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- Permanent Link:
- http://dpanther.fiu.edu/dpService/dpPurlService/purl/FI14090870/00001
Notes
- Scope and Content:
- Source: Okeechobee 1
Length of Segment: 00:01:15
Hi, I'm Dr. Jerry Jackson, out with the wild things. The Florida peninsula stands out like a finger pointing towards the Caribbean. More than two-thirds down that finger is the third largest body of fresh water completely within the boundaries of the United States: Lake Okeechobee. The lake is so big that it's clearly visible from space. The name 'Okeechobee' is Native American, and appropriately, it translates to modern English as 'big waters'. While large in extent, Lake Okeechobee is shallow, less than twenty feet deep at its deepest and often less than a foot deep for great distances. While most Florida lakes originate as the limestone beneath them has eroded away, Lake Okeechobee has a different origin. Geologists suspect that it was a depression on the seafloor that remained as the seafloor rose to become land during a previous geological era. The major source of water flowing into Lake Okeechobee is the Kissimmee River, and marshes along its floodplain. Prior to human intervention, it spilled over along its entire southern edge, providing a sheet-like flow of water spreading out across and sustaining the flat sawgrass prairies. Lake Okeechobee is a major source of water for the Everglades. ( English )
- Scope and Content:
- Source: Okeechobee 2
Length of Segment: 00:01:16
Hi, I'm Dr. Jerry Jackson, out with the wild things. Lake Okeechobee in southeast Florida is one of the bass and crappie fishing capitals of North America. Commercial fishing for catfish in shallows of Lake Okeechobee began in the late-1800s and didn't even require boats. Fishermen sometimes simply waded in with nets and traps. In recent decades, quality of fishing has declined as pollutants from adjacent agricultural areas and cities have flowed into lake waters. Construction of canals, linking Atlantic and Gulf Coast with Lake Okeechobee, has provided access to the lake for fishes we normally think of as marine. Snook, big-mouth sleeper, and the opossum pipefish, a relative of seahorses, have invaded Lake Okeechobee from the marine environment by way of canals. Exotic freshwater fishes, such as the blue tilapia from Africa, the walking catfish from Asia, and the Mayan sicklet and oscar from Latin America, have joined the lake's fish fauna. Exotic plants, such as hydrilla and water hyacinth, also have diminished the quality of lake habitats and often grow so profusely that they clog out board motors and make even sport-fishing difficult. Exotics upset natural balance that took millennia to develop. ( English )
- Scope and Content:
- Source: Okeechobee 3
Length of Segment: 00:01:13
Hi, I'm Dr. Jerry Jackson, out with the wild things. When Lake Okeechobee was enclosed by dikes in 1937, habitat changes had profound negative influences on South Florida. Water that once flowed freely, only inches deep across the vast river of grass we call the ‘Everglades’, was penned in and diverted to the ocean. Politicians heard many voices: “Keep the sugar cane from flooding, but give us water when we need it to grow the cane”, “Hold water in a reservoir so we can catch more bass”, “Give us water for drinking and watering our lawns”. There were voices for the natural environment, too: “You're killing the Everglades”. The snail kite, wood stork, American alligator, Cape Sable seaside sparrow, and other endangered and threatened species suffered as habitats were altered by lack of water, and changed water regimes. Water draining into the lake carried pollutants, high phosphorus levels, and run-off from cattle ranches to the north and from water with agricultural chemicals back-pumped from cane fields to the south. All took a toll. Many feared that Lake Okeechobee was dying. Efforts are now being made to restore the system. ( English )
- Scope and Content:
- Source: Okeechobee 4
Length of Segment: 00:01:14
Hi, I'm Dr. Jerry Jackson, out with the wild things. In the late-1890s and early-1900s, Lake Okeechobee was a source for thousands of herons and egrets shot and sold for the feather trade. Marshes and wetlands of Lake Okeechobee were rich in wildlife, shallow for great distances, and with emergent vegetation that provided shelter and feeding sites. Pond apple sloughs fringed Lake Okeechobee and provided prime nesting sites. What fringes Lake Okeechobee today are dikes reinforced with granite blocks and landscaped with mowed slopes. Beyond dikes to the south are cane fields that replace pond apple sloughs and sawgrass. To the north are citrus groves and cattle ranches. In 1937, Lake Okeechobee was ringed with dikes following deaths of more than 2,000 people during flooding in the 1920s. In 1961, responding to further flooding, the Corps of Engineers began a ten year canal construction project between Lake Kissimmee and Lake Okeechobee. Gone are most wetlands that gave birth to the Everglades and one of South Florida's largest wading bird concentrations. Gone is the water storage and cleansing these wetlands did for us. Gone, even, is a view of the lake unless you climb the slopes of the dike. ( English )
- Scope and Content:
- Source: Okeechobee 5
Length of Segment: 00:01:15
Hi, I'm Dr. Jerry Jackson, out with the wild things. While there's still an abundance of wild creatures that make use of the waters and remaining wetland habitats associated with Lake Okeechobee, their numbers are diminished and the relative numbers of different species have changed. Now, the Everglades Coalition, including both governmental and private groups, hope to change the negative course for the past several decades. Efforts to restore Lake Okeechobee will include curbs on run-off waters from agricultural lands, storing water in the system rather than sending it straight to the ocean, and greater sensitivity to providing flows of water from Lake Okeechobee to mimic the timing and extent of natural flows prior to dike construction. This will limit future pollution and begin to restore the natural conditions of the Everglades. But decades of pollution and retention of water behind Okeechobee's dikes have resulted in sediments rich in phosphorus and other pollutants. Recent studies have suggested that a major hurricane stirs up these sediments, re-polluting the Okeechobee system. One restoration effort may involve removing contaminated mud from the lake bottom. The task is a big one, but the commitment is strong. ( English )
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- Resource Identifier:
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