Tag Archives: estuaries

“Paradise and Hell,” June 2015/June 2013, St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon

Contrast June 21, 2015 and June 28, 2013. St Lucie Inlet, Martin County, Fl. (Photos JTL and EL)

I hope you and your family had a happy Father’s Day. The water was beautiful this weekend, so I thought today I would compare some aerial photos my husband Ed and I took this weekend to some we took in June of 2013 during the “Lost Summer.” No wonder we all fight for clean water and fewer discharges from Lake Okeechobee and area canals. What a difference!

Of course other than “history,” rain has a lot to do with discharges into the St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon, and it has not been raining too much lately— thus the blue waters rather than the ugly dark brown plumes. It is important for all of us to understand why our paradise sometimes turns into a disgusting toxic mess so we can keep working for policy to change this problem.

The first and worst part of the problem lies in southern Martin County—the C-44 canal built by the Flood Control District of the era and later the Army Corp of Engineers to connect Lake Okeechobee to the South Fork of the St Lucie River. This canal was connected in 1923 for agriculture and transportation. So now, not only is there the agricultural lands’ runoff from the C-44 basin that pours into the river, but also the periodic often huge releases from Lake Okeechobee. In spite of claims that this lake water is “only 30%” of total discharge water coming into the estuary, when it comes it is tremendous, filthy, and always a killer.

I think a decent metaphor would be that one could drink alcohol all time (from the C-23, C-24, C-25) and have problems like an alcoholic but function, however, if one downed two bottles of gin in a short period of time, one would kill oneself. Lake Okeechobee and its periodic huge slugs are death each time for our St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon.

Canals in Stuart, C-23, C-24, C-25 built in the 50s and 60s. C-44 connected to Lake Okeechobee constructed in the 1920s. — Canals in Stuart, C-23, C-24, C-25 built in the 40s, 50s and 60s. C-44 connected to Lake Okeechobee constructed in the 1920s.

Next we must recognize the other problem-part of our canal system in the northern region…

After a tremendous hurricane/storm and flooding (because we are a swamp….) in 1947 the state of Florida and the federal government worked to appropriate monies for the Central and South Florida Flood Project which created the plumbing system we know today for all South Florida.

The part “we got” was the building of canals C-25, C-24 and C-23. The state and federal government acted like this was “just for flooding” but it wasn’t. It was also to allow for more agriculture and development in the region by draining the lands. (Mostly citrus and development of Port St Lucie). These canals were built and “improved” throughout the 50s and 60s and expanded the water being drained into the St Lucie River by about five times!

So now water from Okeechobee and St Lucie counties, and even water that had been flowing north into the St Johns River, through Indian River County and beyond— drains into the St Lucie River! (The headwaters of the St Johns River started flowing north in the marshes west of Sebastian and Vero—they have been directed to the SLR…)

Crazy isn’t it?

You know these “guys” —these politicians and business people, knew they were killing the river. They were just so driven by the pay-off of citrus/agriculture and cheap lands to sell….that they didn’t care…The river dies slowly so many of them did not see the “close to total death” —what we see today…but they knew what they were doing.

There were those who objected trying to protect the river’s fishing industry and wildlife….But their voices were not enough to stop the train….sound familiar?

Drainage changes to the SLR. Green is the original, natural, watershed,. Yellow and pink show the expanded drainage to the SLR/IRL. St Lucie River Initiative, Letter to Congress 1994.

The map above shows the “expanded watershed” in yellow and pink going into the St Lucie River. This is why I very much object also when I hear “how 70-80%” of the water polluting the St Lucie “is from our local watershed.”

Like we are supposed to feel responsible? Most of it’s not local!!!!! Plus it is the SFWMD’s job to oversee these canals. FIX THEM!

The moral of the story though is that the “local watershed” does not exist anymore….

“Wealth (agriculture and development) at the expense of the environment….” The story of our state.

Of course the grand irony is that we all came here for the “environment” ….the water, the fishing, the wildlife, the beauty…..

So here we are in Martin County living in a world where the pendulum swings between “paradise and hell.”

Paradise is not what it used to be, but it is still here. We saw some of it this past weekend…And we could bring back more if we really tried….If we want it, our job is to get more of the water coming into the St Lucie River/IRL back onto the land, going south, and returned or held north, and not draining or being released into our watershed.

Sounds reasonable doesn’t it? Well, the problem is we don’t have 30 years….or 50 years….like “the plan” (CERP) calls for now….(http://www.evergladesrestoration.gov)

There is alway hope we could do it faster. We must make hope a reality….all of us.

As newspaper man and famed environmentalist Ernie Lyons said: “What men do, they can undo…..and the hope for our river is in the hundreds of men and women in our communities who are resolved to save the St Lucie…” (Ernest Lyons, Editor and reporter, Stuart News)

This weekend I think we were all inspired! 🙂

Comparison 2015 and 2013 Atlantic shoreline with nearshore reefs, Jupiter Island south of St Lucie Inlet. (JTL)

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September 2013–plume as it exits St Lucie Inlet.

Another aerial 2013- plume along Jupiter Island. — Another aerial from September 2013- plume along Jupiter Island that had exited the St Lucie Inlet.

Lake O Roundtable, Senator Marco Rubio, St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon

King Aurthur is historically noted for creating the concept of a "round table." — King Arthur is historically noted for creating the concept of a “round table.”

Yesterday, at the Wolf Technology Center, on the campus of Indian River State College, Todd Reid, the Deputy Chief of Staff and State Director for the Office of Marco Rubio oversaw a “Lake Okeechobee Roundtable.” New US Army Corp of Engineers Lt Col. Jennifer Reynolds broke the ice with her introduction, noting she was curious as to whether there would truly be a “roundtable…” She smiled saying she was happy to see the “rectangle-roundtable…” Her comments were funny and refreshing. The point was everyone was sitting around the table—“together,” like in King Arthur’s days….

Agenda, L.O. Roundtable, Office Senator Marco Rubio, 2015

I want to thank Senator Rubio’s office and Senator Rubio himself for the meeting. Could the meeting have been politically motivated? I hope so! Political motivation in any form is the gas that drives the bus. I’ll take it and I’ll hitch a ride….

The meeting was a rare opportunity to sit face to face in a non-charged environment and to listen, to ask questions, to learn, and to get to know each other.

Other than the many Army Corp, South Florida Water Management, and Rubio official leaders that sat at the table, some regional names you might recognize who also were there are: Comr. Ed Fielding, Kate Parmalee and Don Donaldson, Martin County; Richard Gilmore, Mayor, Sebastian; Dr Jacoby, St John’s River Water Management District; Nyla Pipes; Meagan Davis, HBOI; Mark Perry; Rae Ann Wessel, Caloosahatchee; Jason Bessey, SLC and myself. Sorry if I missed anyone. There were a few some empty chairs with name tags prepared for people who did not make it. Their loss. Of course Gayle Ryan of the River Warriors was in the audience as were others! 🙂 Thank you PUBLIC!

I have written many times, that “building relationships” is what is going to get us beyond the St Lucie/Indian River Lagoon nightmare we live in today. I appreciate the opportunity to build those relationships.

I did learn a lot.

The "Roundtable..." — The “Roundtable…” Photo Jax ACOE Twitter 6-18-15.

One thing I learned again is that the ACOE and SFWMD don’t know how to promote the good things they do. Perhaps this is because they are “government.”

For instance Jim Jeffords, Chief of the ACOE Operations Division noted very quietly that the ACOE under the LORS (Lake Okeechobee Regulation Schedule) this water year had only released 40% of the Lake O water that COULD HAVE gone to the Caloosahatchee River; and only 24% on the water that COULD HAVE gone to the St Lucie. Holy Cow? Are you kidding me?

I don’t really get the complexities of the entire system, but basically LORS has huge ranges and it gives the ACOE flexibility so they use discretion in determining how much water is actually released rather than just opening the gates to match the number on the chart. So even though they released from Lake O into our SLR since January 16 until a few weeks ago–apparently it could have been worse. —Kind of like when you got into trouble in my day as a kid and got sent to the office and the principal only spanks you three times when he or she could have spanked you fifteen times. You still walk away crying and humiliated, but it could have been worse….We never thank the ACOE for “not releasing even more,” a lot more, because basically we don’t know that they could….they don’t tell us..they don’t brag. I do; I guess that’s why I’m a “civilian….”

LORS schedule releases SLR 2014 and some of 2015.(Photo ACOE Twitter)

And then Jeff Kivett, Divisions Director Operations, Engineering and Construction SFWMD, gave a really nice and erudite presentation with an awesome color copy packet and he just kind of goes right through what for me, if I were him, would have been the most important part: “the SFWMD has sent more than 500,000 acre feet of water south this dry season.” I get this all mixed up like “water year,” “annual year,” dry season, from Lake O, or from the sugar farmer in the EAA, —-in any case for me what’s important is they sent so much water south!

Dr Gary Goforth has written about this and if I remember correctly the most ever sent was in 1995 (like a million acre feet and it killed Biscayne Bay’s reefs) but after 2002 it really slowed to almost “nothing” due to the consent decree’s law suit on phosphorus numbers —but then after 2013’s toxic estuary disaster the SRWMD started sending more water south again. Because now that water is CLEAN due to STAs. (Storm Water Treatment Areas–they are still nervous to send “too much with too much phosphorus…”)

I know I am rambling, but two years ago I remember being happy water sent was over 250,000 acre feet and now the District has sent more than 500,000 acre feet almost two years in a row… This is awesome and to be commended. If I worked at the SFWMD I would be jumping up and down screaming from the rooftops, but government people just kind of “mention it…..”

Anyway–Good job guys and gals. Good job!

Also, there was also a presentation on the slow but steady-going, expensive repair of the Herbert Hoover Dike by Ingrid Bon, and an update by Howard Gonzales on ecosystem restoration projects. Yes the ones whose names we know by heart that have been taking eight billion years to complete but are actually getting closer! There were also hopeful updates on CEPP (Central Everglades Planning Project) and Ten Mile Creek’s recovery…again very slow-moving like molasses, but moving…maybe….yes….no maybe….YES! How old am I now? Will the projects be done before I am dead? Not funny, but sometime you wonder.

In the end, it was a great meeting and I appreciate that I was allowed to sit “at the roundtable.” It was so good to see Greg Langowski who I have known through Rubio’s office since my early days in the Treasure Coast Council of Local Governments, as well as my dear friend mayor, Richard Gilmore of Sebastian! We are all getting older, but wiser too, and if we stick together, we just might make a difference for the St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon, and for the kids of the future that just want to fish, swim and boat in the river and just be a “kid.”

Thank you for the Roundtable Senator Rubio. I hope there will be more…

Great visual from Jeff Kivett's presentation on changes to the Everglades system. — Great visual from Jeff Kivett’s presentation on changes to the Everglades system.

Over-Drainage and Overlooking the Obvious, Florida Legislature 2015, SLR/IRL

Cartoon Everglades Drainage, 1916 "Back to Broward,"http://historymiamiarchives.org/online-exhibits/everglades/glades.htm. (Shared by Sandra Henderson Thurlow) — Cartoon Everglades Drainage, 1916 Swamp Land Act of 1850 transferred swamp federal lands to the states.(http://historymiamiarchives.org/online-exhibits/everglades/glades.htm.) (Shared by Sandra Henderson Thurlow)

The 1916 cartoon says it all, doesn’t it? “You can have all these lands, if you drain and develop them….”

How does the saying go? “Be careful of what you wish for…”

We sure got what we wanted and more. We’ve gotten so much we’ve killed it, or are in the process thereof….Uncle Sam gave us a gift in the Swamp Land Act of the late 1800s and we, the State of Florida, have killed it–the Swamp that is…and even with the “retched swamp mentality” of the 1800s, no one, not even Governor Napoleon Broward himself, envisioned real estate surrounded by putrid, polluted water…

This year our state legislature did not seem to recognize the sense of urgency in Florida regarding clean water and the health of the state’s natural resource’s as reflected in their decisions made, or not made, this 2015 legislative session. Amendment 1 was all but ignored. But from north Florida’s springs, to the estuaries of the St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon and Caloosahtchee, to Biscayne Bay the people of the state still recognize this urgency. And this urgency is not just answered by money. It can be answered by beginning to have real discussion state-wide on these issuers. Florida voters know our past and we know what we want for the future.

The will of the people will be done.

Repressed desires only get stronger….

We all know that there are many ways to help, and we must do all we can, but in the long run there is only one way to change the “big picture,” for South Florida.

There must be a third outlet south of Lake Okeechobee as discussed since the earliest days of water management…we must stop wasting 1.7 billion gallons of water to tide every day, stop creeping development into the remaining Everglades, and most important, the agriculture community in the EAA must actively become part of the land acquisition solution for reconnection of Lake Okeechobee to Everglades National Park.

Drainage canal being dredged Davie 11913. — Drainage canal being dredged Davie 1913.

Map showing Everglades National Park boundaries as well as Water Conservation Areas north of the park and other areas. (Map courtesy of Backroads Travels website, 2013.) — Map showing estuaries– now drainage ditches, Everglades National Park boundaries as well as Water Conservation Areas north of the park and other areas. (Map courtesy of Backroads Travels website, 2013.)

West of the red lines shows the edge of what was once the Everglades in South Florida. Development has crept and continues to creep over this edge. (Photo/map courtesy of Chappy Young,/GCY Surveyors, 2014.)

EAA below Lake Okeechobee. (Public map.)

This excerpt is from SOFIA, USGA web site. They are a scientific, arm’s length division of the Federal Government: (http://sofia.usgs.gov/publications/fs/61-99/)

“Drainage and development of south Florida has had major environmental consequences in the Everglades. Saltwater intrusion into freshwater aquifers has extended as far as 6 miles inland from the coast in some areas. The land surface has subsided as much as 6 feet in some agricultural areas because of lowered water tables, oxidation of drained peat, and subsequent peat fires.

Mercury contamination of fish has resulted in a ban on the consumption of fish from the central part of the Park, WCA-2, and WCA-3 and is implicated in the deaths of endangered Florida panthers. Populations of wading birds have decreased by almost 95 percent from 1870 to 1973. In high-nutrient areas, cattails are replacing native sawgrass.

Plant and animal communities in the Everglades have been altered by changes in timing and duration of inundation; invasion of exotic plants as a result of drainage and land clearing, nutrient, and (or) contaminant-enrichment of water that flows into Everglades from agricultural and urban areas; and loss of habitat…”

Dead panthers from eating fish full of mercury?

This is not what we will leave our children…is it?

Toxic Algae bloom washes up along the shoreline, St Lucie River, Riverside Drive, Stuart, Florida. (Photo Jenny Flaugh, 7-13)

Sign with Seminole in canoe 1913, Tamiami Trail. (Public photo)

Original flow everglades. http://seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov/jason/HTML/EXPEDITIONS_JASON_7_croc_model.html ) — Original flow Everglades. http://seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov/jason/HTML/EXPEDITIONS_JASON_7_croc_model.html
)

Sofia map 2015. — Sofia Everglades drainage map 2015.

(http://historymiamiarchives.org/online-exhibits/everglades/drainage.htm)

EPA 2011 Review: Source for 1.7 billion gallons of wasted water to tide:( http://www.epa.gov/gcertf/pdfs/1120amintersectionoffl.pdf)
Early AOCE documents referring to a third outlet south of the lake: http://jacquithurlowlippisch.com/2014/07/29/the-history-the-future-of-plan-6-and-sending-water-south-st-lucie-riverindian-river-lagoon/)

“Tough Love” and Impediments to Implementation of the IRL Basin Management Action Plans, SLR/IRL

Basin Management Action Plans, Florida. TCRPC doc. 2015.

You have probably heard it a hundred times: “BMAP, Basin Management Action Plan..” or “TMDLs….Total Maximum Daily Loads….”

That sounds kind of odd doesn’t it? Load of what?”

Phosphorus and nitrogen going into the water that is…

Florida Department of Environmental Protection:(http://www.dep.state.fl.us/central/Home/Watershed/BMAP.htm)

Anyway, today I will once again to try to boil-down some fancy government terms to help you understand what our state is doing to try to fix the “impaired waters of the state…” such as our St Lucie River and Indian River Lagoon. I will focus on a report about “what is impeding its progress.” This report will be discussed at the Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council on 6-19-15.

“Impediments to Implementation of the Indian River Lagoon Basin Management Action Plans” by the East Central Florida Regional Planning Council and the Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council was prepared with technical assistance from the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity, 5-27-15.

For a full copy of this report please contact Mr Michael Busha at mbusha@tcrpc.org

Here we go:

The Background section of the report notes:” …In the past century the IRL has been affected by many activities including the creation of inlets, dredging of navigational channels, impoundment of mangroves for mosquito control, shoreline development, and alteration of the watershed basins draining into the lagoon. Today water quality the single most important issue impacting the lagoon. The decline in water quality is attributed to an increase in nutrient input, sedimentation, turbidity, atmospheric deposition, nutrient releases from legacy muck deposits, and changes in salinity due to freshwater discharges. The issue is complex because the impact comes from a variety of sources, including non point sources of stromwater entering the lagoon through major canals systems as well as through smaller creeks, tributaries, and individual outfall structures.”

Here I must state something not noted in the report in case you don’t know: Not until a water body is declared as “impaired” does it get the help of the state creating a Basin Management Action Plan through the implementation of TMDLs—-or the determination of Total Maximum Daily Loads.

I wrote something in the past about this and likened a “total maximum daily load” to a “maximum daily allowance of cigarettes that one is allowed to smoke before one gets cancer…..a “total daily maximum daily load” of phosphorus and or nitrogen is what the government is talking about with the river. How much it can take before it gets sick/impaired.

Phosphorus and nitrogen come from different sources; I always note fertilizer as an example because it is written right there on the bag, and fertilizer from farming and people’s yards is a huge source of the LOAD of phosphorus and nitrogen going into our St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon….

Right now all our water bodies get too much nutrient pollution (too many cigarettes) so now the government is figuring out how to cut back slowly over time….the problem is the river may die while we are “trying to kick the habit…”

Now, back to the official document: There are currently 20 adopted BMAPs in Florida. Portions of the IRL are addressed by four of the adopted BMAPs. They are North IRL; Banana River: Central IRL; St Lucie River and Estuary.

Each plan varies but has the same goal: to lessen nutrient pollution, to improve water quality, and whether the plan says it or not, to increase sea grasses….The plans outline specific project that are expected to provide load reductions of phosphorus and nitrogen. All plans are implemented in 5 year periods spread out over 15 years. Plans can be many things, turning dirt, holding water, implementing best management practices not to allow runoff….

Polluted runoff causes impairment…

The St Lucie River was determined as “impaired” in 2002. (Report at end of blog.)

The SLR/IRL BMAP was adopted in 2013. So to figure out how this plan will work….in 2018 the state will have a goal for load reduction; then again in 2023; and then again in 2028. Each time period the load numbers should be going down, and if they are not, cities, counties, and other stakeholders, like agriculture, and other polluters, should be in trouble if there is not a reduction in loads. DEP oversees all of this.

Kind of confusing isn’t it? And I am not sure my dates are correct, but hopefully you get the idea….Perfect science? No. But at least there is a plan…I just wish they’d get us off the cigarettes faster. Like make us go “cold turkey.”

The report list the following impediments the BMAPs.

1. Inadequate Funding….

2. Nutrient Load from Muck not Addressed. (Muck holds nutrients so when it get stirred up from winds or storms it is “re-released…” (Second hand smoke….)

3. Nutrient Loads from ground water are not being addressed. (Groundwater comes up from the ground as tides rise and bring nutrients like from septic tanks into the river and lagoon—gross.)

4. No Incentive for Stormwater Management. I am not really sure about this one but obviously it has to do with incentives; seems like the government could help create incentives if we would reward clean water….(inventions, lessen people’s taxes if they achieve clean water “loads.”) Hey doesn’t the Dept of Economic Opportunity do stuff like this?

