This week's featured nominee for Florida's Special Places is from Joe Davenport, a cinematographer for a new documentary about the Kissimmee Basin in Central Florida. Joe has developed an intimate understanding of this area having filmed and studied the area for months. The film, Kissimmee Basin, the Northern Everglades is due out later this year and is sure to be incredible. I hope you enjoy this wonderful nominee and his fantastic photos and videos:

I’ve flown over it in a helicopter and skimmed its shallows in an airboat. I’ve piloted a boat down its gentle curves and oxbows under the watchful eyes of Osprey, Heron, Caracara, Ibis, and a Bald Eagle or two. I’ve waded waist-deep in it, microphone in hand, and I’ve photographed it from every angle, top to bottom, dawn to dusk. Ladies and gentlemen, I have the best job in the world! I’m making a movie about the Kissimmee River.

When Elam Stoltzfus hired me last August to assist with the production of his documentary on the Kissimmee Basin I thought I knew everything I needed to know about this particular river. In the 60s, drunk with pride and faith in our engineering, we straightened the Kissimmee River, turned it into a ditch, draining the surrounding lands to make way for agriculture and development. And like a drunk, we woke up the next morning with a huge headache: the Kissimmee Basin was dying. The massive flocks of birds were disappearing, the bass were no longer biting, and Lake Okeechobee was swiftly filling up with pollutants. It was, to me, the perfect example of man’s indifference, even hostility, to the natural world that is both his birthright and his ward.

But wait, folks, because the story doesn’t end there. Almost as soon as we finished channelizing the river we realized our error, and we did something unexpected – we decided to fix it! And as soon as we began restoring its slow, meandering curves, the wildlife started returning. Dormant seed banks sprang forth in new life, invasive trees died off, and the ancient Kissimmee ecosystem began to reassert itself. What was once a sullen example of man’s destructive hubris has become a shining beacon of large-scale ecosystem restoration, generating interest from ecologists all over the world.

It’s not time to pop the champagne yet; there is plenty of work left to do, and the river may never return to its original, wild state. But this is a hopeful tale, and I am proud to have a part in telling it. Check out your local PBS station this fall to learn more about the history, culture, and people of the Kissimmee River, or visit northerneverglades.com for information on the documentary project. In the meantime, do yourself a favor and get out on the water – I recommend putting in at the new Istokpoga Canal Boat Ramp for a great view of the restored area.

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