Fire
boat trip, crocodile
We spent all day Saturday in the Everglades, traveling to Flamingo at the very end.
At the visitor center we were recommended to take the nature walk with Ranger Leon along the Anhinga Trail and we were quite glad we did.
Leon was quite an engaging character, very knowledgeable and philosophical. This past winter was the wettest in history which had a major impact on what one could see this time of year. Winter is usually the "dry" season when the water levels go down and the alligators, fish, birds and other wildlife are forced to congregate in the remaining pools of water. But this year the water levels didn't go down so the concentration didn't occur.
Leon was beginning to despair that we wouldn't see any alligators but at the end of the boardwalk, we saw a large alligator swimming toward shore and then another. Then one of the alligators started to "bellow" and the other responded - male alligators do this during the mating season which is this time of year. Then a 3rd very large alligator swam right to the platform where we were standing - quite exciting.
There have been many water management mistakes over the past 100 years which have been very detrimental to the condition of the Everglades. From the 1930s to 1960s, there was major water drainage and diversion for agriculture which greatly reduced the water flow into the Everglades, causing it to dry and reduce the habitat. In the 1980s, the US Corps of Engineers started to undo their previous efforts and restore the water flow which is improving the conditions in the Everglades which has been helpful. As one can imagine, there are many financial and political complications doing this.
A major fire had just been put under control although some areas of the park were closed. We could see burned trees for several miles along one side of the road. Fires are often allowed to burn as this is necessary for the health of the park - they mainly intervene to protect buildings.
At Flamingo we took a boat tour into the "back country", up the Buttonwood Canal. This was another case of misguided engineering. The canal was dug from the ocean to an inland bay to improve access but as a consequence, it let in salt water at high tide and let out nutrient laden fresh water at low tide causing algae blooms and dramatically changing the vegetation. It took 30 years to come up with a solution which was to build a dam separating the canal from the ocean and putting a marina on the fresh water side. The ecology is starting to come back. There are dense mangroves all along the canal and inland waterways. We were able to see one small American Crocodile, an endangered species that only resides in this area of the US. (It does reside also in Central and South America).
Aligator about 11 feet long
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