This year as a small business, I am focusing on my SEO and product photography. I haven’t really found the time to re-shoot all of my coaster sets, let alone, make them… I am busy filling orders, working my day job, and college. Time is very valuable and often I feel as if I am stretching myself too thin, and cannot concentrate or “master” any one thing. It could be my downfall, let’s be real here. I’m sure if I had 12 more hours in a day, or another 3 sets of hands – I could flourish. Any takers?

Anyway, I’ve still yet to write the star trails tutorial, I’ve promised, as I have been very sick (and incredibly busy). But good things come to those who wait.. Here are some updates of what I’ve managed to do!

* Florida State Fair *

This year, I took home a first & second place ribbon for 2 of my black and white photos. This will most likely be the last year that I will compete as it is too much trouble for me. I have entered 3 years in a row, and came back with ribbons of at least first place in at least one category every year, and for that I am grateful. The Florida state fair takes place every february for 2 weeks in Tampa, Florida. Swing by if you’re local or visiting the area for some really sweet things!

* Home & Garden TV, Canada*

My Beach Coasters were featured on the HGTV blog last November. As it would turn out, they never contacted me or anything. I do remember seeing a bunch of hits coming from HGTV.CA but I could not find my coasters when I looked and figured it was a fluke. I REALLY wish press would at least send a convo on Etsy or something! November was a pretty busy month for me on Etsy.

Polaroid Style Coasters featuring the Florida Everglades

Gifts under $25 for Foodies

Scenic Black and White Images of California on Ceramic Drink Coasters by Jennifer Jackson at PixelGrin.com

Lovely Trees from all over the United States, Fine Art Photography by Jennifer Jackson sold via PixelGrin.

Drink Coasters featuring the quirky Handpainted Fire Hydrants of Key West, Florida. Photography by Jennifer Jackson. Coasters by PixelGrin

Infrared Palm Tree Photography from Key West, Florida. Available at PixelGrin.com

 I have such high hopes for this year, and the growth of my baby, PixelGrin. I love providing affordable, fun, modern, and function fine art to people all over the world.

Not including the final weekend of the hunt, 50 Burmese pythons have been captured throughout the contest.

For Ruben Ramirez and George Branna, navigating through the thick brush of the Everglades in search of snakes is just another day on the job.

[worldnow id=8349063 width=385 height=288 type=video]

“We started catching snakes 27-years-ago,” Branna said.

But for the past month, their efforts have been focused strictly on Burmese pythons. The giant constrictors are not native to South Florida, but are all over the Everglades.

“We’ve been hunting since day one,” Ramirez said. He founded Florida Python Hunters. “We missed maybe four days (of the competition). So we’re pretty beat up.”

Ramirez and Branna are among the roughly 1,500 people who signed up for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s Python Challenge.

Some participants are professionals, but most are new to the sport.

“A lot of people thought they were going to be running across pythons every 15, 20 feet. It’s not like that,” Ramirez said.

Ramirez and Branna have caught a few, but more often, they’re finding other species of snakes.

Despite the seemingly low number of these prolific pythons caught to date, wildlife experts are calling the hunt a huge success.

“We’re getting invaluable data that these pythons are going to be able to offer our biologists,” FWC Officer Jorge Pino said. “That way we an come up with a comprehensive plan of how to keep this from happening in the future.”

Experts think the python population has grown because owners have released the one-time pets into the wild.

Senator Bill Nelson has been an outspoken supporter of the python challenge. He participated in a day of hunting during the competition.

“We have to do it for the ecosystem here in south Florida. We do it regardless if there’s a python challenge or not,” Branna said. “It’s what we love to do.”

The winner of the challenge will be announced Saturday at an awards ceremony at Zoo Miami. The person who collected the most pythons will win $1,500. The person who captured the largest python takes home $1,000.

Overall, it seems like FWC will be the big winner. The event has garnered worldwide press and each participant had to pay $25 to register.

Python hunters have until midnight Sunday to catch and kill pythons. The dead pythons must be turned in by 5 p.m. Monday to qualify for the cash prizes offered as a part of the challenge.

The snakes must be examined by researchers from the University of Florida and after that, hunters will get to keep the skins.

The python hunt began on January 12, but as of last Friday, only 50 pythons have been killed as part of the hunt.

The hunt’s final tally will be announced February 16 at Zoo Miami. Prizes for the python challenge will be announced at the time as well.

(TM and © Copyright 2013 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2013 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

Burmese pythons are a threathened species in Southeast Asia.

Paws Down!
To the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) for supporting the killing of Burmese pythons in that state.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) has a partnership with the Python Challenge to remove Burmese pythons from the Florida Everglades. At first glance, this looks to be a noble attempt to save the Everglades, but what is not said is that the snakes will be killed. National Geographic News has commented that Florida’s great snake hunt is nothing more than a cheap stunt. The Burmese python is a vulnerably threatened species in Southeast Asia and is on the International Union for Conservation of Nature IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Relocation is the best alternative to repopulate the species in Southeast Asia.

