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.Flight Aware – Ed’s flight path
Pin is location east of EAA Reservoir area; Stuart is blue dot, and Chokoloskee is next to Everglades City on lower west coast.
The day began with smoke, smoke off the sugarcane fields.
Yesterday, Ed and I took a flight from Stuart to Everglades City, passing Chokoloskee and photographing the EAA Reservoir lands along the way. It is huge out there in the “Everglades,” seemingly endless. The easiest way to get one’s bearings is to look for the Miami and New River Canals that run south of Lake Okeechobee. Highway 27 parallels the New River Canal; where the red balloon is located above is the area east of where the EAA Reservoir will be constructed. For more specifics see link (https://jacquithurlowlippisch.com/tag/a-1-aerial/)
For Ed and I the flight, although hazy, was an opportunity to learn to recognize from the air Water Conservation Area 3, just south of the EAA Reservoir Area. The water conservation area lands are not located in Everglades National Park, but water quality is protected.
“To me these are the Everglades,” Ed said looking down.
“They are but they aren’t,” I replied. “They are part of the Central and South Florida Project, they are not natural; they are controlled. When they are too full from EAA water, the water from Lake O is not allowed to go south. If too full, from rain, or otherwise the animals can drown. Trapped on the tree islands raccoon, and deer, and panther together. Terrible.”
“Why can’t the water just flow south,” Ed asked.
“Lot of reasons, people like to say it’s because of an endangered bird, but its bigger than that, mostly because we have chosen to make it that way, and powerful entities keep our legislature from changing it in spite of what the voters say.” (SFWMD Constraints: https://apps.sfwmd.gov/SystemConstraintsDataApp/)
Ed did not reply.
We looked forward to what appeared to be little hills. The cypress domes of Big Cypress National Park reflected in the sunlight, and I could see “end of the earth” Chockoloskee right next to Everglades City in the distance. Pretty…
I can understand why people like to live down there so far away from everything. But they too can not escape our problems ~not with water.
Water Conservation AreasSmoke rises over sugarcane fields southwest of Martin County near the Palm Beach CanalSmoke, canals, sugarcane fields
Belle Glade, FL south of Lake OkeechobeeEd asked what this is. Not sure flooded fields, mining?Flowing Highway 27, the A1 on west side begins to show. Now a Flow Equalization Basin this land was once the Tailman Sugar Mill and is located on the east side of where the EAA reservoir is to be constructed.Looking west of A1 towards A2 where EAA Reservoir is to be builtA1 from another positionThe North New River Canal to Ft Lauderdale now follows Highway 27. It once was in isolation as people used the canal to get to and from Lake O from the mouth of the New RiverWater Conservation Area 3 (WCA3) lies under A1 and A2 area; although not part of Everglades National Park, it’s water quality is protected:
-Chokoloskee
