Today I share my husband Ed Lippisch’s aerial photographs and one video taken around 11:30am on 7-23-23. Also included in the post are photos of reemerging seagrass beds taken by my brother Todd Thurlow on 7-2-23. A wonderful thing although Todd estimates that just under 80 acres were in the area he visited.
The St. Luice River/Indian River Lagoon is dark from rain, C-23 and C-24 discharge, and stormwater run-off, however most of the ocean looks gorgeous blue. You can even see the nearshore reefs. Seagrass and or macro-algae appear near the sandbars just inside the inlet. Not the 600 acres of yesteryear but some, and this is a good sign. There has been no discharge of Lake Okeechobee since April and that was a small amount with no algae. Nonetheless, it is never good for the river.
Lake Okeechobee shows no major algae blooms near S-308 as just a week ago at Port Mayaca although one can see the long green wisps like shadows in the water. This changes every day and you can follow at eyeonlakeo. This is Todd’s site and it shows Lake Okeechobee at 15 feet. Pray for no hurricanes.
There is algae on the inside gate of S-308 and some along the St. Lucie Canal also known as the C-44 canal as titled when it became part of the Central and South Florida Flood Control Plan of 1948. S-308 is overseen by the Army Corps of Engineers since 1930 but the South Florida Water Management District is involved spaying peroxide pellets on the algae when it gathers in big blue-green-gray rotting clumps as it did last week. The algae dies but more than likely sinks releasing toxins. A conundrum most definitely….
Thank you to my husband Ed who is in his tenth year documenting our waters by air. All of working together are make a difference. We are watching and they know it.
ACOE documented algae at S-308 on 7-13-23.
TODAY’S AERIALS, 7-23-23 by ED LIPPISCH
Sailfish Flats between Sewall’s Point and Hutchinson Island – note seagrass and macro algae in dark waters.
Seagrass with macro-algae near Sandbar 7-2-23, Todd Thurlow.Hermit crab enjoying seagrass 7-2-23, Todd Thurlow.Underwater one can see the macro-algae atop seagrass. Macro-algae is increasing due to nutrient pollution and warmer temperatures. 7-2-23, Todd Thurlow.St. Lucie Inlet with plume juxtaposed to turquoise Atlantic waters.Roosevelt Bridge at St. Luice River, Stuart (L) and Palm City (R).St. Lucie InletAtlantic sideBlue green algae in St. Luice CanalAttachment to FPL cooling pond – algae presentS-308 Port Mayaca at Lake Okeechobee attached to St. Luice CanalClose up vague algae streaks in lake and in enclosed area locks opening to boat thoroughfare.
Gallery various aerials 7-23-23 EL
Canal systems dumping fresh water into SLR, SFWMD visual of Central and South Florida Flood Control canals of Martin and St. Lucie County.
Date taken: 7-12-23 at 1pm/Location S-308 and C-44 Port Mayaca, Lake Okeechobee, FL/Pilot Ed Lippisch.
Three videos are included of the large cyanobacteria-blue green algae bloom off of S-308. S-308 opens into the C-44 (St. Lucie Canal leading into Stuart and out to St. Lucie Inlet.) This bloom waxes and wanes based on conditions but it “always there.” Nutrient pollution must be overcome.
S-308 is presently closed by ACOE. Keep your eyeonlakeo today measured at 14.87 feet.
These aerials were taken over Port Mayaca and the St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon by Ed Lippisch on 7-7-23 around 11:30am.
The algae bloom on Lake Okeechobee has lessened compared to two weeks ago however, now Cyanobacteria can be seen clearly on the inside of S-308 at Port Mayaca, Lake Okeechobee. This is from boats coming through the locks from Lake Okeechobee at S-308 as the first two photographs display.
“The blue-green algae continues east along C-44 up to the railroad track, about a quarter to a half mile.” Ed Lippisch.
Keep your eyeonlakeo today, Sunday, 7-9-23 at 14.86 feet.
Gates closed at S-308 algae backed up
Boats going through locks S-308 algae from Lake O enters C-44 aka St Lucie Canal
More photos:
S-80 St Lucie Locks and Dam, about 20 miles east on C-44, no visible algae
Burning field along C-44
C-44 Canal-Turnpike bridge
St Lucie South Fork area where C-44 canal meets Fork of St. Lucie River 1st constructed 1916-1924 by the Everglades Drainage District. Tuned over to ACOE in 1930.
Kiplinger Island at Palm City, St Luice River. Tremendous shoaling occurs here due to St Lucie Canal aka C-44 controversial for 100 years.
7-7-23: St. Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon view from Willoughby Creek approaching Witham Field. River is darker with runoff and canal waters but not Lake Okeechobee. No algae.
SLR/IRL
Most updated chart SFWMD showing inputs for agenda materials 7-7-23. Will be fully updated by 7-13.
“Jacqui, you spoke for the water, for the water had no tongue. And with faux righteousness, Florida’s leaders attacked you. God forbid you call out the bad actors…”
“Bad scene this morning, It’s the whole lake covered.” Toxic Lake Okeechobee. Professional pilot Dave Stone 6-24-23 of Ft. Meyers.
“Lake Okeechobee is really lit up around Pahokee.” Ed Lippisch, 6-23-23.
“The cyanobacteria is now on inside of S-308 Port Mayaca, Lake O.” Ed Lippisch 6-23-23.
S-80 St. Luice Locks and Dam C-44 Canal. Discharge of “basin” waters 6-23-23, but no Lake Okeechobee water.
“St Luice Inlet post rains 6-21-23.” Dr. Scott Kuhns
St. Lucie River dark with runoff, C-23, C24, C-44 but no Lake O.
St. Lucie River dark with runoff and C-23, C24, C-44 but no Lake O.
6-11-23 Cyanobacteria in Lake Okeechobee SE/Middle; no algae at S80, C44 as ACOE has gates at S308 Port Mayaca closed.6-4-23 Pahokee SE LO6-2-23 Off Port Mayaca, S. C-38, lake center Thank you my husband Dr Ed Lippisch our eye in the sky. And thank you to my brother Todd who alerts us through his website http://eyeonlakeo.com when to fly. June 1st we entered hurricane season. If a storm causes the lake level to rise significantly there is a real possibility the ACOE will discharge. LOSOM an updated lake schedule that would be more beneficial to the estuaries has been delayed. Be ready. Make yourself heard.
Abandoned stork nests, Jetport S colony, WCA 3A, as presented 5-11-23 SFWMD GB
Today I am going to put aside the St. Lucie Canal to discuss another very important subject, the birds of the Everglades. Since the late 1800s drainage, farming, and development has drastically altered the avian environment. As we try to restore what we can, each year the SFWMD reports on nesting outcomes in SFER or the “South Florida Environmental Report.” This is done in “Water Years” that run from May 1 of one year to April 30th of the next.
At the May 11th, 2023 meeting of the South Florida Water Management District, I asked a question to presenter Lawrence Glenn about the “Ecological Conditions Update.” Mr. Glenn was explaining sensitivity to water/food levels and why it had been observed that hundreds to thousands of wood storks and white ibis in Water Conservation Area 3-A of the Everglades had evacuated their nests abandoning their young.
Mr. Glenn’s chart specifically focused on wood storks (WOST) and white ibis (WHIB). I inquired about other birds nesting in the Everglades. Mr. Glenn explained that for purposes of this scientific report wood storks and white ibis were the sentinel species.
~Note the decline of these species nests below below.
On May 24, 2023, about two weeks after the governing board meeting, I received an email in response to my question from SFWMD avian expert Dr. Mark Cook. I had had the pleasure of meeting and flying with Dr. Cook in a rare banner-nesting year, in 2021. Dr. Cook who oversees the SFER nesting bird reports gave an in depth explanation to my question about “other birds,” and how the science works. Thank you to the SFWMD and Dr. Cook for allowing me to reprint below. I wanted to share it with you!
Wood storks, roseate spoonbills, white ibis, courtesy SFWMD
Subject:Following up on your question about nesting in the Everglades (May GB)
Good morning, Ms. Thurlow-Lippisch. At the May Governing Board Meeting you asked Lawrence Glenn if there were other types of birds nesting in the Everglades aside from white ibis and wood storks. Dr. Mark Cook has responded to your question (below).
Yes, we have about 14 species of wading birds nesting in the Everglades, all of which are monitored to some degree for the wading bird report.
However, there are four species that are used specifically as indicator species to gage restoration success of the freshwater Everglades and to help guide water management: white ibis, wood storks, snowy egrets and great egrets. Multiple aspects of their reproduction are monitored including nesting effort, timing of nesting, location of nesting and reproductive success (numbers of offspring produced per nest). Of these four species, the stork and ibis are particularly useful for understanding the health of the everglades because they are tactile foragers (feed by touch) meaning they need higher densities of prey to feed effectively compared to the visually feeding egrets and in turn their nesting patterns are highly dependent on getting the water right – the right amount of water at the right time and place. Historical hydrological conditions were particularly conducive to successful nesting of these two species. A good example of this was the relatively wetter conditions on the coastal marshes and western prairie marshes in Everglades National Park that promoted good prey production and allow for early nesting of storks and massive super colonies of white ibis in the coastal colonies.
For Florida Bay we have a single indicator species, the roseate spoonbill. This pink beauty is also a tactile forager and as such is highly sensitive to hydrological conditions within the coastal marshes of eastern Florida Bay. This species was almost exclusively restricted to nesting and foraging in Florida Bay but within the past decade it has moved inland to the freshwater Everglades probably because sea level rise has increased water levels in the coastal foraging areas. This species is generally doing poorly in the bay but relatively well in the freshwater Everglades.
As predicted given the relatively dry antecedent conditions, this nesting season has not been a great year for the five indicator species. Nesting effort (numbers of nests) was about average but nest success has ben very low for all species except perhaps the snowy egret. White Ibis and great Egrets started abandoning nests in March-April probably because prey was limited in the Everglades after last year’s extensive drying of WCA-3A. In addition, extensive rain-driven reversals (loss of concentrated prey) in April finished off many of the remaining ibis and egret nests and led to the complete abandonment of wood stork nests in WCA-3A and significantly reduced their nests in ENP. Surprisingly, snowy egrets seem to be doing quite well, possibly because they are feeding in the STAs or elsewhere. My colleagues from University of Florida, who monitor nesting on the ground, have reported very poor growth rates of nestling and high levels of starvation in all species except snowy egrets. Nesting data are currently being processed and will be available as soon as possible.
I want to thank Tony Cristaldi of the National Weather Service, Melbourne, Florida, for writing and sharing historic weather information that gives strong insight into why in 1924 the St. Lucie Canal was so damaged that its completion date has been “clouded in history,” and thus the subject of my most recent blog posts.
The October 1924 Cuba hurricane is the earliest officially classified Category 5 Atlantic hurricane on the SSHS. According to Tony Cristaldi, NWS Melbourne: “Heavy rain fell along, and well ahead (north) of its center, with between 1 and 2 FEET falling across SOFL from Oct 18-23, and this is only part of the story….” Image: courtesy of Wiki.