The Python Challenge website states, “Increasing public awareness about Burmese pythons and how this invasive species is a threat to the Everglades ecosystem, including native wildlife, is the goal of the 2013 Python Challenge™.” Increasing public awareness is an immense goal, but this Python Challenge is similar to a canned hunt and is an unwise way to broaden awareness about Burmese pythons and native wildlife.

The FWC is also offering prizes to the public for the killings of these pythons. The Python Challenge website continues, “The public also is invited to this upcoming free educational and exciting event in south Florida: The 2013 Python Challenge Awareness and Awards Event on Saturday, Feb. 16, 2013 at Zoo Miami.” The website also encourages people to share their Python Challenge photos.

Instead of killing pythons, the FWC should be capturing and relocating them to their native environment.

Take Action: Contact the executive director of the FWC and urge him to discontinue the Python Challenge’s current method of removal. Encourage the FWC to relocate these beautiful snakes back to their natural habitat to help Florida’s Everglades and the conservation status of the Burmese python.

Nick Wiley, Executive Director
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission
620 South Meridian Street
Tallahassee, FL 32399-1600

Yeah, man.  I know.  It’s November, and I’m sitting in Steve Almond’s small group workshop at the Sanibel Island Writers’ Conference with all five other participants and Steve Almond staring at me as a young man in his 20s offers that particular critique of the short essay I submitted for discussion.  It was a 5-page blast of creative non-fiction comparing my hunting Skunk Apes with Dave Shealy to being in my 30s and looking for a suitable life partner (the similarity in activites is striking), and I can’t argue with this young man.  I knew it writing the essay–Dave is enough, Dave is too much, Dave is and always will be much more entertaining and intoxicating than I will ever be because out of nowhere Dave can say things like, “I told you about all that time I spent working with the supercomputer, didn’t I?”  No.  ”When I was in prison?”  Um, no.  ”Well, I suspect that may have messed with my thinking.” Of all your life’s experiences, Dave, and that’s what affected your thinking?  It wasn’t…I don’t know…growing up in the violent outlaw frontier Never-Neverland of the Everglades?

The essay belongs to him; I just happened to write my relationships into it because we were allowed only 10 pages for the workshop, and I knew there was no way someone like Dave Shealy was going to fit on ten pages.  I can barely tell you relevant background in 10 pages, much less a story.

So, I threw myself in there, and even as I was writing, I knew the part about my relationship hunt was a distraction.  Eventually, I was going to have to suck it up and write about Dave and me and ditch the straw man analogy between a man’s quest for a mythical beast and a woman’s.  I suppose that’s implicit in writing about Dave and me and relationships and love and such–somehow the Skunk Ape becomes True Love, a thing of legend, a shadowy figure glimpsed without witnesses, an elusive beast we chase out of conviction and prove with suspicious evidence; a thing that makes us a laughingstock with reasonable folk.  Men battle the Beast.  That is their job in the cultural myth of humanity.

Women battle beasts, too, but ours is supposed to transform into a prince at the end of the story, and well.

[clears throat] I digress.  You lost interest there, didn’t you?  Because you want to know about Dave and the Skunk Ape.  I know, I know.  I’m getting to that.

If you’re just now coming to the blog, let me recap:  last July, I asked Dave Shealy, the Skunk Ape Expert of the Everglades, to take me on a skunk ape hunt so I could write about it for a workshop I was doing with Steve Almond (My Life in Heavy Metal, The Evil B.B. Chow, God Bless America, and a recent collection of dirty–ahem, erotic–stories).  My idea was that I would practice with creative nonfiction, and Skunk Ape hunting with Dave would surely provide enough material for any number of essays, books, documentaries, reality tv shows.  If you don’t know who Dave Shealy is, do a quick Google search.  A nice selection of video clips of Dave in local and national interviews about the Skunk Ape will hit, and you will find yourself meeting one of the most self-fabricated celebrities in a land of like-minded con men and caricatures, renegades, outlaws, folk heroes, and legends-in-their-own-minds.

The skunk ape–quickly–is a creature that lives in the Florida Everglades around Dave’s neck of the woods, eats birds and lima beans, is about 7 feet tall, and is covered in a reddish-brown hair matted with the sulphur-rich muck of the Everglades.  Ergo, skunk ape.  Dave has seen it.  Dave has video and photographic evidence.  Dave has plaster casts, and just last week he showed me a gigantic adult male’s track that he and his buddies cast after trailing the beast for about two miles.

The day after Dave casts the track. Dave, of course, on left. Notice the four toes: Bigfoot has five.

For the story on the first Skunk Ape hunt with Dave, check out And So It Was That Team Skunk Ape Found Itself Not Needing to Pee for Eight Hours.