5. Incomplete water quality data. Collecting data is expensive. Maybe high school kids could get credit if they did it…..and let’s face it: WE KNOW the WATER’S DIRTY. Focus on the source and stop acting like we don’t know where all this nutrient pollution is coming from!

6. Inadequate Water Quality Monitoring. Same thing as above. Figure it out. Guess….

7. Unequal treatment of public and private entities, agriculture, and water control. This is complicated, but basically in my opinion the Right to Farm Act puts less stringent standards on agriculture to prove they are lessening loads than on municipalities and counties. BMPs vs NPDS (Best Management Practices vs. National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System…)This is a huge problem. Ag has to enter the 21st century. All ag. Best Management Practices are “voluntary.” This is not enough!

8. Onerous conditions attached to BMAP projects

9. Inadequate technology to meet TMDL goals

10. BMAPS are based on flawed TMDLs

11. Trends in nutrient loading from atmosphere not being considered. (Phosphorus and nitrogen come in from rains and winds from as far away as the Europe, Africa and other nations polluting too…

12. Legacy Loading in Lake Okeechobee. THIS IS MY FAVORITE. How can surrounding governments and stakeholders be held responsible for lowering loads when periodic releases from Lake O through the C-44 canal pollute the water as fast as we can clean it up? For instance this year the ACOE and SFWMD have released into the estuary since January 16th and just stopped three weeks ago…MAJOR SECOND HAND SMOKE!!!!!!

13. Lack of Operations Monitoring

14. Load allocation process is not consistent between BMAPs. This has to do with undeveloped land being removed from the maps as nutrient reductions are not required on those lands…

There is a lot more to the report but that is a summary.

This whole process of BMAPS and TMDLs is confusing, but I wanted to at least give you an idea of the report. We must remember not to be too negative for the state workers implementing the BMAP. Negativity will not inspire more work, it will inspire less. Also it is not their fault. Fault lies in leadership.

Rather that telling businesses, citizens, and most of all agriculture to QUIT SMOKING, leadership —-and this is going back many years and includes Democrats and Republicans—is basically paying for our rehab over a period of 15 to 35 years.

Florida’s waters do not have time for rehab. They must be fixed today. Tough love is really the only answer.

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DEP Declaration of “Impairment” St Lucie River, 2002: (http://www.dep.state.fl.us/southeast/ecosum/ecosums/SLE_Impairment_Narrative_ver_3.7.pdf)

Slow Down For Sea Turtles, St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon

Loggerhead hatchling heads to sea. (Photo NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service website.)

Miracles abound all around us, but sometimes they are hard to “see.” Life harden us, or keeps us so busy that sometimes we forget. One miracle I have been aware of most of my life is the journey of the sea turtles, especially the loggerheads, that hatch along our Atlantic shores here in our Indian River Lagoon region.

When I was a kid, during early summer my mother and father used to take my brother, sister, and I on midnight turtle walks. This was Stuart in 1974. Not many people lived here. We kids would watch in complete amazement the gigantic mother turtles emerge from the sea to drop their eggs, like slimy ping-pong balls, into a deep hole meticulously dug while tears rolled down their faces.

“She is crying,” my mother would say…

Knowing that mom had borne us, we kids wondered about all this, but were soon swept up again in the dropping, the slow plopping of those eggs. Maybe a hundred or so of them…Hours later it seemed the giant and mysterious turtle— that my dad said had been on the Earth when dinosaurs roamed—would make her way back to the ocean. The stars overhead, clear and shining, revealed life’s great mystery. The turtle gone, her tracks reflecting in the moonlight, our family felt bonded having witnessed this ancient ritual…

These memories have stayed with me….

Over the years, I volunteered as a turtle scout and learned about the loggerhead’s maybe 8000 mile migration in the Atlantic Ocean and how they have magnetite in their brains and are capable of reading God’s compass….I learned about how after floating around and hiding in the seaweed for up to twelve years they eventually find their way home to their birth beach, stay in area lagoons or “safe areas”, and not until maybe 30 years or so, if female, lay their own eggs…

Front page of Stuart News 6-15-15.In Defense of Turtles a release story.

Yesterday there was a photo on the front page of the Stuart News, “In Defense of Sea Turtles.” A wonderful article about Inwater Research Group’s releasing of the animals.

Ironically, the day before Ed and I had gone to Indian River Side Park to walk our dogs by the shoreline and found a dead juvenile loggerhead that had been killed by a boat hit. I called the Florida Wildlife Commission and reported the animal. They were very helpful. I talked to a nice young man named “David” in Jacksonville. He said there were only six people in the entire state covering reported deaths like this juvenile sea turtle….pathetic…

Broken shell from boat hit. — Dead loggerhead with broken shell in IRL from boat hit.(JTL)

While waiting on hold, I couldn’t help but think about how this young sea turtle until now had beat all the odds. Only one in approximately 4000 make it maturity, after swimming around in those ocean currents for years, avoiding predators, and reading the magnet of the Earth in a way we humans still have not completely figured out….how amazing that this turtle found its way home only to be stuck by a speeding boat……

Not an inspirational end to a miracle.

I share this story not be negative but in hope that boaters in the St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon will keep an eye out and SLOW DOWN.

As Ed and I meandered home, I looked back and saw the turtle in the dark waves, as I was told to leave it there….I thought to myself, “a dead and broken sea turtle in the polluted and dying Indian River Lagoon—now that is a tragic metaphor for our times…..”

This is what we must live to change.

The loggerhead lies dead along the shoreline of the Indian River Lagoon. (Photo JTL 6-14-15)

Live Science,migration of the loggerhead sea turtle: (http://m.livescience.com/21080-loggerhead-turtle-migration.html)

Florida Wildlife Commission:(http://myfwc.com)

Inwater Research Group: (http://inwater.org)

Sea Turtles Space Coast IRL: http://www.seaturtlespacecoast.org/about-us/indian-river-lagoon/

Are We Really Living in the Everglades? St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon

Everglades Drainage District Map of 1947Township 40 Range 39is within the District. That was just a section away from the Gomez Grant where the Ashley Gang lived. Sandra Henderson Thurlow, historian. — “Everglades Drainage District Map, 1947, by Alfred Jackson and Kathyrn Hannah’s book “Lake Okeechobee” from the “Rivers of America” series. Note Township 40 Range 39 is within the District. That was just a section away from the Gomez Grant where the Ashley Gang lived”—-Sandra Henderson Thurlow, historian.

here is a map 1920 -- Source: Leslie's New World Atlas (New York, NY: Leslie-Judge Company, 1920) in Univ. of South Florida collection ---- which shows that there was more swamp land. alice Luckhardt, historian. — “1920s map — Source: Leslie’s New World Atlas (New York, NY: Leslie-Judge Company, 1920) in Univ. of South Florida collection —- which shows that there was more swamp land than census notes…” Alice Luckhardt, historian.

Historic map from 1948 book "Lake Okeechobee" written in 1948 by Alfred Jackson and Kathryn Hanna as part of the Rivers of America Series. — Historic map, ca. late 1800s, unknown source. Courtesy of Sandra H. Thurlow, historian.

Today our St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon Region is referred to as the “Northern Everglades,” back then, it was all the “Everglades”….

Today’s historic photos were shared because of my last two days of blogging featuring my brother Todd’s flying video showing where the dreaded C-44 canal entered the South Fork of the St Lucie River in 1923 connected from Lake Okeechobee.

Alice Luckhardt, friend and local historian, has been trying to figure out where the Everglades actually “started” in Martin County as she is writing a history of Martin County’s infamous Ashley Gang. (They used to hide out in the Everglades.) Alice’s Leslie’s New World Atlas 1920s map, the second from the top of this page, kind of makes Martin County “look” pretty dry….as do the other two maps shared by my mother…

Viewed closely, the old maps show different “Everglades” boarders as seen most clearly in the 1949 Everglades Drainage District map at the top of this page. This map comes from my mother’s files and she notes that it shows “Township 40, Range 39, in Martin “in” the Everglades….

So what determines “the Everglades?”

Of that I am not certain but in my mind it is a swamp. But swamps in Florida “come and go” with the rains. Also the Everglades has many different faces/landscapes that are part of a greater whole–different kinds of micro environments like pine forest, hardwood hammocks, mangroves forests, endless sawgrass prairies, tall ancient cypress forests, marshlands, wetlands, ponds, some higher ridges separating rivulets and standing water, little creeks that come and go, shallow clean fresh water flowing ever so slowly across white sugar sands…Aggg! Did I just say that! 🙂

So anyway, I then went to the US Government maps my brother showed me awhile back and here one can see the “little ponds “of the Everglades right there in Stuart, Jensen Beach, and of course in what is today’s Palm City. They were in today’s St Lucie County too. Wouldn’t this be the “everglades?”

In fact, when I was a kid, there was a large pond near our family home on East Ocean Boulevard across from today’s Fresh Market. Now it’s gone…and the road goes through…”They” moved it….

I think we have really moved just about “everything.” Nonetheless, that doesn’t mean we can’t put some of it back, or start draining and saving water in a new way. Studying old maps and aerials is a good place to start!

US Government 1940s aerials show little ponds all over Martin County. (UF)

*Thank you to historians Alice Luckhardt and Sandra Thurlow and Todd Thurlow for sharing their cool old maps!

Todd Thurlow’s flying history video showing the connection of the C-44 canal from Lake Okeechobee to the South Fork of the St Lucie River, ca. 1923: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYI34XZUNYs&feature=youtu.be)

SFWMD The Everglades: (http://www.sfwmd.gov/portal/page/portal/xweb%20protecting%20and%20restoring/americas%20everglades)

6-8-15 blog post that inspired maps shared today, C-44 original connection to South Fork- an amazing visual journey, Todd Thulow: (http://jacquithurlowlippisch.com/2015/06/08/journey-back-in-time-to-see-the-creation-of-c-44-the-greatest-negative-impact-to-the-st-lucie-riverindian-river-lagoon/)

6-9-15 blog post, Manatee Pocket route for C-44:(http://jacquithurlowlippisch.com/2015/06/09/the-most-logical-route-for-the-c-44-canal-port-salerno-st-lucie-riverindian-river-lagoon/)

How to read township and range in old plat maps: (http://www.jsu.edu/dept/geography/mhill/phygeogone/trprac.html)

“The Most Logical Route for the C-44 Canal,” Port Salerno… St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon

This 1910 advertisement for St Lucie Inlet Farms shows and artist rendition of the proposed St Lucie Canal at the time going to the Manatee Pocket rather than the South Fork of the St Lucie River. (Courtesy of Sandra Henderson Thurlow historic archives.) — This 1914 advertisement for St Lucie Inlet Farms shows and artist rendition of the proposed St Lucie Canal at the time going to the Manatee Pocket rather than the South Fork of the St Lucie River. (Courtesy of Sandra Henderson Thurlow historic archives.)

Advertisement in booklet with photo. (Thurlow archives) — Port Salerno canal advertisement in booklet with photo. (Thurlow archives)

The saga continues!

In yesterday’s blog, I quoted a Department of Environmental Protection document stating that the St Lucie Canal, now known as “C-44,” was originally proposed in the early 1900s to connect Lake Okeechobee to the Manatee Pocket in Port Salerno, rather than the South Fork of the St Lucie River…

So after reading my blog, my mother sends me this awesome historic real estate ad above. Can you believe it? I had heard the tales of “urban legend” for years, but now there is a visual of this historical record!

She wrote: “This was the centerfold for a booklet “Little Journeys to Salerno and the Famous St. Lucie Inlet Farms, 1914.”

Centerfold?

Funny.

I just blows my mind that those old timers were trying to turn Stuart into Miami. If the 1926 depression had not hit, they just may have been successful…

In any case there was a fight for the now dreaded C-44 canal between Stuart and Port Salerno. Stuart “won” to lose…

The historic ad above reads:

“The bird’s-eye view printed here shows the position of the tract as to transportation–the magnificent and picturesque water of the St Lucie River—the Indian River—the St Lucie Inlet where the United States Government has appropriated one-hundred thousand dollars toward the construction of a deep water harbor–the Atlantic Ocean–the automobile thoroughfare, which connects Jacksonville to Miami–and the location of the town of Port Salerno which is clearly destined to become the commercial city and the great shipping point for the products of the winter gardens of the Everglades—the most logical route for the proposed state ship and drainage canal, which is to empty into the St Lucie Inlet and will deliver most of the products from the vast Everglades, for distribution and shipment, at tis point the proposed shore road and bridge connecting the mainland with Sewall’s Point and many other features which go to prove the enviable location of Port Salerno and the St Lucie lnlet Farms.”

Thanks mom, for another amazing piece of history!

Video showing where the C-44 did connect to the South Fork of the St Lucie River: video Todd Thurlow:

Link to video:(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYI34XZUNYs&feature=youtu.be)

Link to yesterday’ blog: (http://jacquithurlowlippisch.com/2015/06/08/journey-back-in-time-to-see-the-creation-of-c-44-the-greatest-negative-impact-to-the-st-lucie-riverindian-river-lagoon/)

Journey Back in Time to See the Creation of C-44, the Greatest Negative Impact to the St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon

Image created by Doc Snook, 2013 — Image created of structure S-80 along C-44 canal. ACOE web cam and Doc Snook, 2013.

Ca. 1920s, looking west one sees the straight C-44 canal then known as the St Lucie Canal, and its connection to the South Fork of the St Lucie River. (Aerial Thurlow Archives)

S-80, Connecting Lake Okeechobee to the St Lucie Canal or C-44 — Looking west towards Lake Okeechobee above the C-44 canal over S-80 structure, St Lucie Locks and Dam, connecting Lake Okeechobee to the South Fork of the St Lucie River. (Photo Jacqui Thurlow-Lippisch and Ed Lippisch, 2013.)

Link to video: Where “did” the St Lucie Canal connect with the South Fork of the St Lucie River?
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYI34XZUNYs&feature=youtu.be)

I share a video today that I believe to be my most “insightful” blog post since I began writing in 2013. The video above by my brother, Todd, who is an expert in historic map overlays merged with images from today’s Google Earth, communicates and educates in a manner no one map or document could do independently.

The video’s journey shows exactly where the C-44 canal was connected to the South Fork of the St Lucie River. An historic Hanson Grant map reveals the “Halpatiokee River, meaning “alligator river;” with a basis in multiple Indian languages. Because the St Lucie Inlet was not opened, the forks and river were “fresh,” thus alligators lived there. Then flying over a 1910 plat map of St Lucie Inlet Farms, you will see the South Fork of the St Lucie River mapped out. As the image changes over “time” you will see the construction of the C-44 canal, and how it was built right through the middle of South Fork’s north-western prong. In fact, those prongs today on the northerly side, are “gone” as sections 32 and 33 show. Those lands today are agriculture fields. As the journey continues, in the developed areas of St Lucie Farms you will see a very large lake “disappear” near section 25. I find all of this fascinating and kind of depressing… My brother said it best: “Wealth created at the expense of the environment…” Maybe we could create more wealth today going in the opposite direction?

The canal was built by the Everglades Flood Control District and later the Army Corp of Engineers, at the request of the state of Florida and Stuart Chamber of Commerce head Capt. Stanley Kitching and other “leaders.” (From conversation with historian Sandra Thurlow).

According to the Department of Environmental Protection’s Eco-Summary from 2000, the C-44 canal was begun in 1916 and completed in 1924. The document states:

“Next to the permanent opening of the St Lucie Inlet which changed the St Lucie River from a freshwater river to a brackish estuary, the construction of the C-44 has had the greatest impact on the St Lucie Estuary….Records show people have been complaining since the 1950s and there are numerous problem associated with the C-44 Canal…

UThe article discusses the prevalence of fish lesions due to too much fresh water, sediment smothering benthic communities, seagrass destruction, and the continued heavy nutrient and pesticide loading from agriculture and development in light of a tremendously enlarged basin coupled with massive periodic releases from Lake Okeechobee. (http://www.dep.state.fl.us/southeast/ecosum/ecosums/C-44%20Canal%20.pdf)

The DEP Eco Summary also states: The canal..“was originally designed to enter Manatee Pocket instead of the South Fork of the St Lucie River. ”

Hmmm?

IInteresting isn’t it… to ponder what would have been different if the canal had gone through the Manatee Pocket instead? Certainly the St Lucie River would have been spared but the Pocket, near shore reefs, and inlet surrounding perhaps full of even more contaminated silt and high impact nutrients. Best of all the canal would have never been built but that reality we cannot change…or can we?

Most important today is to know where we have come from so we can redirect where we are. Please take a look at the very short video, put your thinking cap on, and let’s get the state, federal and local governments delivering on what they have documented as problematic for Florida’s waters since the 1970s. Only the people will change this problem, not the government.

Left side of map shows C-44 canal's abrupt diversion north the a branch of the South Fork of the SLR. Original plans had the canal continuing its easterly direction to connect with the Manatee Pocket. (DEP Eco Summary/Google Maps 2015.) — Left side of map shows C-44 canal’s abrupt diversion north towards a branch of the South Fork of the SLR. Original plans had the canal continuing its easterly direction to connect with the Manatee Pocket. (DEP Eco Summary/Google Maps 2015.)

Another aerial, ca 1920s, looking at the connection of C-44 and South Fork. (Thurlow Archives.) — Another aerial, ca 1920s, looking at the area of connection of C-44 and South Fork. (Thurlow Archives.)

Video creator: Todd Thurlow, P.A. (http://thurlowpa.com)

ACOE, Army Corp o fEngineers, Lake Okeechobee: (http://www.saj.usace.army.mil/Missions/CivilWorks/LakeOkeechobee/OkeechobeeWaterway(OWW).aspx)

Time Capsule Flight to the Headwaters of the South Fork, 1940s to Today, St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon

Prong area of South Fork, St Lucie River also showing C-44 canal's connection. (1940 US Government aerials shared by Todd Thurlow.) — Historic map with beginnings of Google overlay showing pronged area of South Fork, St Lucie River, C-44 canal’s connection, and the many ponds that once spotted the landscape that are now filled with agriculture and development. (1940 US Government aerials shared by Todd Thurlow.)

C-44 canal 1940 map with beginnings of Google overlay. (Todd Thurlow) — C-44 canal 1940 map with beginnings of Google overlay emerging. (Todd Thurlow)

Link to video: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuYkQ26OZvg&feature=youtu.be)

0:34 – Roosevelt Bridge
0:39 – Note the Old 1934 two-lane drawbridge in use. The current drawbridge was built in 1964
1:05 – Palm City Bridge
1:22 – Indian Street Bridge
1:27 – Note the increase in width of the river — in some places from approx 225 feet to 460+ feet.
3:24 – Halpatiokee Park
3:24 – Note the old Gaines Highway “Humpback” Bridge (SR-76) in use in 1940.
3:42 – Okeechobee Waterway (C-44)
4:00 – St. Lucie Lock and Dam (—timetable from Todd Thurlow)

I continue to take great pleasure in featuring the “time-capsule flight” historic map and Google Earth work of my brother, Todd Thurlow.(http://thurlowpa.com)

Today’s short video focuses on our beloved South Fork area of the St Lucie River. This video visually juxtaposes 1940s U.S. Government maps to Google Earth images of today. The video begins over an undeveloped Horseshoe Point, Sewall’s Point, and St Lucie River proper and then travels in a southern direction to the wide fork of the St Lucie River and deep along its wild, winding, and African-looking curves. One sees the old Palm City and new Veteran’s Memorial bridges come and go, and notices the build up over time of sand in the fork (maybe some from dredging and some from sediment build-up from Lake Okeechobee releases.) This serpentine and beautiful section of the South Fork is southerly of Highway 76 that runs out to Lake Okeechobee alone the C-44 canal. Today’s I-95 exchange is also visible.

Broad overlay of maps South Fork. (Todd Thurlow)

And the little ponds! My favorite! Just everywhere!This is most incredible to me as today they are “gone.” These hundreds, if not thousands of little ponds, once slowly increased and decreased in depth and size based on rainfall, overflowing at times, into the winding South Fork. One can still see the lush vegetation surrounding some of these areas. Can you imaging the wildlife that used to be in our area? I so would have loved to have seen it but this trip is better than nothing!

