Today, at a Rivers Coalition meeting, Army Corp of Engineers, Lieutenant Colonel Jennifer A. Reynolds, announced unexpected news: the ACOE will stop discharging to the St Lucie River for 9 days and then resume. They have been releasing from S-308 for four days since a past weekend pause…
This halting, considering it appears to be at least partially a response to an almost completely cyanobacteria filled Lake Okeechobee, and though temporary, is a significant federal decision in the documentation of toxic/algae/St Lucie issues.
The meeting began with Martin Health CEO, Rob Lord discussing health concerns of contact with blue-green algae, and ended with LTC Jennifer Reynolds showing herself to be among other things, a gifted communicator. Please watch the videos for details of this day.
The Jacksonville District of the ACOE will be announcing its next three-year positions for Colonel and Lieutenant Colonel in the coming weeks or months. This cycle of short-lived leadership makes developing lasting relationships and, thus change, indeed almost impossible. But days like today, give one hope.
Mark Perry, Florida Oceanographic, & RC Leadership Team leads meetingThe River Kidz give a report on their trip this week to Washington DC participating in “Lagoon Day,” sponsored by Congressman Brain Mast. Nine young people traveled and met with multiple leaders including: Congressmen Mast, Graves, Shuster, ACOE Col. Kirk, & Senators Nelson and Rubio.Todd Weissing speaksAllie Preston ask a questionLTC Reynolds
I am posting this, not because I want to but because I have to. I much rather be enjoying the day instead of once again sitting at my computer. But time is of the essence.
This morning I read a comment by TcPalm reporter, Ed Killer, on Facebook stating the ACOE’s pulse release schedule for the St Lucie River.
If this is true, and with Ed Killer posting, I believe it is, the ACOE will start releasing again Monday, 6-25-18. I did not know this until I read his post.
Today, my husband Ed and I were flying other people over Florida as usual, and during our flight I took this video expecting maybe some algae in C-44 but instead also found the gigantic bloom against the gates of S-308 in Lake Okeechobee leading into C-44/SLR.
So I wrote on Facebook:
I am so over this, but cannot fail to report. According to Ed Killer ACOE will start discharging from Lake O tomorrow in spite of Governor’s Emergency Order. Look at this algae mess waiting at gates of Port Mayaca. Write ACOE’s LTC Jennifer Reynolds and politely ask for ACOE to wait and to have DEP test again: jennifer.a.reynolds@usace.army.mil (JTL-S-308 video taken 6-24-15 at 12pm) #toxic2018
As Monday is tomorrow, and I fly to DC with the River Kidz tomorrow, I am posting this now. I truly believe considering the circumstances, that the ACOE should refrain from discharging at S-308 or S-80. And the state’s FDEP (Florida Department of Environmental Protection) should have this water tested, again, as bloom has changed.
To just dump this on the people of Martin County along the St Lucie River is a crime.
Respectfully,
Jacqui
PLEASE WATCH THE VIDEO
The recognizable shape of S-308 the entrance to C-44 and the SLR. Lake O’s connection to the river—obvious massive algae bloom at gates.Bloom as satellites show is throughout and scattered in lake. This shot is looking more towards middle of lake in southern area.
Entrance to Caloosahatchee on west side of lake and near Clewiston Bloom is all through lake.
Present Lake O algae bloom, as first publicly reported June 2nd, has grown to approximately 253 square miles. Although larger, this bloom appears less dense from space than either the June 24th or July 2nd 2016 images – that measured approximately 239 square miles. Image courtesy of Todd Thurlow, 6-20-18. See other satellite images here: http://www.thurlowpa.com/LakeOImagery/
The algae in Lake Okeechobee is Mother Nature’s political checkmate, the time in chess in which the King cannot escape…
Thank you to Department of Environmental Protection Secretary, Noah Valenstein, whose Emergency Order directed by Governor Rick Scott, announced yesterday, will implement an array of new actions to move more clean water south into the conservation areas and away from the estuaries.
Sending algae that is potentially toxic to the communities of the St Lucie River and the Caloosahatchee is political suicide even for the Army Corp, an entity that is basically untouchable, like a King.
But since the state is legally in charge of water quality, not the Corp, the order comes from Florida’s Executive Branch as they, became aware of the seriousness of the problem. The Corp has reported they were lessening discharge amount anyway, however, they did not recognize the health threat of the algae…
Nobody wants to purposefully poison the estuaries, but the Federal Government and the State of Florida does when algae, potentially toxic, is sent through gates connected to Lake Okeechobee. We are all in a difficult situation, a chess game whose rules are outdated and were created years ago…
And even if there is “limited capacity” to move water south, it can be done. “Something” is “everything” in this water game of chess. We must take what we can get, check the King, and then go back for more – the goal to close the gates forever. “Checkmate.”
In my opinion, this emergency order is a real move that will send more water south and help reinforce a “send water south,” political culture that all Florida must embrace!
God Save the Queen, our one and only, “Mother-Nature.”
(I have updated this post due to spelling errors, etc.. 6-24-18. Sorry. I, like everyone, am exhausted. JTL)
Taken this morning, 6-19-18, at St Lucie Locks and Dam, Mr. Greg Langowski, Regional Director for U.S. Senator Marco Rubio, has perfectly documented by video what is happening….
~The algae from Lake Okeechobee, and whatever else is now in the C-44 canal since the ACOE started discharging from Lake Okeechobee on June 1st, is clearly, – like an endless line of green ooze – getting sucked into the backside gates at St Lucie Locks and Dam, only to be spit in aerated form out the other side into the St Lucie River – where it will later re-congeal possibly into toxic gatherings.
Talk about throwing your trash over the fence….
Thank you Greg for this video, and hopefully the ACOE, The Florida Department of Environmental Protection, the SFWMD, and the Department of Water Quality and Best Management Practices of the Department of Agriculture will see and then visit themselves.
The pilots, our “Eyes in the Sky”- like satellites – are the key to “seeing” the extent of the algae problem in Lake Okeechobee, and provide a clear cockpit-view showing how algae gets into our St Lucie River.
I thank all of the pilots, east coast, west coast who have recently shared their cockpit-views.
Today’s photos are from pilot Steve Schimming who sat right seat, at about 1500 feet, during Ed’s fly over of Lake O on Saturday when the two men were on their way back from Venice mid morning where they had gone to meet other pilot friends.
This enormous bloom, 102 square miles approximately, was reported, by me, to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection the same day. Hopefully, they are testing it in multiple locations. Although the ACOE holds the power to decide when to discharge from Lake O, it is DEP in coordination with the SFWMD, and the Water Quality Dept. (Best Management Practices) of the Dept Agriculture, that is in charge/responsible for water quality for Florida.
Approximate size of bloom as seen from Sentinel satellite. See link to most recent satellite images made public and easy to find, by Todd Thurlow:http://www.thurlowpa.com/LakeOImagery/
Things are happening almost in real-time today. My brother, Todd, sent me the L7 and Sentinel satellite images from yesterday revealing an approximate 102 square mile bloom in Lake Okeechobee.
I, in turn, wrote a blog post and sent the image to my husband, Ed Lippisch, who had flown across to west coast of Florida this morning.
Not too long after sending Ed that image, I look at my phone and it says “shared” photos from Ed, so I start looking at them. They are of the bloom in L.O. – over the broad area where the satellites had detected algae.
The phone rings, it’s Ed, he says” I just landed in Stuart.” I reply, “Great photos. Horrible. Thanks.”
He says: “Jacqui it was unbelievable. Very large bloom, it ran above Port Mayaca to about the southern shore of the lake and westerly. Very much like the satellite image you sent me, but even further north…”
So here are Ed’s unedited photos taken and then sent to me at 1:14pm, 6-16-18. Today.
I could never do what I do without the people who help me. My husband, his pilot friends, the everyday people sending me “toxic-algae” imagery, the River Warriors community, and when it comes to striking the bull’s-eye, my science-studied-lawyer, little brother, Todd.
Just hours ago, Todd forwarded these images from satellites, Landsat 7, and Sentinel 2, clearly showing a large algae bloom photographed yesterday in Lake Okeechobee. 102 square-miles of it!
So Florida state agencies, and others…
…Do not tell me the algae comes from our river. It does not. We have been through this before….
The algae, that can become toxic, and maybe already is, starts in, and comes from the crock-pot of Lake Okeechobee. The Army Corp of Engineers should stop discharging right now. Right when the Colonel sees these images. And these images have been seen, because NASA makes these images available to the Corp.
When a satellite image like this is made public, it cannot be ignored.
The ACOE should close the gates of S-308 until DEP has tested all edges of this large bloom. And work for never discharging when there is an algae bloom in Lake Okeechobee.
Stop the discharges from Lake Okeechobee!
LE07_L1TP_015041_20180614_20180614_01_RT-cropSentinel-2 L1C from 2018-06-15Sentinel-2 L1C SWIR from 2018-06-15Sentinel-2 L1C NDVI from 2018-06-15Sentinel-2 L1C SWIR crop from 2018-Sentinel-2 L1C NDVI crop from 2018-06-15
It takes a lot for me to trust a politician, probably because at times, I’ve been one myself…
In 2016, when I was running for District 1, Martin County Commissioner, I met Brian Mast. We were both standing on the side of Martin Luther King Boulevard, with our teams, holding signs in near 100 degree heat and off the chart humidity. There is always time to wipe the sweat off your brow and talk, when no cars are driving by…
Of course, Brian is a striking person, no matter the case, but when he told me the St Lucie River’s health would one of his priorities, although pleased, ~because I had heard that many times only to lead to disappointment, I was doubtful. Only Senator Joe Negron had ever won my full loyalty for his commitment to the river.
Well, by tremendous fate, Joe Negron’s legacy is being pushed, most outstandingly, now by Congressman Brain Mast. Brain’s consistent record for the river, since being elected in 2016, cannot be matched congressionally by anyone else in office at this time.
His two recent letters to the Honorable R.O. James, Assistant Secretary of the Army on June 7th, and yesterday’s letter, dated June 14th, 2018, to LTG Todd Seminole, Commander General of the US ACOE, are unparalleled in direct, passionate, and respectful communication regarding the damaging algae releases from Lake Okeechobee to the northern estuaries, These are game-changer letters, that will be documented, and referenced in the archives of Washington DC building our case for years to come.
I commend Congressman Mast; I thank him for not only keeping his word, but exceeding expectations. He is more than a soldier of his word, he is am American, and a St Lucie River hero. And he must be reelected.
