Sunset on 2016

As the sunsets on our year, we watch it set in another campground, complements the Army Corp of Engineers. Our home for a good portion of this winter is the parks along the 152-mile Okeechobee Waterway. I talked about this system in an earlier post but to give a bit more light on this area, this system is an adaptation of existing waters — the St. Lucie River from Stuart to Lake Okeechobee, the lake itself, then the Caloosahatchee River to the Gulf. The two rivers had always drained the lake and supported passage by small boats. The lake itself is feed by water runoff to the north and it drains south into the Everglades. After floods in the 1920s, dikes were created around the lake, canals were built to more efficiently bring water into the lake. Along with improvements to the locks, this system was completed in the 30s and gave boaters a shortcut for cruising from the Atlantic to the Gulf without rounding the Keys, a saving of 206 miles.

Five locks lift boats from sea level to the lake, which averages 12 to 16 feet above sea level, then back to sea level again. The waterways channel depth is normally 6.44 feet with the lake minimum level of 12.5 feet (above sea level). Vessel draft of 5.25 is the suggested maximum. The river portions of the waterway have gentle currents and tide ranges are mild, averaging only a foot or so at either end. Commercial traffic is light, with most navigation consisting of fishing boats, house boats and manatees.

Lake Okeechobee. Derived from the Seminole Indian words meaning “big water,” Okeechobee is aptly named, for it is the largest of Florida's lakes and the second largest fresh water lake within the entire US. It covers over 730 square miles of Florida's heartland.

But as with most systems built by humans to alter mother natures ideas, this system has created some major issues for the system she had in mind. As a person who has lived along a dredged creek, I know that this takes out the natural cleaning of the waterway and allows polluted water to get further downstream creating new issues for people that had no issues prior to the work.

With Okeechobee, the changes have been effective for most flood control but it has put so many nutrients and pollutants into the lake that when the water is released into the rivers it goes into the estuaries causing red tide. Red tide is harmful to both people and marine life and is putting a dent on tourism. The channels south of the lake have opened up new land to sugar plantations but they have drained the marshland that once flowed into the Everglades causing a breakdown in the entire Eco system reeking havoc in the Florida bay. The government has started to try to fix the problem but it's very tricky and very expensive. You can't just go back but going forward needs to be done with more for thought so it doesn't just create a new set of issues.

I struggle with this, I'm a boater and love these parks. They give us so much enjoyment as we travel with great fishing, excellent boat watching and well maintained campgrounds. As populations grow our needs for places to live and resources for food grow as well. Not so sure sugar is in the food pyramid. I'm a huge nature enthusiast and witness to how fast things can change with devastating consequences when we upset the natural balance.