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In the heart of the Everglades, behind the Clyde Butcher Big Cypress Gallery, it’s nature untouched, vast and remote. See the story in the video above“The best thing I can advise is just take your time,” Scott Randolph warns while guiding Gulf Coast News through the landscape. He’s led about 4,000 swamp walks while living out here. This time of the year, it’s hot and buggy. But no matter the season, Randolph always sees beauty. “A natural beauty,” he said. “I can still hike in here in areas that have never been touched. It's remarkable." "It's just – it's magical,” Clyde Butcher, a renowned photographer, told Gulf Coast News. Butcher has worked to capture that magic for 40 years. His distinctive black-and-white style showcases what’s become known as the River of Grass. “I call the Everglades the 'land of life,'” Butcher said. "Everything is growing. Crawling. Talking. It's probably the most pristine place in the United States.” But now, just 6 miles east of the Big Cypress Gallery, a new migrant detention center dubbed "Alligator Alcatraz" has brought a commotion and a controversy to the normally quiet stretch of nature.The project has also brought certain perspectives about the land here. “It's known as Alligator Alcatraz, which is appropriate. Because I looked outside and it's not a place I want to go hiking anytime soon,” President Donald Trump said during his visit to the center. “Security is amazing. Natural and otherwise,” Gov. Ron DeSantis joked at a previous press conference. “I've never had a poor encounter,” Randolph said of the wildlife in the Everglades. “It's always ironic to me to hear those things." “It was like killing 40 years of my work,” Butcher said of the politicians' comments. “Of trying to explain to people how great (the Everglades) is.” Butcher is worried about the very environment he’s helped spotlight for so long. Some of his favorite photos were shot in the area where the detention center now sits. Environmental groups have filed a lawsuit, arguing the project needs a full impact review. DeSantis has insisted there won’t be problems. “I've invested how much billions of billions of dollars into increasing and improving the hydrology of the Everglades,” he said at a previous press conference. “If I thought this was somehow going to hurt that, then I wouldn't do it.” Randolph and Butcher have seen the recovery firsthand from the Everglades restoration project.But they worry that Alligator Alcatraz is a serious setback in that progress. “If anybody puts 5,000 people anywhere, there's a lot of pollution,” Butcher said. “They're putting a city in the middle of an area that is so fragile. The Everglades is very fragile.” “It's just beyond comprehension to have something like this in America,” he added.