As the flight continues, “today’s” development is neatly stacked right up to the winding edge of the fork on the south side in particular…makes me think of septic tanks???

I have to say it nice that there is some land around the areas of the fork and I am sure local environmentalist have fought to keep this over the years. Nonetheless, if we had it to do over again, I think we would decide to leave a much wider birth around these important watersheds.

In the final minutes of the video we travel over the dreaded C-44 canal built in the 1920s, known in its early years as the “St Lucie Canal.” This canal of course, connects Lake Okeechobee to a section of a second prong (fork) in the winding South Fork. The canal itself is wider and apparently the “connection is just “above” today’s Four Rivers which lies beyond the I-95 bridge and exchange and All American Marina.

Zooming in and out in time and place, one can see the cleared lands around St Lucie Locks and Dam and white sand piled high from dredging on the north side of the canal….The picture fades in and out as we view the old locks structure compared to its “new and improved” version today….

I just love this stuff. It makes it all so easy to “see.”

The environmental destruction that is…I guess for others it is the sight of money and making a swamp “useful.” How ever you view it, the journey is an education.

Thank you to Todd for opening my eyes and for allowing me to travel in time and “place.”

C-44 canal Google Earth with St Lucie Locks and Dam. (Todd Thurlow Google Earth)

1940 US Gov't map showing C-44 canal cut form Todd Thurlow's video.) — 1940 US Gov’t map showing C-44 canal cut from Todd Thurlow’s video. Notice agriculture fields on top of what was a stream.

_______________________________

To see more of Todd’s work on my blog, search his name on my blog’s front page, go to my blog’s “About Jacqui Thurlow-Lippisch” page or just google Todd Thurlow bluewatertt3 on You Tube.

Trying to Understand the Structure of the SFWMD within Government, St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon

Florida Statutes books on shelf. Public photo.

If there is one thing I have learned in my seven-year stint in local government, it is that for the public, the structure of government and how it works is unclear. In my opinion, this happens due to many reasons, but first and foremost is because government as a whole is terrible at being open and explaining itself, perhaps preferring to function behind a shroud of confusion. Also, governments’ sense of responsibility to communicate with the public is often nonexistent or skewed at best… plus communicating is expensive…This situation is compounded by the fact that every year there are new laws, and every few years new elected officials coming in….so the public is constantly having to “catch up.”

To make a point, let me give a simple example from the Town of Sewall’s Point, where I live and am a town commissioner. Prior to 2006 the town did not have a full-time town manager. In 2006 the town charter was amended by the commission creating a manager/commission form of government as opposed to commissioners being in charge of different departments. I was elected in 2008. For years, many citizens did not know this change had occurred, and their expectations were functioning off the old system and their expectations were not met. They came into the commission meetings very upset. The town did not “advertise” the charter changes. I was too new to really understand what was going on….it took me a year or so to figure it out, and the public—

People are too busy trying to live their lives, raise their children, and “put bread on the table,” to follow every move of government be it local, state or federal. Add to this that government itself is a terrible communicator, and what happens? The mechanisms are not in place for government to work….This is how I see it anyway. The answer? Better communication and learning to understand how things work.

A few months ago when the South Florida Water Management District was ignoring a desperate and pleading public that had come before them begging for the purchase of the US Sugar Option Lands through Amendment 1 monies, to help save the St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon and Calooshatchee, I drove to West Palm Beach and met with high level officials. They were very nice but it was a frustrating meeting. Basically I asked them, “What are you doing?” “Why are you acting like this?”

The answer?

“Commissioner, you know the power isn’t in our hands anymore anyway…”
“What do you mean?” I inquired.

A conversation around the table ensured:

SFWMD: “Well after the debacle that occurred 2008-2010 with then Governor Charlie Christ, the recession, and the attempted buyout of all of US Sugar’s lands, basically a water district was trying to purchase a corporation…..the Florida Legislature got fed up. So later, in section 373.556 of Florida Statutes, the Florida Legislature made sure the District would never be in a position to do that again….Significant legislative changes have occurred related to water management budgeting with substantial ramification for Water Management District land transactions. In 2013, Senate Bill 1986 provided that certain District land transaction should be subject to the scrutiny of the Legislative Budget Commission. As this bill renewed the authority of the Governor to approve or disapprove the SFWMD budget, as with all water management budgets of the state, we can no longer do things we have done in the past like oversee giant land purchases using the monies from our ad-valorem taxes…There is a lot more to it but that’s the main difference now. You are talking to the wrong people….”

I stood there just staring…..”I didn’t know this gentlemen, so how do you expect the public to know this ? Are you telling me, the SFWMD has no power to purchase those Sugar Lands?”

“I am telling you the legislature is in charge of the budget and we don’t have enough money to buy the lands, and couldn’t without their approval….”

“So why don’t you explain that to the public?” I asked.

Stares….

Long awkward silence….

The reply was more or less: “It’s best not to get involved in such a discussion…..”

I lectured them on the importance of communication and education and said they certainly still have influence even if they say they “do not” …..but this did go over particularly well… the meeting ended. I shook their hands. I felt like an idiot. I drove home.

Since that time I have been trying to learn more…..So I read about the history of the Water Management Districts in Florida.

Florida's five water managements districts map DEP. — Florida’s five water managements districts map DEP.

To me it seems that originally when the water management districts were created in the 1970s they were allowed to levy taxes from the public in order to be an independent entity of water knowledgeable citizens advising the governor as to how best manage water resources. Also, the Dept of Environmental Protection was just evolving at this time so when the water districts were formed they did not work “under” or “beside” the DEP like today.

Over time, the laws have changed and our water management districts have become an arm of the governor and his or her people in the state legislature. The SFWMD is and has been losing its power. Especially since 2013. This loss of influence has politicized the structure of Florida’s water management districts to a level that “the people” no longer have a voice locally with their districts, and they don’t know they are now expected to go to their state legislature; and even if they did, their local delegation is one in hundreds in that structure that would need to be convinced to change water policy (for land purchase south of Lake Okeechobee for the health of the estuaries, for instance.)

I have learned too through this journey that really today about ten people run our state: Right now it is our governor, Rick Scott: cabinet members, Adam Putnam, Dept of Agriculture; Pam Bondi, Attorney General; Jeff Atwater, Chief Financial Officer; “leadership,” Speaker of the House: Steve Crisafulli; President of the Senate, Andy Gardiner; and the committee heads of the senate and the house which are only a few “tapped” people. (People who have agreed to conform or are smart enough to walk the razors’ edge.)”Leadership” keeps all elected officials in line by allowing them, or not allowing them, to be on, or to chair, certain committees, or by allowing, or not allowing their bills “to be heard”… also by discouraging new candidates from running for office if this is against “leaderships’ master-plan.” This behavior is worse in the republican party than the democratic party, but they are all encouraging conformity rather than leadership.

So how can we best communicate with our government?

Hmmmm?

Let’s keep educating ourselves, and can anyone say “revolution?”

2013 DEP letter explaining changes to SFWMD structure: (http://www.dep.state.fl.us/secretary/watman/files/017_Land_Acquisition_Revised_Guidance_032713.pdf)

2011 DEP letter leading up to changes in 2013 letter above:(http://www.dep.state.fl.us/secretary/watman/files/004_land_acquistion_042511.pdf)

DEP Florida’s Water Management Districts:(http://www.dep.state.fl.us/secretary/watman/)

SFWMD, Florida’s oldest water management district: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Florida_Water_Management_District)

Florida Statures Section 373 (http://www.leg.state.fl.us/STATUTES/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=0300-0399/0373/0373ContentsIndex.html&StatuteYear=2014&Title=%2D%3E2014%2D%3EChapter%20373)

Kudos to the Young People! “A River Film: Pollution in the St Lucie Estuary,” by Student Geoffrey Smith, SLR/IRL

Cover of video by Geoffrey Smith Jr. See link or image below to access video.

Link to video: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLURypmsHOE&sns=tw)

The most rewarding part of my St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon journey is working with young people. Today I share a video created by Geoffrey Smith Jr., a graduating senior at the Pine School in Hobe Sound.

Many of you may have viewed this video on Facebook as it has been a big hit and already has over 500 views, but in case you are not the “Facebook type, “today, I am sharing it through my blog. The video production is part of Geoffrey’s Capstone Project for graduation.

I commend Geoffrey for his interest on the topic of water and pollution issues in Florida. His video required many hours and includes interviews those below. I especially was impressed that Geoffrey interviewed Mr. Sonny Stein, president of Stein Sugar Farms, and multi-generational farmer in the Everglades Agricultural Area. Both sides must always be represented at the table of judgment…

As you will see, Geoffrey also had a chance to interview Michael Grunwald, author of “The Swamp.”

I know my part chosen for the video is very hard on the agriculture industry…as you’ll hear later, I am doing my best to clean up my own yard…

How does the saying go?

“Shine the light, and the people will find their way….

“Thank you Geoffrey for shining the light, may we all find our way, good luck with graduation this week, and we all look forward to seeing more of your work in the future!

Nat Osbourn — Nathaniel Osborn author of “Oranges and Inlets, An Environmental History of the Indian River Lagoon”

Mark Perry, Executive Director of Florida Oceanographic

Sonny Stein, long time sugar family farmer

Jacqui Thurlow-Lippisch, commissioner, Town of Sewall’s Point, Martin County

Me and Geoffrey Smith — Geoffrey Smith and I at Town Hall during interview. Geoffrey is a senior at the Pine School.

Roseate Spoonbill... — Roseate Spoonbill…according to Florida Audubon, since the early 1900s, the bird population of Florida’s Everglades is down 95% due to the over-drainage of South Florida and the agriculture and development of the state.

The Pine School: (http://www.thepineschool.org)

Martin Health Systems/Martin Systems Auxiliary, “Speaking Up” for the Health of the St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon

Martin Health Systems, formerly known as Martin Memorial Hospital, sits on the St Lucie River. (Public photo.) — Martin Health Systems, formerly known as Martin Memorial Hospital, sits on the St Lucie River in Stuart, Florida. (Public photo.)

Martin Memorial Hospital, ca. 1940s. Photo courtesy of Sandra Thurlow's presentation at Stuart Heritage 2014. — Martin Memorial Hospital, ca. 1940s. Photo courtesy of Sandra Thurlow’s presentation at Stuart Heritage 2014.

Martin Health Systems has sat like a sentinel along the St Lucie River for 75 years….Doctors, nurses, administrators, employees, and patients have over the years watched the degradation of health of Martin County’s beautiful river along with its once remarkable fish and wildlife.

But today, the hospital’s voice is getting louder as they “speak up” for the river and its health. (http://www.martinhealth.org)

In 2014, Robert Lord, a long time attorney for the organization, was a featured speaker at the “Clean Water Rally” sharing his memories of growing up in Stuart and enjoying its waters. Rob made a public call to push for clean water to our state legislature on behalf of Martin Health Systems. A huge step in our river movement!

Rob Lord, 2014, Photo JRL. — Rob Lord speaks at the Clean Water Rally, Phipps Park, St Lucie Lock and Dam, 2014, Photo JTL.

This year, since mid-March, the Martin Systems Auxiliary will pass out a total of 450 “River Kidz Second Edition Workbooks,” featuring Marty the Manatee to children that come into the hospital for emergencies or alongside family. Yes, that’s 450 workbooks, and they plan on passing out more! (http://www.martinhealth.org/mhs-auxiliary)

Mr Bill Michaud, president, has been a champion for children and for our river. I thank him and all members of the Auxiliary. At this time, I would like to include a portion of a letter written to me:

“Jacqui,

…Martin Health employs 3,600 local folks and the Auxiliary peaks in Season around 900 serving three hospitals, Emergency Center, and 59 other assorted medical related offices. I feel that our influence would be strongest with middle age children in educating them to the realities of current and future conditions thusly our placement of River Kidz in the areas where they would have greatest access…We share River Kidz’ goals and stand willing to help in any way that we can. With your group’s permission we would like to mention our participation in the River Kidz program in our April edition of Martin Health Systems Auxiliary Highlight’s magazine… “—–Mr Bill Michaud, President MHS Aux, 3-6-15.

(“River Kidz 2nd Ed. Workbook:” http://riverscoalition.org/riverkidz/riverkidz-workbooks/)

Just incredible!

MMH Auxiliary chair, Barbara Bush, and Bill Michaud, president. (Photo Martin Health Systems Auxiliary, 2015.) — MS Auxiliary chair, Barbara Bush with Bill Michaud, president, displaying River Kidz workbooks. (Photo Martin Health Systems Auxiliary, 2015.)

CEO MMHS Mark Robitaille, 2015. — CEO MHS Mark Robitaille, 2015.

Most recently, in an article by Darcy Flierl in “Luminaries,” about the “Dirty River Keeper Jam” this Saturday at Terra Fermata, Mark Robitaille, president and chief executive officer, stated: “We are concerned about the destruction of our estuaries and its diverse marine ecosystems. As a health care system, we are also deeply worried about the impact to the health of our community.”

Wow! Thank you Mr Robitaille!

Martin Health Systems and Jensen Beach Plumbing come together May 30th from noon to 11PM to host Martin County’s first “Dirty River Jam” to benefit Mr Marty Baum, our Indiana Riverkeeper. For information call 772-486-9109. Hope to see you there!

We all know It’s time for our state legislature, our federal government, and our all of local politicians, to be brave and put laws in place to stop the feeding of toxic algae blooms (Cyanobacteria) in Lake Okeechobee and thus our local waterways, as well as overcoming the difficulties of cleaning, storing, and sending water south to the Everglades, through the sugar-lands, to alleviate the burden of destruction of the St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon. Martin Health Systems will help make this happen; they carry a lot of weight.

______________________________________________

I must note my sister, Jenny Flaugh, has worked for MHS for over 16 years and her husband Mike is involved with the event! Thank you all who are involved.

Video of Robert Lord speaking at the Clean Water Rally, 2014, by Keri West: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImG8-gAI_9Q)

#IndianRiverLagoon

#StLucieRiver

Insight For Change, Development and Agriculture, North Fork, Ten Mile Creek, SLR/IRL

Link to video: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1E8o2TExGs&feature=em-upload_owner)

It is an amazing thing to fly through time and space, and this is exactly what I did yesterday with my brother, Todd. He took me on a “flight” over a 1958/Today St Lucie River, North Fork, and Ten Mile Creek. All the while, the images flashing in and out of past and present….Please watch this short video yourself by clicking the link or image above.

At one point along our armchair journey, I said to myself, “Wow, I don’t feel so great,” –just like sometimes when I am with Ed, my husband, in the airplane. I actually got motion sickness having plastered my face right up to the screen to see every moving detail!

A few deep breathing exercises put the feeling off, but next time I’ll take my Dramamine!

Google Earth image at the northern reaches of what was Ten Mile Creek in St Lucie County. Algae in agriculture canals is very visible.

This flight, as the others you may have experienced on my blog with Todd, is amazing. It allows one to really see what the lands were originally like and how they have been developed as residential homes and endless agriculture fields.

Towards the end of the video, you can even see algae growing in the agriculture canals, off of Ten Mile Creek, St Lucie County–“bright green,” for all to see on Google Earth. I have witnessed these green canals too from an airplane.

Due to drainage canals— leading to drainage canals—leading to drainage canals, this water from the ag fields, and from all of our yards, ends up in the now sickly St Lucie River. This problem is exacerbated by ACOE/SFWMD releases from Lake Okeechobee and the basin area of C-44 in Southern Martin County. These canals and the expanded engineered runoff from the lands is what is killing our river.

It is my hope that with visuals like the video above, future generations will find a way, and want to be a part of a new water and land management generation “seeing” how to improve St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon. Our generation seems stuck in a quagmire….

Like they say: “seeing is believing,” and seeing provides insight for change.

*Thank you to my brother Todd, for this incredible journey using overlays of aerial photographs taken in 1958 by the United States Government, and marrying these aerials over images from today’s Google Earth. (http://thurlowpa.com)

Northern reaches of North Fork of St Lucie River, Ten Mile Creek in St Lucie County, 1958. — Northern reaches of the North Fork of St Lucie River, Ten Mile Creek in St Lucie County, 1958. Wetlands showing multiple small ponds are visible. These lands were drained in the 1950s by canals C-24, and further south C-23 and further north by C-25. These canals were part of the USACOE and SFWMD’s effort for more flood control and to expand agriculture and development: These canals are part of the Central and South Florida Flood Control Project of the 1950s which allowed more non flooding development and agriculture, but also destroyed our valuable south Florida waterways.

DEP: C-24 as part of the Central and Southern Flood Control Project 1950s:(http://www.dep.state.fl.us/southeast/ecosum/ecosums/c24.pdf)

*The yellow lines are today’s roads for reference; 91 is the Florida Turnpike built in the 50s and 60s.

Protecting the Indian River Lagoon, “A Generation at a Time,” SLR/IRL

My husband Ed flied with nephew, Ben, during the month of May over the SLR/IRL. — My husband, Ed, flew with his nephew, Ben, during the month of May over the SLR/IRL.

St Lucie Locks and Dam the day the locks opened 1-16-15. Photo Scott Kuhns. — St Lucie Locks and Dam the day the locks opened 1-16-15. Photo Dr. Scott Kuhns.

I love my parents’ generation, but when it comes the St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon and growing up in Stuart, I feel that I grew up unprepared. As a child, I was taught only to love and appreciate my river, not how to protect it, or to recognize what was killing it.

I learned about adorable and fascinating seahorses, but not canals; I was taught about seagrasses, but not how one day algae blooms from all of our fertilized yards and the agricultural people’s fields could be blocking out needed light and destroying these valuable eco-systems.

I grew up in the 1970, and 80s and all the problems we have today can be linked back to those years and before. Older generations knew “it” was coming, but we ignored the inevitable.

But today is a different world, the “inevitable” has arrived and our river is dying. Thankfully, many young people today are not only learning but embracing the problems that threaten the Indian River Lagoon, and they are embracing these problems positively, as “challenges,” as “opportunities,” to create a better water future for themselves and their children as well.

But WE HAVE TO TEACH THEM.

When my husband’s nephew, his wife, and their one year old daughter visited, Ed and I not only took them to Florida Oceanographic, the beach, and the pool, we let them roll their sleeves up and get in the air showing them from above our struggles with pollution being released into our waterways by the South Florida Water Management District and the Army Corp of Engineers. We flew over the retched canals of C-23, C-24, C-25 and C-44 and discussed over drainage of our state. We visited poor Lake Okeechobee drowning in the filth of the Kissimmee River, and Orlando, whose “best management practices” are really “poor at best.” We showed them how the sugar and vegetable agri-businesses are blocking the flow of water south to the Everglades so it is sent here….

Ben, Ed’s nephew, works for AT&T in Chicago, and had all sorts of technology ideas about streaming and sharing river photos in ways Ed and I didn’t even know were possible. Old learns from young. Young learns from old…Ben once home, will share his experiences here in Florida with his group of friends in Chicago and all the places he travels. As a former U.S. Marine, he will share the ideas and issues he has learned about the St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon with his comrades…We of all ages want a better water America, and we need to start taking that goal into our own hands.

As Lake O is dropping, and algae blooms are occurring in our river due to the overabundance of fresh water from the lake lowing the river’s salinity, today the Army Corp of Engineers thankfully ramps down their releases from Lake Okeechobee into the river to 200 cubic feet per second down from a high of 900.

Today to summarize the year so far, I will share some photos Ed, Ben, friend Scott Kuhns and I have taken since January when the discharges started. The photos are interesting to view “over time.”

One day, so long as we share, future generations may be able to get the number down to zero. For all of us, as addicts of an over-drainage society, the saying becomes: “One generation at a time…”

Lake O levels since 2-20-15 though 5-22-15. — Lake O levels from 2-20-15 though 5-22-15.