Along with my boss Cristina, we form Team Skunk Ape, with Cris and me as the tracker-trainees following behind the Marlboro-smoking “greatest in the world.”  Let’s get this straight–I adore Dave for everything that he is, even though I admit most of the time I do not understand what in the fuck Dave is 1) talking about 2) implying or 3) doing.  I have no idea if Dave is telling the truth, ever, or if most of it is some ratio of truth-partial truth-embellishment-fiction-fact.  Dave and I have had many, many conversations over the past year, and my part usually goes like this:  ”Okay.”  ”Really?”  ”I don’t believe you.”  ”Are you serious?” “Really.” and “Oh.” I do have lots of follow up questions with Dave, but nothing worth noting here.  At least not right now.

The general consensus in Steve Almond’s workshop was that I had to write more: more about Dave, more about the Skunk Ape, more about being with him and what that was like.  It is sort of The Orchid Thief meets Much Ado About Nothing meets The Grapes of Wrath.  That’s what it’s like.  Except funnier.

Eventually, I will write it all out in a book or long, solid essay, one that is so, like, about the dude that hunts Skunk Apes, and how being wrapped up in Dave’s world in Team Skunk Ape as a tracker-trainee is very, very much like a Shakespearean comic plot where everyone is deceiving everyone, innocently, and all the beliefs about the reality of the relationships and plot and outcome hinge on a common myth.

In our case, the common myth is the existence of the Skunk Ape itself.  Does Dave really believe it, or are Cris and I pretending he does while we pretend that we do? Or does Dave not believe it and pretends to believe it because he thinks Cristina and I think it’s true?  Or do we all know it’s made up but we pretend the skunk ape is real because otherwise how could we go on a skunk ape hunt? Or we all know we’re pretending but no one wants the others to know we are pretending because then the illusion would shatter and thus expose us?  By the time we got done this last time and Dave had gallantly peeled fresh oranges for us with my knife and served them on the edge of the blade, I didn’t know if we were in Dave’s world, if he was in ours, if we had constructed our unique Team Skunk Ape world, or if I believed in Skunk Apes or not.

“All we’re missing for this to be real Shakespeare,” I tell Cristina as we’re driving off from our latest Skunk Ape re-con mission with Dave which involved us trekking through his man camp out in the glades (“Marlowe, I swear to GOD I am not trying to get you alone in my cabin in the woods.”  ”Really.  Okay.”), “is cross-dressers.”

“This is the glades,” she says.  ”Don’t put it past it.”

The morning we set out on the first Skunk Ape hunt. We look good here. At the end, we look like hell.

Occasionally, by which I mean every time I see him, Dave mentions that it would be a great idea if he and I got together.  As with everything with Dave, I’m not sure if this is real or if it is a con or some haphazard mixture of the two, but I do have several knives gifted to me by Dave, and he genuinely seems to like me and is concerned about my welfare.  The last knife, carved from an alligator jawbone and autographed by Dave, he gave to me at the end of the year.

“Are those Everglades boys leaving you alone?” he says.

“So far so good,” I say.

“Good.  You need this,” he says to me, handing me the knife.

“Cool!”

“You know, to protect your virtue.”  Then he nods out the door of the gift shop, where I guess Everglades boys lurk on the Tamiami Trail to sully my virtue.  I love that Dave assumes I am virtuous and has given me this totem dagger to defend my vagina/virtue.  Dave says these gentlemanly things to me and then follows it up by mentioning how beautiful I would look horizontal.  I wonder if Dave knows the only contender for the end of my knife is himself.

Exeunt. END ACT IV.

The plan right now is to gear up Team Skunk Ape again in March, when the skunk apes are running, Dave can “get all the preliminary field work done and so all you have to do is go straight to the track,” so he can teach us to cast it in plaster.

“Wonderful,” Cris the federal biologist says, “I’ve never cast a track before.”

“Okay,” I say.  ”Cool!”

So, it’s all set.  In the meantime, Dave’s reality tv show with Discovery (since sold to TLC) is stalled out, and he is waiting for new production teams to come in to film interviews and another set of shows.  They will be arriving any day now, and, who knows, they may be there when we delve into the wilds of skunk ape territory to cast the tracks in March.  We’ve been unlucky so far (the vocalization–a “prrrrrrrrrooooooo” vibration, very low, which Dave demonstrated to us upon Cris’s request–we thought we heard in the muck and cypress knees ended up being a road grader run by one of Dave’s old buddy-ros).

But, our course is set, and we move forward.  ”One of these days you’re going to see there’s more to this story,” he tells me one afternoon while I’ve got my tour in the animal exhibit at the back of his roadside attraction.  ”There’s more to this–” he waves up and down his body, “story.”

“Okay,” I say.

“You’re gonna find out,” he says, low, and in this moment I find him irresistibly convincing, “I’m not bullshitting.  You understand me?  I’m not bullshitting.”

“Okay,” I say.

night night beloveds.  And onward, mythic beasts.