St Lucie River looking across from Central Marine to Martin Health.
Mary Radabaugh called me this morning.
“Jacqui, get dressed and come on over here to Central Marine! It’s happening again, and this time there are logs, algae logs. I have never seen this before.”
since May 23rd, Mary and I had been exchanging photos of the water in the St Lucie River at the marina she and her husband have managed for many years. The marina that brought national toxic algae coverage in 2016. The marina that the SFWMD and DEP did core samples of river bottom in 2005, but have been quiet since. The marina that is the ground zero of zeros…
So I got dressed and headed over.
The waters have slowly been changing, worsening since the C-44 basin waters opened into the river about March 15th. And Mary has documented this change on her Facebook page. After June 1st, when the ACOE opened S308 to discharges of Lake Okeechobee, things have sped-up and are starting to crescendo.
Only three days ago the waters of the St Lucie River were primarily a dark cloudy coffee brown sometimes with little specs. Then as winds and tides push the specks and foam in the river into the pocket of the marina, the now green specks of particulate start to organize. It is incredible to see that just from yesterday, to today, the algae has bloomed in bright fluorescent green slicks. In 2016, this happened all over the river, primarily in marinas, coves, along shorelines, against dock pilings and any other place the forever thickening algae would get “hung up.”
It is happening now too, but not as extreme. Yet.
This all happens because over the past 100 years the St Lucie River’s basin has been expanded tremendously, erroneously, taking on developed-land’s, and agricultural canal water (C-44, C-23, C-24) that pollutes and turns the brackish estuary fresh. Once the canals have almost killed the river, then the ACOE opens the gates of Lake Okeechobee without even checking the water quality from the SFWMD, or better yet, the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). Just let ‘er roar!
This time, as was the case in 2016, an algae bloom in the lake is being transferred into the river through C-44. This is totally obvious with arial photography. The blooms start in the lake.
But since the river is now fresh, from all the canal water, the microcystis algae coming and once living in Lake O can live here too, and bloom toxic…
That the federal and state governments do this to their own people is mind-boggling. I know there are many water bodies around the county with algae issues, but we are certainly the only place in America where the government is knowingly dumping it on to a community of people.
There have been many opportunities over the years to fix the situation, but no, pure crises of the past few years is necessary before considering a fix….yes and thank God the EAA Reservoir is on the horizon. We must hold fast!
Today, I am sharing the photos of the Central Marina algae and its blooming.
Tomorrow we shall see what else it brings….this algae has not been tested yet, but one thing is for sure, if history repeats itself, it surely will be toxic.
In closing, be sure too to watch the poor manatee eating the algae off the seawall. Having survived millions of years as a species, he or she certainly deserves better.
TIMELINE TWO DAYS
Tuesday, June 12, 2018 7:58 AM
By afternoon it was swirling into designs.
Tuesday, June 12, 2018 2:59PM
And then by today, it was filling in those shapes with fluorescent green.
Thank you to pilot Ryan Moran for taking these aerials of the growing algae situation in the St Lucie River on 6-13-18.
His words: “Not good news from today’s flight. Algae in Stuart, throughout the canal, and a very large bloom in the lake just outside the port. To add insult to injury, the locks are open and flowing. The pictures really do not do it justice.” Ryan
Also, thank you to pilot Dave Stone for taking this photo yesterday of the Caloosahatchee plume in the Gulf of Mexico at 5500 feet.
This morning we are out with pilot Ron Rowers and my husband Ed Lippisch for today’s documentation of our Federal Government’s discharging of algae laden waters from Lake Okeechobee, often becoming toxic algae, into our estuary, at the injury of our economy, wildlife, and the tax paying residents of Martin County, not to mention the kid that would like to go fishing over summer break.
I, as many, have seen and received multiple algae reports via Facebook, text, and through the tremendous reporting of Tyler Treadway of the Stuart News. Now, I am encouraging everyone to take the time, and it doesn’t take much, to report their algae sightings in the St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, (DEP).
It was Mike Connor who reminded me to do this, after my husband Ed accidentally spotted the algae lines by plane off Port Mayaca ~in Lake Okeechobee~ on June 2nd, the day after the ACOE started discharging.
At first I thought, “I’m too busy for that…” and then I realized of course I need to report to DEP because then the state is obligated to document and to test it for toxcidity.
Better yet, if everyone who is reporting via social media and text called DEP, there would be so many test sites for DEP to test, it would exhaust their resources.
Oh well…
Since our resources are gone, this is only fair.
As they say: “All is fair in love in war.”
Please report algae sightings; see link below.
If you can’t figure it out this unclear website, call the Governor’s office: 850-488-7146 or Noah Valenstein the head of DEP: 850-245-2118.
Since the ACOE and SFWMD have yet to develop public satellite imagery of algal bloom development in Lake Okeechobee with NOAA during rainy season, I go to my brother Todd. Ever since we were kids, he’s loved science and technology.
I have been bugging him lately for a satellite image…
6-4-18, Jacqui : Todd do you know when last high-resolution satellite photograph was taken of lake o and how to access this photo? Thank you.
6-4-18 Todd: Should have been a Landsat 8 image on 5/21 but it is not available for some reason. The Landsat 7 image from 5/29 is so bad because of the broken instrument that is not usable. Preview here, I would have to “order” high res but not worth it.
6-5-18 Jacqui : Thanks Todd
6-6-18, Todd: Hey Jac, the European sentinel-2 satellite took a good image yesterday. I will post it to my page tonight and add sentinel to the Landsat folder. It doesn’t show anything though. The sentinel-3 satellite took an interesting chlorophyll wavelength shot showing returns in the southern lake. However, it doesn’t seem terribly accurate because the returns over time have been all over the place. I will have to study more up on those types of images.
Sentinel-2 L1C, SWIR on 2018-06-05Sentinel-2 L1C, True color on 2018-06-05
6-6-18, Jacqui: Well thanks Todd, thankfully that must mean at least for these images the algae is not so much that it’s visible to the satellite in space but we know some is there from 1st hand. This is good news for now. Can we keep getting images? Why ACOE and SFWMD don’t have and report on regularly is ridiculous.
6-6-18, Todd: …..
6-7-18 Jacqui: Hey Todd, the Terra image that is in today do you think that is algae or a cloud east of FPL Pond? Know hard to tell w/lower res.
Todd and I will keep you posted.
For more, go to Todd’s website, look for Firm Favorites; St Lucie River Discharges; Latest Lake O Satellite Imagery:http://www.thurlowpa.com
When the St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon start to deteriorate due to discharges, things start going downhill fast. And when my husband Ed and I start taking and sharing aerial photos, my world becomes a bit chaotic.
Sometimes there are days of hundreds of photos to look through, and knowing the importance of getting them out immediately, choices have to be made. Facebook is a better medium than my blog for real-time info as it takes less time, but my blog is better for historic documentation as it is “permanent.”
So today I am sharing more of Ed’s photos from 6-5-18, and some you may have already seen. Mind you, after heavy rains, stormwater has been pouring in from many canals but, always, like clockwork, after the ACOE starts discharging from Lake Okeechobee, the river looks not just cloudy-coffee brown, but contaminated.
The ACOE started discharging from Lake Okeechobee on 6-1-18, and as most of you know, now, there are not only algae blooms spotted in the lake, as Ed accidentally found on 6-2-18, and others also documented, but also in the St Lucie River. More than likely, there will be more and more algae bloom popping up as the Lake O water makes its way down the estuary, over the tip of Sewall’s Point, towards the St Lucie Inlet. Algae floating down the river is disgusting enough, but toxicity is the real question…
Ed and I will take and share more aerials in the future, to document the algae blooms should they explode, but until then, here are some photographs from 6-5-18 that I had not yet archived on my blog. Sadly enough, although there is no algae in these pictures, I cannot say they will make you feel any better.
Never take the pressure off politicians to build the EAA Reservoir and get it to where it needs to be to clean and filter this water to send south as Nature intended. Government knowingly contaminating its citizens is not an option. Health, Safety and Welfare is a responsibility.
Photos taken 6-5-18 showing SLR/ILR near Sewall’s Point; Jupiter Narrows; Atlantic Ocean/beach over nearshore reefs along Jupiter Island just south of St Lucie Inlet; out in ocean near Peck’s Lake; Sailfish Point/Sailfish Flats area; and Bird Island, a Critical Wildlife Area, for many threatened and endangered birds.
SLR on west /IRL on east – looking towards Sewall’s PointJupiter Narrows near St Lucie InletA Coffee Ocean along Jupiter Island just south of St Lucie InletDischarges in waves looking east to Peck’s LakeDischarges going over near shore “protected” reefsDischarge plumePlume out about 2 miles in Atlantic/documented at 5 over days by fisher peopleSimilar photos give felling of flying overReefs with plume coming onSelfish Point and Sailfish Flats area one the “most biologically diverse in North America.” Seagrass is gone due to receptive discharges episodesCircling home- close up souther tip of Sewall’s PointAgain circling ove Sailfish Flats on way back to Witham Field.Bird Island just off of southeast Sewall’s Point is home to hundreds/thousands of birds. Many threatened and endangered species raise their young on this island that was designated a CWA or Critical Wildlife Area by FWC in 2014. At the time it was the first to be designated in 20 years.
Since my husband, Ed, accidentally spotted an algae bloom in Lake Okeechobee, while running new engines on the Baron, I have posted many photos on Facebook and the word is out.
Nonetheless, for purposes of documentation, I am going to post some of the photos again on my blog for historical purposes and for those who do not use Facebook.
~Ed noticed the “lines of algae” in the lake on June 2, two miles or so northwest of Port Mayaca, the day after the ACOE started discharging from Lake O into the St Lucie River. Absolute chance, fate, or a tip from above, however you decide to look at it.
Since this time others have documented on the ground and DEP should be testing for toxicity.
So, after seeing the bloom on Friday, Ed went back the following day on Saturday in windy conditions so I stayed home–in the yellow plane, the Cub, getting more pictures of bloom, looking about the same but more dispersed from rain perhaps. These photos at lower altitude also include drainage structures around the lake, as well as the destruction of the St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon at Sewall’s Point and the St Lucie Inlet.
Photos will continue to be taken as we once again, document the discharges, and once again have seen first-hand, like we did in 2016, without the warning of our government, that the algae that contaminates the St Lucie River starts in Lake Okeechobee.
I woke up to seeing sunshine through the window. I looked at my phone. My brother’s text read: “S-308 just jumped to 1484 cfs and its climbing.”