1-25-15. Near Sewall's Point SLR. — 1-25-15. Wide SLR. (Photo Ed Lippisch)

2-10-15. Sewall’s Point. Photo, Ed Lippisch.

3-2-15. SL Inlet mouth at Sailfish Point. JTL.

3-8-15. Crossroads, SLR Inlet off Sewall’s Point. JTL.

3-18-15. — 3-18-15, S. IRL and SLR converge at SL Inlet off Sewall’s Point. JTL.

4-8-15. Plume rounds Jupiter Island to go out the SL Inlet. (Ed Lippisch/Scott Kuhns.)

Sailfish Point 5-6-15. — S. IRL Lagoon and Sailfish Flats off east Sewall’s Point. 5-6-15 .Photo, Ben Linder.

SL Inlet, May 6, 2013. — SL Inlet with plume off Jupiter Island. 5-13-15. Ben Linder.

Sandbar area showing dark algae growing on seagrasses near St Lucie Inlet off Sewall’s Point. 5-13-15. Photo Ben Linder.

Plume in Atlantic Ocean off Jupiter Island and Peck's Lake. Photo Ben Linder. — Lessening plume in Atlantic Ocean off Jupiter Island and Peck’s Lake, 5-13.-15. Photo Ben Linder.

Looking to Sailfish Point with vague plume going towards inlet. 5-16-15. Ben Linder.

Plume exiting SL Inlet 5-20-15 Photo, Ed Lippisch.

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ACOE J-Ville: (http://www.saj.usace.army.mil)

Port St Lucie was a Swamp? Really? St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon

Topographical map, courtesy of Todd Thurlow. — Topographical 1823 U.S. Army map, courtesy of Todd Thurlow.

Map overlay with I-95 and Turnpike. (Todd Thurlow) — Map in transition/overlay showing today’s I-95 and Turnpike in yellow. (Todd Thurlow)

Link to short video journey showing the former swamp “Alpatiokee” juxtaposed to today’s agriculture and development– Post St Lucie and western Martin County,

The first map in the video is a 1823 U.S. Army Map showing “Al-pa-ti-o-kee Swamp,” as it was known. The second is a 1846 map by Bruff. We then fly in to view Green Ridge, and the ridge just east of Indiantown. Next, we then overlay the 1983 Topo maps to view Green Ridge again, fly up, and around, Ten-mile Creek, and then back down the North Fork of the St. Lucie River. —-Todd Thurlow

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2f-e0ul1mY&feature=youtu.be)

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Not only was the city of Port St Lucie a swamp, but western Martin County was too. Please view the above video and “see” for yourself! It must have been a fabulous place, now long gone, know as “Alpatiokee,” or “Halpatiokee Swamp.”

Meaning “alligator waters” by the Seminoles, these lands/waterways were traversed for centuries in hand-made canoes. The native people and the Seminoles traveled many miles through the St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon, and during rainy season they could travel all the way up into the St Johns River. How? Because these lands, when flooded, were “connected.” Now they are not only no longer connected but water that flowed north into the St John’s flows south into the St Lucie River….

Back to Port St Lucie…..

Recently, I kept noticing that the 1856 “Everglades” Military Map I like so much showed an expansive swamp close to where Port St Lucie and western Martin County are located today.

“This is weird,” I thought. “What happened to the old swamp?”

So, I contacted my brother, Todd, who loves maps and can combine them together with technology. (See link/video above.)

Below you’ll find an edited version of Todd’s notes to me.

I find all of this absolutely fascinating, and sometimes a bit unsettling….The natural ridges in the land we seem to ignore; how we blew canals through them; how the water USED to flow; how humans have developed and built agricultural empires, and changed everything….Maybe one day with visual tools like these, future land planners, and water district employees can change back some of our landscape to it’s former glory, and maybe even return a few gators to the landscape, since it’s named after them.

That would be nice, something more to look at while driving the Turnpike than “concrete.” 🙂

Alligator resting but always alert....(Public photo.) — Halpatiokee or Alpatiokee translates as “alligator water” in the Seminole language. (Public photo.)

———————-

TODD’S NOTES REGARDING VIDEO:

THE OLD MAPS: The old maps are not necessarily accurate, but they give an idea… They show basically what was known as the “Hal-pa-ti-o-kee Swamp.” On some other maps it is labeled the “Al-pa-ti-o-kee Swamp.” On almost all old maps, it would cover the area that is labeled Allapattah Flats on the modern topographical maps — but Hal-pa-ti-o-kee was probably more to the east.

———————-

TOPOGRAPHY AND RIDGES: There are two distinct ridges in western Martin County. Green Ridge is about 4.6 miles west of the turnpike, (12.5 miles west of the ocean), and can be seen on aerials. The western edge of Allapattah flats is a ridge where the elevation goes quickly from about 30 fee to 40 feet. This ridge (an obvious ancient ocean shoreline) can be seen running all the way to Cape Canaveral parallel to the coast. This ridge is about 12.5 miles west of the turnpike (20 miles from the ocean). Indiantown sits on the high side of the ridge. This Hal-pa-ti-o-kee Swamp on those old maps would be the we area east of the Indiantown ridge – so it is basically all of western Martin and St. Lucie County.

FORMER WATER FLOW: Probably everything east of the Green Ridge flowed east into the St. Lucie. Everything between the two ridges flowed north to the St. Johns watershed and everything West of the Indiantown ridge (not much) flowed west into Lake Okeechobee via the little creeks on the east bank of the

….Somewhere between the St. Johns and the St. Lucie so everything between the two ridges, but north of that point, went north to the St. Johns River. Everything south would have gotten picked up by Ten-mile creek in the extreme North Fork of the St. Lucie River, which actually flowed north-east before turning back south to the St. Lucie.

CONCLUSION: There are academics that would know this stuff for sure and all the proper names. These ridges are like little continental divides, separating water flows into separate directions like the Rocky Mountains. When they busted all these canals through the ridges they changed the direction of all the water flows from mostly north/south to east/west. But that was the goal — get it to sea level as quickly as possible and drain the swamps…

—Todd Thurlow, Thurlow and Thurlow, PA (http://thurlowpa.com)

Kidz, 8 Steps to Becoming a “Toxic Algae Detective,” St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon

Dirty Water Kills. River Kidz art archives.

DEP Algal bloom report to agencies and elected officials. (5-18-15, DEP 2015)

WRITTEN FOR THE RIVER KIDZ, but FOR ADULTS TOO!

I do love government, or I wouldn’t be involved in it, nonetheless, it has many faults. One of its greatest, in my opinion, is making information easy and accessible to the public. Whether this is a strategy, or just a failure of most government-systems, is up for debate.

Anyway, today, in the world of “government information on toxic algae,” I wanted to cut through the plethora of information found layers-down-inside-websites you probably don’t even know about and share are few links in case you have any interest in becoming a toxic algae detective. I believe through documenting toxic algae blooms, we will eventually be able to trace them back to their owners….those who dump high levels of nutrients into our waterways while fertilizing their fields and lawns, either not using “high-standard best management practices” or simply just not really caring about water quality like they should….

River Kidz toxic algae deceives track down algae blooms and report them. (River Kidz art)

HOW TO BECOME A TOXIC ALGAE DETECTIVE

Tell your parents what you want to do….. 🙂 Then—-

1. Be on the lookout flourescnent green in the water. But it could be also brown, red, or blue yucky or strange looking water, usually in found during summer when its hot.

2. If you see something suspicious, take a photograph on your phone and post it to the River Kidz or Rivers Coalition Facebook pages or my Facebook page; these pages are public.

3. Don’t touch it! It could be toxic!

4. Because you are dealing with “old people,” its best to call, not text…. 🙂 It’s worth it!

For local documentation call Dr. Vincent Ecomio at Florida Oeanographic: 772-225-0505 or email him at vencomio@floridaocean.org. Be sure to tell whoever answers the phone how important it is that they take a message, documenting your name, detailed location of bloom, your phone, and email address. Ask for someone to call you back and tell you what the level of toxicity was, if it was, after a sample is taken and tested by the state. Ask if they can help you to interpret the data. Write down your findings. Keep a record. (http://www.floridaocean.org)

5. For state documentation, call the Department of Environmental Protection too. Trying to find the right number to call is like trying to find a needle in a haystack so let’s use one in nearby Ft Pierce: 772-467-5500.

6. Wait for a call back if you leave a message…again, tell your parents what you are doing.

7. If no one calls you back in two hours, call again and repeat the process. Once they talk to you, ask how you can find out how the testing went for the bloom to find out how toxic it was…

8. Go back and check on the bloom; report and post your findings. Did it move? Change color? What do you think could have caused this? Go on line and read about what can happen to algae blooms over time.

Maybe you want to start your own neighborhood website? Or share your clues and findings with at school or a community meeting? Whatever you do—-

NOW YOU ARE NOW A TOXIC ALGAE DETECTIVE! Pat yourself on the back. You are helping to create a better water future for our St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon!

The links below are very helpful.

The first one is from the Florida Department of Health and is informational. The second allows you to trace the history of blooms reported anywhere in the state. Just enter “St Lucie River…” The third is a DEP informational piece that in my opinion “waters down” toxic algae blooms and their sources, but does provide excellent information and contact numbers.

Congratulations, thanks again for helping to save our river, for us, the fish, the birds, and the animals; hope to see you detectives on the water!

1. http://www.floridahealth.gov/environmental-health/aquatic-toxins/cyanobacteria.html

2. http://www.floridahealth.gov/environmental-health/aquatic-toxins/public-access-caspio.html

3. http://www.dep.state.fl.us/secretary/news/2015/files/Algal_Bloom_2015.pdf

Artist Julia Kelly's beautiful artwork will be featured in the River Kidz Second Edition Workbook. Her work was also featured in the first edition. (Photo 2014.) — Artist Julia Kelly’s beautiful artwork in the River Kidz workbooks features the animals of the SLR/IRL staring Marty the Manatee, 2014/15.

River Kidz drawing 2012. — River Kidz art archives.

Drawing the Line, Toxic Algae Releases, St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon

Toxic algae bloom at the gates of S-308 Port Mayaca, Lake Okeechobee, 4-28-15.(JTL)

The word is out. There have been sightings of bright green, toxic-looking algae in Palm City, just two weeks after the Army Corp of Engineers, with the blessing of state agencies, began releasing toxic waters from Lake Okeechobee. Such has been the fate for many years for our St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon, but now we’re “on it.”

As we continue to document this issue, we can draw the line on abuses from Lake Okeechobee, and promote change within the law.

What is the procedure for our government to “dump toxic algae” anyway?

Well, at this point according to my research, the process goes something like this:

–the South Florida Water Management District test water quality at various locations in Lake Okeechobee; if they see a substantial algae bloom, they contact the Department of Environmental Protection, DEP, a state agency, who then test for toxins; if the bloom is toxic, the DEP then contacts the Florida Department of Health who together with DEP is responsible for communicating with others such as the Florida Wildlife Commission, local governments, the public and the Army Corp of Engineers. Then if the bloom is not too much of a health hazard…the blessing is given to the ACOE to dump.

How quaint…what teamwork, don’t you think?

I think our state and federal agencies have dumped many times with out us really understanding what was happening and we thought the algae was coming just from our own watershed….certainly the problems of our own, over-enlarged watershed exacerbate the situation, but there is no question the microcystis species of algae comes from the lake and that the lake has poisoned our estuary over the years so the bacteria/algae is latent in the fresher areas of our river now, at all times….

Anyway, as we have seen this round of releases, the ACOE and the state agencies decided on May 1st to release the toxic algae into the St Lucie River even after a call regarding the toxic algae from Senator Joe Negron, and inquiries from Congressman Patrick Murphy’s office. After great study, and determining the bloom was toxic, but not “too toxic,” the various state agencies determined the salinity in the St Lucie River would “break up the bloom,” a freshwater bloom known as microcystis that can only grow in the lake. So then the ACOE opened the gates.

For two weeks the fresh waters of Lake Okeechobee have flowed through S-308 and S-80 into the C-44 canal into the St Lucie River….

S-80 at St Lucie Locks and Dam, photo by Dr Scott Kunhs, 2013.

And as our estuary becomes fresh, losing salinity due to these freshwater releases, the microcystis species of algae can now grow and reproduce in the river. In 2013, the river was so fresh that even at the Crossroads of the St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon, off of south Sewall’s Point, toxic microcystis blooms blossomed from shore to 40 feet off the peninsula– a peninsula that basically sits inside the mouth of the St Lucie Inlet!

We must remember as mad as we are, not to kill the messenger….

Our state and federal agencies are the “messenger,” as well as the “executioner,” in this scenario. The guiltily who created this poison water of Lake Okeechobee, and how they are protected is a story for another blog, and one we all actually know quite well.

Kenny Hinkle's photo of toxic algae near S-308 in lake Okeechobee 4-24-15. — Kenny Hinkle’s photo of toxic algae near S-308 in lake Okeechobee 4-24-15.

Algae photo shared on Facebook, Rivers Coalition, Diana Pegrum, Palm City 5-18-15.

Photo Ch 12 reporter Jana Ensbach shared on Facebook 5-18-15. — Photo Ch 12 reporter Jana Eschbach shared on Facebook 5-18-15.

DEP History and condition of C-44 canal: (http://www.dep.state.fl.us/southeast/ecosum/ecosums/C-44%20Canal%20.pdf)

DEP:(http://www.dep.state.fl.us/water/bgalgae/faq.htm)

Florida Dept. Health: (http://www.floridahealth.gov/environmental-health/aquatic-toxins/cyanobacteria.html)

Florida Wildlife Commission: (http://myfwc.com/wildlifehabitats/health-disease/other-wildlife/cyanobacteria/)

SFWMD -no information came up for my SFWMD search on this subject: (http://www.sfwmd.gov/portal/page/portal/sfwmdmain/home%20page)

ACOE (HABs) Questions and Answers:(http://www.lrl.usace.army.mil/Portals/64/docs/CWProjects/WaterQuality/General%20Lake%20Questions%20and%20Answers%20on%20Algae%20Blooms.pdf)

Understanding Cyanobacteria or Toxic Algae: (http://jacquithurlowlippisch.com/2015/05/05/understanding-cyanobacteria-or-toxic-algae-slrirl/)

Where Do We Go From Here? St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon

After the SFWMD killed the EAA US Sugar Lands option, where do we go from here? (Map Everglades Foundation, River of Grass 2008.) — Since the SFWMD killed the 46,800 acre EAA US Sugar option, where do we go from here? (Map Everglades Foundation, River of Grass 2008.)

Foot stepping on a roach, stock photo, internet.

I likened it to watching someone step on a roach. It was terrible. With the a motion from Kevin Powers, the South Florida Water Management District just squashed it.

Last Thursday, on May 14th 2015, the SFWMD, with absolutely no mercy at all, killed the option land contract to purchase 46,800 acres from US Sugar Corporation. This option land purchase has been the greatest hope for local environmentalists, the River Warriors, the Everglades Foundation, and many others to lay ground for a future that would not discharge so much fresh, polluted, water from Lake Okeechobee into the St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon.

The hope was that a reservoir could be built on this land to then store, clean and convey water south to the Everglades.

Video of SFWMD meeting 5-14-15, Kenny Hinkle (http://youtu.be/_q220dk5I2g)

Well, it’s dead. No use bemoaning the situation. Let’s brush ourselves off and keep going. Even though the SFWMD killed this option, there are still others.

The best thing to do now is to “read up” and get smart about at what is “on the books” because a reservoir in the EAA is on the books as part of the Central Everglades Restoration Plan known as CERP. It may not be as good as the 46,800 acre option, but it would be something… And we must enlist Senator Joe Negron as he is our only Indian guide. ((http://www.flsenate.gov/Senators/s32)) To include a land purchase for this reservoir, whether it be in the Everglades Agricultural Area or not, through bonding of Amendment 1 monies is our war plan.

Negron’s idea is to crank up talking to scientists and experts on the best property currently available to build a reservoir. We need about 50 to 60,000 acres, as set out in the 2000 CERP…

The dysfunctional 2015 Florida State Legislature is not a great horse to bet on, but we have no other choice. Let’s saddle up and move on.

Park Service easy guide to understanding basics of CERP, the Central Everglades Restoration Project, 2000: (http://www.nps.gov/ever/learn/nature/upload/CERPFSLoResSecure.pdf)

SFWMD EAA Reservoirs in CERP, 2003: (http://www.sfwmd.gov/portal/page/portal/xrepository/sfwmd_repository_pdf/alt_formulation_eaa_reservoirs_10-03-2003.pdf)
SFWMD (http://www.sfwmd.gov/portal/page/portal/pg_grp_sfwmd_sfer/portlet_prevreport/volume1/chapters/v1_ch_7a.pdf)

ACOE Central and South Florida Restudy, CERP: “Roadmap or Roadblocks,” (http://www.ucowr.org/files/Achieved_Journal_Issues/V111_A12Central%20&%20Southern%20Florida%20Project%20Comprehensive%20Review%20Study%20Road%20Map%20or%20Roadblock%20for%20the%20Future.pdf)

According to CERP, Moving water south requires storage in the EAA — According to CERP, moving water south requires storage in the EAA

SFWMD:(http://www.sfwmd.gov/portal/page/portal/sfwmdmain/home%20page)

TC Palm, Tyler Treadway: Negron Won’t Give Up:(http://www.tcpalm.com/franchise/indian-river-lagoon/health/negron-to-pursue-money-for-land-south-of-lake-okeechobee-despite-death-of-us-sugar-option_66776672)

There are many lands that could be used for storage in the EAA.(NOAA Satellite map) — There are many lands that could be used for storage in the EAA…(NOAA satellite map)

Jimmy Buffett and Family Along the Indian River Lagoon

Darice, Ed’s neice is graduating from University of Miami!

Jimmy Buffett was the speaker at Darcie's graduation from UM. — Jimmy Buffett was the speaker at Darcie’s graduation from UM.

My conservative attorney father loves listening to singer/songwriter, Jimmy Buffett, and a “Margaritaville state of mind” was certainly part of the St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon lifestyle throughout much of my youth.

As he climbed to fame and fortune, Jimmy Buffett always had time to stand up for Florida’s environment. Just this spring, he headlined a rally petitioning the Florida Legislature to buy U.S. Sugar land for Everglades’ restoration; years ago he helped found the Save the Manatee Club with U.S. Senator and former Governor, Bob Graham. Buffett is a Florida “conservationist hero.” Thus it was a welcomed surprise to learn that Mr Buffett would be receiving an honorary doctorate degree of music, and be the commencement speaker for Ed’s niece, Darcie’s, University of Miami graduation last Friday.

Ed with his sister Lupi surround her three children Stanley, Ben, and Darcie. Ben’s wife Kelly and their baby daughter, Capri, also pictured.

It was a day of celebration but the signs were everywhere: “Miami needs more clean water!” “Send the water south!”

The city of Miami was under great construction and cranes filled the horizon. Around the corner, in Coral Gables, there were other signs.

As Darcie and I made our way to the auditorium, we walked past the large pond I had enjoyed so much during Ed and my last visit: “Wow, what happened to the water here?” I asked…

“I know,” she said, “It used to be so clear. Since they built the new Ratskeller and student center, it is all cloudy and brown….runoff maybe?” She inquired.

“What happened to all the fish?” I asked.

Darcie shook her head.

Symbolic of things to come? Jimmy Buffett the speaker…Hmmmm….

Darcie’s generation, more than ever, knows the pressures of a growing world population, the need for more clean water, and the importance of saving and restoring the environment the best we can…

Darcie’s generation also knows that just through south Florida canals, the state of Florida is dumping 1.7 billion gallons of fresh water into the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico every day because US Sugar and other multi-trillion dollar agri-businesses block that flow.

The red line shows the designated "Everglades." As we can see humankind has filled a lot of it in. (SFWMD map, 2012.) — The area south of Lake Okeechobee, known as the EEA or Everglades Agricultural Area, blocks the natural flow of water from Lake Okeechobee to the Everglades thus this water goes to tide destroying the northern estuaries of St Lucie and Caloosahatchee, a waste!