Mr. Cristaldi’s message is below. It is a fascinating read! Tropical Storm #9’s rainfall levels; the Great Cuba Hurricane’s immense rainfall-interestingly, a hurricane who later would be declared a Category 5 Storm; and the combined 1924 rain levels in our region of today’s Treasure Coast of up to three feet !
Thank you Tony for this wonderful documentation -as together we learn all we can for the 100 Year Anniversary of the St. Lucie Canal -coming up in 2024 even though the storm damage pushed its “opening” to 1925 or 1926 and maybe later….
Below: Letter National Weather Service’s Tony Cristaldi:
“Hi Jacqui,
I’ve been an avid reader of your blog for a few years now. I did a some research into this rainfall event, and learned a few things. This was one of two separate extreme tropical cyclone rainfall event which impacted SEFL in October of 1924.
The first, a moderate strength (60 mph) Tropical Storm (#9), was centered over the Gulf of Mexico, well to the west of Florida, but was part of a prolonged wet period which produced between 5-15″ of rainfall up and down the entirety of the Florida east coast from October 4-10.
The second, which occurred only days later, was the infamous “Great Cuba Hurricane of 1924”. Heavy rain fell along, and well ahead (north) of its center, with between 1 and 2 FEET falling across SOFL from Oct 18-23.
While I could not find daily/monthly rainfall totals for the PSL/Stuart area, there are records avaialble for Vero Beach for that month. 25.01″ of rain fell there that month, including almost 12″ from the first system and nearly 9″ from the second (during the 2-day period where 15″ fell at Stuart).
Given the heaviest rainfall totals occurred south of Vero Beach during both events, one can probably assume that between 2.5 and 3 FEET of rain fell near the Inlet entrance that month, a truly historical month in terms of weather.”
Florida Memory, Everglades Drainage District, St. Lucie Canal, undated.
Over the past year, I have been trying to learn everything I can about the history of the St. Lucie Canal. Details are hard to find, especially because the canal has served two masters: Florida’s Everglades Drainage District (1916-1930) and the USA’s Army Corps of Engineers (1930 to present).
I would be remiss if I did not thank the South Florida Water Management District and the Army Corps of Engineers for making many outstanding and rare historical documents available to me.
In light of next year’s 2024 “100 Year Anniversary” of the St. Luice Canal, it is my hope that with sufficient access to historical documentation, the present and following generations will continue work to undo the massive ecological damage of the St. Luice Canal; this can only be accomplished with full understanding of its history.
Today, I focus on an ACOE 1954 document entitled:
Basic Considerations, Partial Definite Project Report, Central and Southern Florida Project For Flood Control and Other Purposes, Part IV, Lake Okeechobee and Outlets, Supplement 4–Design Memorandum, Effects of Fresh-Water Discharges Through St. Lucie Canal
The succinct history in this slender document really helps give insight into my previous post, The Great Rain of 1924 and the Postponement of the St. Luice Canal. The Storm of 1924, that occurred in October of the year the canal was “completed” caused serious damage to the St. Lucie Canal and was then followed by famously destructive hurricanes of 1926 and 1928 and then another serious storm in 1930. After such a run of Mother Nature’s wrath, the canal that had been built as the primary control outlet for Lake Okeechobee became too much for the state and thus the federal government took over.
In an alternate universe of my dreams, the St. Lucie Canal was overcome by Mother Nature. She shoaled in the manmade cut through her upland pine and pond cypress forests with the raging waters of Allapattah Flats. Lake Okeechobee was never diked and flows free as God intended. Wildlife abounds. Ofcouse that is not what happened, Humankind, the great controller, had another plan, and thus our world today…
Begin transcription of ACOE document:
c. History–Surveys for a canal route which would allow excess water from Lake Okeechobee to be released in St. Lucie River were made as early as 1905; however, construction was not begun until 1916. The location chosen was selected because it presented the shortest and least expensive route to tidewater. Original construction of the canal to a capacity of 5,000 cubic feet a second with Lake Okeechobee at elevation 15.6 feet was practically complete in 1924 by the Everglades Drainage District. It was controlled by two dams, one near the lake and the other near the lower end. Local runoff from the storm of October 18-21, 1924, overtopped the spoil banks in several places, cut deep channels into the canal, and carried a million yards of eroded material into the channel. The channel capacity was reduced to about 70 percent of the 5,000 cubic feet a second design flow. The spillway at the lower end of the canal was not opened prior to the storm and a channel about 65 feet wide was washed out around the dam down to a bottom elevation of -4 feet.Serious shoaling from local inflow also resulted from the storms of 1926 and 1928. The design capacity of the canal became available after excavation by the drainage district of about 2,000,000 cubic yards of deposited material in 1927 and additional 1,000,000 cubic yards in 1928. However, sand bars formed during the storm of 1930 and channel capacity was again reduced. In 1930 the United States accepted control of Lake Okeechobee as an authorized project and since that date the canal has been maintained and operated by the Corps of Engineers. Construction of fixed spillways at 16 inflow points along the banks of St. Luice Canal was initiated in 1933 in order to prevent sediment from entering the canal. The locations of those spillways are shown on plate 1. Crest elevations were below natural ground but high enough to provide stilling basins in the wash channels upstream. A constricted section about 6,000 feet long, in which the bottom width was only 65 feet instead of 155 feet as designed, was left in the canal near the lower dam. In 1937 that construction was removed and the waterway improved to provide a navigation channel 6 feet deep. The River and Harbor Act of August 26, 1937, provided for replacement of obsolete structures at locks Nos. 1 and 2 in the canal by a new lock and spillway at the site of the lower dam. The main spillway was completed in 1944 except for the Trainter gates. Temporary wooden flashboards were used until the seven steel Trainter gates were installed in 1950. The canal was enlarged in 1949 to provide a navigable depth of 8 feet and a discharge capacity of about 9,000 cubic feet a second with lake stage at 15.6 feet.
End transcription…
Cover
Page 3, History w/ my notes
Spillways map referred to in text
Next post, I will continue with Section 5. “Discharges through St. Lucie Canal.”
The condition of this October 23, 1924 Stuart Messenger article makes it difficult to read, but it is important to the history of the St. Luice Canal whose 100 year anniversary is coming up next year in 2024.
In my research, I have noticed the final date of construction of the canal varies in historic documents. Sometimes I see 1925 or 1926. I have chosen to use 1924 because that is the official date used by Florida’s Department of Environmental Protection.
This article entitled “Storm Damage Comparatively Light—Heaviest Rain in Fifty Years,” may shed light on why the completion date of the Everglades Drainage District is hard to pin down.
The bolded line under the headline reads: “Fifteen Inches in Two Days–Trains Stalled for Several Hours–Roads Out North and South–Canal Around Locks–Local Damage Very Light–Wires Kept Open With Few Interruptions.”
Trying to be optimistic, the article begins:
“Stuart is back to normal and is counting up its comparatively small losses after the heaviest rainfall in history. Fifteen inches of rain fell in less that forty-eight hours. Rainfall for the past week has been particularly heavy. On Saturday it rained steadily all day and far into to the night. Sunday’s rainfall was heavy and continuous, all day Monday the downpour continued in to early hours of Tuesday morning…”
~The railroad washed out at Rio…
~The river is the highest within the memory of the oldest inhabitants and backed up over the sea wall both north and south of the county bridge…
~The St Lucie hotel dock went out…
~The river washed away fifteen feet of high ground in front of the hotel annex…
~Reports from the west lock on the St. Lucie canal are to the effect that the canal has cut through around the lock and is digging a wide channel…
~Homes on the South Fork were inundated…
~Water is pouring into the river from the back county in an immense volume. …
The erosion cutting around the lock of the St. Lucie Canal creating a wide channel would have spelled failure for controlling the waters of Lake Okeechobee and surrounding basins. Water pouring in from Allapattah Flats known as the “back county” would have exacerbated an already very dangerous situation.
Lost in time, today we read about an October 23rd, 1924 storm where Stuart, Florida experienced a major rain event ironically occurring right around the time the St. Lucie Canal was being completed or was “complete.” Maybe that is why some articles say the canal was finished in 1925 or 1926 when it was really first completed in 1924? It is important for me to get the date right.
Leading up to 2024’s “100 year anniversary of the St. Lucie Canal,” Ed and I visited the State Archives of Florida in Tallahassee. We had called ahead and the archivist had set all aside having to do with the “Final Report on the Special Project to Prevent Eutrophication of Lake Okeechobee.”This very important document, published in November of 1976, was key in directly and indirectly improving the situation of the St. Lucie River and all the Everglades. Its research faced head on the deteriorating health of Lake Okeechobee; documented the importance of Kissimmee River restoration for nutrient reduction and water quality; called for the halting of back-pumping into Lake Okeechobee from the Everglades Agricultural Area south of the lake; and even inquires implementation of Best Management Practices by the Agriculture industry and stricter rules for sewage management from developing cities.
The seven pages of the document I share today is from the summary and is part of the lead up to the Final Report. As is always the case, the final report is much more polished. The seven pages of the 1975 “A Summary of Progress of the Special Project to Prevent the Eutrophication of Lake Okeechobee,” is not. You will see handwritten corrections and notes in the margins. A very powerful way to view a working document. “Old school” for sure!
Forty-eight years have passed since this homework led to the famous 1976 publication “The Final Report on the Special Project to Prevent Eutrophication of Lake Okeechobee.” The working document’s historic value cannot cannot be underestimated. Reading it is like looking back into the mirror of time. Here is reflected how much progress has been made, and how much more still needs to be achieved.
“Lake Okeechobee water quality has been declining noticeably for about twenty years, and the is now best be described as culturally eutrophic…” ~1975
Today’s 1975 summary of progress led up to 1976 “Final Report…” I will be sharing more of both in the future as we approach the 100 year anniversary of the St. Lucie Canal.
“Jacqui, there is a beautiful linear park containing a diverse sample of trees similar to what was in the historic Barley Barber Swamp: the Lake Okeechobee Ridge Park. The park is the last remnant of the original shoreline of Lake Okeechobee. The Rafael E. Sanchez Memorial Trail runs throughout the length of the park and is a part of both the Big Water Heritage Trail and the Great Florida Birding Trail. The trail runs along the original sand/muck berm that was constructed along portions of Lake Okeechobee before the 1926 and 1928 hurricanes washed them out. Access is along US41 just north of the St Lucie Canal.”
The park in Port Mayaca, Martin County – next to Indiantown, is open from dawn ’til dusk, so yesterday afternoon, Luna and I went for a walk in the Rafael E. Sanchez Memorial Trail that Gary told us about. It was fascinating!
The skinny forest was stunning and even with the modern noise from the old Connors Highway ringing in my ears, it took me back about a hundred years. As I walked, I thought: “The park is the last remnant of the original shoreline of Lake Okeechobee; the trail runs along the original sand/muck berm that was constructed along portions of Lake Okeechobee before the 1926 and 1928 hurricanes washed them out…”
Soon after 1928, the state and federal governments’ answer materialized into the Herbert Hoover Dike, -forever altering the living-lake, shrinking it and blocking it from expanding.