(Go to St Lucie River for reports: http://www.thurlowpa.com/news.htm)
In Sewall’s Point, today is the first morning in three weeks that it hasn’t been raining, or just about to. My porches have been slick with moisture and leaves. The frogs in my pond are so loud at night I have to put in ear-plugs. My husband and I laugh saying you can count sheep, but there is no sleep!
In spite of all of this and the fact that the ACOE has been discharging from C-44 canal basin since around May 16, and the St Lucie River already looks like hell, it is still disappointing and heart-wrenching when they formally “open the gates.” ~To Lake Okeechobee that is…
In spite of the history, or knowing why they do it, it just seems so wrong that little St Lucie has to take basically one-third of the crap water for the state. Sorry and I know my mother will not like that word, but its the truth. Thank God for Joe Negron and his work last year as President of the Florida Senate and resurrecting the EAA Reservoir. And curse to any new Governor who does not help it be fulfilled.
The natural drainage basin of the St Lucie River shown in GREEN below was much smaller than it is today. The introduction of four man-made drainage canals dramatically altered its size and the drainage patterns. This primarily being C-44, the canal connected to Lake Okeechobee (bottom). One can see from the map image that C-44 Basin and of course Lake O’s water, the most effective assassins, were never part of the St Lucie Basin as were not Port St Lucie’s C-23, C-24, and C-25 system. These canals have killed our river!
The EAA Reservoir must be built, and in time, more water must move south to Florida Bay. We shall be fixed or compensated or a combination of both for our now noxious-reality. We will not accept this fate. Who knows what this summer shall bring. But one thing is for sure, this life along the St Lucie, is now toxic.
Drainage changes to the SLR. Green is the original watershed. Yellow and pink have been added since ca.1920. (St Lucie River Initiative’s Report to Congress 1994.)
A lone Great Egret looks for fish along a putrid looking, foam filled river. All images taken yesterday, 5-31-18 at Ernest Lyons Bridge. JTL
Thank you to ACOE for the following information and press conference yesterday.
Lake O water management slide_20180531: this slide shows lake levels comparatively. The lake is now high going into hurricane season, starting June 1st, ironically today. The lake is managed as a reservoir for agriculture.
Email 5-31-18
All,
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Jacksonville District will start releasing water from Lake Okeechobee this weekend as part of its effort to manage rising water levels.
The discharges are scheduled to begin Friday (June 1). The target flow for the Caloosahatchee Estuary is 4,000 cubic feet per second (cfs) as measured at Moore Haven Lock (S-77) located in the southwest part of the lake. The target flow for the St. Lucie Estuary is 1,800 cfs as measured at St. Lucie Lock (S-80) near Stuart. Additional runoff from rain in the St. Lucie basins could occasionally result in flows that exceeds the target.
“Historic rain across the region since the middle of May has caused the lake to rise more than a foot,” said Col. Jason Kirk, Jacksonville District commander. “We have to be prepared for additional water that could result from a tropical system. The lake today is above the stage when Irma struck in September, which eventually caused the water level to exceed 17 feet. A similar storm could take the lake to higher levels.”
Today, the lake stage is 14.08 feet, up 1.25 feet from its 2018 low which occurred May 13. The lake is currently in the Operational Low Sub-Band as defined by the 2008 Lake Okeechobee Regulation Schedule (LORS), but within one foot of the Intermediate Sub-Band. Under current conditions, LORS authorizes USACE to discharge up to 4,000 cfs to the Caloosahatchee (measured at S-77) and up to 1,800 cfs to the St. Lucie (measured at S-80).
“Forecasts indicate more rain is on the way in the coming week,” said Kirk. “Additionally, long-range predictions indicate increasing probabilities of above-average precipitation for the rest of the wet season. We must start aggressively managing the water level to create storage for additional rain in the coming wet season.”
Steve Duffy, taking photos in his backyard, Stuart, Florida.
I don’t ever remember seeing them here when I was a kid. But then in the 1970s there were no osprey in Stuart either …
The first time I saw a Swallow-Tailed Kite, “our most beautiful bird of prey,” was in Okeechobee. The distinctive soft-feathered black and white hawks fly in broad circles. Their sharp forked-tails gliding them stealth-like over the pine trees….
Just a few years ago, seeing my first one, I pulled over my car. “What is that?” I thought , not thinking much more about it. Thinking it must be a bird of Lake Okeechobee.
And then somehow over the years they seemed to pop up everywhere, not just at Lake Okeechobee. I saw when driving north on I95, driving south to West Palm Beach, and yes, even driving in the my hometown region of South Sewall’s Point! I came to consider them a new gift, a good luck symbol. Something beautiful. Something to give me hope as the river dies before me.
But I really did not know anything about them. Until recently that is….
At last month’s March for Maddy, (https://www.crowdrise.com/marchformaddie), I ran into an old friend from Martin County High School, Steve Duffy. He was carrying a camera around his neck and shared some of his photographs. I was astounded. There were photos of hummingbirds, dragonflies, and other animals, but what really caught my eye was what I was calling a “Kite.” That beautiful bird.
I thought Steve must be going somewhere distant to get such shots, but he laughed and told me they were taken right in his backyard!
“Where do you live?” I asked.
“Near North River Shores.”
Thank you to Steve who agreed to share his photos on my blog of the rare and properly named Swallow-Tailed Kite, also known as the Swallow-Tailed Hawk. And it’s clear. We may see more of them. They love it here! 🙂
“Our most beautiful bird of prey, striking in its shape, its pattern, and its extraordinarily graceful flight. Hanging motionless in the air, swooping and gliding, rolling upside down and then zooming high in the air with scarcely a motion of its wings, the Swallow-tailed Kite is a joy to watch. At one time it was common in summer over much of the southeast, but today it is found mostly in Florida and a few other areas of the deep south.” Audubon Society, 2018
All of these pics are taken just off my back patio are with my Nikon D5500 camera and telephoto lens. These are a pair of swallow-tailed kites courting then mating above the tree approximately 100-150 ft away. And then to my delight the pair landed and mated in my pines.
Swallow-tailed Kites are raptors (birds of prey) very distinct because of their black and white color and forked-tails with wing spans of 3.5 – 4.5 feet.
“Our lives are not our own. We are bound to others, past and present, and by each crime and every kindness, we birth our future.” ― David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas
My husband tells me I shouldn’t consider myself NOAA, but I am certain that since May 13th my rain gauge has documented over 34 inches of rain in south Sewall’s Point.
Crazy!
I have had cabin fever, trapped inside, but happy my roof is not leaking. And to think, hurricane season doesn’t officially start until Friday!
It has rained hard in Florida before; we just might not remember…
Crying Cow image along with report, sent to Washington to promote C&SFP.
The South Florida Water Management District describes the most memorable of rains like this:
“In 1947, after years of drought, the state is deluged by rainfall averaging 100 inches per year. This “Crying Cow” cover illustration from a 1947 flood drainage report becomes the symbol of the devastating effects of South Florida’s weather extremes. Floridians ask the federal government to step in with a flood protection plan.”
That flood protection plan was named the Central and South Florida Project, or C&SFP and it did indeed help tremendously with the flooding, but unfortunately came along with serious side effects that destroy our ecosystem, especially our waters. This is why there is CERP, “The Restudy,” or Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan, consisting of 68 major projects that the EAA Reservoir (https://www.sfwmd.gov/our-work/cerp-project-planning/eaa-reservoir)
is part. CERP’s goal is to try to undo, or ameliorate, some of what was done in 1948 and onward due to 1947’s rain.
When I was trapped inside during the deluge this past weekend, I started wondering what the land looked like back then, in the 40s, when the federal government made so many changes. I wasn’t born yet, but my father’s parents would come to Stuart in 1952, not too much later. Since then through agriculture and development most of these lands have changed. All those little ponds should have been a clue. You can drain them, but you can’t take them away.
View Florida’s early landscapes: UF Smather’s Library, Dept of Ag. Aerial Surveys: 1938 onward : http://ufdc.ufl.edu/aerials/all
UF Library 1940 aerials, Dept. of Agriculture. Border Palm Beach and Martin CountyClose-up Palm Beach/Martin border 1940. Note ponds/wetlands.
Images from: The Boyer Survey: An Archaeological Investigation of Lake Okeechobee, 2011 by Christopher Davenport and others, PBC.
To archeologists Pelican Lake is regarded to have been the headwaters of what was once Pelican Bay and the Pelican River east of Lake Okeechobee. One of the first to write about this lake was Lawrence E. Will whose family was the first to grow sugarcane in the sawgrass areas rather than the custard apple region south of the lake. Will was an amazing documenter and the Museum of Glades in Belle Glade is named for him today. Although the Will’s have been remembered through the museum the remains of Pelican Lake, Pelican Bay, and the Pelican River are all but forgotten.
For purposes of time, we will first focus on Pelican Lake.
According to the Boyer Survey, other than Will, very few facts were written about Pelican Lake ~named so, obviously, for being the home once to many pelicans. Today, by working backwards, archeologist are finding out more facts, through the study of historic photographs, aerial vegetation and soil patterns, and the use of Google Earth. With these tools, similar to what my brother uses in his Time Capsule Flights (https://jacquithurlowlippisch.com/todd-thurlows-time-capsule-flights/) the ancient river beds are being revealed. Archeologists study such to find the villages of ancient people who lived along these lakes and these so-called “dead rivers,” that were anything but dead. The data revealed about the dead lakes and rivers, “refutes the South Florida Water Management District’s findings suggesting these rivers were “very short.” (Solar et. al 2001:2-19). They were not short; some were miles long! In the case of the Pelican River, it has revealed itself to be 16.3 miles long, its waters beginning in Pelican Lake. (Boyer Survey p. 246)
So poor Pelican Lake. If you view the images from the Boyer Survey below you can see how in the early 1900s the lake was drained for development as reclaimed land.
The Boyer Survey: An Archaeological Investigation of Lake Okeechobee, 2011The Boyer Survey: An Archaeological Investigation of Lake Okeechobee, 2011The Boyer Survey: An Archaeological Investigation of Lake Okeechobee, 2011Google Earth 2018. Larrimore Road is the middle of what once was Pelican Lake in Pahokee.Ancient river beds, lake and bay revealed: The Boyer Survey: An Archaeological Investigation of Lake Okeechobee, 2011
In 1918 famed Botanist John Kunkle Small wrote that Pelican Lake was “the most beautiful lake during the day or night” and was disheartened upon returning to the area seeing that the beautiful lake had been drained and reduced to either “weeds or agricultural fields.” SEE HIS INCREDIBLE PHOTOS HERE:
The Boyer Survey notes that Pelican Lake is just one example of how much and how fast the area around Lake Okeechobee changed as drainage effort progressed. The last major changes occurred when the Herbert Hoover Dike was completed in the 1930s and vast expanses of lakebed were “permanently” made into sugarcane fields.