We and earlier generations have to admit that when it comes to Florida and water, we have messed things up. Perhaps we were driven by “hunger and money,” but today, we all recognize the value of clean water and a healthy environment for the survival of our children. It is time that water again makes its way from Lake Okeechobee to the Everglades…

Why don’t we try to help these young people with this issue rather than leaving them with the full burden? It’s time to buy the land.

I will be taking a week’s break to focus on family, but I wanted to leave you with my audio tape of Jimmy Buffett’s commencement speech below; it does not focus on the poor state of Florida’s environment, but rather on life lessons to help: 1. Moderation; 🙂 2. Make your avocation your vocation; 3. Travel this world; and 4. be Santa Clause when you can! Good advice for all us, young or old. Let’s make Jimmy Buffett proud and keep working to save our St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon!

JIMMY BUFFETT’S UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI COMMENCEMENT SPEECH, 2015.

Jimmy Buffett's biography in the UM program, 2015. — Jimmy Buffett’s biography in the UM program, 2015.

University of Miami program cover, commencement 2015.

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The Determination of the Great Southern Butterfly, St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon

The Great Southern Butterfly, Flicker photo by Christina Reiman, 2013.

My attempt to capture an image of a Great White Butterfly in Sewall's Point Park stopping to eat along the way.... — My attempt to capture an image of a Great Southern Butterfly in Sewall’s Point Park stopping to eat along the way….

You may have noticed them recently, hundreds, if not thousands, of white traveling butterflies moving south along our St Lucie River/ Indian River Lagoon?

I’ve noticed them, and was so amazed that I actually got out of my car and tried to video tape them. Standing at the Sewall’s Point Town Hall as they darted past, I thought to myself: “Who are these butterflies? I wonder where they are going? What a sense of purpose!”

Flying low, cars zooming past, drafts pushing their slight weight up over vehicles, and sometimes getting hit, they fall like white petals onto the street. Resembling a slow moving army of the American Civil War, they are unfazed by their opposition and keep moving in a formation invisible to the human eye.

So brave. So together—they know where they are going.

Known as the “Great Southern Butterfly,” this pretty, “aquamarined-antennaed” insect breeds in the remaining salt marshes of the Indian River Lagoon, laying eggs commonly on saltwort and reproducing after rains.

During the 1930s and beyond, tremendous percentages of the Indian River Lagoon’s salt marshes were flooded for mosquito control purposes; thus certainly our present army of butterflies is much fewer today than in the past.

These hardy little butterflies can travel more than 40 miles in two days! Can you imagine? I admire their stamina, natural intelligence, and determination. They are a metaphor for our goals and for our lives as we try to save the St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon.

In honor of their efforts, and the lessons they are teaching, I have determined to temporarily drop my speed while driving, I hope you will too. 🙂

Article on Great Southern Butterfly, Coastal Star: (http://thecoastalstar.ning.com/profiles/blogs/butterfly-bursts-onto-scene-in-great-numbers)
Salt marsh habitat and loss: (http://www.sms.si.edu/IRLSpec/Impoundments.htm)

The “Pig” of the Indian River Lagoon, SLR/IRL

Photo of sow along IRL, by John Whiticar, 2015. — Photo of happy, prancing, sow along IRL, by John Whiticar, 2015.

John Whiticar, sow looking forward, IRL 2015.

A beautiful photo of the sow enjoying the sunrise along the IRL. John Whiticar, 2015.

I have a soft spot for pigs, or any animal related to a “pig.” Pigs, you may remember, sat upright at the table in George Orwell’s classic novel ANIMAL FARM; they became like humans…

For me, pigs are part of my family history as my grandfather Henderson won a scholarship to the University of Florida for his famous 1926 pig “Charlotte.” This launched a very successful career for him as an agriculture man at the University of Florida. My grandfather’s brother, my uncle, became a wealthy “pig-farmer” in Madison, Florida. I loved visiting there as a kid! The most fun ever! When my family arrived, Uncle Gordy would run out into the fields almost before saying “hello,” and bring back piglets for my brother, sister and I. They were adorable coming in all different colors and patterns. Their small noses scrunching, we were allowed to hold them, and later return the piglets to an irritated, snorting mother. At the time, I didn’t think much about their fate of “becoming bacon….”

My grandfather, Russell Henderson Sr. who became famous as a young man in the state of Florida for his breeding of the best pigs. He received a scholarship for his work and has a long career at UF in soil science and headed IFAS. — My grandfather, Russell Henderson Sr. at 17, in 1926, Madison, Florida. My grandfather became “famous” as a young man in the state of Florida for his breeding of the best pigs. He received a scholarship for his work and had a long career at UF in soil science and worked for the IFAS Extension Office in Gainesville.

As I got older, I realized that often pigs get a “bad wrap”as they are “dirty.” Again, just like humans….They are also very smart, just like humans too. I read somewhere that they are smarter than dogs. Maybe that’s why George Orwell chose them to take over Manor Farm.

Anyway, I have been wanting to write a post on pigs, or wild boars, (males) or sows, (females) since I recently saw marina owner and photographer John Whiticar’s photos of a wild sow he photographed along the Indian River Lagoon.

What great shots and thank you John for allowing me to share! I have seen sows with their piglets on Savanna Road in Jensen at night foraging. I have also seen wild pigs more recently at Billy’s Swamp Safari in Big Cypress. Here a baby pig got separated from its mother and fellow piglets and it followed the mother’s scent very far zig-zagging perhaps a quart mile to find her. And he did! We followed and all clapped when the family was reunited.

“Wild pigs” were brought to Florida by the Spanish in the 1500s, and today they wreak destruction on the environment, just like humans. We have so much in common! It’s amazing! Seriously though, for me, they are one of God’s creatures, and should be treated humanely as all animals. Popular since the early days of Florida, they appear on many of my mother and father’s historic postcards below.

It you see a sow or a boar, know that you are staring Florida history right in the face, and that some might say that we are even “related.” Also remember, like George Orwell’s satire states, unfortunately: ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL, BUT SOME ANIMALS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS…. 🙂

Historic post card, courtesy of Thurlow Collection.

Another historic post card with a wild pig or sow. (Thurlow Collection) — Another historic post card with a wild pig. (Thurlow Collection)

Historic post card, Thurlow Collection. — Historic post card, wild boar, Thurlow Collection.

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University of Florida. Hogs in Florida, Ecology and Management: (http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/uw322I)

Animal Farm, a novel by George Orwell, 1946: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_Farm)

Understanding Cyanobacteria or Toxic Algae, SLR/IRL

Cyanobacteria in the St Lucie River, 2013. Photo Jenny Flaugh.

I prefer not to focus on negative topics in my blog, however, it is important we learn about cyanobacteria or “toxic algae” while it is a hot topic as it has it is being released into our St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon by the Army Corp of Engineers, as I compose this blog post.

I am going to provide “bullet points,” as I think this will be most effective. I have provided reading material at the end of the post should you be interested in pursuing the topic.

Toxic algae bloom S-308 2015, Lake Okeechobee. (Photo JTL) — Toxic algae bloom S-308, 2015, Lake Okeechobee. (Photo JTL)

Here we go; as no expert, I will do my best:

CYANOBACTERIA

-Cyanobacteria has characteristics of both bacteria and algae; it is not a “true algae”

-It is referred to as “blue-green algae”

– It is ancient, the oldest form of life on our planet, perhaps 3.5 billion years old

– It is believed to have created the oxygen in Earth’s atmosphere thus defining life on Earth

-It can live in both fresh and salt water environments and in-between

-It exists worldwide in inland and coastal waters (salt and fresh)

-There are “different” cynobacteria in different water environments; they adapt

– 46 species show toxic effects (World Health Organization, 1999)

-The most common FRESHWATER species is microcystis (species found in Lake O)

-The other “most common” species is neuotoxin

-Some species contain both microcysis and neuotoxins

-The World Health Organization recommends governments recognize the “presumption” that all cyanobacteria can be toxic

-Cyanobacteria is buoyant but some can also adjust where they live in the water column to attain the right amount of sunlight

-Buoyancy leads to floating on the water’s surface where winds drive them to shore and they accumulate in a “scum” that is even more “toxic” (concentrated) (Like Lake O)

-Cyanobacteria blooms are a threat to public health and wildlife

Cyanobacteria is encouraged by heavy “nutrients” like phosphorus and nitrogen to “bloom” (grow)

-The present warming trend of the Earth, compounded with human “waste” from agricultural fertilizer, septic and sewer, and “stromwater” from roadways (how we have designed all water to run off into our rivers and lakes) is “feeding” cyanobacteria blooms

-Cyanobacteria blooms are increasing worldwide

-Cyanobacteria can be “controlled” through lessening nutrient pollution from fertilizer and other nutrient producers

Sandsprit part 2013, (Photo: Bob Voisenet.) — Sandsprit Park 2013, (Photo: Bob Voisenet.)

About four years ago, I was at Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute attending a lecture on “nutrient pollution and our waterways.” At the event, I spoke to Dr Margaret Leinen who is now director of Scripps Research Institution of Oceanography in California. In the course of conversation, she told me she testified before Congress for the National Reasearch Council’s publication, “Clean Coastal Waters, Understanding and Reducing the Effects of Nutrient Pollution, 2000” of which I had just read, and had been discussed at the lecture.

I asked her, why the US Congressional committee wasn’t “stricter” in passing laws to reduce agribusiness fertilizer runoff, and other sources since the scientists “knew” why our waters including the St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon, and especially Lake Okeechobee were experiencing these toxic blooms.

She, being a lady, just looked at me and said something to the effect of, “Jacqui they don’t always listen….”

Her words have rung in my ears for four years.

No they don’t always listen. Most politicians wait until a crisis ensues as is happening now. We will have to make them listen…all of them: US politicians, state politicians, and local politicians. It is not fun, enforcing laws on polluters, especially if they are campaign donors, but now there is no choice; it is a health issue. We, the St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon, are a voice for all the world.

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The sample of toxic algae taken by DEP and reported from Martin County on 4-24-15 from Lake O read as follows: “Toxin analysis showed 8.4 µg of microcystin-LR per liter in the sample.” ( I do not know how to read this or how to compare it but it was “toxic.” )

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Reading Material:

Clean Coastal Waters, National Academies Press: (http://www.nap.edu/catalog/9812/clean-coastal-waters-understanding-and-reducing-the-effects-of-nutrient)

World Health Organization: Guidelines for Safe Recreational Water Environments: (http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/bathing/srwe1-chap8.pdf)

(http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/bathing/srwe1/en/)

NOAA: (http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/news/features/feb12/cyanobacteria.html)

The Rise of Harmful Cyanobacteria Blooms: (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1568988311001557)

“Don’t Dump On Me,” St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon

Toxic Flag, SLR/IRL 2015. — “Toxic Flag,” SLR/IRL 2015. Yellow represents hope; red represents blood; and blue represents truth.

Toxic algae at S-308, 5-3-15. Photo by Toby Oberdorf. — Toxic algae at S-308 Lake Okeechobee west side of structure. 5-3-15. Photo by Toby Overdorf.

Toxic algae at CS-308, photo by Toby Oberdorf. — Toxic algae at CS-308 on 5-3-15, east side of structure. Photo by Toby Overdorf.

Toxic algae and dead fish. Photo Toby Oberdorf, 5-3-15. — Toxic algae and dead fish also east side of structure. Photo Toby Overdorf, 5-3-15.

I have decided that we need a flag. The first flags were used to assist military co-ordination on battlefields, and flags have since evolved into a general tool for rudimentary signalling and identification, especially in environments where communication is challenging.
Thus, I have created the “Toxic Flag”of the St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon.

I would like to thank friend Toby Overdorf and his father for going to Port Mayaca yesterday around 4:30 PM and taking photos of the toxic algae bloom still there at the gates both east and west S-308, Port Mayaca, Lake Okeechobee. I have used one of Toby’s photos to create the flag. A dead fish floats in the toxic bloom that was sent into river this morning at 7AM.

I would also like to thank Even Miller and all those who attended the BUY THE LAND and toxic algae protest yesterday at St Lucie Locks and Dam. Also thank you to Katy Lewey for her rally this morning. It is necessary to make a statement against these toxic discharges.

The “flag” I have created in the first image of this blog post is based on the Gadsden flag, one of the original American flags that in sprite of its many associations stands for every American in that we as Americans are not afraid to fight tyranny. That toxic waters are dumped into the St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon is a form of tyranny. It is a practice that is now understood and must be changed.

Below are the webcams as kindly sent by the Army Corp of “Engineers and the Environmental Conditions Report” from the South Florida Water Management District that I could not find the other day. The links to the web cams allow one to see a photo every five minutes from S-80 and S-308. S-308 is at Lake Okeechobee and S-80 is located in the C-44 canal at St Lucie Locks and Dam. I do appreciate these links being sent and I must state that I understand that it is not the individual people of the ACOE and SFWMD that purposefully dump on our waters. It is the bureaucracy of these institutions that have morphed such over the years that they no longer respond to the people or to the voters. Time for a change.

Fly this flag with pride and remember: “Don’t Dump on Me.”

From the ACOE: As promised, following is the URL’s for Environmental Conditions Report of SFWMD (see right bottom under Operational Reports)

(http://www.sfwmd.gov/portal/page/portal/xweb%20-%20release%202/operational%20planning)

Also the following URL shows Okeechobee spillway cameras

(http://w3.saj.usace.army.mil/h2o/cameras.htm)

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History of the Gadsten Flag: (http://gadsden.info/history.html)

History of Flags: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag)

We Must Create an Image For a Better Water Future! St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon

"Earth From Space" Lake Okeechobee, agriculture, cities and the Florida Everglades. (2014) — Florida from Lake Okeechobee to part of Everglades National Park–Courtesy of ESA, Copernicus data 2014. (Photo brought to my attention by Mr Ted Guy.)

ACOE press release 4-29-15 as shown from an image taken on my iPhone.

Images help us to “see.”

Images help us understand where we are going, were we are, and where we have been. Here along the St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon, the present “image” is not an easy one, as everything is “toxic green.”

The Army Corp of Engineers’ recent press release informs that the agency will begin releasing water from Lake Okeechobee into the St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon on Monday, May 4th, 2015. This water is known to contain toxic algae. Some of this toxic algae has tested at high levels as shown by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s report as shared with Martin County government on 4-29-15:

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(Excerpt) Bloom Update Notification DEP

Auto Generated Bloom Contact ID: 292

Descriptive Bloom ID: SFWMD_24April2015_L.Okeechobee

Name of Water Body: Lake Okeechobee

Date Received: 04/24/2015

Result:

Class

Toxin potential *
The dominant taxon was:
Microcystis aeruginosa
Class Cyanophyceae
yes

*Toxin analysis showed 8.4 µg of microcystin-LR per liter in the sample.

________________________________________

According to the press release fom the ACOE, they have consulted with scientists from the South Florida Water Management District, Florida’s Department of Environmental Protection, as well as the United States Geological Survey. The thinking is that the lake is too high and it may be a better idea to release the toxic algae into the brackish waters of the St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon where it may “break up,” rather than allowing it to fester and possibly grow even larger in the fresh, warm, stagnant waters of Lake Okeechobee.

Maybe the bloom will disperse. This is not the point. The point for me, as a small town elected official, is that the “higher” governments, now apparently both state and federal, have knowingly and publicly agreed to pour toxic algae into our community.

Yes, the ACOE and SFWMD and others may have done this in the past, but “nobody knew.”

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The remainder of this blog is a plea to the agencies:

Toxic algae—

Now we know. We saw it. A video was created by citizens and shared with hundreds, maybe thousands. Senator Negron was even alarmed so he called, and you agreed not to open the gates. Toxic algae is a health hazard. You tested it just to verify it was toxic. It tested positive. Now, one week later, you are going to “knowingly” and publicly release it?

I know what you are thinking—

I sympathize….possible flooding south of the lake; it can’t happen. Flood control; it’s your first priority— I get it.

You are in a bad position having to choose between “possible flooding” or “releasing toxic algae into a community. What can you do?

Communicate!

MAKE THOSE HIGHER UP THAN YOU HELP MAKE THE CHOICES.

Share your concerns with Governor Rick Scott, President Barack Obama, members of Congress and the Florida legislature. Get on the phone and call them. Reach out.

I will search for remedies too. The public will as well. What is ironic is that this forced cup of poison we all must drink is binding us together as never before. We are bound in time and place. We must fulfill our destiny and create an image for a better water future.

The present models, the present images, are not working.

!956 War Map of Florida's Everglades, Courtesy of Sandra Henderson Thurlow. — 1856 War Map of Florida’s Everglades, Courtesy of Sandra Henderson Thurlow.

Satellite map of Florida, public image ca 2005. — Satellite map of Florida, public image ca 1993.

Link attached to lead image in this blog was shared with me by attorney and River Coalition Defense Fund member, Ted Guy: (http://www.scientificcomputing.com/news/2015/04/florida-lake-okeechobee-part-everglades-national-park)

(http://www.esa.int/spaceinvideos/Videos/2015/04/Earth_from_Space_Florida)

What Agency is Responsible for Tracking Toxic Algae Blooms in Lake Okeechobee? SLR/IRL

This image shows that an algae bloom was in Lake Okeechobee on April 14, 2015.

I must drive to Ft Pierce this morning so I do not have very much time to write– this post will be short and undeveloped, but you’ll get the idea.

Yesterday, I received information from a very reliable person, and it is making me wonder…

“The information” is the image above showing an algae bloom in Lake Okeechobee on 4-14-15. I don’t know why it says “unvalidated data,” but if you look at it closely it shows an algae bloom in Lake Okeechobee. I was told this image and an algae report can be found on the “Lake Okeechobee Operations” page of the South Florida Water Management District.

If this is true, and I believe it is, why didn’t the public or the local governments hear about this bloom before 4-24-15? Also, who is really in charge of this information? Yes, I was told it can be found on the South Florida Water Management’s web site, but then it is the Army Corp of Engineers, a federal agency, that is responsible for opening the S-308 structure at Lake Okeechobee to release water when “necessary” into the C-44/St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon….(The SFWMD is a state agency….ACOE is federal…..)

Are the state and federal agencies talking? Why isn’t the ACOE “in charge of the water” if they dump it? I don’t get it….

The bottom line is the information is “out there.” It was known to both the state and federal agencies that an algae bloom was in Lake Okeechobee before Kenny Hinkle and Mike Connor’s video spurred outrage along the St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon and the ACOE was contacted by citizens and Senator Joe Negron and made the decision not to open S-308 this past Friday. This has come up in more places than one.

I am happy “they” didn’t open the gate, but I am confused why we didn’t hear about the very large algae bloom earlier.

I don’t get it. Am I naive? Am I becoming a crazy conspiracy theorist? Is this information purposefully not being shared, and if so who is not sharing it?

Is the government above our heads? If so we must change this. We must become in charge of this information for ourselves as it is public’s information paid for by our tax dollars.

I think we must push for a web cam at the gates of the lake that we, the public, can easily access and EASY access to the website that has live maps of algae blooms. As I have stated, I believe this information is here now, but how do we access it?

The information for blooms knows as HABs, or Harmful Algae Blooms, must be EASILY available to all citizens. I believe that the Florida Wildlife Commission, FWC, also had a very developed program and WEBSITE AREA on algae blooms because in the past as I even wrote about it in a previous blog. I seems like their committee kind of died off for some reason….

HABs are a problem all over the world, and they can be spotted with satellite imagery. They should be spotted for all of us. Unfortunately, this is the “now” and this is the future.

In the age of information, you’d think if would be “easier than this,” but is not. We must control our destiny, if we are to protect our lives and our property. The government is not doing this as it should be. They may not even really know this as they have been not doing it for so long….Very, very, sad.

Sorry to ramble, but you get the idea.

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LINKS but where is the answer?