Lake Okeechobee, SFWMD
Today I share Luna and my walk through this amazing remnant forest. Once periodically flooded, now dry, Luna and I saw only a few very tall and beautiful cypress trees. But we could imagine the old shoreline full of them with their knees pushing forth from the earth. Luna and I also saw massive strangler-figs and oaks and even the famous white moonvine that once graced the pond apple forest south and east along the lake. Luna and I also saw many cabbage palms. The leaning/curving palms, seeking light, were really beautiful. Certainly a hundred years ago the flora and fauna was very different, but Luna and I did get a “glimpse” and for that I am thankful.
For perspective, the FPL cooling pond lies to the east. The park goes on for six miles well beyond my image below. I hope you’ll check it out! Thank you Gary for your comment and for expanding my knowledge of the once great forests of Indiantown.
FPL cooling pond/ Barley Barber Swamp are located to the east of the linear park.
Luna walking amongst leaning cabbage palms, giant strangler-figs, cypress and oaks. Dogs are allowed on a leash.
Luna walking amongst leaning cabbage palms, giant strangler figs, cypress and oaks. Dogs are allowed on a leash.
mixture of trees
many huge strangler figs
A tall cypress tree-maybe some relation to the Barley Barber Swamp?!
the old sand/muck berm
Bridge Conners Hwy. at Port Mayaca
Entrance to park
A tall cypress tree-maybe some relation to the Barley Barber Swamp?!
Who was Rafael E. Sanchez who must have inspired this wonderful park?
Palm Beach Daily News, October 6, 1994.
1855 vs 2023 Todd Thurlow. The beginning of the park can be seen in southwest corner.
Every time I post, I learn something. After reading “The Once Great Forests of Indiantown,” Stuart’s multi-generational resident, and dear friend of my mother, wrote:
“Jacqui, about 1968-9 my 4 hunting buddies and I went hunting in Indiantown in the Barley Swamp, there were huge cypress trees laying over?? Also walking through woods we came up on a mountain,”large Indian mound.” I have never found anyone who knew about the mound. Mid 70s I built a house that all the interior was don w/cypress from Barley Swamp, a sawmill north of Okeechobee cut it. Years later I was talking to a man I built for and he said his brother worked for FPL digging the dike, when digging, he found a carved stone face about 3x2x10 that “I thought looked like images found in Mexico and south,” I guess FPL might have dug up that mound…”
I’d like to thank Boo for his comment questioning why there were gigantic felled cypress trees in Barley Barber Swamp as late as 1968/69. I had written in my blog that according to a 1930 Stuart News article, most of the cypress and pine trees five miles NW of Indiantown were timbered from 1920 through the later years of the 1930s.
Well, my brother Todd and I went back and tried to deduce a theory. The theory is that the timber companies, as reported in the July, 19, 1930 Stuart News article, had cut most of the trees “five miles west of Indiantown,” but no matter how they tried, their trams and tracks and axes and saws could not reach the deep interior of the swamp. Its heart! So some of the largest trees, as Boo, notes, were felled later, leading up to Florida Power and Lights digging, construction and diking of its Indiantown cooling reservoir.
For perspective, Todd shades below the visible dark river shape of Barley Barber Swamp over a 1940s Department of Agriculture aerial. The shaded area is 3078 acres or 4.81 square miles.
Below, in these Florida Department of Transportation aerials from 1971, at a lower altitude, we can clearly see the Barley Barber Swamp and encroaching agricultural lands that have already been cleared and de-stumped.
The remaining and distinctive thimble shape of Barley Barber Swamp remains today as seen in the 1971/Google Earth 2023 comparison. This would have been just two or three years after Boo Lowrey and his hunting buddy visited the area in 1968/69 and witnessed the giant cypress trees lying on their sides.
Todd also created a remarkable slider for comparison.
By 1974, the remaining cypress forest of the once great Barley Barber Swamp was being burned, smoke rising to Heaven, to make way for the reservoir as can be viewed and compared in the slides below.
Heartbreaking. But as I am often told such is “progress.” I disagree.
And the Indian Mound? Of course it was right were the FPL reservoir was today. Boo saw it before most of it was drowned. It is no reach to make this deduction as Big Mound City is known worldwide as “the largest prehistoric Native American earthwork in southeastern Florida.” It was huge and lies a few miles south from Indiantown, not far from the lake, in J.W. Corbett Wildlife Area. These were ancient “cities” along Lake Okeechobee. In fact, when Indiantown was named “Annie” in 1915, long after the native people were gone, the year the St. Lucie Canal was started, there was actually an Everglades Drainage District survey documenting the road from Annie to Big Mound City. Indiantown to Big Mound City? Not far at all.
FPL cooling pond east of Lake Okeechobee, Indiantown, was once a gigantic cypress forest. April 21, 2023 – Ed Lippisch.
Even though I am obsessed with water, my first love is trees. Because the trees are gone we forget that deforestation was occurring at the same time as the building of the St Lucie Canal – and was equally destructive.
Because the cypress and pine forests of our area were logged prior to the first ariels taken by the Department of Agriculture in 1940, there is really no visual record. But we have clues.
1940 aerials DOA, FL. Indiantown is marked just above the “dip” in the St. Lucie Canal. Click on image to enlarge. UF Libraries.
Long leaf pine forest image 1930s, Florida Memory
A recent article shared with me by my mother got me thinking about our region’s “once forests” again. The long title of the article from mom’s archives reads: “Hammons Sawmill Employs 300 Men, Big Business at Indiantown Has Hum of Activity, Largest Industry in This County is Run by Texan Men.”The Stuart News article is dated Saturday, July 19, 1930 and it really gets one thinking about how extensive our cypress and pine forests once were.
The article begins:
“The biggest and busiest operation in Martin County is the plant of the Long Leaf Lumber Company, five miles northwest of Indiantown.
There, in the woods, 300 men are busy daily, cutting timber, sawing the busy logs into boards of many shapes and sizes, curing the refinished lumber and shipping it to all parts of the world… enough timber for ten years….”
“Five miles northwest of Indiantown” puts one about at today’s Florida Power and Light plant, so recognizable from the air. It is located west of Highway 710 also known as Warfield Boulvard. As far as cypress trees are concerned, we know an extensive cypress forest connected to Lake Okeechobee existed in this area prior to it being converted into a cooling reservoir for FPL in the 1970s. Today what is left is a thumb known as “Barley Barber Swamp.”
So a clue, cypress just outside the marsh of Lake Okeechobee, yes, but what about the numerous pine trees and were there any long leaf pines as the article notes the Indiantown sawmill of 1930 was run by a Texan “Long Leaf Lumber Company?”
5 miles NW of Indiantown connects to about FPL thin yellow line – Hwy 710, Google.
Pines were very prevalent as we see in old photos and reports of the digging of the St Lucie Canal, but the best clue I know of mentioning long leaf pine trees lies in an abstract, No. 12386, of Indiantown. These lands can be traced to the 1850 Swamp and Overflow Lands Act; Florida’s Internal Improvement Fund; the Jacksonville, Tampa and Key West Railway; the Southern States Land and Timber Company; The Land Company of Florida- Seaboard Railway; and in 1925 to the Indian Lumber Company. Certainly this 1855 survey map below from the abstract is a snapshot of the surrounding area pre-drainage.
Original land survey with trees and other natural features- 1855 of today’s Indiantown sec. 6&5. Abstract 12386 Thurlow & Thurlow
Back then, as now, there were a lot of land shisters and one them of that era according to the abstract was J.H. Vaughn who in 1910 made an agreement for someone to “examine” 2000 feet of long leaf pine and 90,000,000 of cypress. He acted as a representative for Southern States Land and Timber Company but was later called into court for false representation, so perhaps he is not a trustworthy source. Perhaps Southern States Land and Timber -the company that first planted sugarcane at Canal Point blossoming into today’s sugar industry- and owned just about all the lands of Martin, Palm Beach and other- was so powerful they framed him? I don’t know. In any case, the very broad swath of lands mentioned in his agreement clearly refers to”long leaf pine.” If it wasn’t long leaf some could have been virgin slash pine or “yellow pine” that can live up to 400 years old.
Page form Abstract No. 12386, courtesy of Thurlow & Thurlow
So whether it was virgin cypress, virgin long leaf pine, or virgin slash pine, or another type of pine when was it timbered, some of it was cut in Martin County, Florida, near Indiantown.
According to the same abstract, in 1924, after all the lawsuits, the lands that make up today’s Indiantown went back to Southern States Land and Timber Company, or it was theirs the whole time. Crazy land deals! Eventually, they gave permission for the The Land Company of Florida to cut the timer. And then in 1926, Indian Lumber Company was “given” land to erect a sawmill at Indiantown.
(First you drain the land, then you cut the timber, then you develop it and name it after something that is no longer there.) Sorry!
So the article says 1930 and the abstract says 1926….
I think we can safely say that most of the cypress and pine forests in and surrounding Indiantown were cut in the 1920s and 1930s. I think this is important to remember. It’s not just the canals that killed the St Lucie River. It was also the cutting of the trees. Thousands of acres of trees. Great forests. Home to wildlife beyond our imagination.
Next time you’re are driving around out there, imagine the once great forests of Indiantown. They must have been a sight to see!
Famous 1913 Harshberger vegetation map marks forest surrounding today’s Indiantown in 1913. Look west of “Allapattah Flats.”
-July 19, 1930, Stuart News, Martin County, FL., courtesy Sandra Thurlow.
Location: Confluence of the St. Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon; St Lucie Inlet; Roosevelt Bridge; west of Jupiter Narrows; western Martin County lands near Green Ridge and other areas; S-308 Port Mayaca; Palm City SLR area.
Conditions: No discharges from Lake Okeechobee. ACOE stopped April 15, 2013. There have been two major rain events in the past weeks.
Hello readers. I’m a bit behind, but wanted to include! Great reference and baseline aerials. now that L.O. discharges have been halted. JTL
Date: Wednesday, April 19, 2023
Time: Around 12:15pm
Pilot: Ed Lippisch
Location: Confluence of the St. Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon; St Lucie Inlet; Roosevelt Bridge and Palm City Bridge areas.
Conditions: No discharges from Lake Okeechobee. ACOE stopped April 15, 2013. There have been two major rain events in the past weeks. But not as much as in Ft Lauderdale!
As we know, next year is the 100 year anniversary of the St. Luice Canal. Dug by the Everglades Drainage District 1916-1924, the canal was turned over to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 1930 following the horrific 1926 and 1928 hurricanes and the U.S./Florida decision to build the Herbert Hoover Dike. During the 1930s through the fifties the canal was widened and deepened and repurposed as a cross state canal conveniently allowing even more discharge water from Lake Okeechobee to the St. Lucie River.
According to a November 4, 1954 U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Central and Southern Florida Project report by Colonel H.W. Schull Jr.
