Audubon of Florida's Dr. Paul Gray sends this report from his flight over the now dry marshes of Lake Okeechobee. The drought and continued pumping of water out of the lake are wreaking havoc with the local population of the endangered Everglade Snail Kites that call Lake Okeechobee home.
Add your name to Audubon's petition to the South Florida Water Management District right now urging Governing Board members to cease operation of these pumps. Already a broad community of support is speaking up for this bird - we need as many names on our petition possible to help solidify our message! Thanks Dr. Gray for your grave and timely report:
Gary Lickle, pilot and friend of Audubon, took me over the northwest marshes of Lake Okeechobee in his airplane to inspect drought conditions. The lake elevation had dropped below 10 feet that day, a level we never want the lake to drop to; as evidenced by the recent mass-abandonment of Everglade Snail Kite nests.
The Eagle Bay Island marsh, which held the largest concentration of nests, was dry except for the edges. The accompanying ground-level photo (on left) was taken during a March trip to the area when Kites were still all around. We then turned southward, flying over King’s Bar and 15 miles down to the Harney Pond Canal near Lakeport, where five other Kites had nested. This area too, was dried, as was all the marsh we had flown over, save the thin wet outer edge.
Droughts are a natural event and have some beneficial effects. The drought of 2007-08 helped plants that had been lost in the 2004-05 high-water periods to reestablish themselves, and allowed some fires and marsh management actions. However, it also knocked out apple snail populations for three years. The same happened after the 2001 drought where it took four years before there were enough snails for Kites to use the lake again. The snails may get knocked out again. And it is not just snails and Kites, all marsh organisms face this type of population crisis, and humans who depend on the tourism value of the lake are losing business too.
As I write this, the SFWMD is putting pumps in Lake Okeechobee that will lower it further still, to supply water for agriculture. Despite our on-going calls for water conservation, humans have already have taken enough water to lower the lake 22 inches this dry season!
Aside from the gloomy things, there still were some White Pelicans on the lake. There was a fire that had been plowed around and extinguished by fire fighters. We got a look at some experimental plots the agencies used various plowing treatments to test vegetation response. And we saw a spot FWC scraped that is dry, but had good vegetation response until the drought.