(http://www.sfwmd.gov/portal/pls/portal/portal_apps.repository_lib_pkg.repository_browse?p_keywords=emmaps&p_thumbnails=no)

(http://www.sfwmd.gov/portal/page/portal/pg_grp_sfwmd_watershed/phytoplankton_bloom_192/tab4960138/lake_okeechobee_algal_bloom_feb%202010%20te.doc)

(http://www.sfwmd.gov/portal/page/portal/pg_grp_sfwmd_sfer/portlet_prevreport/2012_sfer/v1/chapters/v1_ch8.pdf)

(http://www.sfwmd.gov/portal/page/portal/xrepository/sfwmd_repository_pdf/final_posters_2014_11x17%201.pdf)

An earlier blog on HABs: (http://jacquithurlowlippisch.com/2014/08/28/harmful-algal-blooms-habs-st-lucie-riverindian-river-lagoon/)

Stormy Weather and the Toxic Algae Bloom of Lake Okeechobee, SLR/IRL

Radar weather from 4-29-15. My phone, JTL. — Radar weather screen shot from 4-29-15. My phone, NOAA site. JTL.

The past two days, I feel like I have been a guest on the TV series “Storm Chasers,” except I have been running from the storms.

Yesterday, I decided I really needed to go look at Lake Okeechobee myself to see the toxic algae bloom that has been reported through social media, TC Palm, and the internet. –The algae bloom that inspired Senator Negron to ask Col. Dodd of the ACOE to refrain from opening the gates, which they did not do. On Tuesday’s, at 2:00 PM, are the Army Corp of Engineers’ “Periodic Scientist Call for Lake Okeechobee” of which I have participated in for almost three years…

“Perfect,” I thought, “I’ll go to the lake for the call a bit early and take some photos. I will be out in Palm City around that time anyway; it’s really not that far…” The drive is about 20 miles.

Sign at Port Mayaca, Indiantown. — Signs at Port Mayaca, Indiantown.JTL

In spite of the previous day’s inclement weather, I had not checked the weather closely as I can never figure out how to get radar maps on my phone. Not checking the weather, turned out to be a big mistake.

satellite photo of Lake O, NOAA. — Satellite photo of Lake O, NOAA. If you look closely, you can see the C-44 canal connecting the St Lucie River in Stuart to the Lake O. This canal runs along Highway 76 in Martin County.

Map SFWMD showing canals and basins. Note S-308 or structure s-308 at Lake O and S-80 down the C-44 canal. Both of these structures have to open to allow water to flow into the C-44 canal to the St Lucie River, Indian River Lagoon. — Map SFWMD showing canals and basins. Note S-308 or “structure 308” at Lake O, and S-80 east along the C-44 canal. Both of these structures have to open to allow water to flow into the C-44 canal to the St Lucie River, Indian River Lagoon.

Around 1:00 PM, as I approached Port Mayaca going west along Highway 76, suddenly grey clouds in the distance converged overhead spilling out over the sky like black oil. Huge bright lightning bolts struck the ground in the direction of the lake, thunder followed almost immediately; rain dumped out of the sky. …”Oh no, not again…” I thought.

The winds screamed across the landscape. Large trucks coming towards me in the opposite direction splashed wakes hitting my car full force. Eventually, I pulled over at the entrance of DuPuis Wildlife Reserve;” the water was rising on the dirt road. Looking at my surroundings, I realized I was next to the Port Mayaca graveyard where thousands of people were buried in a mass grave after perishing in the 1928 hurricane. I turned on the radio, my windshield-wipers whipping back and forth. The unnerving sound of the Emergency Broadcast System blared and a calm computerized voice said: “Tornado warning for western Martin County.” Shaking, I forced my self to try to find radar on my phone. I found a written tornado warning for Indiantown. I was at ground zero.

All alone with the elements, I wondered what possessed me to do such a thing….I closed my eyes…I prayed…

Within thirty minutes the storm had passed. Thankfully it was not my day to die. I shook off my fear, got my self together, and completed my drive to the lake. This is what I found:

S-308 as, the structure that allows water from Lake Okeechobee to enter the C-44 canal, SLR/IRL. Lake O is in the background.

Closer view of S-308 with the beginning of the C-44 canal before its gates. The lake is behind the dike structure.

Algae bloom on west side of S-308. — Algae bloom on west side of S-308 gate.

West side of S-308 showing all gates. Algae bloom visible.

Edge of S-308 structure standing on dike, looking east over Lake Okeechobee.

Turning around to see the rim canal. Dike on left of photo. Lake on other side of dike. — Turning around from S-308 structure to see the rim canal. Dike on left of photo. Lake on left side of dike.

The lake seemed oddly calm after such rage. You could hear a pin drop. I looked around…

Storms tend to break up algae blooms, but under the right conditions of heat and over nitrified water (over-fertilized basically), they come back. In my opinion, this toxic algae issue really forces us all, from the public, to city government, to the office of the Governor, to the state legislature, to the President of the Untied States, and Congress, to ask ourselves the most critical of questions.

“Is it legal for a federal agency to knowingly release toxic water into a local community?”

To me this is situation is different than a toxic algae bloom simply forming in a localized body of water. What we are talking about here is toxic algae being purposefully transferred from one body of water to another, by the government no less…This seems wrong. Un-American.

Then of course there is the other issue, flooding south and around the lake. As I experienced yesterday, things happen very fast around this giant lake, this “big waters,” this Lake Okeechobee.

Take a look again at the first photo I show of S-308 from the bridge. This photo gives perspective of how fragile this dike and structure-gate system is. It is like trying to hold back an ocean with a cement wall. There has got to be a better way to keep our families, healthy and safe….

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Learn about toxic algae blooms: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algal_bloom)

You Never Miss It Until It’s Gone, St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon (#2 with links)

Kenny Hinkle and stand in front of the Cessna 340. (Photo by Ed Lippisch, 4-26-15.) — Kenny Hinkle and I stand in front of the Cessna 340. (Photo by Ed Lippisch, 4-26-15.)

Video of our journey in fast mode by Kenny Hinkle:

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89h5ctm38B8&feature=youtu.be)

It is human nature to “miss something once it’s gone.” This is true whether it’s the St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon, or something else.

Such was the case for me this weekend and I tried to prepare for the “miss.” My husband’s red and white Cessna 340 is being sold. Knowing the plane would available no more, I arranged a date yesterday for videographer and River Warrior, Kenny Hinkle to fly in the plane. I had been wanting to do this for a long time, but as is so often the case, “never got a round tuit.”

Kenny and Mike Connor’s big win with their video of the toxic algae bloom at S-308 last Friday at Lake Okeechobee causing Senator Joe Negron to immediately call Army Corp of Engineers Col. Dodd, who then stopped the discharges was a big win! Thank you to all involved. Reeling from this positive occurrence, I thought I would like to help Kenny get some more footage for his “next big win.” The 340 is the perfect “vehicle” for that…

The plane provides a great “overview” flying 1500 feet or much higher, and can cover long distances quickly.

Thank you to my husband for providing this trip, this farewell…In fact thank you to my husband for all of this. If it were not for him, the river would not be documented as it is!

It was actually this plane, the Cessna 340, that took the first photo on June 28th of 2013, during the toxic Lost Summer, that inspired me to start taking photos of the river and discharges regularly. As you can see below, this photo was/is so alarming, showing the impact and damage caused to property values and the environment by the releases from area canals and by Lake Okeechobee. Lake Okeechobee always the nail in the coffin….

Cessna 340 June 28th 2014 photo showing plume from area canals and Lake Okeechobee exiting St Lucie Inlet. — Cessna 340 June 28th 2013 photo showing plume from area canals and Lake Okeechobee exiting St Lucie Inlet.

Hand drawn map of flight path. 2015, JTL. — Hand drawn map of flight path over option land map. 2015, JTL.

So today, I am going to provide the farewell videos I took, and one other You Tube video I finally published so that if you ever want to, you can see for yourself what it looks like to fly from Stuart over the St Lucie River and C-44 canal, around the south rim of the “ocean of water” known as Lake Okeechobee, and then along the lake’s rim passing areas/cities of Pahokee, Bell Glade, and South Bay, then turning south along the New River Canal, flying through the sugarcane fields, (the Everglades Agricultural Area), until finally seeing the water conservation area/s, and Alligator Alley (even though I think I mistakenly say Tamiami Trial in the video….) and then flying back up the Miami canal to Clewiston before I stopped filming due to turbulence.

The videos are raw footage. Nothing fancy, the reality of a low plane ride. Many try to convince me to make them more professional. I like them as they are. Real. They show the view, the conversations, the thoughts, the heat, the noise, the turbulence….the miracle of being above ground!

The videos are split into 5 parts covering most of the trip and I included one other at the end that was taken in 2014 by Ed with a Go-Pro as it shows clearly the US Sugar option lands that are now being so hotly debated for Everglades restoration and purchase with Amendment 1 monies.

To use another cliché, “seeing is believing.” Yes, see, believe, and know, that we are changing our world.

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Links to videos

1. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUh6HYttYC4)

2. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZF9YaBm_Los)

3. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gf_nvYU9sc)

4. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epf_6fM6QKc)

5.(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3n9JezKpnU)

6. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BK4iz_xB3kU)

Will the ACOE “Dump” a Toxic Algae Bloom from Lake Okeechobee Into Our SLR/IRL?

Blue-green algae is often toxic. 4-23-15, Kenny Hinkle. — Blue-green algae this bright is usually toxic. This is a photo from just outside of Lake Okeechobee taken yesterday. 4-23-15, Kenny Hinkle.

Yesterday, a blue-green algae bloom was documented at S-308 just east of Lake Okeechobee/C-44 Port Mayaca, by Kenny Hinkle and Mike Connor: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7CglO2z33E&spfreload=10)

You hear it all the time, and it most things considered, it makes sense: “Flood control…”

The Army Corp of Engineers and South Florida Water Management District “HAVE TO” dump from Lake Okeechobee because when its waters are “too high,” it endangers the people and the farms south of the lake.

But what about us? What the thousands of people who live, fish, and boat along our estuary? Are we protected?

Blue-green algae, cyanobacteria, produces two groups of toxins, neurotoxins and peptide hepatotoxins. Great. Is this what our government should be releasing into our waters? This is a fresh water bacteria and it comes from the lake not the brackish estuary. But after our estuary has been “dumped on” by all the area canals, with an overabundance of fresh water, or an overabundance of water from the lake, the microcytosis can live here!

Disgusting…

Let’s think about this.

The first responsibility for any government is the “health, safety and welfare” of its people. That is my responsibility as an elected official in the Town of Sewall’s Point.

So when circumstances are as they are today, or at least yesterday–and there was documentation of what clearly appears to be a blue-green algae bloom, most likely toxic, on the eastern side of Lake Okeechobee at S-308, am I supposed to remain quiet? I think not, and nor should you.

The ACOE is scheduled to start dumping today. I admit, that the ACOE, SFWMD, governor, and legislature are in a difficult position having to protect one group at the expense of another, but somebody better figure it out.

Map of where bloom was located yesterday. (Kenny Hinkle, 4-23-15.)

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The dumping of blue-green algae in Lake O waters is what led to the toxic “Lost Summer” of 2013, and the fish kills and toxic waters of 2005 in the SLR/IRL.

Microcystis: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microcystis_aeruginosa)

ACOE: (http://www.saj.usace.army.mil)

2nd Graders Teach Me About the Kissimmee River, Lake O’s Phosphorus and Nitrogen, How to Save the SLR/IRL

Mrs Jacobsen and her students present the Kissimmee river model. (Photo JRL, 4-22-15.) — Mrs Jacobsen and her students present the Kissimmee River- Lake Okeechobee model. (Photo JTL, 4-22-15.)

It was Earth Day yesterday, and my eyes filled with tears as I walked into the Citrus Grove Elementary School classroom. I had been invited to see the graduation of River Kidz for Mrs Jacobson’s second grade class. Once I opened the door, the students were waiting and some took me by the hand sitting me down; they were so exited to show me what they had been learning, and how they were all working to grow up and save the St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon.

“This is different.” I thought to myself….”in years past, I would take control of the classroom, but now the kids are taking control of me!”

I watched the classroom dynamics. It was not” top down; ” it worked in both directions: Mrs Jacobsen assisting her students while they in turn assisted her— working together.

While the presentation was prepared, one boy excitedly told me about how the class had built this model of the Kissimmee River to represent what it looked like before it was channelized, “straightened,” by the Army Corp of Engineers between 1960-1971. He also explained “this is one of the things hurting our river…”

model wide view — Model wide view: floodplain, river, and Lake Okeechobee…

glass of water and green glitter — Glass of water and green glitter representing phosphorus and nitrogen from fertilizer and other runoff.

glitter representing phosphorus and nitrogen — Glitter representing phosphorus and nitrogen ends up in Lake O but not as mush as it the tube were straight!

He shared that the board painted green was the floodplain’s vegetation, and the plastic tube that weaved and oxbowed, like a snake, was the original river; a cup of water filled with glitter represented nitrogen and phosphorus-what feeds toxic algae blooms in our rivers. This water-glitter concoction would be poured through the tube, (the river) and the extra “nutrient” or fertilizer, would end up in a plastic brown container at the bottom of the tube representing Lake Okeechobee.

We stared with great amazement and observed how because of the oxbows, most of the glitter, was caught in the winding shape, and just a little ended up running through the tube. Students discussed how if the tube were straight, of course all of the green glitter-water would “just shoot down into Lake Okeechobee.”

“This is why the ACOE is fixing some of the river “oxbowey” again…Making the river strait was a bad idea….” 🙂

More complex that this? Of course. But does this help a second grader start to “get it?”

Kissimmee River Story: (http://www.ces.fau.edu/riverwoods/kissimmee.php)

What a visual! How awesome! I was more than impressed…

As the morning went on, we there was a presentation from the “Dolphin Lady,” Nic Mader, and the students showed their artwork, letters to Congressman Murphy, and chart on the white board counting down days left for the Florida Legislature to purchase land south of the lake.

Hoy Cow! —–No, Holy River!

The River Kidz program is in Martin County schools and with the help of great teachers and wonderful students, it’s creating excitement, understanding, empowerment, and responsibility for a better water future. A future for which we can all be proud…

Writing Congressman Murphy fulfills a state standard. — Writing Congressman Murphy fulfills state standards.

One of the lethers to Congressman Murphy. — One of the letters to Congressman Murphy.

Sign on board wit land purchase south of the lake deadline for the state legislature, 2015. — Sign on board with land purchase south of the lake deadline for the state legislature, 2015.

River Kidz Second Ed. Workbook. Teachers use to teach as fits their class.

Electronic copy: “River Kidz 2nd Ed. Workbook:” (http://riverscoalition.org/riverkidz/riverkidz-workbooks/)

Mrs Jacobson's students all graduated receiving a certificate from the River Kidz program from the back of the book. They were very proud and will be River Kidz for the entire lives. — Mrs Jacobson’s students all graduated receiving a certificate from the River Kidz program from the back of the book. They were very proud and will be River Kidz for their entire lives.

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River Kidz is a division of the Rivers Coalition: (http://riverscoalition.org)

Earth Day, St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon

Earth Day was first celebrated in 1970.(Public image.)

“The wealth of the nation is its air, water, soil, forests, minerals, rivers, lakes, oceans, scenic beauty, wildlife habitats and biodiversity… that’s all there is. That’s the whole economy. That’s where all the economic activity and jobs come from. These biological systems are the sustaining wealth of the world.”

— Gaylord Nelson, politician 1970s

Earth Day was first celebrated in 1970 in the United States, and is now recognized throughout the many countries of the world. This day has special significance in our St Lucie River/Indian River region as recognizing the importance of our rivers to our local economy, quality of life, and for the future has become part of our culture. First observed from space in 1968, our earth was seen for what it is, “the watery planet.” All of us, hold this watery planet in our hands…

Today, classrooms all over Martin County will be recognizing Earth Day. I will be joining Mrs Donna Jacobson’s class at Citrus Grove Elementary for a River Kidz/Earth Day lesson, teaching kids about how our earth is intrinsically intertwined with the health of its waters.

Happy Earth Day. Happy River Day. Pass it on.

(River Kid Keile Mader, 2013) — (River Kid, Keile Mader, 2015.)

History of Earth Day: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_Day)

Rivers Coalition/River Kidz: (http://riverscoalition.org)

Window of Hope, St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon

Capt Henry Sewall's memorial window, All Saint's Church, Jensen Beach, Florida. — Capt. Henry Sewall’s memorial window, All Saint’s Church, Jensen Beach, Florida. The anchor is an ancient symbol of hope.

Looking towards the IRL. — Looking towards the Indian River Lagoon.

All Saints Church is Martin County’s oldest church still in use; it was built in 1898, and still stands today upon a hill overlooking the Indian River Lagoon. Built by area pioneers, from local lumber, it has withstood the test of time through multiple devastating hurricanes…

Last Saturday, I was asked to speak before the ladies of the church about “River Kidz.” They wished to learn about the grass-roots organization founded in 2011 by children in the Town of Sewall’s Point. I found this fitting as my mother states in her book about Sewall’s Point, that the history of the peninsula cannot be separated from the history of the little church.

Captain Henry Sewall, who gave Sewall’s Point its name, was a member of the church and donated its bell that still rings out clearly across the river today. He along with his family is buried there. The window, in memory of his life, bears an anchor, and for me, after my visit to the little historic church, this window is a “window of hope.”

According to Joyce A. Fletcher Menard’s book on All Saints entitled, “Windows, Memorial, and More,” the anchor had great importance in ancient times for mariners (such as Capt. Sewall) as it was regarded as symbol of safety, but later on it became a symbol of hope.

Sometimes there is no safety, but there is always hope. I have hope for the St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon. I have hope through the children, and I have hope through you. Without hope, we have nothing. Hold fast. Hold on, and hold tight. Don’t give up. We are the anchor for our river; we are its “window of hope.”

Front of All Saints Church, photo JTL, 2015.

Looking up the hill. — Looking up the hill an ancient sand dune…

Capt Sewall's grave. — Capt Sewall’s grave.

Gigantic cactus growing next to the Sewall plot.

Trunk of cactus tree. — Trunk of giant cactus tree.

The sand and native shrubs towards at the west side of the property.

1898 photo of All Saints Church, Jensen Beach, (Photo courtesy of Sandra Henderson Thurlow.)

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*The St Lucie and Indian Rivers come together at the Town of Sewall’s Point.

All Saint’s Church: ( http://www.allsaintsjensenbeach.org)

River Kidz/a division of the Rivers Coalition: (http://riverscoalition.org)

Sandra Henderson Thurlow’s books: (http://www.barnesandnoble.com/c/sandra-thurlow)

Martin County’s Hundreds of Ponds, “Down the Drain,” St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon

1940 aerial photo from the US Dept of Agriculture Flight over Martin County, Fl 1940. Here Stuart, Sewall's Point, Hutchinson Island and Jensen are easily recognized by air. (Photo courtesy of UF Smathers' Library collation.) — 1940 aerial photo from a US Dept of Agriculture flight over Martin County, Fl. 1940. Stuart, Sewall’s Point, Hutchinson Island and Jensen are easily recognized by air along the St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon. Many small ponds can be seen darkly colored. (Photo courtesy of UF Smather’s Library collation.)

1964 photo, left to right, uncle and aunt Dale and Mary Hudson, and my parents Sandy and Tom Thurlow. Me in lap. (Self portrait) — 1964 photo, (left to right) uncle and aunt, Dale and Mary Hudson, and my parents Sandy and Tom Thurlow. Me in lap. (Family album.)

From the time I was a baby until growing up, I remember lots of ponds here in the region of the St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon. Hundreds of ponds intertwined with scrub lands…

Some of these boggy ponds were right outside my neighborhood in St Lucie Estates, just off of East Ocean Boulevard. It was the 1960s and 70s. Over time, especially in the 80s and 90s, when I had grown up and was off to University of Florida and beyond, these ponds simply dried up and “disappeared.” These lands became shopping centers, an expanded Witham Field, gas stations, schools, golf courses, and more neighborhoods. The same thing happened to the lands out west of town, but they became expanded agricultural lands. At a kid, I didn’t think too much about it. Today it blows my mind.