“For quite some time, local interest in the Stuart-Palm City area have been very bitter and adamant concerning the release of water in the St. Lucie estuary. They have made numerous complaints to this office about the releases of muddy water and its effect on sport fishing in the Stuart area, as well as the effects of shoaling in the vicinity of Palm City. In November 1953, the local people formed the St. Lucie-Indian Rivers Restoration League, which has become appreciably influential; the League has now grown to the estimated membership of 1,250. The situation in the Stuart-Palm City area has become by far the most sensitive of any in the Jacksonville District. This office has received complaints from the league following practically all discharge periods. Full-capacity discharge is entirely untenable to local interests. Last spring, the League threatened to use all possible influence to block the 1955 fiscal year appropriations for the Central and Southern Florida Project unless they could obtain a definite commitment “to relieve the area of excessive flood discharge and its incidental damages.” It was brought out that if unable to obtain such a commitment local interest were prepared to attack the appropriations as discriminatory, to withdraw from the 17-county Flood Control District by legislative action, and would proceed with damage actions in the Federal Courts….”
And that was only 1954…
By 1959 the Stuart News ran articles quoting the St. Lucie-Indian River Restoration League and the Martin County Water Conservation Committee. These articles shared by historian Sandra Henderson Thurlow, reveal continuation of bitterness and exasperation by the St. Lucie-Indian River Restoration League now together with the Martin County Water Conservation Committee.
By 1959, the “Great Flood” of 1947 had set in motion the enormous and expensive Army Corps’ Central and Southern Florida Flood Control Project adding to the already built canals of the Everglades Drainage District – such as the St Lucie Canal. To complicate Martin County’s drainage issues, the Minute Maid Corporation bought 5,300 acres of St Johns River Marsh land fifteen miles from Ft. Pierce in neighboring St Lucie County. Also booming was ranch land north and west of Cocoa. Many were excited about draining the land and building Florida’s post-war economy. This would be at the expense of the St. Lucie.
It was the hope of the St. Lucie-Indian River Restoration League and the Conservation Committee that the Army Corps would build a gigantic reservoir west of Sebastian, Vero, and Ft. Pierce to hold the water that would be drained from these lands but instead the Army Corps decided to build C-25, C-23, and C-24 alone. “No reservoir. Too expensive.”
Excerpt from Stuart News, April 9, 1959. Proposed reservoir that would hold the waters of the drained southern St. Johns Marsh. Instead the land was never bought, and the reservoir never built.
Today these St. Lucie C-canals drain the lower St. Johns Marsh and and a large portion of St Lucie County into the St. Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon. These canals, like the C-44, or St. Lucie Canal, can operate in any direction, and they are all connected, taking in water and then discharging wherever the engineers desire…
C-25, north of Highway 68 and west of Ft. Pierce, dumps into the Southern Indian River Lagoon at Taylor Creek in Fort Pierce; C-24 and C-23 discharge into the mid and lower north fork of the St Lucie River. As they are all connected so the water can be made to go through any outlet. Most water exits through the St. Lucie River heading to the St. Lucie Inlet, Martin County – carrying with it a collection of agricultural and development pollutants.
The St. Lucie-Indian River Restoration League and the Martin County Water Conservation Committee fought hard for the St. Johns Marsh Reservoirs-also called a CONSERVATION AREA, but they were never built.
The League and Committee were so furious with the effects of all the canals that they filed a suit for injunction against direct ad-valorem tax levies by the Central and Southern Florida Flood Control District, the equivalent of today’s South Florida Water Management District. But the League did not prevail. The League expressed that one of the reasons this case did not succeed may be linked to “the Judge Chillingworth murder case occupying all of judge Judge Smith’s time.” Ironically it was the Chillingworth family that founded Palm City Farms.
Ernest Lyons, editor of the Stuart News wrote: “So that is why Martin County must demand now that the priorities of be changed on the project, making the reservoir purchase and construction No. 1 and the safety valve into Fort Pierce harbor (C-25) No. 2.
Otherwise we are going to wake up one of these days a find the beautiful St. Lucie, whose South Fork is now a drainage canal for the floodwaters of the Kissimmee River Basin has had its North Fork turned into a drainage canal for the St Johns River which historically flowed the other way.
Martin County is going to be made the dumping ground for another vast drainage area unrelated to this county unless our Congressmen, County Commission, State Representatives and other official demands that this scheme be changed by altering the priorities to do “first things first.”
It is kind of ironic that we continue to fight over reservoirs today.
The Stuart News, March 5, 1959.
The Stuart News, April 9, 1959.
The Stuart News, April 13,1961.
I recently visited the lands that the SFWMD has purchased north of Highway 68 to restore/ build a C-25 reservoir and storm water treatment area as part of ACOE’s Indian River Lagoon South, CERP.
Across C-25 in St. Lucie County are the lands recently purchased by the SFWMD for CERP’s Indian River Lagoon South restoration. Hope!
Location: Confluence of the St. Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon; Roosevelt Bridge area; S-80 St Lucie Canal; S-308 Port Mayaca at Lake Okeechobee.
Conditions: After months of almost no rain,Sewall’s Point received 5 inches last week-thus you see the really dark runoff along with discharges from Lake Okeechobee.
AFTER 83 DAYS, the ACOE, with the recommendation of the SFWMD, is halting discharges! Very good news.
Recently I wrote a post entitled: “Learning the Beauty of Pre-Drainage Lands – St Lucie Canal.” One of the most prevalent natural features asked about is “Allapattah Flats.” I recall hearing the mysterious words “Allapattah Flats” while growing up in Martin County. Now, almost 60 years later, I recognize I really do not know what they were…
Page 1, EDD 1915 St Lucie Canal Survey Lake Okeechobee to Okeechobee Atlantic Divide, Florida Archives. Click to enlarge and view Allapattah Flats.
What I mostly heard about as a kid was not “Allapahttah Flats” but “Allapattah Ranch.” Although Allapattah Ranch was a boon in the 1950s, it was part of the total drainage and destruction of this enormous and magnificent swamp documented on many old maps like “Map of the Seat of War in Florida,” compiled by order of Bvt. Brigr. General Z. Taylor in 1839. Through the centuries many words were used for Allapattah Flats -all alluding toalligators like Al-Pa-ti-o-keeSwamp below, or just Halpatiokee. Obviously, there was a lot of fresh water on the land.
Excerpt 1839 Map of the Seat of War, Z.Taylor
In a 1952 Stuart News article shared from Sandra Thurlow’s archives, reporter Ernest Lyons entitles his 1952 news article “Griscom Bettle’s Allapattah Ranch Has 4,000 Acres Under Water Control, Lush Grass on Marin Highway.” Lyons article is a great learning tool. He goes on to explain that 23,000 acres of land was purchased from the Southern States Land and Timer Company around 1947. The land being drained and developed is “six miles deep” along Martin Highway and extends “four miles west from Marin Hammock.” It contains pine ridge land serrated by maiden cane sloughs that “bite” into muck, sand, and clay soils -shells and marl deposits- once an ancient seabed. The lands are so flat -when it rains – the water just spreads out.
Lyons has an easy way to remember Allapattah Flats’ location. It is described as a “long marsh extending down back of Ft. Pierce to the St Lucie Canal.”
There were 2 – 4 feet muck deposits atop marl under 1 – 3 foot of water. The muck is what the landowner is after. He wants to drain and then churn this ancient sea up so soft green grasses can grow on the rich exposed land for cattle.
These thousands of year old “Flats” were separated from the east coast on one side and from Lake Okeechobee on the other. Likely the Green Pine Ridge on the east and the Orlando Ridge on the west. Lyons states the ridges themselves were 8 -12 miles wide!
At this point the article goes into the controversial C-23 canal…
This canal was so controversial. A bad thing for the St. Lucie River. The locals had already had tremendous problems in Bessey Creek and around Palm City with shoaling and fish leaving the area. Now on top of the St. Lucie Canal there would be the C-23 canal. Lyons talks about how the C-23 is being built as an “emergency canal” as part of the Central and South Florida Plan of 1948 post great flood of 1947.
Lyons explains how C-23 starts at the first curve above Bessey Creek Bridge and then cuts through slough depressions again and again between pine ridges. The ACOE is ameliorating the worries of the public by promising “controls” that are to be established every few miles to regulate the water through the Flats.
Bessey Creek and a newly constructed C-23 looking southwest in 1965. Photo archives of Sandra Thurlow.
C-23 was started in 1951 and completed in 1961, nine years after this Stuart News article was written in 1952. What a shame that so much was destroyed and so little saved of the wondrous Allapattah Flats. They really were a part of the Everglades itself. Thankfully somerestoration began in 2014 and continues.
Click on image to enlarge:
Bessey Creek flows into the St Lucie River. Here a newly constructed C-23 photographed in 1965. Allapattah Flats sprawl south and west of canal. The creek is the exiting point for C-23 into the St Lucie River. The canal was built between 1951 and 1961. As land development and farming of the surrounding lands has increased so has the pollution from the canal. (Ruhnke-Photo archives of Sandra Thurlow)
Summary of C-23 written by FDEP in 2000. See map for location of C-23 canal.
*1924 is the 100 year anniversary of the St Lucie Canal AKA C-44. C-23 was built later ’51’-61′ as people continued to drain the area; C-24 ’58-’62; C-25 ’49-62. These dates are from the SFMWD and may include land acquisition.
Full 1839 Z. Taylor map showing pre-drainage lands
Documenting the Discharges – 2023 to St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon from Lake Okeechobee – 74 days!
Date: Wednesday, April 5, 2023
Time: Around 11 am
Tide: High at Sewall’s Point
Pilot /Photographer: Ed Lippisch
Location: St Lucie River and Indian River Lagoon, St Lucie Inlet, Nearshore Reefs, Atlantic Ocean, Sailfish Flats, Jupiter Narrows, S-80 St Lucie Lock and Dam in St Lucie Canal (C-44), and S-308 at Port Mayaca at Lake Okeechobee
-Florida’s Everglades Drainage District survey for St Lucie Canal, 1915. Chief Engineer, F.C. Elliott. The St Lucie Canal was built from Lake Okeechobee to the St Lucie River from 1916-1924. Trees and water bodies to be cut through are written at the top of the two page survey and are a rare record of pre-drainage lands. Click on images to enlarge.
Page 1, EDD 1915 St Lucie Canal Survey Lake Okeechobee to Okeechobee Atlantic Divide, Florida Archives.
Page 2, EDD 1915 St Lucie Canal Survey Okeechobee Atlantic Divide to South Fork of St Lucie River, Florida Archives.
The pre-drainage lands between Lake Okeechobee and the St Lucie River have been drastically changed. Drainage, agriculture production, and land development have altered the natural system. What did it look like when the Everglades Drainage District engineers first saw these lands? Fortunately, Florida Archives contains surveys directed by chief engineer, Fred C. Elliot from 1915. These rare blueprints provide a broad idea of the native vegetation, trees, creeks, lakes, sloughs, and ponds of that era. Something many of us have no idea of today…
When you click on the two above images you will see that at the top of the survey are written vegetation descriptions:
East to West they read:
Okeechobee Marsh, Flat Woods and Ponds, Allapattah Flats, Pine Woods, Cane Slough, Pine Woods, and Creek Hammock.