One of the issues that you might encounter if you flew from the West coast to meet your cruise ship in Florida is a layover before you go home.  I think that you can linger on the ship for a while before they boot you off, but if your flight leaves at around 5 p.m., and you need to get off your ship in the morning, you’ll want to find something to do to kill those intervening hours.

On the RCI Western Caribbean cruises, you have a couple of choices.  You can either tour the Kennedy Space Center,  or you can ride an airboat through the Everglades.  Both include transpo to the Orlando Airport afterward

Let me see now…weighing my highly intellectual interest in astronomy and space travel vs. the recent popularity of redneck t.v. shows and my own hardcore hillbilly roots, my choice is…AIRBOAT RIDE!!!

If you take a tour, you’re going to be getting up pretty early in the morning.  The night before, you should have left your luggage outside the door to be transferred down to where you can pick it up; the same thing works if you have a tour; you will just get a special tag and all will be taken care of.  RCI has this luggage thing wired; they know where you are going and where your luggage needs to be, and when.  We paid 20 or so dollars to have our big suitcase, filled with all the booze we had purchased and which was delivered in a timely fashion to our room for packing, taken straight to the airport.  I think that 20 bucks was per person, which was not made absolutely clear in the literature, but I still think it was worth it to have one less big hardshell out-of-date piece of junk (I’m actually kind of proud that I have the guts to be seen with something like that) to worry about.

All the night before, I had been having eager daydreams about getting off that oversized hulk of a ship.  Cruising is the best, and despite my jokes, RCI runs a fleet of beautiful, classy vessels.  But hey, enough’s enough, and yeah, I wanted to get back home to my stinky-ol’ town that is cyclically gassed with fertilizer, fumigants, and other unsavory things that those non-organic multi-million-dollar “family” farmers are constantly hosing us with, my cats, (not my job), my comfortable bed, and everything else that goes along with a person’s life in these United States.  So it was still dark when the ship was docking and I looked outside of our curtains.

Again, there we were at the crack o’ dawn, downstairs being organized to disembark for our tours.  We worried about getting breakfast; I smuggled a couple of apples and pastries to our room so that we could eat before we left, but that was an exercise in futility as the ship provides coffee and pastries for you while you wait.  Soon we were all tromping down the ramps at breakneck speed.  I guess I wasn’t the only person who wanted to get his/her a*s off that boat.  God help you if you tripped; you would have been trampled.  Customs requires that you declare any fruit, vegetables or other like items that you may have concealed in your luggage to sneak into the U.S. to start our next Asian fruit fly plague.  If this sounds like you, obviously you need to keep your mouth shut.

Then you are out, free as a bird, which lasts for about 10 minutes before you are herded onto your respective tour van and made to wait 10-15 minutes for all the people who have a better perspective on life and did not run off the boat.

Off we went, waving goodbye to our ship and to the mouse ears of a Disney Cruise ship – and why are those things so darned expensive?  It’s not like rich people cruise on those ships; the last person I know of who took a Disney cruise is a UPS guy.  UPS pays okay, but it’s not a king’s ransom.  But put Disney on anything, and it gets expensive.  I recently bought a few cans of Disney Aristocat cat food for my guys, and it was expensive, didn’t look like anything to write home about, a little barfy, actually, but the cats snarfed it up.  They like those mouse ears…

Now we were driving down the highway, the ocean on our left, wetlands, sometimes, on our right, but everything was blue, green, and white…blue ocean, green grass and foliage, and white, fluffy clouds.  It was what Winnie the Pooh (fully in the Disney mode here) would have called a blustery day.  Florida is flat; the sky seems infinitely higher because of that.

For our entertainment, we had been provided with a 20-something guide who knew absolutely *everything*.  I mean, don’t all 20-somethings know everything?  He was more interested in the Kennedy Space Center than the Everglades, so we actually got both tours at the same time; a spiel on space while heading for the Florida wildlands.  Actually, the guy was very entertaining in a Disney (there I go again) Mouseketeer way; by the time we got to Christmas (not the holiday, but the little town where you get to see ‘gators), we knew about his sister, her career, and his entire history of working in the hospitality industry.  He is what we-all tend to call “bubbly,” which is a girl-term, but it suited him perfectly.  I liked him a lot, only, as I commented to my husband, if you had to live in the same house with him, he would irritate the hell out of you.

Pulling in to the parking lot of our destination, our attention was directed to a good-sized pot-bellied pig.  My emotions swelled with the idea of giving her a hug and an apology for all the intelligent pigs that are tortured in factory farms, but then we were told that this particular pig is mighty sick of tourists bugging her, and would either hide or commit mayhem on any offender.  Good for her!

We were directed through a shop where you could buy all kinds of cool stuff, like dead stuffed alligator merchandise, tee-shirts with pictures of alligators on the front that read “Florida Yard Dog,” (we bought two of those must-haves), cups, and more.  You could get an ice cream there, or Fritos, just regular obesity causing food, unlike the gourmet obesity causing foods we had been eating for the last seven or so days.  In that moment, I knew that we were home!

