Imagine a great expanse of clear water with a soft sandy bottom covering more than 448,000 acres, teeming with native birds and wildlife. This is what Lake Okeechobee used to be, but now, after years of pollution, Florida's great lake is dying, for centuries Lake Okeechobee provided a natural habitat for fish, wading birds and other wildlife, and it supplied essential water for people, farms and the environment, but in the last few decades man has made some bad decisions trying to manage something that was never intended or needed to be managed. The lake's health was threatened in recent decades by excessive nutrients from agricultural and urban activities in the lake's watershed, by harmful high and low water levels and by the spread of exotic vegetation which are all items that are manageable by man but totally ignored, it seems it's much more profitable to battle Mother Nature even at the risk of destroying one of the world's greatest eco-systems.
There was never a need to control this ancient lake and it's apparent that no matter what man has thrown at it, this beautiful lake continues to fight. In the early 1900's hurricanes that devastated the area justified the construction of a dike to control and divert the flood waters, this attempt failed after a few post dike hurricanes proved the earthen dam wasn't nearly tall enough to contain the massive rainfall and storm surges, so man once again invested hundreds of millions of dollars to build a taller, wider and strong dike that still stands today defeating some of the fierce hurricanes Mother Nature has thrown at her or has it - we are now being told the constant wave action is slowly undermining the levees justifying discussions of spending hundreds of millions more dollars to rebuild flood control measures that benefit big business and no matter how it's sold it's wrong, the management of Lake Okeechobee needs to be given back to nature so it can resume the responsibility it's had for thousands of years, providing life giving freshwater to the Everglades and preventing saltwater intrusion of the freshwater aquifers that give us life. I am so thankful I got to experience its vastness but sad to have witnessed the destruction man has done in such a short time, reversing the horrific damage will have to be a conscious decision, one that I'm not so sure we are capable of making... read more