This is why the lake is smaller by about 30% today and cannot hold as much water. A lot of that water is discharged today destroying the St Lucie and Calloosahatchee Rivers. It is important for us to know our history so we can fix the mess we are in today. There were no dead rivers or lakes. The only dead ones are the ones we killed. The southern edge of Lake Okeechobee was flowing with rivers and life. Life, that we have conveniently forgotten.
Florida Memory, early Everglades drawing, Anonymous.
We have really killed them. A Google Search will bring up practically nothing, although they were probably the most interesting Everglades’ feature of all. Lake Okeechobee’s “Dead Rivers,” entitled as such as they were “perceived not to go anywhere…” but they did…they flowed out of Lake Okeechobee, running through the custard apple forest, and then disappeared into the sawgrass river of grass, today known as the Everglades.
The engineer of Hamilton Disston stated that there were 17 rivers leading out of Lake Okeechobee. Some of the larger ones were named the Dead, Democrat, Dowell, Forked, Hidden, Copper, Hutchinson, Leatherman, Menge, Pelican, and Ritta. Some were miles long, over 100 feet wide, and many feet deep. These rivers flowed curvaceously through the custard apple/pond apple swamp that extended from the lake’s rim as far as four miles south. Today these locations encompass the cities south of the lake especially Pahokee, Belle Glade, South Bay, and Clewiston.
Presently, the south and eastern shores of Lake Okeechobee are devoid of these once very rich-with-life rivers as they have been cut-off, redirected into canals, filled in, or diked. Apparently it was documented that the “dead” rivers could flow north or south depending on rainfall. We found it more efficient to drain the Lake and to eventually erect a dike destroying all of the wildlife highways.
The Boyer Survey: An Archaeological Investigation of Lake Okeechobee, 2011, by Christopher Davenport and others–from which these images and much of the information in this post comes from, show where some of these ancient and now “dead” rivers flowed. One thing is for sure, they were never really dead, until we killed them. I think it is important to, at least for our memories, bring them back to life; we will learn more about them.
IFAS: http://conference.ifas.ufl.edu/geer2008/Presentation_PDFs/Thursday/Royal%20Palm%20VIII/1040%20C%20McVoy.pdf SFWMD notes dead rivers “as a mile or less.”The Boyer Survey: An Archaeological Investigation of Lake Okeechobee, 2011The Boyer Survey: An Archaeological Investigation of Lake Okeechobee, 2011The Boyer Survey: An Archaeological Investigation of Lake Okeechobee, 2011The Boyer Survey: An Archaeological Investigation of Lake Okeechobee, 2011The Boyer Survey: An Archaeological Investigation of Lake Okeechobee, 2011Google Earth 2018.
My grandfather, J.R. Henderson, was a well-known soil-scientist back in the 1930s for the University of Florida.
I remember him telling me things about cows, plants, and the lands under them when we were driving on the “Sunshine State Parkway,” from Gainesville to Stuart. I think of my grandfather more these days and believe the study of geology and soils are in my blood although I know almost nothing about them.
So to educate ourselves and the those young people of the future we continue our study of the Boyer Survey of Lake Okeechobee, by Christopher Davenport and others–and today we will look at the section entitled Region Geology.
The Lake Flirt Formation is noted to consist of three thin limestone layers the uppermost being caprock. This is often used by landscape companies to beautify our yards. I don’t understand how it is mined without jeopardizing the aquifer, but that’s another blog…
On top of the capstone and limestone layers are sands from the Pamlico Formation. These sands were blown across the state from east to west forming dunes over thousands of years. There is also clay that “resulted from deposit under Holocene ponds and marshlands.”
Source: Florida’s Fossils: Guide to Location, Identification, and Enjoyment By Robin C. Brown
That’s just a quick review. But might get you interested again.
It is extremely humbling to refresh one’s memory on all this stuff we learned in grade school, as we are living in “the top layer” of millenniums. We in time, will just be another layer of an ancient coral formation we live upon, Florida. Nonetheless, it is important to know what is around us, above us, and under us. 🙂
From my grandfather’s book: Florida Geological Survey 18th Annual Report, 1927. The map show the various shorelines of Florida as sea levels have risen and fallen.
Satellite map of South Florida, public image ca 2005.The mole knows what under – he lives there! 🙂
Water skiing in the St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon at Michele White’s house with great friend Kevin Wilkinson, 1980.The Boyer Survey: An Archaeological Investigation of Lake Okeechobee, 2011, Christopher Davenport and othersSFWMD before and after satellite image effect
As I got to “Physiographic Regions,” when reading the Boyer Archaeological Survey, I had to look up the definition of physiographic. My mind kept wandering to Physical Graffiti, the title of an album by Led Zeppelin, and the fun days of Martin County High School skiing the in St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon with my best friends.
In retrospect, Lake Okeechobee and the St Lucie River were already dying by the time I was in high school. Today, I wish I had learned more about our ailing ecosystem when I was younger, and not finally caught on when I was 40 over ten years ago. “Catching-on,” this is my hope for the next generation as there are serious impacts we won’t be able to ignore, happening, and on the way. Knowing what “physiographic regions” means will help us understand what we can do.
Physiographic is defined simply as “the branch of geography dealing with natural features and processes.” So the Figure 5. map above shows what the surrounding ecological communities were before they became developed as today’s counties. These areas are labeled as the Eastern Flatlands; the Everglades; the Western Flatlands; Big Cypress Swamp; and the Mangrove and Coastal Marsh.
As we know the Everglades is one of the largest freshwater marshes in the North America and the world. It starts trickling up in the Kissimmee River Basin above Lake Okeechobee. Unfortunately, this area of the map is always cut off so we think in terms of south.
Basin Management Action Plans,. The Kissimmee River is north of Lake O. Florida. TCRPC doc. 2015.
The open marshes of Lake Okeechobee extended from the southern rim of Lake O and the Loxahatchee Slough south to the mouth of the Shark River Slough at Florida Bay and the former Miami River. Florida Bay is presently, and has been, experiencing extensive algae blooms due to lack of fresh water and the once beautiful Miami River, attached by canal (since 1911) to Lake O? “Dead.”
The Boyer Survey image once again for comparison.Map of Canals 1924 Florida Archives.
The eastern and western flatlands to the east and west of Lake Okeechobee (Stuart/Ft Meyers ) were similar in vegetation types and animals. The Boyer Survey notes “both can be described as mosaic landscapes consisting of wet prairie, palmetto and dry prairies, pine forest or flatwoods, cypress forests, mixed swamp forests as well as ponds and sloughs; these areas were low, sandy, and poorly drained.” The Loxahatchee River drained the eastern flatlands into the Atlantic, and the Caloosahatchee River drained the western flatlands into the Gulf of Mexico. Today these waters flow by way of the ACOE/SFWMD Central & Southern Florida project’s water control structures slowly making everything as “dead” as the Miami River.
Until we treat waterway funding like roads, (FDOT:http://www.fdot.gov/transit/functionsgrantsadministration.shtm) Mother Nature’s water highways will become even more of a backed-up, misdirected, putrid mess. We must stop trying to direct her like a God, and let more of her natural features return. After all, Nature is a House of the Holy and we never know when the Rain Song will begin…
With my niece Evie Flaugh at Women of Distinction 2018. Evie was recognized for co-founding River Kidz seven years ago.
I hope everyone had a happy Mother’s Day yesterday! One of our “around the table” family discussions went like this:
Jacqui:” I’m getting a new headshot this week because now my hair is gray.”
Sister Jenny: “Why? Are you running for office?”
Jacqui:” No, not now. But I want my blog photo to look like me.”
Sister Jenny: “Why!” 🙂
Whether it’s my hair, or our natural landscape, things are always changing! I think it’s important to let young people, like my niece Evie, Jenny’s daughter, almost 18 and entering the world, know what our natural landscape looked like “before,” as they will be dealing with water issues we can’t even imagine.
One of the least documented changes of Florida is the demolition of the pond apple belt of Lake Okeechobee. I hope in time, the younger generation finds a way to recreate its original natural purpose that was to strain, slow down, and clean the lake water flowing south into the sawgrass plains of the Everglades. Another benefit was flood protection. Nature’s adapted protections out-do mankind’s every time…
Full image, Lake O pond apple belt. The Boyer Survey: An Archaeological Investigation of Lake Okeechobee, 2011.The pond apple belt today is gone, replaced by the cities/areas of Port Mayaca, South Bay, Belle Glade, Pahokee, and Clewiston. The pond apples were torn out to access the value muck soil beneath them. Google Earth image.
In pre-drainage times, the original features of Lake Okeechobee helped contain it. There was the Okeechobee Sand Ridge; the Southern Ridge; the Spillover Lands; and the fossilized coral ridge.
The Sand Ridge extended from Martin County to Palm Beach County ~just north of Pahokee. There was a cut in this ridge where water could more easily escape east at today’s historic village of Sand Cut along the eastern shoreline. Archaeologists believe this Sand Ridge running along the lake was an old shoreline. It is stated in the research of the Boyer Survey, An Archaeological Investigation of Lake Okeechobee, by Christian Davenport, Gregory Mount and George Boyer Jr., that only the eastern shore of Lake Okeechobee was “defined by a sand shore.” Today the Army Corp has built a dike along and over this sand shore with the addition of extra boulders for protection. Very unattractive. The original pond apple forest would not just have been more lovely, but would have helped in times of storms ~ similar to how mangroves, even in front of a seawall, do today.
The Southern Ridge was a high muck ridge that had formed at the southern end of the lake and was located in a “massive belt of pond apple trees.” This forest was completely mowed-down to access the deep muck for agricultural purposes. It was 32,000 acres! (Lawrence E. Will) The towns of *Port Mayaca, Pahokee, Belle Glade, South Bay, and Clewiston south today’s Lake Okeechobee are located in what was once the pond apple forest. Surreal, isn’t it?