Then we were directed out back to where a fleet of 3 airboats were tied up.  The seats were arranged like those in a movie theater, 3 or 4 rows; the big fan and the pilot ensure locomotion.  Our pilot was one of the best attractions; I think they stole him from one of those Louisiana redneck logging shows.  Or maybe he had started out wrestling ‘gators.  But he was probably in his fifties, blond hair, rugged, voice like a rusty band saw, only in the bass range.  That was a really horrible description; I guess you just had to be there.  But, yeah, he really fit the part.  He was a tough enough looking where you probably wouldn’t want to make any stupid redneck jokes in his presence.

It was cold out that morning, maybe in the fifties, and we had been warned to dress warmly, but I didn’t.  Maybe I was too tired after my vacation to bother with it.  But off we went into a brisk breeze, our hair blowing, and man, that boat was loud.

It was fast too, as we whipped over the grass and out onto the water.  The early morning, freshly illuminated by the golden sunrise, was glorious.  We slowed down a couple of times; our pilot found us a ‘gator, and we watched as its black shape silently slipped off into the water.  He gave us a few good stories and pointed out a cow grazing on a raised area.  Then we were brought back to the dock, I would say, too soon, but yes, it was pretty cold out there on the water.

After our ride, we were brought over to a tank where they kept an alligator that we were allowed to hold.  I did.  And this goes against my grain about visiting roadside zoos, but according to our guide, this animal was no longer suited for being in the wild; he was used to being hand fed.  I also guess this was also our opportunity to take the hint from the signage in the boat to tip our pilot, but I think we were the only ones who did; 5 bucks to the man who kept us safe from ‘gators and airboats flipping over.  Come on, people, you just spent 3 grand on a cruise, not to mention all the other money you blew; TIP THE GUY!

More souvenir shopping happened, and I got my bag of Fritos, plus a few other necessaries besides the awesome t-shirts, from another equally rough-looking dude at the register.  Obviously, Florida (pronounced Flow-Ree-Duh) raises ‘em up tough.

And then we were back on board our van, for another ½ hour or so with the bubbly effervescent guy, and on the way to the airport.

Look at that carpet!

The van dropped us off at the correct terminal, and we tipped our guide for humping our incredibly overstuffed-with-all-kinds-of-crap luggage.   Then we were inside the airport, wondering what to do with quite a few more hours.

We saw a Chili’s, a good place to eat lunch and kill some time.  It’s accessed by an escalator that spits you out right into the restaurant – once you put your foot on that first step, you can’t change your mind, and we were seated right away.  I was able to get a veggie burger and some fries; Dave, of course, picked the most deadly option he could find.  The food came promptly, and it was a great way to wind down and talk about our wonderful vacation.

We made it back to LAX in one piece; this time on the plane we were seated close to the restroom, a situation that really SUCKED as too often my face was a mere inches away from the crotch of whoever was waiting for the facilities.  My irritation at this was extreme, to say the least, especially when I suspected that a couple of guys were leaning forward on purpose.  My fellow human beings, I do truly love you.

The only other incident of note on this vacation was the psychopath who drove us to where our car was parked.  His driving skill, combined with a singular lack of fear, made that last little trip the capstone of our cruise adventure.  He would have been wise to follow the example of our Jamaican tour bus driver and leave towels on our seats.  We were relieved to get into my Prius and be on the way home.

Okay, that’s it for this blog segment, except I’ll be posting a FAQ page for this particular cruise experience for those folks who don’t have the time to slog through this blog, and need to get to the FAQs right away.

Also, I’ll soon be taking a trip to Appalachia with my Uncle Steve.  Did I mention that I am a hillbilly, the real deal?  We’re going to talk to the old farts and see some of the scenery where my grandparents grew up.  That will be another blog, probably entitled something like “Kentucky Hillbilly Hoedown.”  I’ll tell you all about the 4 venomous snakes, copperheads, pygmy rattlesnakes, timber rattlesnakes, and cottonmouths.  Last time I went up there, my Uncle let some stranger-lady spray him all over with Deet, as he is still freaked out by a childhood incident with chiggers (those bugs that get in your private parts and chew you up).  My grandpa used to run through there in his bare feet.  Those hillbillies now don’t do as much moonshine (despite the TV program) as they produce Kentucky’s biggest cash crop (pot).  Don’t know any of those folks, but I do know that many of us like the movie “Deliverance” a lot.  Stay tuned!

One of the issues that you might encounter if you flew from the West coast to meet your cruise ship in Florida is a layover before you go home.  I think that you can linger on the ship for a while before they boot you off, but if your flight leaves at around 5 p.m., and you need to get off your ship in the morning, you’ll want to find something to do to kill those intervening hours.

On the RCI Western Caribbean cruises, you have a couple of choices.  You can either tour the Kennedy Space Center,  or you can ride an airboat through the Everglades.  Both include transpo to the Orlando Airport afterward

Let me see now…weighing my highly intellectual interest in astronomy and space travel vs. the recent popularity of redneck t.v. shows and my own hardcore hillbilly roots, my choice is…AIRBOAT RIDE!!!

