An abundance of raccoons and other predators is not the only threat to survival of the loggerhead turtle. A major factor in its decline is the serious depletion of its nesting habitat. Park visitors are prohibited from interfering with these reptiles. Cape Sable beach is today virtually the only wild beach in South Florida, thanks to its inclusion in Everglades National Park. At present, visitors can reach it only by boat. But it would be foolhardy to take it for granted that the beach will remain unspoiled. Its potential as an attraction is such that someone not ecologically aware might believe that access for motorists would be an improvement. Roads, however, would bring increased pressure on the ecosystem by large numbers of visitors, and demands for further development, for lodging, meals, and other services seem always to go with automobiles. With continued protection from such encroachments, Cape Sable Beach will remain a unique wilderness resource and will not become just another recreational facility. Merging with the beach is the coastal prairie, an ecosystem supporting red and black mangroves, grasses, and other plants tolerant of the very salty environment. Hardwood hammocks have developed here on Indian shell mounds, but the trees are stunted by the saline soils. Though there is no lack of water on the cape, much of the region appears arid because hurricane-lashed tides have deposited soils of marl and debris so salt-laden that only sparse vegetation develops. Big Cypress Swamp To the west of the great fresh-water marsh called the everglades, lying almost entirely outside the park, is an ecosystem vitally linked to the park. Big Cypress Swamp is a vast, shallow basin that includes practically all of Collier County. It is commonly called “The Big Cypress”—not because of the size of its trees, but because of its extent. Most of the baldcypresses (which are not true cypresses) are small trees, growing in open to dense stands throughout the area. The swamp is watered by about 50 inches of annual rainfall, the runoff from which flows as a sheet and in sloughs south and west to meet the coastal strip of mangroves and low sand dunes.