Yes, along the east side of Lake Okeechobee where Lock 1 was constructed at Port Mayaca, lies the “Okeechobee Marsh” the “Edge of Glades.” This area was indeed part of the greater Everglades system asLake Okeechobee would expand during rainy times, overall about thirty percent larger than today.
As the land rise east from the Okeechobee Marsh the survey notes “Flat Woods and Ponds.” These flat woods were mesic or wet. More than likely, it was slash pine and some other species. Ponds, sometimes dry, were everywhere, especially near Lake Okeechobee. East of the “Flat Woods and Ponds” was “Allapattah Flats,” a huge wetland, also called Halpatiokee or Alipatiokee Swamp. This “swamp” is well marked on historic maps and even mentioned by Buckingham Smith in the first U.S. Everglades survey of 1848.
We can see that “Allapattah Flats” cradled the higher lands and “Settlement of Annie” today’s Orlando Ridge and Indiantown. The wet marsh flowed south to the waters of the Loxahatchee Slough. The survey marks multiple ponds and the “Okeechobee Atlantic Divide” to the east of “Allapattah Flats.” Once the St Lucie Canal was built, these waters that mostly flowed south were directed to the St Lucie River.
Roads are noted on the survey, and the “Old Trail Jupiter Road” is cut through by the St Lucie Canal in the area of today’s Timer Power’s Park in Indiantown. Note “Plat’s Ranch” along the trail. Other roads that led from the “Settlement of Annie” were the trail south to Big Mound City, the trail north to Fort Bassinger, and the road east to Stuart that still exist today as Highway 76.
The survey notes more ponds and “Pine Woods” as the canal continues east. Pine Woods are more forest like with trees closer together than Flat Woods. Tall, stately, virgin slash pine (yellow pine) possibly hundreds of years old would have dominated this region providing excellent habitat for bears, panthers, deer, woodpeckers, and a plethora of other animals. For native Americans and European pioneers the lands between Lake Okeechobee and the St Lucie River was a treasured hunting ground.
Going east, right before the upturn in the canal, we run into an “Arm of Cane Slough,” on the east side and below the “Green Pine Ridge.” The Green Pine Ridge was surrounded by “Pine Woods.” A slough, as in Cane Slough, is a marsh-like shallow river. “Cane Slough Creek” merged with “North Creek” to feed the St Lucie River’s South Fork. Note the cypress dome and large lake in the area between the road to Stuart and the proposed canal just under the “Green Pine Ridge.” Look how large and wide Cane Slough became as it neared the St Lucie! Today this developed area is all but “history.”
As the Pine Woods fade, we come to “Lock and Dam 2,” today’s St Lucie Locks and Dam & the 7 Gates of Hell. Interesting to see that the connection occurs at the head of “North Creek” where there a significant drop in elevation begins to the St Lucie River. At “North Creek,” the vegetation changes from “Pine Woods” to “Creek Hammock” containing a variety of close knit trees and shrubs leading to the South Fork of the St Lucie River.
During this time, 1915, the North Creek was located above Cane Slough Creek, the two merged and fed the South Fork of the St Lucie River. It is ironic that the canal survey that killed the St Lucie River provides one of the only records of the area’s pre-drainage glory.
Insert survey 2, 1915
Historic postcard- natural Florida creek, maybe North Creek that the St Lucie Canal was connected to looked something like this? Collection, Sandra Henderson Thurlow.
1940 Aerials U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, UF -vegetation notes JTL
Helpful Charts – Where are We with L.O. Discharges 2023
The discharges have gone on for a long time. The ACOE with the support of the SFWMD began discharging to the St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon on January 22, 2023 as the level of Lake Okeechobee had jumped four feet when Hurricane Ian ground through southwest Florida last September.
Then strangely algae appeared in Lake Okeechobee in February, very early in the year, and the ACOE halted and restarted discharges three times as the Colonel was uncomfortable with the visual amount of algae at S-308 in Port Mayaca. Then the weather got cooler and the the algae visually subsided and the ACOE continued the goal of getting the lake down for the next hurricane season for the lake operation schedule. For a hundred years the water that once flowed south from Lake Okeechobee has been increasingly blocked and redirected to the northern estuaries even though once there was a serious ACOE consideration in the 1950s of a third outlet south of the lake, “Plan 6.”
Today I share charts and information that is easy to understand as we enter the fourth named month of discharges. Will they stop? We have been fortunate in that the weather this year has been very dry and the lake is receding. For water managers according to the recent SFWMD Water Resource Form, current projections still have then lake between 13.5 and 14 feet on June 1st. But it seems so dry. Grass is brown and people are watering their lawns like crazy. Wouldn’t it be ironic if we go into a drought and we wish we had the water later? It has happened before. Mother Nature holds the highest cards in this poker game.
Chart tracking total flows to the estuary. Flows to the SLR other than discharges from L.O. are low as little rain, thus for scientists “under damaging range of 1500-2000 cfs.” Courtesy of John Mitnik Chief District Engineer and Asst. Ex. Dir. SFWMD L.O. stages compared SFWMD Weekly Environmental Conditions Report 3-20-23 Salinity levels SLR/DEP 3-31-23 L.O. historical comparison of lake level ACOE/SFWMD. Today L.O. is reported at 14.59 feet. Easy read chart of discharges. Courtesy Todd Thurlow eyeonlakeo.com
Greetings everyone. I have fallen behind in my new year’s resolution for 2023 – “write once a week on a historical aspect of the St Lucie Canal for 2024’s 100 year anniversary.” The St. Lucie Canal was built by Florida’s Everglades Drainage District from 1916 to 1924. In the early days many locals called it the “monster ditch” but it would reach much larger status in the years to come once turned over the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 1931.
Today, I share one of my mother’s articles from the early days of the canal and river from one of Sewall’s Point’s most famous adventurer naval residents, Hugh L. Willoughby who came to Sewall’s Point in 1906. This article is an uncovered gem of a piece from The Stuart Messenger penned by Willoughby. The date on the front page is hard to read; to me it looks like 1918. My mother thinks it looks like 1916.
World War I occurred between 1914 and 1918 and thus the St Lucie Canal was first constructed during this difficult era. Also Congress was considering deepening the St Lucie Inlet after being opened by hand in 1892.
Thoughts of war are reflected in the article: “Willoughby Boost the Canal and Inlet, Both are of Great Importance. On the Completion of These Projects Submarines and Torpedo Boats Can Navigate East Coast.”
Hopefully, such thought are never something we have to ponder again…
Willoughby in aviation gear. Courtesy of Martin County Historical Society ca. 1920s.
1st aerial over St Lucie River and Inlet at Sewall’s Point-Willoughby. Courtesy Dale Hudson Stuart on the St Lucie, Sandra Henderson Thurlow ca. 1910s.
Hi everyone. I wanted to share an email written to me by Todd Thurlow yesterday that really made me smile. It shows that we are getting closer to the ACOE halting Lake Okeechobee discharges to the St Lucie River as the lake level is approaching where the Corps wants it to be prior to next hurricane season. And today was so sunny, not a cloud in the sky, surely the lake is even lower. Check eyeonlakeo.com. Have a great weekend!
Jacqui,
With the top of the Eco envelope flat at 14.5ft between 3/15 and 4/1, it looks like we are catching up and could get down in the envelope soon.
(By my calcs – I had to interpolate the top and bottom on my own a while back with no publicly available table to find). The 0.27ft number also appears live on the banner of eyeonlakeo.com. I hadn’t looked at it in a while until I was talking to Lt. Col. Polk today at Rivers Coalition and checked it on my phone. We are only +3.2 inches above to Top, as shown on the banner.
These aerials were taken today, March 22, 2023, around 10:45 am. High tide crested at 11:09 am. Thank you to our eye in the sky and the apple of my eye, Ed Lippisch for consistently photographing the St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon. Also included is S-308 at Port Mayaca, Lake Okeechobee-checking for algae.
Tomorrow there is a meeting at noon at the St Lucie Locks and Dam of the longstanding defenders of the the river, the Rivers Coalition, asking or one could say, demanding, that the discharges to be stopped. We all know that discharges are helpful for lowing a high (now 14.84) Lake Okeechobee, but not for the health of the St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon, who has unfairly bore this burden for 99 years.
-St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon with discharges of 500 cfs. Aerials Ed Lippisch.
Today I share “on the water” visual reporting by my brother, Todd Thurlow. On Saturday, March 18, 2023, Todd and family took a boat ride to the popular Sandbar area just inside the St Lucie Inlet of Martin County. This is a region my husband Ed and I have been documenting since the 500 cubic foot per second discharges from Lake Okeechobee began by the Army Corp of Engineers on January 22, 2023. First there was no algae reported then there was. The ACOE has started and stopped at least three times as reported by TCPalm, but now with the weather cool the gates are again open.
For months, from the air, the historic seagrass beds have looked like a desert.
Todd’s pictures close up, on the water, show some life and give hope that by June or August there may be more lush seagrass meadows as retuned in 2022. Sprigs of seagrass, although light, are visible along with young welch, conch, and moon snails. Wading birds and sea birds can be seen feeding on and around the flats. Rays or manatees take off -hiding in sand cover. Such a beautiful place! This area and its critters are protected; be careful and thoughtful when boating here. It is an Indian River Lagoon aquatic preserve.
Ravaged by discharges from Lake Okeechobee in 2013, 2016, and 2018, the SLR/IRL does not need any Lake O water, this particularly holds true when blue green algae has been reported by the SFWMD, ACOE, FDEP, and the public.
Thank you Todd for this documentation 3-18-23 taken around 11: 50 am.
Thank you for FWC – Florida Wildlife Commission- for creating these IRL Aquatic Preserve signage to help educate and protect seagrasses. Please share! IRL A.P. 18-24 large seagrass_sgn
Todd Thurlow is the author of the website eyeonlakeo.com for “science for the everyday person.”
Due to cyanobacteria sightings and thoughtful decisions of Col. Booth, the ACOE has been “off and on” discharging an average of 500 cubic feet per second to the St Lucie River from Lake Okeechobee (15.06 ft).
Today’s aerials show the St Lucie River and Port Mayaca at Lake Okeechobee on March 11 about two hours after high tide around 1:30 pm. Discharges began January 22, 2023. ~Ed and I continue to document the discharges with the hope that they will be halted as algae is present, visible or invisible, having bloomed early (February) in Lake Okeechobee.
My husband Ed took these aerials yesterday March 4, 2023 around 11am. He described it as a “mid tide” between high and low. Also swinging by Port Mayaca, at Lake Okeechobee, this time there was no visible algae.
Following Ed’s aerials I am including those of Dr. Scott Kuhns whose photographs taken on February 27, 2023 around 10am showing streaks of algae caused the ACOE to close gate S-308 at Port Mayaca for about 2 1/2 days. Kudos to Dr Kuhns! And thank you to the ACOE for closing!