If you take a tour, you’re going to be getting up pretty early in the morning.  The night before, you should have left your luggage outside the door to be transferred down to where you can pick it up; the same thing works if you have a tour; you will just get a special tag and all will be taken care of.  RCI has this luggage thing wired; they know where you are going and where your luggage needs to be, and when.  We paid 20 or so dollars to have our big suitcase, filled with all the booze we had purchased and which was delivered in a timely fashion to our room for packing, taken straight to the airport.  I think that 20 bucks was per person, which was not made absolutely clear in the literature, but I still think it was worth it to have one less big hardshell out-of-date piece of junk (I’m actually kind of proud that I have the guts to be seen with something like that) to worry about.

All the night before, I had been having eager daydreams about getting off that oversized hulk of a ship.  Cruising is the best, and despite my jokes, RCI runs a fleet of beautiful, classy vessels.  But hey, enough’s enough, and yeah, I wanted to get back home to my stinky-ol’ town that is cyclically gassed with fertilizer, fumigants, and other unsavory things that those non-organic multi-million-dollar “family” farmers are constantly hosing us with, my cats, (not my job), my comfortable bed, and everything else that goes along with a person’s life in these United States.  So it was still dark when the ship was docking and I looked outside of our curtains.

Again, there we were at the crack o’ dawn, downstairs being organized to disembark for our tours.  We worried about getting breakfast; I smuggled a couple of apples and pastries to our room so that we could eat before we left, but that was an exercise in futility as the ship provides coffee and pastries for you while you wait.  Soon we were all tromping down the ramps at breakneck speed.  I guess I wasn’t the only person who wanted to get his/her a*s off that boat.  God help you if you tripped; you would have been trampled.  Customs requires that you declare any fruit, vegetables or other like items that you may have concealed in your luggage to sneak into the U.S. to start our next Asian fruit fly plague.  If this sounds like you, obviously you need to keep your mouth shut.

Then you are out, free as a bird, which lasts for about 10 minutes before you are herded onto your respective tour van and made to wait 10-15 minutes for all the people who have a better perspective on life and did not run off the boat.

Off we went, waving goodbye to our ship and to the mouse ears of a Disney Cruise ship – and why are those things so darned expensive?  It’s not like rich people cruise on those ships; the last person I know of who took a Disney cruise is a UPS guy.  UPS pays okay, but it’s not a king’s ransom.  But put Disney on anything, and it gets expensive.  I recently bought a few cans of Disney Aristocat cat food for my guys, and it was expensive, didn’t look like anything to write home about, a little barfy, actually, but the cats snarfed it up.  They like those mouse ears…

Now we were driving down the highway, the ocean on our left, wetlands, sometimes, on our right, but everything was blue, green, and white…blue ocean, green grass and foliage, and white, fluffy clouds.  It was what Winnie the Pooh (fully in the Disney mode here) would have called a blustery day.  Florida is flat; the sky seems infinitely higher because of that.

For our entertainment, we had been provided with a 20-something guide who knew absolutely *everything*.  I mean, don’t all 20-somethings know everything?  He was more interested in the Kennedy Space Center than the Everglades, so we actually got both tours at the same time; a spiel on space while heading for the Florida wildlands.  Actually, the guy was very entertaining in a Disney (there I go again) Mouseketeer way; by the time we got to Christmas (not the holiday, but the little town where you get to see ‘gators), we knew about his sister, her career, and his entire history of working in the hospitality industry.  He is what we-all tend to call “bubbly,” which is a girl-term, but it suited him perfectly.  I liked him a lot, only, as I commented to my husband, if you had to live in the same house with him, he would irritate the hell out of you.

Pulling in to the parking lot of our destination, our attention was directed to a good-sized pot-bellied pig.  My emotions swelled with the idea of giving her a hug and an apology for all the intelligent pigs that are tortured in factory farms, but then we were told that this particular pig is mighty sick of tourists bugging her, and would either hide or commit mayhem on any offender.  Good for her!

We were directed through a shop where you could buy all kinds of cool stuff, like dead stuffed alligator merchandise, tee-shirts with pictures of alligators on the front that read “Florida Yard Dog,” (we bought two of those must-haves), cups, and more.  You could get an ice cream there, or Fritos, just regular obesity causing food, unlike the gourmet obesity causing foods we had been eating for the last seven or so days.  In that moment, I knew that we were home!

Then we were directed out back to where a fleet of 3 airboats were tied up.  The seats were arranged like those in a movie theater, 3 or 4 rows; the big fan and the pilot ensure locomotion.  Our pilot was one of the best attractions; I think they stole him from one of those Louisiana redneck logging shows.  Or maybe he had started out wrestling ‘gators.  But he was probably in his fifties, blond hair, rugged, voice like a rusty band saw, only in the bass range.  That was a really horrible description; I guess you just had to be there.  But, yeah, he really fit the part.  He was a tough enough looking where you probably wouldn’t want to make any stupid redneck jokes in his presence.

