After:
I hope every Miami Dade county commissioner who ever voted for zoning changes allowing development to creep toward the Everglades takes a good look at this photo and realizes how demand for flood control arising from their decisions is directly responsible for making the Everglades dry as tinder at a time of year and in a place that historically was wet: wet enough to prevent large wildfires in the East Everglades.
I hope the lobbyists and land speculators who own land out there past the Urban Development Boundary and read this blog, look at the photo of the Everglades taken yesterday and think, for a moment, about the true cost of starving the Everglades of water.
According to an informed source, "The fire burned most of the short hydroperiod marsh grasses and even burned much of the marsh vegetation that was in solution holes, where wetter soils are present. Effects in the hardwood hammocks and tree islands included burning of most hardwood tree species and substantial burning of roots and organic soils. Soil loss due to the fire may exceed 12 inches in areas of some hardwood hammocks. Many turtle shells were found, suggesting that most turtles were not able to escape the fire."
Read Michael Grunwald, senior writer at Time Magazine and author of "The Swamp", on the fire: click here.
11 comments:
devastating, looks ripe for developing. maybe show 'before' n after photos see changes.
Gimleteye,
The linked article is very interested, especially as it clearly shows the source of the problem -- flood control measures undertaken by the Corps of Engineers in the period following WWII.
It also demonstrates the silliness of making the Everglades the center of the whole UDB debate. As far as the Everglades water levels are concerned, it really doesn't matter if a new house is built in West Kendall, in Aventura, or in Coral Gables.
Each new house will be pulling water out of the County's allocation from the aquifer and will have the identical impact on water levels in the Glades.
As I understand it, the County has been told that the current allocation will never be increased. The County will have to live with that restriction. It is time for the state and feds to get with the program and start the CERP projects.
Is the desert in Florida's future?
Every new property that is developed creates demand for flood control. Just ask the owners of the 8.5 Square Mile Area, their opinion.
Among the people we have to deal with only one thing matters---MONEY. Their greed will finally ruin all of South Florida.
As long as we force the commissioners and developers to drink intrusive salt water once our fresh water supply -- the Everglades -- is dry. Oh, drinking salt water can kill you?
Good idea. At the next builders association dinner, serve salt water.
It matters Lee Allen. They want to raise the water levels in the glades. The people in West Dade are already getting pumping to keep them dry during heavy rains they actually live in what was the Everglades. More houses out there and there is more flood water to pump away from them...where does this water go? It is dirty water, can't go to the Bay or the Everglades. If there were no people out there it would sink into the ground and recharge our aquifer. The people east of the coastal ridge do not live in wetlands for the most part. I used to know this stuff like the back of my hand but I am losing my mind covering so many issues... I forgot the name of the ridge.
HOLLYWOOD, FLORIDA - May 23 - The nation’s leading park advocacy group, the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA), says wildfires in Everglades National Park, brought on by one of the worst droughts in Florida’s history, are exacerbated from the delay of critical restoration projects that would restore natural water flow throughout the historic River of Grass.
Used to work in Chekika on the fire crew for Everlgades NP in ht elate 90's. We had old military Hummers converted to fire trucks (100 gallon tanks in the back bed). We couldn't take em off the paved or grated roads, the cap rock would have shredded the tires in 100 yards, worse yet I saw many limestone holes that would have swallowed a hummer whole.
Best mechanized machinery to use was a Bombardier track vehicle with (2) 100 gallon tanks mounted on each side. Same thing though, can only go so far from the roads before the terrain gets too treacherous. You wouldn't think it by looking at the Glades but under that sawgrass it's like the moon in many spots.
Funny that the best hand tool for fighting a glades fire isn't the common pulaski or shovel you use out West - it's a friggin "flapper". I put a 2 acre fire out with a crew mate solely using "flappers", long broom stick handles with a heavy rubber flap at the end. You just smother the flames when they creep at night due to the high humidity.
Anyhoo, fire is very common and good for the Glades and gotta disagree with the summer ligthing thing - it was more the rare winter storms causing a strike with little or no rain and low humidity that was the real cleanser of the natural Glades.
Now before anyone goes postal on me, I will say that NPCA is spot on. The lack of restoration and the over development draining the Glades has made it more susceptible to fire but reality is it was never NOT susceptible.
In short, over the amount of geologic time we're talking, there were most likely much more extreme droughts than this one. Things probably burned like hell, turtles, snakes and all sorts of species died - some boomed though - that's how mother nature works, fires and hurricanes are the anomalies that reset the entire system.
The problem now is we're stressing the system too often due to human activities. What was the anomaly is now becoming cyclically common and stressful on what was the natural system. The natural system is something worth preserving but that is where the argument really lies, the shift of the baseline on what is natural. Most folk, like these bonehead commissioners have no concept of the natural system. Folks at DEP and the Corps want a qausi-natural system that favors development and growth. The worst are these bonehead commissioners that just flat out see the Glades and think "what a waste of land".
That's the sad part of this community - so disconnected from its roots. No appreciation for what a natural nearshore reef was like; what incredible birds and species inhabited the natural seagrass flats once stretching across all of northern Biscayne Bay and of course the breadth and length of the natural Glades sawgrass and hammocks. We need leaders to heal our rift with the land and the ocean we are blessed with. When oh when will that white knight come along? Or will it take the BIG hurricane to reset the system?
Thanks Neo...I found your comment most interesting. This is an example of what I really enjoy on this blog: Learning from you.
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