Travels in Florida: In Florida, large tracts of wilderness (of all states east of the Mississippi, Florida ranks #2 in public land area) abut dense population centers. Gritty conservation complexities, too, are embedded in the state’s past and present: In 1905, Guy Bradley, one of the U.S.’s first game wardens, was killed while defending rookery birds from plume-hunters. At Lake Okeechobee, a drastic water control project — 1600 miles of canals and levees — tamed and dried the Everglades, which still suffer. Today, exotic pythons devastate native bird and mammal populations. And yet, time spent in Florida’s wildlands is rewarding—imagine canoe camping in the mangrove labyrinth, searching for endangered Red-cockaded Woodpeckers and Florida Scrub-Jays in quiet national forests, and paddling gator-lined waterways in pursuit of Snail Kites.