It was cold out that morning, maybe in the fifties, and we had been warned to dress warmly, but I didn’t.  Maybe I was too tired after my vacation to bother with it.  But off we went into a brisk breeze, our hair blowing, and man, that boat was loud.

It was fast too, as we whipped over the grass and out onto the water.  The early morning, freshly illuminated by the golden sunrise, was glorious.  We slowed down a couple of times; our pilot found us a ‘gator, and we watched as its black shape silently slipped off into the water.  He gave us a few good stories and pointed out a cow grazing on a raised area.  Then we were brought back to the dock, I would say, too soon, but yes, it was pretty cold out there on the water.

After our ride, we were brought over to a tank where they kept an alligator that we were allowed to hold.  I did.  And this goes against my grain about visiting roadside zoos, but according to our guide, this animal was no longer suited for being in the wild; he was used to being hand fed.  I also guess this was also our opportunity to take the hint from the signage in the boat to tip our pilot, but I think we were the only ones who did; 5 bucks to the man who kept us safe from ‘gators and airboats flipping over.  Come on, people, you just spent 3 grand on a cruise, not to mention all the other money you blew; TIP THE GUY!

More souvenir shopping happened, and I got my bag of Fritos, plus a few other necessaries besides the awesome t-shirts, from another equally rough-looking dude at the register.  Obviously, Florida (pronounced Flow-Ree-Duh) raises ‘em up tough.

And then we were back on board our van, for another ½ hour or so with the bubbly effervescent guy, and on the way to the airport.

Look at that carpet!

The van dropped us off at the correct terminal, and we tipped our guide for humping our incredibly overstuffed-with-all-kinds-of-crap luggage.   Then we were inside the airport, wondering what to do with quite a few more hours.

We saw a Chili’s, a good place to eat lunch and kill some time.  It’s accessed by an escalator that spits you out right into the restaurant – once you put your foot on that first step, you can’t change your mind, and we were seated right away.  I was able to get a veggie burger and some fries; Dave, of course, picked the most deadly option he could find.  The food came promptly, and it was a great way to wind down and talk about our wonderful vacation.

We made it back to LAX in one piece; this time on the plane we were seated close to the restroom, a situation that really SUCKED as too often my face was a mere inches away from the crotch of whoever was waiting for the facilities.  My irritation at this was extreme, to say the least, especially when I suspected that a couple of guys were leaning forward on purpose.  My fellow human beings, I do truly love you.

The only other incident of note on this vacation was the psychopath who drove us to where our car was parked.  His driving skill, combined with a singular lack of fear, made that last little trip the capstone of our cruise adventure.  He would have been wise to follow the example of our Jamaican tour bus driver and leave towels on our seats.  We were relieved to get into my Prius and be on the way home.

Okay, that’s it for this blog segment, except I’ll be posting a FAQ page for this particular cruise experience for those folks who don’t have the time to slog through this blog, and need to get to the FAQs right away.

Also, I’ll soon be taking a trip to Appalachia with my Uncle Steve.  Did I mention that I am a hillbilly, the real deal?  We’re going to talk to the old farts and see some of the scenery where my grandparents grew up.  That will be another blog, probably entitled something like “Kentucky Hillbilly Hoedown.”  I’ll tell you all about the 4 venomous snakes, copperheads, pygmy rattlesnakes, timber rattlesnakes, and cottonmouths.  Last time I went up there, my Uncle let some stranger-lady spray him all over with Deet, as he is still freaked out by a childhood incident with chiggers (those bugs that get in your private parts and chew you up).  My grandpa used to run through there in his bare feet.  Those hillbillies now don’t do as much moonshine (despite the TV program) as they produce Kentucky’s biggest cash crop (pot).  Don’t know any of those folks, but I do know that many of us like the movie “Deliverance” a lot.  Stay tuned!

Inside the beast. Giant pythons are invading the Florida Everglades and swallowing hunters.

FLORIDA EVERGLADES. Police are trying to rescue a Florida man who mistakenly drove into a giant Burmese python in the Everglades.

Police report that the huge reptile was napping with its tunnel-sized mouth open.

The man is taking part in the Python Challenge, a month-long open hunting season sponsored by the state of Florida to eradicate Burmese pythons, which are invading the Everglades. The hunter called 911 from inside the snake, and police are hopeful that they can reach him with a tow truck.

Nelson and Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commissioner Ron Bergeron planned to stalk the exotic snake Thursday as part of the monthlong “Python Challenge.”

Wildlife officials say more than 1,000 people signed up for the competition that began Saturday and ends Feb. 10. The state hopes the hunters will help researchers collect more information about the pythons.

The large snakes are an invasive species and are considered a menace to Florida’s swamplands. Nelson championed a federal law banning the importation and interstate sale of the species.