These trees grow closely together and can get very large. They have weird roots kind of like mangroves. My husband Ed and I bought a lot along Overlook Drive in Stuart and oddly or interestingly enough in this area there are pond apple trees. According to the study, the original lands of Lake Okeechobee sloped towards the lake, meaning the lake would have been as much as two miles wider during periods of high water. (The forest and the shape of the land held the water in the lake.) Along the southern edge “dead rivers” cut through this muck ridge and were the primary outlet during times of high waters. (Boyer Survey)
Pond appleGiant pond apple trunk, near Overlook Drive in Stuart, FL.2017.JTLFlorida Memory photo, pond apples belt at rim of dead river/creek. John Kunzel Small 1869-1938.
Spillover Lands was the archeological term for the lower-sawgrass plains extending beyond the southern side of the pond apple forest. Here sheet flow was created that moved and melded into the Everglades, basically a littoral marsh.
By the way the “dead rivers” were anything but dead, some very deep and very long. The word “dead” was applied as some of the original explores could not find “the end,” and I believe this word suits today’s powers well as the word “dead” makes one think they had no life. The complete opposite is the truth. They were full of life! All the animals of the Everglades, including hundreds of birds colonies lived in these areas that were completely DESTROYED.
The final formation mentioned in the Boyer Survey is an ancient Fossilized Coral Ridge (Reef) that runs from approximately Okeelanta to Immokalee. In pre-drainage times, this muck covered reef caused a higher elevation that is thought to have helped retain some of the water within the Spillover Lands during times of low water. Hmmm? Another Nature feature that works better than our manmade ideas for drought protection today – deep well injection, and other brilliant ideas….
Well, I hope you enjoyed today’s lesson! And I hope some young people like my niece Evie in the photo at the beginning of this blog read this post some day. Gray hair can be dyed or glorified, but the natural features of Lake Okeechobee in the heart of Florida, they must be rebuilt as part of today’s modern eco-system.
River Kidz workbook 2, “mythical pond apple forest,” Julia Kelly, 2014.
I recently took trip with my husband; I accompanied him on business to Santa Fe, New Mexico. While I was there, I visited the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture. The museum focused on the remarkable Pueblo people that had originally settled along the Santa Fe River because of its water and transportation. The museum was gifted telling stories, and it got me thinking about the native people who lived around Lake Okeechobee, and how their story is not so well told.
Belle Glade Culture, People of the Water, possibly (450BC-1600AD) Courtesy Florida Museum of Natural History.Belle Glades Culture area around Lake O and Kissimmee, source: The Boyer Survey.
(Adapted from, The Boyer Survey: An Archaeological Investigation of Lake Okeechobee, 2011)
In the fall of 2006, the South Florida Water Management District lowered Lake Okeechobee as a hurricane was expected, but it not come. Much to the District’s dismay, severe drought came instead. As the water in Lake Okeechobee evaporated, its depth went from a normal (at the time) of 18-20 feet to a recorded low of 8.8 feet. Although this was a negative for the ecosystem, it allowed human remains and artifacts of what is referred to as the “Belle Glade Culture” to be exposed. Artifacts and bones began to comprehensively reveal their stories of *pre-Columbian (*before the arrival of Columbus to the New World) times. These native americans over a period of 2,700 years built extensive earthworks and canals, adapting the surrounding wetlands to be suitable for their people to live. The Lake, of course at that time, more than supported their hunter-gatherer-fisher lifestyle and complex culture. The Belle Glade Culture was part of a greater exchange network and traded with other groups from distant locations.
These Native Americans living around Lake Okeechobee were the descendants of people who migrated to the peninsula approximately 12,000 years before. Out of that small group of prehistoric nomads developed an array of cultures that spread across Florida that eventually contained hundreds of thousands of inhabitants. Like Santa Fe’s Pueblo, they were a remarkable culture. However, unlike the Indian cultures of the west, many of the Florida native people, and especially the Belle Glade people, are not well-known.
These ancient people of the water are the muffled voice of Lake Okeechobee ~just as the voice of the lake itself that is now dammed, diked and controlled. May the Belle Glade people, and the heart spirit of Lake O be revealed…
Although we do not know what these people looked like a visit to the Lawrence E. Will Museum of Glades (https://www.museumoftheglades.org) by appointment is a great place to start. Also artist Theodore Morris, has spent his life trying to recreate these related people:
I walked out of the hotel and asked the staff person by the door if he could point me in the direction of the Santa Fe River.
“It’s just on the other side of the road,” he said pointing to Alameda Street.
The man’s name was Ben, and he told me he grew up in the area. “When I was a kid the river was higher and flowed, but now it’s not much more than a trickle.”
I asked him if there was any wildlife in the river. He looked down. “No, not since long ago when they dammed it creating a reservoir back in the 1943.”
Before Ed and I left Santa Fe, New Mexico we decided to drive up and see the reservoir located near the Randall Davey Audubon Center at 1800 Canyon Road. When we got there it was closed, and had been since 1932, in order to protect this precious watershed.
When I pulled up information on the Nichols Reservoir, it said the City of Santa Fe through the Nichols Reservoir and the McClure Reservoir, further up the Sangre de Cristo Mountain Range, have the right to store up to 4000 acre-feet combined for their city’s use. However, the Rio Grand Compact controls 2,939 acre-feet of the capacity depending on the water levels in the Elephant Butte Reservoir…so if Butte is low, the city is obligated to release water from the Nichols Reservoir to supply Colorado and Texas…
I turned to Ed and said, “if I’m not mistaken, over many years the Army Corp has easily discharged over up to 5000 cubic feet per second and that is that is over 9000 acre feet a day- for months at a time- of fresh water Lake Okeechobee discharges into the St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon. In 2013, it was over 5700 cubic feet per second for weeks and weeks, and S-80 can release up to 16,900 CFS or 33,520 acre feet per day if necessary.”
What a waste! And those people in New Mexico are fighting over “crumbs.”
When in Washington D.C. last week, the Everglades Foundation and various groups met with both Republicans and Democrats, with new members of Congress and “old.” During the visits I asked what was the best way for the people of Florida to influence members of Congress to “vote for the EAA Reservoir.”
The answer? A handwritten note. ~And yes, it takes two weeks to be thoughtfully and carefully processed for safety reasons, making it even more “valuable.”
I have written about hand-written influencing before: Advocacy has many faces, but none perhaps more powerful than a handwritten note or letter. Why? Because it takes effort; because it is thoughtful; and because it is old-fashioned, rare, and special. My mother taught me this… In a world where furious Tweets and Facebook posts, or better yet, Snapchat allows one to “live in the moment and then erase it,” we are surrounded by communication that holds impermanence. The hand written note leaves a lasting impression… especially in the “rough and tumble,” yet traditionally based world of politics.
Mind you, your note or letter need not be long; it must just be sincere…
Politicians often get thousands of emails and if they are a “canned” this can almost become a nuisance. But when the hand written note comes in, the politician takes notice.
Below are the committees that hold the fate of the EAA Reservoir in their hands. Please consider writing a note, postcard, or letter. Look through the lists of members, who do you know? If none chose one to write to anyway. Your letter need not be technical, just sincere with the spirit of asking for Congress to “Save Our Northern Estuaries, Our Everglades.” 🙂
Fifty years have passed since my parents took this picture. The family was visiting the zoo and my mother told me to stand on the back of the giant tortoise for a photograph. I was four years old, and I refused. I “didn’t want to hurt the turtle” by standing on its back. My mother held the power in the negotiations. She won and I lost. I stood on the poor tortoise, but made sure my mother and father knew that I was mad about it. I gave it my best frown as there was no way I could hide my dismay ~as I wished to befriend and pet the turtle, not to stand on it.
The 1968 photo has become a family classic.
Over the years, I have learned that it is often the case, when dealing with the environment, that people with more power than I, tell me what to do. I often end up “standing on the turtle,” but today I smile. I have learned to conform, and I have definitely accepted that being mad, or mean, will get me few friends and even fewer successes.
This week, when I was in Washington DC with the Everglades Foundation, I was assigned to a great lobbying team. Our job, along with others, was to convince key congressional members of two things: 1. Authorization of the EAA Reservoir through the Water Resources Development Act as a portion of the CERP, (Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan), the master plan to restore the Everglades, that is cost-shared 50/50 between the State of Florida and the Federal Government. 2. Increase the Federal Funding for CERP as the federal contribution needs to increase to at least $200 million to begin to meet its cost-share commitment.
The feedback we got from the lobbied members of Congress was positive; however, sometimes I felt like that little girl standing on the tortoise when members in power told me that even with the approvals, if they were approved, Everglades restoration and improving the state of the Northern Estuaries and Florida Bay will take many, many years. “After all the Army Corp of Engineers has a very specific process…”
I smiled, but deep down inside I was frowning.
The environment, like the giant tortoise, should be treated more respectfully. Slow is for turtles, not for crises.
My lobbying team, SMILING, Everglades Foundation Summit 2018, #Nowor NeverGlades, John Adornato, National Park System; JTL, Tori Liner, “Path of the Panther;”Mark Perry, Florida Oceanographic Society (http://www.evergladessummit.org)
Algae pouring in from Lake Okeechobee from Central Florida waters, 2016.Algae bloom in Lake Okeechobee is estimated to be 263 square miles as shown in this NOAA satellite image on 7-2-16 shared by FOS on 7-6-16, Todd Thurlow.Everglades Foundation handout 2018
P 6001: Rights of Crime Victims; Judges P 6002: First Responder and Military Member Survivor Benefits; Public Colleges and Universities P 6003: School Board Term Limits and Duties; Public Schools P 6004: Prohibits Offshore Oil and Gas Drilling; Prohibits Vaping in Enclosed Indoor Workplaces P 6005: State and Local Government Structure and Operation P 6006: Property Rights; Removal of Obsolete Provision; Criminal Statutes P 6007: Lobbying and Abuse of Office by Public Officers P 6012: Ends Dog Racing
You may have read a plethora of articles on the completed work of the 2018 Constitution Revision Commission and thought to yourself, “What!?”
Today I am going share the CRC press release that includes all of the proposals, now revisions, that will become constitutional amendments for the public to vote for or against on the 2018 ballot. Here they are in one place where you can easily research them.
Six of the proposed amendments are grouped, and “related.” Although for many, controversial, in my opinion, this can be a good thing, is perfectly legal, and we all know this was done in similar but not exact fashion by both the ’78 and ’98 CRCs. Unlike Citizen Initiatives, the CRC is not held to a “single subject.” There is a reason for this; it allows more ideas to be included. To be inclusive was the goal as there were over 2000 public or commissioner proposals submitted, and only 20 were approved to go on the ballot. To accommodate, six groups that were determined to be legally related and achieved at least 22 votes by the commission are “bundled.” Two though are separate. ~for a total of 8. In the future we will study each amendment, grouped or alone, independently; today those that were voted to go forward to the ballot 2018 are presented.
