of water curve through cypress swamps. Warm ocean waters cradle the rainforests of the sea, our coral reefs, and critically endangered pine forests provide roosts for threatened and endangered wildlife. This is a region shaped by water, heat, hurricanes, and resilience.

As the United States approaches 250 years of independence, the Southeast shows us two truths at once. It shows what care can save. And it shows what neglect can erase.

This region holds some of the most biologically rich landscapes in North America. It is home to species found nowhere else on Earth. It is also one of the fastest-growing regions in the country, where development, pollution, and climate change press hard against the places wildlife depends on.

Every river, reef, forest, and coastline here is part of a larger story about who we are and what we choose to protect.