So the pictures directly below are Ed’s 3-4-23 and those following are Scott’s 2-27-23. We will continue to document the discharges with hopes they will be halted. We all agree that St Lucie River suffers under the discharges. She was taking water to avoid algae in summer. No one thought algae sightings would begin so early in February, but they have. With this discovery, it is time to 🛑 stop! Cyanobacteria is impossible to 100% track and understand. It is too ancient and will outsmart us every time. Close the locks.
IRL/SLR Sewall’s Point to StuartSky River Warriors since 2013. Pilots & friends Dr Ed Lippisch & Dr Scott Kuhns. This photo was taken by JTL in 2016.February 27 by Dr Scott Kuhns. This photo caused the ACOE to close S308 for two and one half days.
~This post is written as part of a series recognizing that 2024 is the official “100 year anniversary” of the infamous St Lucie Canal completed in 1924.
If your’e a history person, or someone who likes to read about the Everglades, you have probably heard the name, “Buckingham Smith.” We learn that the drainage and destruction of the Northern Everglades to drain the Entire Everglades all started with his 1848 reconnoissance and report to the United States Treasury.
Perhaps Smith’s report was the first and major factor, but one can’t read it without noting Smith’s stunning description of the Everglades. Today such words, from someone hellbent on drainage would sound contradictory.
Today, I am transcribing parts of Buckingham Smith’s 1848 report. It was Florida’s Senator, James Westcott who asked the U.S. Department of the Treasury to make this study. Westcott was one of Florida’s first senators when Florida was admitted to the Union in 1845. Smith’s report came out in 1848 and has been reprinted many times. It is world famous. You can access the report partially reprinted in 1911 at the above link.
The link will bring you to Document No. 89 of the U.S. Senates’ 62nd Congress, 1st Session, entitled, Everglades of Florida, Acts, Reports, and Other Papers, State and National, Relating to the Everglades of the State of Florida and their Reclamation, Washington Government Printing Office, 1911. The excepts below are of particular interest from that report.
Transcription page 49, Buckingham Smith Report: (Draining Lake O)
“To reclaim the Everglades and the Atseenahoofa and Halpatiokee Swamps and the lowlands on the margin of the Kissimmee River and its tributaries, and the other rives emptying into Lake Okeechobee, this lake must be tapped by such canals running into the Caloosahatchee on the one side and into the Lochahatchee or San Lucia, or both, on the other, and the cuts must also be made from the streams on both sides of the peninsula into the Glades. Besides, after the height of the waters in the Glades should be decreased, even as much as 5 feet, there will probably be a necessity for several drains through the Glades and those swamps, by which the waters accumulating from the rains may be conducted to the ocean or gulf…”
This excerpt is interesting for me because San Lucia is the St Lucie River. Smith is saying the St Lucie should be tapped or cut to allow Lake Okeechobee to drain to the ocean. This is the first formally government documented statement of such an observation/recommendation. The Halpatiokee Swamp, also mentioned as the headwaters, was located between today’s Martin and St Lucie counties. I am told by my brother Todd that Halpatiokee Swamp and “Alpatiokee Swamp” were used interchangeably. Both meaning “Alligator” in Seminole or some similar language stock. The Loxahatchee river, spelled “Lochahatchee” by Smith, was never connected to drain Lake Okeechobee but has been partially channelized and otherwise extensively drained. The Calooshatchee was tapped first by Hamilton Disston around 1881 to drain Lake Okeechobee and then widened and deepened multiple times as also with the St Lucie. “Asteenahoofa,” a new work for me, was Smith’s word for today’s Big Cypress Swamp.
Transcription page 51, Buckingham Smith Report: (The unusual beauty of the place)
“Imagine a vast lake of fresh water extending in every direction from shore to shore beyond the reach of human vision, ordinarily unruffled by a ripple on its surface, studded with thousands of islands of various sizes, from one-fourth of an acre to hundreds of acres in area, and which are generally covered with dense thickets of shrubbery and vines. Occasionally an island is found with lofty pines and palmettos upon it, but oftener they are without any, and not unusually a solitary majestic palmetto is seen, the only tree upon an island, as if to guide in approaching it, or a place of signal or lookout for its former denizens. The surrounding waters, except in places that at first seem like channel ways (but which are not), are covered with the tall sawgrass, shooting up its straight and slender stem from the shallow bottom of the lake to the height of 10 feet above the surface and covering all but a few rods around from your view. The water is pure and limpid and almost imperceptibly moves, not in partial currents, but in a mass, silently and slowly to the southward. The bottom of the lake at the distance of from 3 to 6 feet is covered with a deposit of decayed vegetable substance, the accumulated product of ages, generally 2 or 3 feet in depth on the white sand and rock that underlies it over the entire surface of the basin. The flexible grass bending gently to the breeze protects the waters from its influence. Lilies and other aquatic flowers of every variety and hue are to be seen on every side, in pleasant contrast with the pale green of the saw grass, and as you draw near an island the beauty of the scene is increased by the rich foliage and blooming flowers of the wild myrtle and the honeysuckle and the shrubs and vines that generally adorn its shores. The profound and wild solitude of the place, the solemn silence that pervades it, unless broken by the splashing of a paddle of the canoe of light bateau with which only can you traverse the Pahayokee, or by the voices of your “compagnons du voyage” add to awakened and excited curiosity feelings bordering on awe. No human being, civilized of savage, inhabits the secluded interior of the Glades. The Seminoles reside in the region between them and the Gulf. Except for the occasional flight of an eagle or a bittern, startled by the strange invaders of their privacy, for for a view of the fishes in the shallow waters gliding swiftly from your boat as it goes near to them your eye would not rest on living thing abiding in this wilderness of “grass waters,” shrubbery, and flowers…”
This page 51 excerpt is interesting because this man who we have forever associated with the determination to drain the Everglades obviously also recognized its awe and beauty. Buckingham Smith was a very learned man of his era, a deep intellectual. I think it pained him in some way to recommend drainage. He had a job to do -survey – and he knew what the government wanted to do. In his full report, he did really present both options: the Everglades’ incredible beautiful essence, and then on the other, hand demonizing it as a filthy swamp to be resurrected for mankind, as below.
Pages 53 and 54: (Smith’s most quoted reference to why the Everglades should be drained)
“Eminent statements and philosophers have, in estimating the services of individuals to their county and to their fellow men, advanced the opinion that he who causes two sheaves of wheat to grow where one only grew before, better deserves the thanks of his race than the author, the legislator, or the victorious general. The degree of merit awarded by them to the particular act first specified may be extravagant, but no one of sound moral judgment will, it is presumed, deny that then increase of the agricultural resources , and the promotion of the the agricultural interests of a people already politically free, is the very highest service that can be rendered them, and most conductive to the preservation of their independence, prosperity, and happiness. The citizen, whether in executive or legislative station, or without either, who succeeds in making fit for cultivation, even if but partially, a region equal in extent to either of the smallest State of this Confederacy, now as useless as the deserts of Africa, will earn a rich meed of praise from the people of Florida and of the Union. The Everglades are now suitable only for the haunt of noxious vermin, or the resort of pestilent reptiles. The statesman whose exertions shall cause the millions of acres they contain, now worse than worthless, to teem with the products of agricultural industry; to be changed into a garden in which can be reared many and various exotics, introduced for the first time for cultivation into the United States, whether necessaries of life, or conveniences, or luxuries merely; that man who thus adds to the resources and wealth and independence of his country, who contributes by such means to the comfort of his fellow men, will merit a high place in public favor, not only with this own generation, but with posterity. He will have created a State. I feel that to be connected with the inception of a measure which, if carried out properly, will probably produce such results; to be identified, even in a secondary position, with the commencement of an undertaking that must be so eminently beneficial to my country, is a privilege of no mean consideration…”
This report has been used thousands of times to showcase the words “The Everglades are now suitable only for the haunt of noxious vermin, or the resort of pestilent reptiles.” A sharp contrast to “Lilies and other aquatic flowers of every variety and hue are to be seen on every side, in pleasant contrast with the pale green of the saw grass, and as you draw near an island the beauty of the scene is increased by the rich foliage and blooming flowers of the wild myrtle and the honeysuckle and the shrubs and vines that generally adorn its shores. The profound and wild solitude of the place, the solemn silence that pervades it, unless broken by the splashing of a paddle of the canoe of light bateau with which only can you traverse the Pahayokee, or by the voices of your “compagnons du voyage” add to awakened and excited curiosity feelings bordering on awe.”
I wonder what Buckingham Smith would write if he were alive today?
These aerial photographs were taken by my husband, Ed Lippisch, on Friday, February 24, 2023 around 1:51 pm during high tide. It was a beautiful day and many boats were fishing over the nearshore reefs. The 500 cubic feet per second discharges are much less noticeable at high tide; the visual loss of seagrass remains. I am sharing all photographs -many are very similar, you can look for small differences.
Please see slides from ACOE Periodic Scientist Call on 2-21-23 for updates on Lake Okeechobee level, red tide on west coast, east coast conditions, and other important information. Periodic_Scientists_Call_2023-02-21
With the hot, dry weather the last few days Lake Okeechobee’s evaporation should be high. Today the SFWMD reported the lake at 15.61 feet. You can see the ecological envelope band in gray below.
Manuscript Collection, Florida Memory, circa 1921.
I invite my readers to attend a presentation entitled “The History of the St. Luice Canal.”Todd Thurlow and I will be using historic maps, newspapers, and photographs together with modern technology to give insight into a canal that has been “on the minds of men” since the mid 1800s and even earlier.
If you want to attend in person, please join us at the Rivers Coalition meeting, Thursday, February 23, at 11:00am, Stuart City Hall Chambers, 121 S.W. Flagler Avenue, Stuart , FL 34994. If you’d like to join via Zoom, please reach out to the the meeting administrator at miki@riverscoalition.org and request a Zoom link.
I hope you’ll join us!
The St. Lucie Canal was built by the Everglades Drainage District from 1915-1924 (some records state 1925 or 1926). Its unnatural connection drains surrounding lands and allows “overflow” water from Lake Okeechobee to be directed to the St. Lucie River wrecking the estuary’s delicate wildlife ecology and spurring massive toxic blooms in 2013, 2016, and 2018. Of course, the canal has been a boon for agriculture and development of all South and Central Florida as it was built as the “primary drainage canal” of the Everglades.
As the official completion date of the St Lucie Canal by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection is 1924, next year will be the 100 Year Anniversary of the St. Lucie Canal. Thus this year, in 2023, I am writing and presenting extensively on the history of this beloved and hated canal as we work to weave it into a better water future.
Lock No. 2, original structure at today’s St Lucie Lock and Dam.
~Ed’s Aerial Report 24 days after discharges begin at 500 cfs via ACOE from Lake Okeechobee to SLR/IRL. Documenting the Discharges.
My husband Ed Lippisch has asked me to get these photos on-line ASAP. They were taken of the St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon area around Sewall’s Point, yesterday, February 15, 2023 around 1:25pm. It was an incoming tide about two hours after low tide. I do not have time to go through all the photos so I am sharing all of them. Many are almost identical. Color doesn’t look great. No seagrasses visible. Salinity remains in range according to FDEP. See my brother Todd’s website EyeonLakeO.com for more information.