I am proud of the work of the commission! It has been my greatest honor to be a part. We devoted over one year of service, and heard thousands of diverse Floridian’s speak out. We have provided many varied choices for voters to move into the future of the next twenty years…until the 2038 Constitution Revision Commission convenes! “Getting there” should be interesting, and we all must get involved to make Florida’s challenging and changing future the best possible. We must read, study, talk to other fellow Floridians, debate, and VOTE!
I have read many articles myself and wish to share one that is great at simplifyingthe 8 amendments as it provides a chart. This article is written by Aron C. Dunlap of Carlton Fields in West Palm Beach. I do not know him or the law firm, but I thank Mr Dunlap for publishing:
Hmmm? 20 more years until the next CRC….I will be 74 years old by then! How about you? 🙂
CRC Office — Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, April 16, 2018, CONTACT: Meredith Beatrice, (850) 508-5204
CRC APPROVES EIGHT REVISIONS FOR THE 2018 GENERAL ELECTION BALLOT
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Pursuant to Article XI, Section 2 of the Florida Constitution, the Constitution Revision Commission (CRC) today voted to approve eight revisions to be placed on the 2018 General Election ballot for voter consideration.
CRC Chairman Carlos Beruff, said, “For more than a year, Commissioners have traveled across the state to speak directly with citizens about the changes they want to see in the Florida Constitution. After months of in-depth research and debate, the CRC has narrowed down thousands of comments and ideas into eight final revisions for voter consideration. From protecting our state and territorial waters from oil drilling to strengthening our ethics laws, I commend my fellow Commissioners for their hard work and leadership representing the people of Florida. We are grateful to the thousands of Floridians who participated in this historic process and look forward to letting voters have the final say in November.”
Proposed constitutional revisions on the ballot must secure at least 60 percent voter approval to become law. A formal report will be submitted to the Florida Secretary of State as soon as possible. A list of the final revisions approved by the CRC are provided below; the full text of each revision is available on flcrc.gov:
ABOUT THE FLORIDA CONSTITUTION REVISION COMMISSION (CRC)
Once every 20 years, Florida’s Constitution provides for the creation of a 37-member revision commission for the purpose of reviewing Florida’s Constitution and proposing changes for voter consideration. The Constitution Revision Commission (CRC) meets for approximately one year, traveling the State of Florida, identifying issues, performing research and possibly recommending changes to the Constitution. Any amendments proposed by the CRC would be placed on the 2018 General Election ballot. For additional information, visit flcrc.gov. Follow the CRC on social media @FloridaCRC (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube).
Page 10, historic Stuart Daily News, Special Edition 1937, in celebration of the Stuart to Ft Meyers Cross State Canal courtesy Knight A. Kiplinger
We are up to page 10 in our history lesson and today’s photos are some of my favorite. The first is an aerial of the St Lucie Inlet entitled “Stuart on the St Lucie River.” Since its earliest day’s, Stuart has always been defined by its proximity to the river. Below the aerial it boast: “World Famous For its Fishing, Provides an Ocean Entrance for Small Craft.” And by today’s standards, a rather comical or un-comical plug can’t be missed: “Where the Waters of Lake Okeechobee Meet the Atlantic.”
It is also fascinating to note the shape of the south side of the St Lucie Inlet as today it has shifted and filled in. I am sharing my brother’s Time Capsule Flight used in former posts as it is so interesting and shows the various inlets of this area and land shapes as documented on various historical maps. Although today, we try to make barrier islands, beaches, and inlets permanent, by watching my brother’s video the message is clear: “the only constant is change.”
“The St Lucie River Estuary Leading to Stuart, Six Miles upriver. Here, at Sewall’s Point in the Foreground, Is the Junction of the Intracoastal Waterway and the St Lucie. Stuart Bridge in Background.”
Page 8-9, historic Stuart Daily News, Special Edition 1937, in celebration of the Stuart to Ft Meyers Cross State Canal courtesy Knight A. Kiplinger
As we continue our historic journey, today we view pages 8-9 of the 1937 Stuart Daily News. Today’s ad for the City of Stuart is so large that it is featured side-to-side rather than top to bottom in the publication. Proudly, because of the completion of the Stuart to Ft Meyers Cross-State Canal, Stuart has branded itself as “the Atlantic Gateway to the Gulf of Mexico,” particularly for the nation’s yachtsmen.
Although this image below was not in the publication, I wanted to include it because one might drive by and not recognize this recently renovated, now officially registered historic structure in Rio for what it really is, ~a monument to the cross-state canal!
From page 9 of Stuart on the St Lucie by Sandra Henderson Thurlow.Today in 2018.
Of course also in the ad Stuart lauds itself as a fishing mecca touting: “Florida’s finest fishing in adjacent waters.” The truth of the matter is that the quality of the St Lucie River and Southern Indian River Lagoon, as documented by local fishermen, had been deteriorating since the opening of the St Lucie Canal to Lake Okeechobee in 1923. (Sandra Henderson Thurlow, Stuart on the St Lucie) Nonetheless, the rivers and ocean remained “marvelous” fishing arenas as this 1938 Chamber of Commerce Fishing Guide shows.
Today, the City of Stuart remains the vibrant and beautiful heart of Marin County, but it no longer brags about being “the Gateway to the Gulf of Mexico.” As much as the St Lucie Canal has caused issue with our local waterways, I do think the Stuart to Ft Meyers connection, and being a starting point for a historic boat trip across the state is worth re-boasting about!
Today, Ft Pierce’s deep water port is the star of the 1937 Stuart Daily News historical newspaper commemorating the completion of the Stuart to Ft Meyers cross-state canal. The port has a long been one of the more developed areas of the Indian River Lagoon and has an interesting start-stop history that is best documented by St Lucie County:
Pages 6-7, historic Stuart Daily News, Special Edition 1937, in celebration of the Stuart to Ft Meyers Cross State Canal courtesy Knight A. Kiplinger
Port Authority History, St Lucie County web site: The Port of Ft. Pierce first came into existence in 1920 when a manmade opening, the Ft. Pierce Inlet, was cut through the land barrier between the Atlantic Ocean and the Indian River Lagoon. St. Lucie County became the Port Authority in 1918 and a continuum of legislation has named the County as the Authority since that time. In 1918 a special act of the Florida Legislature established a taxing district to fund this project. Approximately 65 percent of St. Lucie County was in this Ft. Pierce Inlet District, which was empowered to sell bonds to finance the project and to satisfy bond obligations through real property tax revenues. The Florida Legislature abolished the Ft. Pierce Inlet District in 1947 and replaced it with the Ft. Pierce Port Authority, which retained the same power but was also granted the legal right to acquire and lease real estate. In 1961 a Special Act of the Florida Legislature replaced the Ft. Pierce Port Authority with the Ft. Pierce Port and Airport Authority, both of which were run by St. Lucie County. In 1989 the name of the Authority was changed to the St. Lucie County Port and Airport Authority. In 1997 the Florida Legislature provided reorganizing, updating and clarifying provisions for the Authority. In 1998 the Legislature dissolved the St. Lucie County Port and Airport Authority and transferred its assets, liabilities, and responsibilities to the Board of County Commissioners of St. Lucie County.
Today, the Port of Ft Pierce is ready for more expansion and will be loading more than fruits and vegetables in the near future. I wish them all the best. This portion of the Indian River Lagoon south of Harbor Branch to Ft Pierce Inlet is known as the “healthiest” part of the ailing IRL so may the developers be delicate with their planning and execution! We must save what we love!
Page 5, historic Stuart Daily News, Special Edition 1937, in celebration of the Stuart to Ft Meyers Cross-State Canal, courtesy Knight A. KiplingerFlorida cross-state and coastal-route compared, 1937.
Today we study page five of the historic 1937 Stuart Daily News. A message at the top of the page “invites participation” in a celebration, both in Stuart and Ft Meyers, for the completion of the cross-state canal. This was a celebration of navigation and the commerce and growth it would bring to these areas. As we know today, this cross-state canal is not just used for navigation, but also to drain Lake Okeechobee.
It is interesting to note that the “Stuart to Ft Meyers Cross-State Canal” must later have become known as the “Okeechobee Waterway:”
Although this celebration was about the benefits of navigation, Edwin Menninger on the front of the 1937 historic edition wrote:
“Construction of the St Lucie Canal began in 1921 when the fact dawned on the Everglades pioneers that canals through muck lands were useless – they refused to carry water out of the lake. Four of them had been dug, and were utterly worthless. The St Lucie was completed in 1924 and for 13 years has been the only functioning outlet from Lake Okeechobee to the sea.”
So perhaps the opening of the cross-state canal in 1937 was the beginning of “shared adversity” or shared destruction of the two coasts as it was not until 1937, after great investment by the Federal Government, that the Caloosahatchee River finally had a “navigable channel 7 feet deep and 80 feet wide,” before that it was very limited.
Considering that today the poor Caloosahatchee takes about two-thirds of the water drained from Lake O, we here on the east coast have to consider the possibility that if the “improvements” of the 1937 cross state canal were not done, the St Lucie might still be taking 100% of Lake O’s drainage water!
In 2009 my husband Ed and I took the our dogs Bo and Baron along the cross-state canal trip from Stuart to Ft Meyers, but stopped in Lake Okeechobee. Lots of storms! It was insightful and fun. One day I do hope to go all the way to Ft Meyers. This is definitely a “Florida bucket-list to do!”
Ed, Bo and Baron ~St Lucie River on way to Lake O – Cross State Canal trip 2009.
As a young child, I remember my parents taking me to visit McKee Jungle Gardens near Vero. What a magical place! That visit certainly planted seeds in my head, and a love for all things “Florida.”
I remember towering magnificent palms; a mammoth-sized cypress tree trunk that looked like it came from the age of the dinosaurs; interesting rustic structures that matched the mood of the tropical paradise; beautiful giant lilies floating in shallow ponds reflecting purple and greens like a Monet painting; a gigantic, long, mahogany table; as well as my favorite thing to see at the time, monkeys, parrots, and other animals!
