With the increasing population in towns near the Everglades came hunting opportunities . Even decades earlier , Harriet Beecher Stowe had been horrified at the hunting by visitors , and she wrote the first conservation publication for Florida in 1877 : " [ t ] he deck of boats are crowded with men , whose only feeling amid our magnificent forests , seem to be a wild desire to shoot something and who fire at every living thing on shore . " Otters and raccoons was the most widely hunted for their skins . Otter pelts could fetch between $ 8 and $ 15 each . Raccoons , more plentiful , only warranted 75 cents each in 1915 . Hunting often went unchecked ; on one trip , a Lake Okeechobee hunter killed 250 alligators and 172 otters .