Hello everybody. My husband Ed brought these photos home on February 11, 2023, taken around 12:41pm. Some of the aerials are amazing! They include the woods surrounding Everglades City and Everglades National Park in Collier County. The most striking to me, besides the unusual shapes included in 10,000 Islands, is Chokoloskee, basically the Nettles Island of the Everglades. It is certainly one of the most interesting looking places in the world. Thankfully the land around Chokoloskee was made into a National Park in 1947 or who knows what it would look like today!
-Chokoloskee is connected to Everglades City by a causeway in Chokoloskee Bay. Here, fresh water running off the land meets salt water. The Gulf of Mexico is only separated by a puzzle of beautiful islands in this remarkable place.-Chokoloskee
Google maps showing ret dot where Chokolosekee is located in reference to South Florida.
Today’s post is Part 2 of “Palm City, Empire of the Everglades,”written for the upcoming, 2024, official 100 year anniversary of the completion of the St Lucie Canal. This canal was renamed the C-44 Canal after the federal government’s incorporation of the canal into the construction of the Central and Southern Florida Project -post “great flood” of 1947.
I prefer to call C-44 it by its first and more personal name, the St Lucie Canal.
Below is part two of a transcription of an historic 1923 Miami Herald article from my mother Sandra Thurlow’s local Martin County, Florida, history archives. Today’s historic article gives insight into a world forgotten. A world of excitement for “drain baby drain,” with little if any concern or knowledge of the health of Florida’s state waters or the greater environment.
In the few remaining paragraphs of the article the reporter, William Stuart Hill, notes how many miles of ditches have been dug, what dredging contracts have been executed, what equipment will be purchased for even more ditching to drain into the St Lucie River and St Lucie Canal, and what roads are available – by today’s standards very few!
It was a world set out to drain the Everglades and a tremendous determination to create an empire of agriculture. In 1923, there was no Publix at every corner, nor FEMA to come help if a hurricane brought you to your knees and the drainage of the land to produce food became extensive.
Thank you to my mother for sharing these old articles and pointing out the important history of Palm City, Florida. As we learn about our past, we can build a better future.
I am posting this photograph to give an idea of what a drag line machine/excavator look like as referred to in the article as one hoped to use by F.A. McKinzie, via Florida Memory. http://www.floridamemory.com/items/show/105693
The drainage district has recently sold bonds amounting to $100,000 to carry on a more comprehensive plan of drainage than the one originally intended and has awarded a contact to F.A.McKenzie, of Miami, for widening and deepening the original outlets and doing other work. Mr McKenzie’s contract provides for the payment by the drainage district to him of $75,000. Supervisors of the drainage district are: G. Wuckner, F.C Garde and O. Coffrin, all of Palm City. The drainage district was created under the general statutes by petition to the circuit court.
Map of Palm City Drainage District. This map is not from the Miami Herald Article, but from my mother, Sandra Thurlow’s archives. It shows the many ditches dug to drain the land of Palm City Farms in the Palm City Drainage District created in 1919.
Mr. McKenzie is making preparations to begin work immediately on the execution of an Economy drag line excavator, and intends buying a Bucyrus machine.
A hard surface road extension seven miles through the district, and leads from Palm City to Tropical City and thence back to Stuart, a total distance of 21 miles.
The Palm Beach County Land company, at its own expense, dug 40 miles of drainage ditches, exclusive of 80 miles of road ditches, at a cost of $63,720. It also built more than 40 miles of dirt roads in Palm City Farms, on the outer lines of the sections, at an expenditure of $38,783.
Transcription/article end. JTL
Maiami Herald, 1923.
I am including the map below from 1928 (five years after the Miami Herald article) as it shows what roads were in the Palm City area although Palm City is not on the map. Road to the Glades, today’s Highway 76 or Kanner Highway, US 1 -some that was linked with today’s AIA or Dixie Highway, and what was known as “Loop Road” off of 96A (opposite direction of today’s Pratt Whitney Road going to Citrus Blvd.) are visible as is the infamous St Lucie Canal built first from 1916-1924. Again, thank you to my mother for sharing all of these historic documents in my obsession to document the history and thus aid in a better water future for the St Lucie Canal and St Lucie River.
Today is Ed and my 18th year anniversary. I don’t have a lot of time to go through Ed’s recent photos as we document the discharges so I am just going to post all -of the St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon from February 8, 2023 taken around 1:23 pm. There are only subtle nuances between them. The ACOE started discharging 500 cfs from Lake Okeechobee on January 22, 2023. You can see the effects in these photographs. The water is able to clear near the St Lucie Inlet at this time. No seagrass in sight. Please see previous post to compare. I will write more soon.
Today I share yet another remarkable historic article from my mother Sandra Thurlow’s archives. This time from the Miami Herald, 1923. The significance of this article, that I have transcribed and broken down into two parts, is that it tells the story of Palm City, Florida, as part of the “Empire of the Everglades;” this a past of Palm City that most of us don’t know.
Indeed, Palm City was founded partially as Palm City Farms and even had its own drainage district. We have altered the land so we can be productive and live here, and today, and in the future, we try the best we can to put some of the water back on the land to clean it and bring all back to health. Also this article is shared as 2024 is the official 100 year anniversary of the St Lucie Canal.
“Empire of the Everglades,” Miami Herald, 1923, Part 1 as transcribed by JTL
~Transcription begin
“The Great Prairie of Florida”
Palm City Drainage District Lets Contract for Additional Ditches
Will Expend $100,000 Supplementing the Original Drainage Plan; 900 Acres of Citrus Trees Growing In the Reclaimed Area; C.C. Chillilngworth Is the Developer.
By William Stuart Hill
Back of Stuart, in the Palm Beach county, lies Palm City, then Palm City Farms and the Palm City Drainage District, the latter extending almost to the St. Lucie canal and containing 14,300 acres of land and prairie.
Palm City is situate on the shore of the south fork of the St. Lucie river, and its inhabitants have access to the other bank by means of the Palm City bridge, and to Stuart two miles away, by means of a hard surface road. Another road, to the south, connects with the Dixie highway at a considerable distance below Stuart.
The Palm City drainage district was formed recently to supplement the work of drainage begun and achieved by the Palm Beach County Land company, original owner and developer of the Palm City Farms, C.C. Chillingworth, attorney, of West Palm Beach, is owner of the Palm Beach County Farms company and retains about 5000 acres of the original 10,000 acre tract. The remainder has been sold to settlers.
There are 28 citrus groves in Palm City Farms, comprising 900 acres. The largest of these, the grove owned by the Niagara Fruit company, contains 160 acres, and is said to be the largest citrus grove on the east coast of Florida. There are also considerable plantings of avocados and one guava grove in the drainage district, which takes in 6,200 acres not in the Palm Beach Farms.
The land within the drainage district is well adapted to citrus culture and has the double advantage of easy drainage and easier irrigation. The highest elevation in the district is 27 feet above sea level. Artesian water may be had, with flowing wells at a depth of approximately 600 feet.
During the years between 1912 and 1916, the land company spent $102,000 in the digging of drainage ditches and the construction of the roads within its 10,000-acre tract. Three main outlets were provided, one through Danforth creek, another through Bessey’s creek, and a third large ditch, emptying into the south fork of the St Lucie river near the outlet of the big St. Lucie Everglades drainage or control canal.
Aerials of St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon taken February 3, 2023, 1pm “about two hours before low tide.”Florida Oceanographic Society graded the St. Lucie River at an overall “B” for water quality January 26 through February 1st. An “A” for the IRL and a “C” for the SLR west of Sewall’s Point. Since January 22, 2023, the ACOE continues to discharge 500 cubic feet per second from Lake Okeechobee to lower the lake in avoidance of toxic algae blooms predicted in Lake Okeechobee this summer due to Hurricane Ian. The lake is presently at 15.92 feet down from 16.10 feet on January 22, 2023. ~Photographs Ed Lippisch
Ed Lippisch River Warrior documenting the SLR since 2013.
~Aerials below taken 12 days after ACOE began discharging 500 cubic feet per second from S-80 via Lake Okeechobee. Color better in IRL than SLR. Of concern no visible seagrass.
SFWMD’s most recent chart from Environmental Conditions Report: Total Flow to the SLR.
~St Lucie Inlet and Crossroads of SLR/IRL at Sewall’s Point, Stuart, Martin County, FL 2/3/23
Follow Todd Thurlow eyeonlakeo.com for easy to read updates.
SFWMD canal and basin map. C-44 canal is the canal most southerly in the image. When S-308 is open at Port Mayaca, Lake Okeechobee water discharges through the C-44 canal and S-80 into the St Lucie River. This is totally unnatural as the St Lucie was never connected to the lake. The ACOE & SFWMD are working at a record pace to improve the plight of the northern estuaries through a new lake schedule, LOSOM, and CERP-Everglades Restoration.
Due to high Lake Okeechobee level and in light of cyanaobactia blooms predicted on lake this summer -a side effect of Category 4 Hurricane Ian- the U. S. Army Corp of Engineers, with the support of the SFWMD on 1-22-23, began discharging 500 cubic feet per second to the St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon on January 22, 2023 and 2000 cfs to the Caloosahatchee to lower a lake not receding.
Yesterday, on January 29, 2023 my husband, Ed Lippisch, flew over the St Lucie River to see how the estuary is visually faring after seven days of discharges. He captured the images around 2pm so it was what he calls a “slack tide,” a tide in between high tide and low tide.
Today I share Ed’s aerials, the effects of discharges is obvious and to compare to a pre-discharge high tide and low tide taken on January 22, 2023, before the discharges reached the estuary, please see link above and go to end of blog post.
I cannot thank my husband enough for all of his flights and dedication as a River Warrior of the St Lucie River. He continues to be our eye in the sky since 2013 and my best friend.
Tide chart St Luce River. Note January 29, 2023. Ed’s photos were taken beginning at 1:56pm.
Below:
Aerials of St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon after 7 days of discharges from Lake O, note darker water and plume at inlet. Among other things, the discharges cause less light to reach the struggling seagrasses and a plume exiting the St Lucie Inlet covers already sick near shore reefs.
More CERP projects than ever before are being built to offset discharges to the estuaries and this is cause for celebration, but it will take years for these projects to all be completed and undo the horrible environmental consequence of the Central and Southern Florida Plan of 1948. Most recently, since 2018, the State of Florida under the DeSantis administration, has led the effort to stop harmful discharges to the estuaries under Executive Order 19-12 and now 23-06. Millions of dollars are being spent by state and federal government. We will get there.
Slide of expenditures, Everglades Coalition Conference 2023 presentation.
LOSOM, a new lake operations schedule of the ACOE, will help too and should be in place by mid summer. This was an effort of all stakeholders. An exhausting and successful effort.