The McKee Jungle Gardens was founded in 1929, when engineer and land developer, Arthur G. McKee teamed up with famed Vero legend and entrepreneur, Waldo Sexton, in the creation of an 80-acre tropical hammock just west of the Indian River Lagoon. Tropical landscape architect William Lyman Phillips was hired to design its beautiful and acclaimed streams, ponds, and trails. The indigenous vegetation was augmented with ornamental plants and seeds from around the world. In 1932, the garden was opened as a tourist attraction. Although very successful for several decades, it shut down in 1976, post Disney and I-95, and most of its land was sold for development. The site remained vacant for twenty years until the Indian River Land Trust rescued the area legacy, purchasing it in 1995. The current Garden, McKee Botanical Gardens, was formally dedicated in 2001 and is now a Florida landmark. On January 7, 1998, the property was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places under its original name, “McKee Jungle Gardens.” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McKee_Botanical_Garden)
Perusing page 4 of the 1937 Stuart Daily News, celebrating the opening of the Cross State Canal from Stuart to Ft Meyers, featuring McKee brings back happy memories for me. About three years ago, I visited the new McKee Botanical Gardens and the magic is still there! I find Florida’s old-time famed gardens so much more appealing than today’s focus on boring “floratam lawns and perfectly manicured hedges.” Today or yesterday, showcasing Florida’s tropical beauty is Florida at its best!
Photo of Jupiter Island, The Stuart Daily News, 1937, courtesy Knight A. Kiplinger.
My brother, Todd Thurlow, created a new “Time Capsule Flight” to give us historic perspective into my last blog post asking a question about an aerial photograph on page 3 of a 1937 Stuart Daily News, special edition, featuring Jupiter Island’s Golf Course.
“Fill or not fill?”
This was my question!
I had written: “When I first saw this photograph, it struck me that I did not recognize the area with exposed white sand on the east side of the island. I wondered if that was a remnant fan-like formation from an ancient inlet. Then it struck me that perhaps it was fill dredged from the Indian River lagoon for the golf course – or a combination of both.”
Todd’s video flight, using historic maps from 1883, 1885, and 1940 as well as today’s Google Earth technology, answered this question.
Jacqui: “Todd so after watching your time capsule flight it appears that the Jupiter Island Golf course was a natural wetland or mangrove something? It is sticking out into Indian River Lagoon on your oldest 1800s map- so it’s not entirely dredge and filled? Right?”
Todd: “Yep. Probably was swampy like Indian River Plantation (Marriott) and filled in with dredge from the ponds or Hobe Sound but more than likely before the channel/canal was dredged by the Feds in 1935. The Jupiter Island web-site says the Golf Course was built in 1922.”
Watch Todd’s video below and see for yourself the fascinating changes over time. Good for the golfers, not so good for the birds! Mystery solved by a Time Capsule Flight! Thanks Todd!
Todd’s video Jupiter Inlet 1883, 1885, & 1940 Lake Worth to South Jupiter Narrows: (https://youtu.be/VwoAXOrtRu4)
1937 Stuart Daily News, courtesy of Mr Knight A. Kiplinger.
Today we explore page three of the historic 1937 Stuart Daily News special edition for the opening of the Stuart to Ft. Meyers Cross-State Canal. Page three shows the first aerial photographs of Mr Lowell Hill featuring celebrated Jupiter Island.
“Jupiter Island is Show Place of Martin County. On the left the Intercostal Waterway between St. Lucie Inlet and Palm Beach pass through Beautiful Hobe Sound with Jupiter Island in the foreground. Hobe Sound Yacht Club has excellent dockage and fine fresh water. “
When I first saw this photograph, it struck me that I did not recognize the area with exposed white sand on the east side of the island. I wondered if that was a remnant fan-like formation from an ancient inlet. Then it struck me that perhaps it was fill dredged from the Indian River lagoon for the golf course – or a combination of both.
I went back and checked my brother Todd’s, Time Capsule Flights, and indeed, seeing the 1800s maps, I do believe it is fill. This is most obvious about 3:24 into the video. Many of our areas marinas and subdivisions are products of dredge and fill that was outlawed in the late 1960s and early 1970s because of its serious environmental ramifications. Ironically, in Florida, dredge and fill as a tool of development was stopped with the help of Jupiter Island’s famed environmentalist Nathaniel Reed whose family developed Jupiter Island. Reed was working for Florida’s first Republican governor since Reconstruction, Claude Kirk – during the 1960s era. (http://nathanielpreed.blogspot.com)
Google Earth image 2018 showing Jupiter Island Golf Course
“This view from the ocean side shows the Island Beach Club Inn and a portion of the Jupiter Island golf Course. Jupiter Island Rivals Palm Beach in beauty of its Tropical Setting and Estates.”
Today we all know, Jupiter Island is not only one of Martin County’s, but one of our nation’s “best of show!” (http://townofjupiterisland.com)
Today, we will open this exceptional document and see what’s inside, on page two…
There are five ads on the page. Each one is a peek into history, and for me the final ad from the commercial fishing industry is the most interesting! But first, let’s look at the left hand top of the page.
There is an ad for The English Tavern, south of the Roosevelt Bridge, that welcomes the yachtsman; with ample parking space. This sounds like fun! Why wouldn’t there be ample parking in 1937. 🙂
To the right of that is an Enjoy Sailfishing in the Gulf Stream ad. It ask you to write, wire, or Phone 47-J for reservations. (Note today we have a three-figure area-code and six numbers!) The ad notes: Marine Ways Storage; Marine Supplies Repairs; and Boat Building at Toley’s Boat Yard, Salerno. (Ironically the grandson of Toley, Shawn T. Engebretsen, is my husband’s oral surgery business partner!)
The next ad, on bottom right, is from Stuart Metal Works where one can investigate the opportunities for building in the beautiful St Lucie River Region, Phil Pence, Proprietor. “Plan to make your home in the yachting wonderland!”
And the last of the foursome, in bottom right, is an ad by the Fort Pierce Financing and Construction Co., 208 Orange Avenue, Fort Pierce, stating that “Completion of the Cross-State Waterway is a mark of progress for South Florida.” (People of that era loved this word “progress,” and my mother still uses it!)
~Like when I was a kid, I would see a mowed down forested area made for a parking lot and she would say: “It’s progress honey!”
And last, but not least this insightful ad from the Commercial Fishermen’s Industry of Martin County that reads below a gigantic every-day catch of that era, a gargantuan pile of speckled sea-trout:
“The Commercial Fishing Industry of Martin County, Producing an Annual Revenue of More Than $1,00,000, Requests The Cooperation Of Officials On Charge Of The Lake Okeechobee Project To Maintain Discharge Of Fresh Waters From St. Lucie Canal At A Minimum During The Fishing Season From November To March.”
If you had the time to read yesterday’s blog, Edwin Menninger’s article stated that “Construction of the St Lucie Canal began in 1921 when the fact dawned on the Everglades pioneers that canals through muck lands were useless – they refused to carry water out of the lake. Four of them had been dug, and were utterly worthless. The St Lucie was completed in 1924 and for 13 years has been the ONLY functioning outlet from Lake Okeechobee to the sea.”
Attached is a 1909 map of South Florida from the 1909 State of Florida report “Report on the Drainage of the Everglades of Florida, By J. O. Wright, Supervising Drainage Engineer”. (Not in article but for reference)
The concerns of Stuart’s nationally recognized and often President-visited waters are well documented in my mother Sandra Henderson Thurlow’s book Stuart on the St Lucie. Nonetheless, I never knew that from approximately 1924 to 1937 the St Lucie canal, today’s C-44, was the only outlet for Lake O. Yikes!
The wonderful thing about history is that there is always something to learn!
Stuart Daily News, special edition, 1937, courtesy of Knight A. Kiplinger.
The year was 1937 and it was a special day…
The opening of the Stuart, Lake Okeechobee, Ft Meyers, Cross-State Canal…
The first sentence of this historic special edition newspaper reads: “Completion of Florida’s one-and-only cross State canal marks the realization of a dream.”
Yes a dream.
Since the other function of the cross-state canal is drainage of Lake Okeechobee, today many of us associate this cross-state canal with a toxic-algae nightmare more than with a “dream come true.” It’s funny how things change over time…
In any case, this rare document gives perspective and insight and is a tremendous history lesson of South Florida development south of Orlando, along the St Lucie River, Indian River Lagoon, Lake Okeechobee, and our sister city, Ft Meyers.
Thank you to family friend, Mr Knight Kiplinger, (https://www.kiplinger.com/fronts/archive/bios/index.html?bylineID=9)
of Washington D.C and Sewall’s Point, who shared this remarkable document with me. It is an incredible read! So rare! Even my mother, local historian, Sandy Thurlow, had never seen it. And in the following weeks, I will be sharing it with you – transcribing and viewing its 37 giant pages of aerials, ads, and writings.
Today I will begin with the fairly long, but extremely interesting article gracing front and back, written by famed newspaper publisher, and Stuart flowering tree man, Dr. Edwin A. Menninger (https://www.kshs.org/index.php?url=archives/225898).
Enjoy. Think. Regroup. The best is yet to come!
Jacqui
Completion of Florida’s one and only cross state canal marks the realization of dream. The idea of such a channel to link three great natural waterways ~ the St. Lucie River on the East Coast, the vast expanse of Lake Okeechobee (or Myakka, as it was known half a century ago), and the sweeping Caloosahatchee on the Gulf coast ~ goes back to the days when white men first settled the south half of the peninsula. But problems that early thinkers never dreamed of, arose to puzzle the empire builders, and the formal dedication in March 1937 of the waterway from Stuart to Fort Myers signalizes in reality the culmination of achievements stretching over almost fifty years.
It was back in the days of Governor Napoleon B. Broward that first steps were taken to reclaim the Everglades. It was in this years that Isham Randolph was called to make the survey that guided the Glades reclamation project of the next quarter century, and although Broward and Randolph are all but forgotten, their two names stand out as the farsighted leader who started what the rest of us are finishing.
Actually, neither Broward nor Randolph ever gave much thought to the possibilities of cross-state navigation. They were interested in controlling a gigantic lake that has no natural outlet to the sea, and by exercising such control through a series of great canals, they hoped to throw open to cultivation the richest farming land in the United States – the muck lands of the Everglades. The dream of those pioneers was rudely shattered by circumstances far beyond their conception or control, and but for the terrible hurricane of 1928 that drowned 3000 hapless residents of the Glades by literally dumping Lake Okeechobee in their laps the Everglades might conceivably have gone back to the Indians.