The aerial at the top of this blog post is from 1940. I was born in 1964. The small dark areas are ponds. When I asked my brother Todd, who is very knowledgeable on these old photos and land use, where all the ponds went, he noted that when our area canals were constructed by the water districts and Army Corp of Engineers, from about 1920 to the 1960s, the canals not only drained the lands, but over time, the water table dropped, (the water below the surface of the soil that you don’t see) drying out the many of little ponds, so that these lands could be developed.

So most of the 1940 wetlands you see in the aerials throughout this blog are now gone, and “we are here.” This happened all over Martin, St Lucie and almost all counties of south Florida. This on top of the shrinkage and drainage of giant Lake Okeechobee!

Yikes!

There is something is really odd about this. Millions of people living in former wetlands. Like sitting atop a dry sponge. No wonder all the wildlife is gone and the rivers are polluted. I’ve heard people talk about this change forever, and I have lived it myself, but seeing my brother’s video below, really bring the whole thing “home.” Watch and wonder where we should go from here…

Click here to see Martin County’s land use change over time, and watch the little ponds/wetlands “disappear. ” Time flight video by Todd Thurlow:

Link to video: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvH5H0TiG5c)

The flight starts in the area around Pratt & Whitney in northern Palm Beach County / southern Martin County where the land still looks like much of Martin County used to look. We then fly to the area around Bridge Road where the headwaters of the South Fork used to be nice and wet in the 1940s. Hundreds of interconnected ponds and bogs eventually coalesced into the tributaries of the South Fork. Today the ponds have been drained for farming and a few neighborhoods. The smallest tributaries are now drainage ditches. Next we fly over the area around the City of Stuart and Witham Field. You can see how the old ponds and bogs lined up between low ridges that run parallel to the ocean. Many of the bogs are now low-lying dry nature preserves in the neighborhoods and golf courses. –Todd Thurlow

1940 DOA image of boarder between Martin and St Lucie Counties, where Port St Lucie sits today. — 1940 DOA image of border between Martin and St Lucie Counties, where Port St Lucie sits today.

1940 aerial of east side of east side of Lake Okeechobee and lands of western Martin and St Lucie counties.

Ponds and bogs that are still left in undeveloped areas of Matin County. (Photo JTL 2015) — Ponds and bogs that are still left in undeveloped areas of Martin County. (Photo JTL 2015.)

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Todd Thurlow: (http://thurlowpa.com)

(Link to University of Florida’s Smather’s Library aerials: (http://ufdc.ufl.edu/iufmap/all/brief)

Drainage, Lake Okeechobee, the Everglades, St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon

Historic 1913 postcard of canal in Miami, Florida. Courtesy of the Thurlow Collection. — Rare historic 1913 postcard is titled: “Drainage canal and Everglades, Miami.” Courtesy of the Thurlow Collection.

My theme this week has been “that which is south of the lake.” The big lake that is, Okeechobee–big waters. The Everglades.

We must always keep in mind that we are all connected, and to fix our water problems with the St Lucie River /Indian River Lagoon we have to understand the rest of south Florida’s drainage system as well.

Last night my mother sent me the fabulous colorized historic 1913 post card above. It is titled “drainage canal and the Everglades, Miami. “So idyllic. So beautiful. Except for the giant gash in the land to the right of the card that foreshadows the future we are all now living: over-drainage.

Canal ca. 1920 pubic photo, "west of Ft Lauderdale." — Canal ca. 1920 pubic photo, “west of Ft Lauderdale.” Gunter Herman, 1885-1972. Florida Memory Project.

Drainage in Florida began as early as the mid 1800s and was the goal of Florida’s first government admitted to the United States on March 3, 1845. It remains the goal of our government today, as 1.7 billion gallons of fresh water a day goes to tide through south Florida canals. I must say the state may be starting to catch on. Water farmers, the “latest rage,” will tell you that we spent the last 100 years taking the water off the land, and we will spend the next 100 years putting it back on….

As we know, the ACOE is directed through Congress as to what it is to do. “The State,” meaning Florida, plays a huge role in this “ask.” Today, I have a Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council meeting. This council plays a role as far as “intergovernmental coordination and review,” of coordinating between local governments and the federal government. (http://tcrpc.org)

The last two images of this blog show the photos included from the TCRPC packet. I found it rather ironic and “civilized” sounding that the areas around the lake are named “Herbert Hoover Dike Common Consequence Zones.” I assume the consequence is that if the dike breaks, there is death and destruction of property and people. Maybe it would help if there were an outlet south of that lake to relieve some of the pressure on the dike? A flow way perhaps?

Anyway, I can’t help but wonder, looking at the 1856 Military Map of Florida, if it wouldn’t have been better to work with nature, with the lake, instead of so against it?

War map of the Everglades created during the Seminole Wars, 1856.

The first video below is of the reenforcing the Herbert Hoover Dike in 2009. In 2005, after Hurricanes Francis and Jeanne, it was decided to reinforce basically the entire southern area of the dike as it is listed as one of the most dangerous and unstable in the United States. Reenforcement? I get it; nonetheless, what a crazy place to build an empire….

Take a look and see: ACOE’s building of dike: (https://youtu.be/BpgN8c2M1lg); History of dike and Lake O. according to ACOE (https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KpkhJgV_mLo)

EAA below Lake Okeechobee, public image.

Canal and basin map SLR/IRL. (Public) — Canal and basin map of our area -SLR/IRL. (Public)

Surface drainage water map of south Florida,

HHD Common Consequence Zones and Projects Area, CCZ from Belle Glade to Lake Harbor, ACOE 2015. — HHD “Common Consequence Zones” and Projects Area, CCZ from Belle Glade to Lake Harbor, ACOE 2015.

"HHD original destination of reaches" ACOE 2015 — “HHD original destination of reaches” ACOE 2015.

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The National Environmental Policy Act (http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Environmental_Policy_Act) requires the ACOE to do an Environmental Assessment for the Herbert Hoover Dike’s Rehabilitation Reports. This is the latest: (http://www.saj.usace.army.mil/Media/NewsReleases/tabid/6071/Article/580496/environmental-report-on-proposed-dike-repairs-available-for-review.aspx)

Herbert Hoover Dike, Lake O. ACOE: (http://www.saj.usace.army.mil/Missions/CivilWorks/LakeOkeechobee/HerbertHooverDike.aspx)

Good visuals of HHD rehab here: (http://www.news-press.com/story/news/local/2014/10/04/herbet-hoover-dike-region-risk/16737395/)

The Mechanization of the Sugar Industry as a Metaphor for Change, St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon

Historic postcard, ca.1900 sugarcane in Florida, from the Thurlow Collection. — Historic postcard, ca.1900 “Cutting Sugarcane in Florida,” from the Thurlow Collection.

This week, due to the inspiration of small book my mother handed me, I have been exploring the history, and political change encompassing the sugar industry. Monday, I wrote about Cuba; Tuesday, I wrote about the Calusa Indians, pioneers, and workers; and yesterday, I wrote about the pond apple forest that used to border the southern rim of Lake Okeechobee.

Today, based on chapter 29 of Lawrence E. Will’s 1968 book, “Swamp to Sugar Bowl, Pioneer Days in Belle Glade,” I will briefly write about the evolution of labor practices in Florida’s sugar industry and how public pressure led to the mechanization of the industry. For me, the mechanization of the sugar Industry is a metaphor for change for our St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon.

The point of this journey is to learn our history and to remind ourselves that even the “worst of circumstances” can be improved. I believe, that one day, we too, will see improvement of the government sponsored destruction of the St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon from Lake Okeechobee. Our relation to the sugar industry? For those who may not know.. .Their location blocks the flow of Lake Okeechobee’s waters flowing south to the Everglades.

The delay of CEPP, the Central Everglades Planning Project may end up symbolically being the beginning of Florida's 4th Seminole War. — The Everglades Agricultural Area is just south of Lake Okeechobee, it is composed mostly sugar farming and block the flow of waters flowing south from Lake O so they are directed to the northern estuaries. (EF)

Before I start, I must say that “everyone has a history,” and the history of the world is mostly “not a pretty one.” This goes for me as well. Parts of my family have been here before the American Revolution, and a few of my ancestors owned slaves. I have read the wills these relatives handing down their slaves from one generation to the next like these souls were pieces of furniture. It is retched. It is uncomfortable. It is immoral. But to forget, is not the answer. It is important to know our own history and the history of businesses in our state no matter how difficult. As is said, we must “Never Forget…” Slavery and the extermination of Florida’s native peoples “is the ground we sit on,” and our job today is to continue to make this world, and our living waters a “better place.”

So, let’s begin.

The history of sugarcane has “roots” all over the world, but in our area it is connected to the Caribbean. I recommend a book entitled: “History of the Caribbean,” by Frank Moya Pons.

The basis of this book is the extermination of the Arawak Indians due to colonization and the bloody wars on both sides of the Atlantic over control of the region’s lucrative sugar market . The Arawaks were native to the Caribbean. When they were unwilling slaves for the Europeans, and died as a race due to european-brought diseases, African slaves were brought in to replace them.

After centuries involving world political struggles for “sugar dominance,” and with the rise of the United States and the horrible world wars, sugar came to be seen as “national security issue,” not just a food source as it can be used for the making of explosives/weapons. As we know, over the centuries, through political strategy, the United States rose as a power in sugar production, as Cuban dominance declined.

The apex of this shift in our area was around 1960. For reference, my husband, Ed, came to this county when he was four, with his family from Argentina, in 1960, the Perons had been in power; and I was born in California, at Travis Air Force Base in 1964. It was the Vietnam Era.

The Everglades Agricultural Area south of Lake Okeechobee where the sugar industry resides expanded the most it ever has around this time. To quote Mr Lawrence E. Wills:

“when Fidel Castro took over Cuba, (1958) the Everglades reaped the benefit. For a short time our government permitted the unrestricted planting of sugar cane …and before that time, under the U.S government’s regulations, the state of Florida was permitted to produce only nine-tenths of one percent of the nation’s needs.”

The US government helped the sugar industry grow and for “a reason:” Power. Influence. National Security. Food Source. Weapons. This is heavy currency in world politics and it is achieved at any expense….here in south Florida, it was achieved at the expense of the uneducated and poor worker.

Chapter 29 of Mr Will’s book is entitled, “Harvest of Shame.”

(http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=Documentary+Harvest+of+Shame&FORM=RESTAB#view=detail&mid=D9218CAC685FC8880984D9218CAC685FC8880984)

Mr Wills writes about a television documentary that was released on Thanksgiving Day in 1960. Mr Wills says the piece is “sensationalized.” It was produced by the Columbia Broadcasting System, presented by Edgar R. Murrow and sponsored by Philip Morris Cigarette Company. Certainly the piece was “sensationalized,” but undoubtedly there was also truth regarding the difficult conditions for migrant workers.

What is important here, is that the explosive public reaction to the documentary pressured the sugar industry to move towards mechanization, which they achieved just over thirty years later around 1992.

As the industry moved towards this goal, other problems ensued, such as H-2 program changes. With claims that the local labor force “could not,” or “would not” do the back-breaking work of cutting the sugar cane with machete, the H-2 program allowed the sugar industry to hire foreign workers, mostly from the Caribbean, especially Jamaica, who as we already know had a history with this difficult work.

The rub for labor activists was that these workers could be deported if they did not “produce.” They could be shipped out and replaced. Some called this a form of modern slavery. An award-winning documentary, on this subject, H-2 Worker, was produced by Stephanie Black in 1990. She points out that although the sugar industry had basically achieved mechanization by this time, others had not. (http://www.docurama.com/docurama/h-2-worker/)

The sugar industry moved to mechanization because of public outcry. Of course it is more complicated than that and is driven by economics, nonetheless, it was a huge factor. With more outcry regarding our St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon, the same thing could happen. Change. More water flowing south. A flow way. A reservoir. Lands to clean, store and convey water south….fewer, or no more polluted/toxic releases into the St Lucie River/IRL…

To deviate just a bit before I close, we may ask ourselves, how could this happen? Slavery? Mistreatment of workers? Destruction of the environment?

Well, the answer is the same today as it was in 1500; it happens because government allows, supports, and encourages it. The U.S. Department of Labor, the United States Department of Agriculture and others. Some right under our nose.

USDA: (http://naldc.nal.usda.gov/download/20644/PDF)

Remember, today’s state and federal agencies are made up of people; people are hired by government entities; government entities are directed by politicians, and politicians are voted for by the people. It all starts with us.

Make sure your voice is heard, and vote accordingly.

History is in the making, and somewhere out there, there is a better water future for the St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon!

Inside page of Stuart News, US President Obama meets with Raul Castro, Fidel Castro's brother, 4/2015.) — Inside page of Stuart News, US President Obama meets with Raul Castro, Fidel Castro’s brother, 4/2015.)

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Another source for this post and excellent reading is “Raising Cane in the ‘Glades, The Global Sugar Trade and the Transformation of Florida,” by Gail M. Hollander. (http://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/R/bo5704198.html)

Labor Cost and Sugarcane Mechanization in Florida: NPV and Real Options Approach (http://migrationfiles.ucdavis.edu/uploads/cf/files/conference_may_2008/iwai_emerson-labor_cost_and_sugarcane_mechanization_in_florida-npv_and_real_options_approach.pdf)

Public Information on H-2 Lawsuit: (http://www.leagle.com/decision/19951403660So2d743_11274.xml/OKEELANTA%20CORP.%20v.%20BYGRAVE)

Agriculture’s Eradication of the Mythical Pond Apple Forest, Lake Okeechobee, SLR/IRL

Photo of pond apples in Big Cypress, a shared flicker photo by Mac — Photo of pond apples in Big Cypress, a shared Flicker photo by Mac Stone, 2014.

Pond apple also known as custard apple--this is the custard apple forest as depicted by artist Julia Kelly in the River Kidz second edition workbook, 2015. — Pond apple is also known as custard apple–this is the custard apple forest as depicted by artist Julia Kelly in the River Kidz second edition workbook, 2015.

In Florida, the pond apple is also known by many locals as the “custard apple,”(http://www.regionalconservation.org/beta/nfyn/plantdetail.asp?tx=Annoglab)

The mythical pond apple forest….Imagine, for a mile or two back from the water’s edge the trees grew, and like God’s magic sieve, their colossal roots strained the water of Lake Okeechobee before it inched its way south through the river of grass to the Everglades. Over thousands of years, the lake’s muck built up inside, around, and under, their gigantic roots, a forest grew, until one day the farmer came, the engineer came, the “white man” came, and took it all.

“We are chosen!” they said. “We are chosen to have dominion over the earth! Strip it! Cut it! Burn it! Tear it out! Expose the muck, the precious muck, and let us build an empire. Let us lift ourselves from poverty, feed ourselves, and become rich!”

Pond apple blossom. Photo by Lisa Jefferson, 2015. — Pond apple blossom. Photo by Lisa Jefferson, Stuart, Florida, 2015.

Pond apple blossom opening, photo Chuck McCartney.

And many of today’s generations have become rich from this soil.

The story of the explosion of agriculture, and the sugar industry below the great lake known as “big waters,” or “Okeechobee,” as the Seminole people called it, is a not a tale for the weak. It is the story of the nature of man, and his destruction of the environment of which he is part. It is the story of “success,” and the difficult journey of a culture to define what “success” really means.

Lawrence E. Will, in his book, “Swamp to Sugar Bowl,” writes in his cracker style in 1968:

“That part of the woods along the south shore and half way up the eastern side, was a dense forest of tropical custard apple trees. For a mile to two miles back from the water’s edge they grew, and on all the islands as well. About 33,000 acres of solid custard apple tress there were, and that’s a heap of woods.”

33,000 acres of custard apple trees destroyed. Gone. Forever.

Today, the Everglades Agricultural Area is 700,000 square miles south of the lake. It produces sugar and vegetables. The growth of the area is the reason why the overflow waters of Lake Okeechobee are directed thorough the northern estuaries killing local economies, rivers, and wildlife. Thus the story of the St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon.

Once during a conversation with Mr Tom MacVicar, a respected engineer who works with the agricultural and sugar industry, I was told that Lake Okeechobee used to be about “30% bigger.” At the time, I wondered what he was talking about, but over the years through reading and study I have come to understand.

Let me explain. In the late 1800s when the early farmers planted their crops they would do so in winter when Lake Okeechobee’s waters had “receded back” as it was the “dry season.” This would be after the back-breaking work in some areas of tearing out the pond apple trees in order to get to the rich muck, “black gold,” that lies underneath. Over the years the edge of the southern shore of the lake was pushed back and then the “smaller” lake was entirely diked. This is one reason why the lake can’t hold its historical water level. Through Florida and Congress, the history of the South Florida Water Management District and the Army Corp of Engineers is linked to this history of pushing back the lake and building the agricultural empire, although now their mission includes environmental restoration.

Hmmm?

I think it would be fitting to replant some pond apple trees each year until one day, perhaps, we can regain part of the soul of that lake that was ripped out at the roots.

Old military map from 1846 shows how the fingers of water south of Lake Okeechobee that are no longer there today as the lake is diked. — Old military map from 1846 shows the fingers of water south of Lake Okeechobee that are no longer there today as the lake is diked. This would have been one area where the pond apple grew.

Today's black gold south of Lake Okeechobee. (Photo JTL, 2014) — Today’s black gold south of Lake Okeechobee. (Photo JTL, 2014)

Photo from Swamp to Suagrland, showing pond apple with moon vines around Lake O. (Lawrence E Will) — Photo from Swamp to Sugarland, showing pond apple with moon vines around Lake O. Lawrence E Will, 1968.

Close up of small pond apple on Torry Island, by Lawrence E Will. — Close up of small pond apple on Torry Island, by Belle Glade , by Lawrence E Will, 1968.

Florida Memory Project, photo by John Kunkel Small 1869-1938. — Florida Memory Project, pond apples in a creek of the Lake Okeechobee area photo by John Kunkel Small 1869-1938.

History of EAA: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everglades#Everglades_Agricultural_Area)

Nature for Your Neighborhood, A Program of the Institute for Regional Conservation: (http://www.regionalconservation.org/beta/nfyn/plantdetail.asp?tx=Annoglab)

Mr Tom MacVicar: (http://www.macvicarconsulting.com)

ACOE Herbert Hoover Dike around Lake Okeechobee: http://www.saj.usace.army.mil/Missions/CivilWorks/LakeOkeechobee/HerbertHooverDike.aspx

Ghosts of Lake Okeechobee’s Sugarcane Fields, St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon

Calusa Indian mask image, public domain. Many wooden masks were found particularly at the Marco Island in far west Florida. They were and sketched before they disintegrated once removed from the muck. — Calusa Indian mask image, public domain. Many wooden masks were found particularly at Marco Island in west Florida. They were and sketched before they disintegrated once removed from the muck.

Tribes and locations of Florida's natives peoples around 1500. — Tribes and locations of Florida’s natives peoples around 1500. (Online source)

Swamp to Sugar Bowl, Lawrence E Wil, 1996. — Swamp to Sugar Bowl, Lawrence E Wil, 1968.

Today, I continue my series based on the 1968 book “Swamp to Sugar Bowl,” by Lawrence E. Will.

To understand the St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon region and its water issues, it is imperative we study not only our own area, but also the waters and the history that is connected to Lake Okeechobee. As you know, the area south of Lake Okeechobee is inexorably connected to our region, as the reason the waters of Lake Okeechobee do not flow south, and are directed through the northern estuaries is due to the agricultural development south of the lake.