The St Lucie has not had heavy discharges in over four years. At height in years such as 2013, 2016 and 2018, over 5000 to 9000 cubic feet per second were sent to the St Lucie. This present 500 cfs is an attempt to avoid such a situation this summer. To lower the lake before it kills us. I hate discharges but I rather take my medicine now than be destroyed later. Also I appreciate the ACOE for trying something different (HAB DEVIATIONS & LOSOM). I have been watching like a hawk since 2008, I can assure you we are in a better place due to advocacy changing the political landscape. Do not get discouraged!
Lake Okeechobee Lake Levels U.S. ACOE
To follow the most updated lake okeechobee levels go to Todd Thurlow, eyeonlakeo.com
Grey is environmental envelope for Lake O. It is to be seen what the goal is for lowering the lake and decisions will be made weekly by ACOE.
St Lucie Canal, aka, C-44 at S-80, Ed Lippisch 1-22-23. ~Discharges began by ACOE from Lake O at 500 cfs on 1-22-23. For comparison, at worst times 5000 to 9000 cfs flooded the St Lucie on and off in 2013, 2016, 2018. 500cfs (cubic feet per second) is not good, but it is not high-level discharges. JTL
The St Lucie Canal, also known as, the C-44 Canal, is the property of the U.S. Government. Martin County public records show that in the early 1930s, as a result of the 1928 hurricane, the right of way of the Everglades Drainage District was taken as part of the Okeechobee Waterway.
The U.S. Army Corp of Engineers holds jurisdiction and decision making over the canal and the water that flows through it from basins and Lake Okeechobee. Since the great flood of 1947 and the creation of the Central and Southern Florida Plan, there has been a “local partner” in decision making. That partner today is named the South Florida Water Management District, formerly the Everglades Drainage District…
In a modern world, every week, there are conditions calls regarding Lake Okeechobee and the environmental envelope, etc. As in all things, these calls start with the “higher ups” and then end with a public call. The public call is the ACOE Periodic Scientist Call. During this call, stakeholders share conditions and concerns from all over south and central Florida. Most participants are government people or elected officials, but also heads of NGOs and members of the public chime in.
Grey is environmental envelope for Lake O
The process generally works as such: after all these calls, the SFWMD, the local sponsor, puts out an operations statement or recommendation to the ACOE. All of this information is available on line, but its like trying to find a needle in hay stack.
Of course the ACOE and the SFWMD have been communicating all week. At the end of the day, because the U.S. ACOE holds jurisdiction over the C-44 Canal the ACOE is the final decision maker. More than ever, though, they are listening and even seeking public input. This is refreshing!
Pulse to average 500cfs -releases to the SLR from LO, via ACOEO and https://eyeonlakeo.com, Todd Thurlow
The ACOEs has been announcing their decision on the Jacksonville District’s media call on Friday of the week of all the other calls. This past Friday, the day after the SFWMD operations report was submitted, and all the “calls”, January 20, 2023, the ACOE held its media call, and the decision to start discharging from Lake Okeechobee was made make Col. Booth.
Going back a couple of years, Col. Kelly, at the ACOE, came up with an operations plan called a HAB DEVIATION or Harmful Algae Bloom Deviation. This was done after Governor Ron DeSantis put forth Executive Order 19-12 that did all possible to avoid harmful and toxic discharges to the northern estuaries, St Lucie and Caloosahatcee, as years 2013, 2016 and 2018 had been disasters. HAB DEVIATIONS, like all things Army Corp, is engineering-like and complicated, but goal was to allow a deviation from lake operations (LORS or LOSOM) if there was algae in the lake or it was possible there could be algae in the lake, like after a Category 4 hurricane stirs everything up and brings massive runoff…
I am not sure if what the ACOE is doing now qualifies as a technical HAB Deviation, but it is certainly in the spirit of one. Both SFWMD and ACOE have stated they are expecting a large post Ian cyanobacteria blue-green algae bloom in Lake Okeechobee this summer. High lake water in summer would set off releases so they are hopefully dodging a bullet by lowing the lake now.
Due to Hurricane Ian, a Category 4 storm, that obliterated the lower west coast of Florida, coming in just north of Sanibel Island and Ft Meyers, Lake Okeechobee has risen four feet since September 28, 2022 cresting at around 16.47 feet. Because the Herbert Hoover Dike was almost complete, the ACOE did not discharge right away. If the lake had been at the 15.50 limit as before dike completion, there would have been discharges, input or no input.
Yesterday, January 25, 2023, was the ribbon-cutting for the Herbert Hoover Dike Rehabilitation. It took eighteen years. This does not mean there is unlimited allowance of water in Lake Okeechobee, but it allows for more flexibility as will LOSOM. Sediment has been settling in the lake since September/October.
I for one, appreciate the flexibility of the ACOE. In the old world when I entered in 2008, they just followed the book and opened the gates toxic algae or no toxic algae. Now there is awareness and thought. And water quality remains the responsibility of the state. If the ACOE believe/agree a HAB deviation is necessary after a Category 4 hurricane in order to try to avoid toxic discharges in summer when the lake often cooks into a toxic soup, I am all for it. I do not want to go through those type of years again!
These charts below from my brother Todd’s eyeonlakeo.com website show how water was discharged to the St Lucie in 2016, 2018, 2021, and 2022. Although the ACOE is discharging at 500 cfs average now to the SLR, all will be done to avoid another “Lost Summer!”
2016 Lost Summer 2
2018 Lost Summer 3
2021 nice summer even with LO releases (green)
2022 great summer, no releases LO
Photos of Ed Lippisch taken on Sunday, January 22, 2022, the day the 500 cfs discharges began to the St Lucie. These photos are baseline photos to compare to the future. I takes a day or more for discharge water to reach the St Lucie Inlet. The differences in these photos is due to tide and light.
-Stuart News 50th Anniversary Edition, 1964.Today I will complete part three, the final portion of my transcription of an historic 1964 Stuart News, anniversary edition from my mother’s archives. She actually shared this article with me over a year ago and I was so taken by it that I thought it may be an inspiration for a book. I never got around to it, thus now I am sharing on my blog as part of my 2023 new year’s resolution to write more and learn more about the St Lucie Canal. 2024 is the official 100 year anniversary of the St Lucie Canal according to the Department of Environmental Protection.
~Interesting references in part three of the article are the mentioning of a “release canal,” south to the Everglades, something that never materialized; reference, once again, to cutting edge “scientific water control” and the amazing success of the agriculture industry; 1933 noted as the first extreme discharge year from Lake Okeechobee to the St. Lucie River and damaging effects to fisheries and tourism; and in the final paragraph, a future plan linking a new “C-23 Canal on Martin County’s northern border with a major channel which would extend westward to Lake Okeechobee, with a side link to St Lucie Canal, and another channel from St. Lucie Canal southeastward down toward Pratt & Whitney and the Loxahatchee Marshes;” Gulp!
This is a reference to part of the canal system proposed in the 1948 and many following editions of the Central and Southern Florida Plan that thankfully was never built. This reference also leads me to believe that I was incorrect in part two when I wrote the article was written around 1937 or 1920 in part one. With these references to C-23, the article must have been composed after the great flood of 1947 as it is referring to the Central and Southern Florida Project of 1948. I am learning all the time as I sludge through this stuff. The St. Lucie Canal has had so many face lifts! It is hard to know what cut they are referring to!
~As we learn, we are more informed and able to change the future of this huge “ditch” that has defined, benefited, and destroyed the region of our St Lucie River.
So here is a transcription of Part III.
I have entitled my post “The Boon of the Huge Monster Ditch, St Lucie Canal,” as both terms “huge” and “monster,” are noted in full article. To me, the canal is a monster continuing to haunt and terrify. And just like in the movies, I know that until I meet this monster face to face, it wont go away. I hope you will encounter it with me.
You can click on images to enlarge.
Begin transcript paragraphs 11-25:
The great hurricane of 1928, which drowned about 4000 persons in the Lake Okeechobee area, resulted in the widening and deepening of both the St. Luice Canal and the Caloosahatchee River as well as major outlets from the lake. The widened and deepened canal was officially dedicated at ceremonies headed by Secretary of Commerce, Daniel Roper on March 22, 1937.
In the intervening years, the canal’s “good and bad” points have been the cause of growth in the agricultural lands of the interior and of damages to the fisheries and resorts on the coast in periods of excessive discharge. Today, as ever since 1933, when the first heavy discharge from hurricane rains was experienced, efforts are under way to so shape the discharge so that the canal’s benefit can be enjoyed without attendant harm. The U. S. Engineer Corp’s plans for a higher lake level by diking the entire lake may result in less necessity for discharge and a long-range plan has been advanced for diversion of excess water to Everglades National Park by means of a relief-valve canal.
However in the half century which has ensued since the canal was approved, one indisputable fact not clearly seen in the beginning has emerged stage by stage to justify it.
It is “scientific agriculture by water control.”
Thousands of pleasure craft and hundreds of barges, shrimp boats, and other commercial craft use the waterway today, but it never did develop into the “thriving artery of commerce” that was predicted in which ocean ships would sail up to Stuart and load the products of the Everglades Empire brought to the coast by the St. Luice Canal.
Nor did a plan advocated during World War II jell out to make it a major barge and oil transport canal to escape the submarines which infested the Straits of Florida, Yucatan Channel and the Gulf Stream.
What did “jell out” was an expansion all along the route of the the scientific water control for agriculture that was proven at Port Mayaca by that pioneering agricultural beginning in 1925.
G.C. Troup and Troup Brothers at Indiantown on their former 20,000-acre holdings, demonstrated that the combination of irrigation and good drainage would unlock agricultural riches. Today the Minute Maid and Hood corporations are among the huge citrus firms which have planted some 10,000 acres of new citrus and the largest lemon grove in the world on former Troup lands and lands opened to agriculture through water control by P. L. Hinson and others.
On both sides of the St. Lucie Canal, in the entire twenty-five miles of its length, there are spreading pastures, ranches where blooded cattle graze, and the Indiantown area also has some of the country’s largest diaries.
The Bessemer firm that proved it could be done is “in there pitching” with some of the most outstanding modern developments including Westbury Farms 1, 2, and 3, the new Westbury Farms Valencia Groves on the south side of the canal, and the spreading Green Ridge Groves on the north side. George Oliver who manages the giant spread and Michael Phipps of the major corporation are proud of the agricultural and ranching growth but prouder still of St. Lucie Training Park, unique race horse training facility where, “hopefuls” of some of the nation’s top stables get their “running” starts.
They can be found at dawn watching the work-outs on the oval track. Both are skilled polo players.
“Scientific water control with ample supplies from the St. Lucie Canal, and drainage into the canal, is the key to our county’s solid growth,” commented Oliver.
Currently being pushed by Martin County agricultural interests is a new over-all water control plan for the county which would spread the advantages of irrigation and drainage to areas not continuous to the St Lucie Canal.
The new plan would link in C-23 Canal on Martin County’s north border, where huge citrus planting have recently been made, with a major channel which would extend westward to Lake Okeechobee, with a side link to St Lucie Canal, and another channel from St. Lucie Canal southeastward down toward Pratt & Whitney and the Loxahatchee Marshes. Private landowners would link in with these new canals by irrigation pumps and drainage outlet as they have done along the St. Luice Canal.