But it was this same great misfortune of danger and death, that focused national attention of the Everglades, put $20,000,000 of federal government funds into the picture to prevent future disasters, and opened the navigable waterways from Stuart to Fort Myers that is to be formally declared in March. With a flourish, Uncle Sam has completed an 8-foot channel, from 80 to 200 feet wide, across Florida from the Atlantic Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico. Dyke protection of the Everglades, plus water control by new methods, may make possible the solution of the State’s reclamation problem, but that is another story. Certainly the Glades have staged a marvelous comeback since Uncle Sam’s intervention, and new leaders are arriving to carry on the traditions of Conners, Bryant & Greenwood, Dahlberg, Sherman and a thousand others who have dreamed of empire.
Construction of the St Lucie Canal began in 1921 when the fact dawned on the Everglades pioneers that canals through muck lands were useless – they refused to carry water out of the lake. Four of them had been dug, and were utterly worthless. The St Lucie was completed in 1924 and for 13 years has been the only functioning outlet from Lake Okeechobee to the sea.
The Caloosahatchee River was connected to Lake Okeechobee by two linking canals fifteen years ago, but these proved inadequate to discharge water, and the Caloosahatchee itself was so crooked that it held the water back instead of discharging it. Tedious progress was made in boom days by the Everglades Drainage District, tying to open some tiny ghost of a channel into the Gulf outlet, but when taxes ceased to be paid in the first depression years, the efforts collapsed.
In 1930 Congress was induced to cooperate in a flood control program, and it was contemplated that $3,000,000 of federal funds would be spent. Before folks really understood what was happening, the government had tackled the problem, had achieved as much for the cause of navigation as for the cause of flood control, and had spent more than six times the originally contemplated budget.
The end is not yet. Improvement of the harbor facilities at both ends of this gigantic waterway are inevitable corollaries of the farsighted improvement program that has been car-
ried forward to today. Tomorrow’s projects will include the St Lucie inlet (at Stuart) and Fort Myers harbor improvement on far-reaching-scales. This great cross-state waterway that is a reality, not a dream or a blueprint, crosses the East Coast canal at the St Lucie inlet, and this cross-roads is destined to be a focal point in the future development of Florida’s East Coast.
A thousand men have had a part in the promotion of the canal project between Stuart and Fort Myers, over a period of many years. Thousands will cheer next month as this waterway is opened to craft of all kinds drawing up to 6 feet, with a two-day celebration that will carry a watercade from Stuart to Clewiston and then on to Fort Myers.
Yer standing out, head and shoulders above all the others who have given part of their lives to the realization of this waterway dream, stand two great figures in the daily life of South Florida. The “Stuart Daily News” pays tribute of admiration and respect to these two pioneers-
Commodore Stanley Kitching of Stuart.
Honorable W. P. Franklin of Fort Myers.
Those two men symbolize the cross-Florida canal achievement, and today’s special issue of this newspaper is dedicated to them, in recognition of loyal and untiring service to the terminal cities they call home. Hats off to both of you!
Today’s issue of the “Stuart Daily News” presents a panorama of this magnificent waterway, following a geographical sequence from the Atlantic to the Gulf. An airplane photographer has captured for you a series of pictures that starts at Stuart, carries you 150 miles through the Everglades communities, and on to Fort Myers. Such a graphic portrayal to the canal permits the reader to understand what this waterway is, what it means, what it does. Copies of this book go to every member of Congress, to yachtsman everywhere who are interested in this aid to navigation, and to others who see in this canal another great forward step for Florida. And if this book carries to these readers a message of progress, it has served its purpose.
I am particularly indebted to my faithful assistant, Ernest Lyons, and to an understanding photographer, Lowell Hill, for the effectiveness of the edition.
Yesterday, I went to my garden. A garden for butterflies that I planted in 2011 during my mayorship for the Town of Sewall’s Point.
It was at this time, that I realized I needed a place to go, close to home, to get away, when I was grinding my teeth so hard at night that I would awake with headaches. This garden has calmed many nerves, and brought both beauty and delight to Ed and my home.
I learn a lot of lessons from my garden. But I still have a lot to learn…
…Upon getting the newspaper from the driveway, I noticed a monarch butterfly that had just emerged from its chrysalis drying its wings on the shrimp plant by my front door. The orange, black, and white pattern against green and red was quite striking. I decided to do something I have never done, watch the butterfly dry its wings, and to wait to watch it fly off.
Every few minutes its stain-glassed wings would open to the sun and wind, and then it would sit motionless. When its wings opened again, I could see its body tighten and contort, pumping liquid deep into its wings. It looked uncomfortable this miraculous metamorphosis. Finally, it seemed erect and proud; I kept waiting for it to fly off, but it didn’t.
I counted the white spots on its wings and body to pass time. I studied its bizarre mouth and antennae. I laid on the ground. I took pictures. I tried to be patient. I thought about all I needed to do. I thought about how I would be breaking a deal with myself ~to see a newborn butterfly fly away, if I walked off.
“Come on butterfly!” I said. “You can do it!” But it did not fly off. It just sat there.
I thought about how in the garden there is no rush, as in my own life, to finish the “task.” Things take the time needed to take, and that is all…
I waited. I wondered. I wished.
I started to get impatient.
“I can’t believe I am losing my patience with a butterfly,” I thought. “This is not good; my plan is backfiring.”
I took some breaths, calmed myself down, and tried to be like nature. Ever-present. Ever-enduring, patient in my Garden of Impatience…
It did not work. I noticed I was grinding my teeth. ” I’ve got so much to do!” I walked two steps towards the rose-bush, just to regroup, taking my eyes off the butterfly for the very first time… It could not have been more than a second.
When I turned around, the butterfly was gone!
I smiled, in disbelief, thinking for a moment “I can’t believe I wasted all this time,” looking into the sky for fluttering wings, but there were none. There was just the sound of the wind and the warmth of the sun — the eternal.
There is no time wasted in the lessons of nature, I suppose…
I walked back into the house “to get things done.” 🙂
Photo of eagle pair at 16th hole at Sailfish Point’s golf course, photo by Susan Kane taken the evening of 3-17-18
🦅
Some things are so beyond words, so wonderful, so “perfect,” that you just have to wonder….
Yesterday morning, on Sunday, March 18th, the day after I had written a blog post about meeting Mrs Susan Kane, and her sharing her eagle photo the night before, –and my noting that I had never seen a eagle along the Indian River Lagoon, or the pair that is rumored to hunt there– she sends me this photo above along with a short message: “Look who showed up last night.”
Call it coincidence, call it a God-wink, or maybe the eagles read my blog!
In any case, such experiences make life absolutely the best! 😁
Thanks Susan! Thank you eagles❤️🇺🇸 Fly high and may the SLR/IRL waters be clear and clean so you can catch the fish!🐟
Last evening, at a gathering of friends of my mothers, I met Mrs Susan Kane. The conversation started as usual with someone I do not know, but quickly, somehow, the our words turned to eagles living along the St Lucie River, Indian River Lagoon.
I told Susan, I had never seen one here flying, ever, but I knew they were here as Greg Braun, formerly of Audubon, took photos of one sitting on a rock at Bird Island…. I had also heard that there was a pair that hunted from a tall, dead, Australian Pine tree by the Marriott’s Indian River Plantation Marina. But again, although I walk the bridge between Sewall’s Point and Hutchinson Island quite often, I had never seen them…Once, while driving on Highway 76 in Indiantown, I did see an eagle, and was so excited that I parked my car on the side of the road and with trucks zooming by I watched it soar. I was smiling from ear to ear.
Susan listened politely, and then replied, “Well recently, Jacqui, I took a photograph of an eagle on the 16th hole of the Sailfish Point golf course.”
“You’re kidding?” I inquired.
“Yes, the eagle captured a fish right there in the pond at the 16th hole of the golf course.”
“That’s incredible.” I replied, taking a large sip of my cocktail, to hide my bird envy.
Over the course of dinner, Susan pulled out her photos and shared. They are wonderful! And today I am sharing her photos with you.
Look at this eagle. Its expression!
What a sight I hope I get to see! 🙂
Eagle of Sailfish Point, by Susan KanePhoto by Susan KanePhoto by Susan Kane
Frances Langford Estate in Rio/Jensen Beach Florida ca. 1960s. Courtesy of Sandra Henderson Thurlow, Thurlow Collection.
You know, I hate to be a broken record from the past, and I know the rules. Fights should lie dormant after they are fought, and won, or lost….
But I just can’t help myself…
Recently my husband Ed and I received a postcard in the mail advertising Langford Landings’ Grand Opening on March 10th, 2018.
It made me so sad to see this card. It looked like an ad from Rooms to Go.
I just don’t see how we as a county allowed such a tropical, historical piece of property to go to the “cookie cutter mill.”
Albeit the homes are expensive, pretty, and modern, they have no character of the original famed, Frances Langford Estate. None. Scraping all the trees off the land was the greatest sin, as these modern homes could look more tropical, more Frances Langfordish, if they had left some of the stately trees that she planted.
Yes, the developer “did not break any rules,” but we did, the Martin County Commission did. The rule broken? To show respect and honor to those who have walked before us. Especially, Mrs Langford.
Photos speak a thousand words.
Below are many from my mother, historian Sandra Thurlow, and Facebook friends, Bobbie Blodgett, and Rebecca Fatzinger. Local, Pop Delancy and others. People who shared with me as the property was be cleared and dismantled beginning in 2015…
2015 Clearing as seen from Palmer Road and Present 2018 Post Card Sent Out Recently For Grand Opening of “Langford Landing,” the former Frances Langford Estate
Frances Langford in her later years stands before photos decorating the Francis Langford Outrigger Resort. Her home was across the street on 53 acres she turned into a tropical paradise. (Public photo)
Entrance to Caloosahatchee on west side of lake and near Clewiston Bloom is all through lake.
Thank you to pilot Ryan Moran for taking these aerials of the growing algae situation in the St Lucie River on 6-13-18.
I recently took trip with my husband; I accompanied him on business to Santa Fe, New Mexico. While I was there, I visited the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture. The museum focused on the remarkable Pueblo people that had originally settled along the Santa Fe River because of its water and transportation. The museum was gifted telling stories, and it got me thinking about the native people who lived around Lake Okeechobee, and how their story is not so well told.
Although this image below was not in the publication, I wanted to include it because one might drive by and not recognize this recently renovated, now officially registered historic structure in Rio for what it really is, ~a monument to the cross-state canal!