The area south of the lake includes various “townships,” but today we will focus on Belle Glade, in Palm Beach County very close to Martin County. Today, Belle Glade is the home of the Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative, (http://www.scgc.org)

In ancient times, it was the home of the warrior tribes known as the Calusa Indians. According “Swamp to Sugar Bowl,” somewhere between 1000 and 1700 A.D. , the Calusas lived along the shores of Lake Okeechobee. A Paleo-Indian culture preceded them thousands of years earlier. The Calusa were “mound builders” using the shellfish they gathered and consumed to create mounds sometimes over 70 feet in height and over 100 feet long. They were a fishing society, living off the rich resources of the waterways. Agriculture was not necessary for their survival. (Ironic considering today!) In the Belle Glade area, the Calusa lived between the forks of a river that of course has been channelized, known by white settlers as “the Democrat.”

Location of indian mounds just south of Lake Okeechobee in today's Belle Glade community. (Map Swamp to Sugar Bowl. 1968.) — Location of Indian mounds are just south of Lake Okeechobee in today’s Belle Glade near historic “Chosen,” on mainland’s north shore side of Canal Street at the Torry Island Bride. (Map Swamp to Sugar Bowl, 1968.)

It is sadly ironic to me that we live on the burial grounds of Indians that lived so in tune with nature, and we manage to so completely destroy it. That goes for areas of Martin County as well. Much of Hutchinson Island and other locations across the state were bulging with shell middens, sometimes sacred graveyards, that later were used to pave roads. “Bad karma,” I’d say.

Guess what is left of this once magnificent Indian Mound in Belle Glade today? Not a thing. It is a sugar field in a “ghost town” known as “Chosen!” (http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/fl/chosen.html)

Map of Indian Mound area today, Google Maps, 2015.

The small community of “Chosen” (http://www.pbchistoryonline.org/page/chosen) preceded, “Belle Glade,” and was destroyed in the horrific Hurricane of 1928 that drowned somewhere between 2000 and 3000 people: (According to Mr Lawrence it was 3/4 black farm workers and 1/4 white pioneers.) These bodies were piled up and burned or buried in mass graves.

Indian Mound of Chosen being excavated by the Smithsonian and University of Florida in the 1930s. (Palm Beach Historical Society.) — Remains of the Indian Mound at Chosen being excavated by the Smithsonian and University of Florida in the 1930s. (Palm Beach Historical Society.)

The whole story is quite disturbing really. Don’t you agree? My family recently went to St Augustine and the kids got me thinking about ghosts. Lake Okeechobee and the St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon soils must be full of them. I bet they are watching how we handle this next part of of our water history.

Welcome to Belle Glade Where Her Soil is Her Fortune. — Welcome to Belle Glade where “Her Soil is Her Fortune.”

_______________________

Belle Glade: (http://www.bellegladegov.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=63:about-us&Itemid=53)

Burial Mounds of the Calusas: (http://teachingflorida.org/activity/ceremonial-and-burial-mounds)

Havana or Bust! Swamp to Sugar Bowl; the Changing Politics of the Everglades, St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon

My father's photo of his Senior Trip for Stuart High, 1954. (Photo Tom Thurlow) — School bus reads HAVANA OR BUST! My father’s Stuart High senior trip for Stuart High, went to Cuba in 1954. (Photo Tom Thurlow)

My father's 1954 senior class, Stuart High School, Martin County, Florida. (Photo Tom Thurlow) — My father’s 1954 senior class, Stuart High School, Martin County, Florida. My father is in back row, far right second from end.(Photo Tom Thurlow)

The book Swamp to Sugar Bowl was written in 1968 by Lawrence E. Will. (Borrowed from the library of Sandra Henderson Thurlow, historian.) — The book “Swamp to Sugar Bowl” was written in 1968 by Lawrence E. Will. (Borrowed from the library of Sandra Henderson Thurlow, historian.)

It is good to learn about the history and issues of the Everglades, South Florida, and our St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon so that one day, in spite of the difficulties we face today, we will be able to fix our problem in the future…

Perhaps the greatest reason the our former Everglades are now overflowing with sugarcane fields is due to politics between Cuba and the United States. My father graduated from Stuart High School in 1954, and believe it or not, his senior trip was to Havana! Soon after, Castro’s revolutionaries took over Cuba in 1959. And as they say the “rest is history…” as the growing sugar fields blocked the flow of water south to the Everglades, the fate of our precious St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon seemed forever doomed. But it is not, as nothing lasts forever.

This weekend my mother handed me a book entitled “Swamp to Sugar Bowl” by historian, author, businessman, and politician, Lawrence E. Will. I read the little book with great enjoyment. Although many things have changed since the book was written in 1968, it provides great insights.

This week I will be sharing some aspects of the books. Today I will quote a few excerpts from chapter 22, “Florida’s Sugar Bowl.”

“Brother if you’re addicted to using sugar you should come here to these Everglades. Sugar and molasses bring in 110 million to these glades each year, so let’s take a quick look at this sugar bowl. Back in 1922, at Moore Haven, the first feeble attempt was made at producing sugar, but the following year in Canal Point the first successful mill began to operate.

There used to be 33,000 acres of pond apple trees lining the southern rim of Lake Okeechobee. They were cut down to access the rich much soil below them. (Laurence E. Will) — Map showing Canal Point. (Laurence E. Will)

This company was taken over by Southern Sugar Company, now the U.S. Sugar Corporation which ground its first cain in Clewiston in 1929. Although this company owned some 100,000 acres of the best land around the lake, under the US government’s regulation, the state of Florida was permitted to produce only nine-tenths of one percent of this nation’s needs.

However when Fidel Castro took over Cuba, the Everglades reaped the benefit. For a short time our government permitted the unrestricted planing of sugar cane. Oh brother, you should have seen how cow pastures and vegetable fields were plowed up and planted! Now we have 189,500 acres of sugar cane in the Glades.” –Lawrence E Will, 1968

US Sugar and Florida Crystals map ca 2008. — US Sugar and Florida Crystals map ca. showing ownership of lands, and option to buy lands for state of Florida, 2008.

Stats of Sugar in Florida, 1991, Source Hazen and Sawyer, 1993) — Stats of Sugar average in Florida, 1991, Source Hazen and Sawyer, 1993)

I am not certain how much land U.S. Sugar Corporation owns today, but the Everglades option map from 2008 and IFAS statistics from 1993 show over 450,000 acres combining US Sugar and Florida Crystals.

Sugar has been grown in the glades since the 1920s but it exploded in the glades in the 1960s and became heavily supported by the US government due mostly to political reasons.

Reasons that may be ending soon.

______________________________

US Sugar Corporation: (http://www.ussugar.com)

History of Cuba: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Cuba)

A great book on this topic, Raising Cane, by Gail M. Hollender: (http://www.amazon.com/Raising-Cane-Glades-Transformation-Florida/dp/0226349500)

UF IFAS: (http://ifas.ufl.edu)

ACOE’s “Changing of the Guard,” SLR, IRL

Me at a SFWMD WRAC meeting standing with ACOE Lt.Col. Greco. Greco oversees the Jacksonville District under Col Alan Dodd, 2015. — SFWMD WRAC meeting with ACOE Lt. Col. Thomas Greco. Greco is a graduate of West Point and oversees the Jacksonville District under Col. Alan Dodd (Photo Marsha Musgrove, 2015.)

River Kidz member Brandon Collins and ACOE Col. Alan Dodd at a Rivers Coalition meeting in 2013. (Photo JTL) — River Kidz member Brandon Collins and ACOE Col. Alan Dodd. Dodd is a graduate of the US Army War College, Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania. (Rivers Coalition meeting in 2013, JTL)

“Keep Your Friends Close and Your Enemies Closer,” Machiavelli, “The Prince”

Since the Army Corp of Engineers is military, I don’t think they will be insulted with my quoting Machiavelli. After all, the “combat” strategy of protecting the St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon, requires us to know what our enemies are doing, so we don’t get ambushed.

The Jacksonville ACOE is responsible for overseeing the safety of the Herbert Hoover Dike around Lake Okeechobee which means that although many, including the South Florida Water Management District, have input, the ACOE is the entity that releases sometimes toxic polluted lake water into the St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon and Calooshahatchee.

This is a disgusting and frustrating reality.

So how do we change this? I believe a good start is by building relationships while educating and sharing with the people of the Army Corp the awful plight of our rivers, our children, and our community.

And now, with all of your help and outcry, they “get it,” believe me.

Unfortunately, this strategy doesn’t gain much traction as the ACOE changes out their leaders EVERY 3 YEARS! But over time, it will.

You have probably heard that the present Jacksonville Colonel, Alan Dodd, and Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Greco are leaving by June of 2015?

Col. Dodd (bio:http://www.saj.usace.army.mil/About/Leadership/BioArticleView/tabid/6105/Article/480017/colonel-alan-m-dodd.aspx)

Lt Col. Greco: (http://www.saj.usace.army.mil/About/Leadership/BioArticleView/tabid/6105/Article/480018/lieutenant-colonel-thomas-m-greco.aspx)

This is my second changing of the guard. Three years ago, I said goodbye to Col. Pantano and Lt .Col. Kinard. Both very good men. Again, frustrating!

I recently asked ACOE Public Outreach Specialist, Mr John Campbell why this is the policy and expressed my frustration. His response is important to share:

“As you know, the Corps is an organization within the larger U.S. Army.
Similar to large corporations, the Army has embraced a philosophy of
developing leaders by rotating them through different assignments.

The only decent reference I could find is DA PAM 600-3, which is 400 pages
outlining the Army’s strategy on developing officers. In a nutshell, officer
development focuses on the balance of breadth and depth of experience. Two
to three years in a particular assignment is typical for the Army because it
allows for that breadth of experience. Depth is gained through higher
education, formal training, and experience gained in positions.

As officers move from job to job, the Army’s intent is to provide an overall
career path that not only prepares them for higher level responsibilities,
but one that prepares officers–in any assignment and given their level of
responsibility–to expertly perform their job.

From my personal experience, I know that leading people and organizations
shares similar characteristics regardless of the situation. A leader must
initially assess a situation, oftentimes with imperfect information, before
researching, developing, and testing potential courses of action. Based on
this analysis, the leader decides which course of action to pursue and how
to monitor and evaluate results.

By rotating through different assignments, military officers get an
opportunity to put the skills above in practice whether it’s leading an
infantry brigade or formulating policy on ecosystem restoration.” —John Campbell, ACOE

In the past, Col. Pantano went to Afghanistan. I am not sure where Col Dodd and Lt Col. Greco are going, but I wish them well, safety, thank them for their service, and charge them to also help educate the world of our plight.

So, in spite of the web of difficulties to navigate as we say “farewell,” let us prepare! Who will the new Col. and Lt. Col. be? Mr Campbell has shared the following:

The new colonel will be Col. Jason Kirk, commandeer at the Charleston, South Carolina District. The Lt. Col., who we will be closer to as this position resides in West Palm Beach, is scheduled to be Lt Col. Jennifer Reynolds of the Washington DC office. (No photo or bio yet.) Wow. A woman. Things can change! 🙂

Col. Kirk’s Linked in bio can be found here: (https://www.linkedin.com/pub/jason-kirk/17/377/927)

Col Jason Kirk will take over the position as Col of the Jacksonville ACOE in the next few months. (File photo, 2014) — Col. Jason Kirk will take over the position top position at the Jacksonville ACOE in the next few months. (File photo, 2014)

So here we go again. Changing the world one person at a time.

“Grab you weapons! Assume your positions! And charge!”

________________________

ACOE Jacksonville District: (http://www.saj.usace.army.mil)

Remembering to Enjoy the “Real Florida,” Ernie Lyons, SLR/IRL

Ernie Lyons speaking, ca.1950 (Photo courtesy of Sandra Thurlow, Thurlow Archives) — Ernie Lyons speaking. Timer Powers (right) and other community leaders in background, ca. 1950. (Photo courtesy of Sandra Henderson Thurlow, Thurlow Archives.)

Ernest Lyons, known to his friends as “Ernie,” is one of my heroes. You probably know of him, but maybe you don’t. He was a homegrown-boy become “newspaper man” right here in Martin County. He worked for what evolved into the “Stuart News” from 1931 until late into his life. Lyons won many Florida Press awards for his weekly columns that focused mostly on conservation, but also simply on the poetic natural beauty of our area. The bridge between Sewall’s Point and Hutchinson Island is named for him. He was an avid and talented fisherman.

I think of Mr Lyons often when I walk the bridge and try to listen to his words floating in the winds and waves, and on the wings of the pelicans flying past. Today I would like to share a few words from his essay “Take Time, Enjoy the Real Florida,” from his book “My Florida.”

Ernest Lyons Bridge as seen from Sewall's Point Park, 2014. (JTL) — Ernest Lyons Bridge as seen from Sewall’s Point Park, 2014. (JTL)

“Millions come to Florida–and never see it. They are like motorized pellets in a glamorized pinball machine, hitting the flashing lights of widely publicized artificial attractions before bounding out of the state and back home…

But the Florida we love who have lived here most of our lives has no admission fee, except the desire to appreciate beauty, the awareness to see it and the time to enjoy it…

The real Florida is a land of beauty and serenity, a place to take time to enjoy dawns and sunsets beyond the river against silhouetted pines. It is a place to hear the wind in the needles of the pines and to remember the dancing wreaths of Spanish moss on live-oaks. Florida is for quiet contemplation on a sea beach, watching pelicans skimming the breakers in singe file like long vanished pterodactyls…

Florida is for amazement, wonder, and delight, and refreshment of the soul. It may take a little more time to hunt out and enjoy the real Florida, but you will be well repaid.”

I find that the “real Florida” is actually very close and hand, in my yard, in the sky, in the water. Yes, even in the destitute and tired river beauty still prevails. Just look when you drive over the bridge. Look and “see.”

Photo by John Whiticar, St Lucie River, 2014.

_______________

Florida Press, Ernest Lyons: (http://www.flpress.com/node/63)

Publications of books “My Florida” and “The Last Cracker Barrel,” compilations of Mr Lyons columns from the Stuart News, can be purchased at Stuart Heritage Museum, 161 SW Flagler Avenue, Stuart, FL.(http://www.stuartheritagemuseum.com)

Kids Making Friends With Sharks, “Stewards of the Florida Straits,” SLR/IRL

A group of kids at Parker Elementary School wants to learn about sharks and how to protect them. (Public photo, clip art) — A group of kids at Parker Elementary School in Stuart, want to learn about sharks and how to protect them. (Public photo, clip art)

In first grade, I attended Parker Elementary School in Stuart. In 1970 it was called “Parker Annex.” I remember those days well and can still recall many of the names of the kids in my class; my teacher’s name was Mrs Jerdeman. Tomorrow, I will be returning to the school, 45 years later, as a guest speaker on the subject of “River Kidz and the protection of sharks”—a subject chosen at the requests of students in Mrs Maya Gebus-Mockabee’s first grade class.

"My school photo, Parker Annex, Stuart, Florida 1970. — “My school photo, Parker Annex, Stuart, Florida 1970.

My first grade class at my home for an Easter party on Edgewood Drive, Stuart, 1970. (Photo Sandra Thurlow)

Am I a shark expert? No. But I can give a good lesson as a former teacher and someone interested in the St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon as well as our Atlantic near shore reef habitat that is connected to our rivers. I have been a guest in many schools, mostly elementary. It’s a riot. A blast. I taught middle and high school, but elementary kids seem smartest of all. So creative! So enthusiastic! So wanting to help! Visiting these young students gives me hope for our rivers and “puts gas in my tank.”

Interestingly, if one takes a look at the River Kidz workbooks, both first and second edition, one will see that it is the bull shark who recites the River Kidz mission statement: “Our mission is to speak out, get involved, and raise awareness because we believe kids should have a voice in the future of our rivers.”

Hey, did you know that the Indian River Lagoon is considered the second most important bull shark nursery in North America? Mother bull sharks come here (mostly central IRL) to have their live young and these juveniles may stay here for up to nine or ten years? Did you know that bull sharks swim way up into estuaries, can endure fresh water, and have even been reported to live in Lake Okeechobee?!

Cool! Yikes! Wow!

The River Kidz’ mission of course applies to ocean reefs as these waters and the creatures of the St Lucie River and Indian River Lagoon are all connected!

River Kidz' mission statement. (Artwork by Julia Kelly, 2012.) — River Kidz’ mission statement. (Artwork by Julia Kelly, 2012.)

Sharks……so misunderstood.

We all know they are often needlessly exterminated for “fun,””sport” or wasteful “shark-fin soup.”

Kids with their creativity and sensitivity are able “see” that the fear and hatred directed towards sharks is sometimes extreme. And all kids know, hating just to hate, is not good.

Yes, we humans need to be careful and stay out of their way….but we need not hate sharks; it is better to respect them for the role they play in our oceans keeping disease at bay and populations in check.

From what I’m told, the kids at Parker Elementary are interested in promoting a theme such as “Shark Stewards of the Florida Straits” creating a recognized area off the St Lucie Inlet promoting “education and conservation of sharks.” The students will study the subject of sharks for two weeks, learn, and draw pictures to share with the River Ocean Institute. (http://www.oceanriver.org) (http://www.oceanriver.org/blog/protecting-americas-sharks-on-anastasia-and-oculina-reefs-in-the-straits-of-florida/)

For fun, just what kind of sharks live in our area waters, their length, life span, when do they have “pups?”

There are many kinds, various sizes, and many live 25-35 plus years, and don’t have pups until they are 10 or older!

Here are some area sharks as listed by the Florida Wildlife Commission: (http://myfwc.com/research/saltwater/sharks-rays/shark-species/) :

1. Tiger-18 feet

2. Black-tip- 10 feet

3. Bull- 10 feet (The IRL is a bull shark nursery)

4. Hammer Head- 20 feet

5. Nurse- 14 feet

6. Bonnet 5 feet

7 Lemon-10 feet

8. Spinner-10 feet

9 Sand bar-10 feet

10. Great White- 21-26 feet (sometimes off our shores as they migrate through)

Legions of sharks migrate through our waters, and in winter especially, can be seen by plane sometimes by the hundreds. My husband Ed and I have seen this. And although I like and respect sharks, I have had visions of the plane crashing into the water and having a really bad day!

Yesterday, Terry Gibson, of the Pew Charitable Trust, and I spoke. What I got out of that conversation was that sharks are “really not protected;” this has to do with the politics and structure of federal and state agencies, and a “conflict of interest.” (Kind of like the Department of Agriculture oversees the Department of Environmental Protection for the state of Florida—now that’s something to be afraid of! )

Personally, I have seen boats right at our St Lucie Inlet, over the nearshore reefs, catching sharks and leaving them on deck longer than they could possibly survive– holding them up hooked to take pictures and then throwing them back hours later to sink to the bottom. I witnessed this from afar when I was a volunteer on Nancy Beaver’s Sunshine Wildlife boat from 2011-2012.

There is a long history of shark fishing in our area and acting like “sharks will last forever.” It is well documented that Port Salerno was an active and “productive” shark fishery in the Martin County’s early days—–until the resource was exhausted of course.

Shark fishermen, Port Salerno, Florida, Martin County, ca 1940s/1950s. (Photo courtesy of Sandra Henderson Thurlow, Thurlow archives.) — Shark fishermen, Port Salerno, Florida, Martin County, ca 1920s/1940s. (Photo courtesy of Sandra Henderson Thurlow, Thurlow archives.)

We must admit, that over recent generations, many of us have not been good stewards to our waters, or to sharks. Many of us we were not educated to be….I remember the movie JAWS in eighth grade. Do you? I never thought that sharks could become as they are today, a threatened species.

Hopefully the upcoming generations will be better than we were, than our parents and grandparents were. Considering these Parker students asked to study and protect sharks all on their own, a brighter future just may be coming.

_______________________________

Florida Straights: (http://www.nova.edu/ocean/messing/strait-of-florida/)

florida straightsBull Sharks/IRL nursery JTL: (http://jacquithurlowlippisch.com/2014/07/18/the-indian-river-lagoonthe-most-significant-bull-shark-nursury-on-the-u-s-atlantic-coast/)