“These snakes don’t belong in the Everglades,” Nelson said in a statement to WKMG-TV. “They’re causing real problems in one of Florida’s greatest treasures.”

The Florida Democrat joined Interior Secretary Ken Salazar in the Everglades last year to announce the ban. On Wednesday, Nelson called the departing secretary “a friend to the Everglades.”

(TM and © Copyright 2013 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2013 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

Originally the Everglades extended over 3 million acres from Lake Okeechobee to Florida Bay, and are currently referred to as the ‘historic’ Everglades. The northern 1 million acres were designated to the Everglades Agricultural Area (E.A.A.). The southern 1.5 million acres were dedicated in 1947 as the Everglades National Park (E.N.P.) (Exploring the Environment: Florida Everglades, 2005) (Fig 1).

A World Heritage site, an International Biosphere Reserve, and one of only three areas to be designated a Wetland of International Importance; the Everglades are home to an astounding array of wildlife, from alligators to bald eagles to black bears (Sierra Club, N.d.).

Importance of the Everglades

The Everglades ecosystems are important as a habitat for many unique species of micro-organisms, plants and animals, which have developed over thousands of years. The area is also relied upon by residents as a water supply. The Everglades, which combine climate, geographical location and ocean currents, are also America’s only sub-tropical wildernesses and visitors travel from all over the world to experience its natural beauty (Exploring the Environment: Florida Everglades, 2005).

In terms of human impact, farming and the continuous expansion of cities are essential in Florida. As early as the 1800’s people have affected the Everglades and within 100 years, more than half of the wetlands were lost due to development. In the past few decades people have begun to notice the environmental impacts of removing the Everglades ecosystem from South Florida. Currently private and government agencies are fighting to protect the area; however there are many complicated issues which need to be addressed first. Restoring the Everglades may ultimately mean a decrease in available water elsewhere for anthropogenic activities such as farming (McGinley, 2008). The linkages between the Everglades, Lake Okeechobee and the Kissimmee River, which provides 80% of the surface flow into Lake Okeechobee, illustrate the importance of connectivity among eco-regions to maintain integrity (WWF Report, 2001).

Past Management

Over the last one and half centuries, when major alterations to the Everglades began, there have been numerous cases of disturbances that have caused noticeable impacts ranging in scale, timeframe and type, in terms of social, economic and environmental. The once small indigenous population of South Florida drew a low-impact livelihood from the Everglades (Haman and Svendsen, 2006). Significant development began in the 1850s and really advanced in the early 20^th Century through the promotion of land and water resources for agriculture, urban growth and industry (Anderson and Rosendahl, 1998). Large areas have been drained to expose rich soils for agriculture, with the headwaters in Lake Okeechobee subsequently diverted directly into the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico (Sklar et al., 2005). A major driver of change occurred as a result of WWI, which saw demand for agricultural products increase to fuel the economy. People were actively encouraged to farm the land.

Control significantly increased as a response to a disastrous series of floods and droughts throughout the 20^th Century, resulting in the construction of large-scale infrastructure (Gunderson and Light, 2006). Hurricanes in 1926 and 1928 led to a major flood control project organised by the Army Corps of Engineers, who constructed a huge levee construction along Lake Okeechobee. By the 1940s, droughts and fires as well as further flooding and water demand led to continued water control through levees, canals and pumps.

The Central and Southern Florida Project for Flood Control was set up in 1948. The Everglades became compartmentalised into three land uses: agriculture (in the north), urban areas (in the east) and conservation (centrally and in the south). Water Conservation Areas (WCA) impounded by levees acted to convert the shallow, free-flowing wetlands into a division of reservoir compartments (Sklar et al., 2005). They were designed to protect agriculture from flooding and control water supplies, but led to a disruption of the natural hydropattern (the direction and spatial extent of flow) and hydroperiod (water depth, timing and duration) (Chimney and Goforth, 2006). Some areas have since experienced excessive flooding whilst others suffered from over-drainage.

In the 1960s/1970s a series of droughts occurred when management was preparing for flooding. By this point people began to realise that decades of management were simply not working. Water management has followed a pattern of growth, crisis and reformation (Gunderson and Light, 2006), with the increased application of hard-engineering structures as the continued response. This approach has been encouraged through the standpoint of optimal thinking; the continual search to maximise profits from the landscape at the expense of its long-term supporting capacity.

In 1983 the Everglades was subject to a period of heavy and sustained rainfall. The event caused severe flooding and resulted in demands for a new approach to water management and instigated a period of experimental approaches to delivering this at state and federal levels.

Up until this point it was not recognised that disturbances have effects beyond their scale and type and the system could not withstand these cross scale effects.

In 1992 congress passed a bill for the Army Corps to devise a plan to rectify the environmental damage caused by previous management (Mayer, 2001). A Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan aims to add water storage capacity and restore the delivery and timing of flows. Plans have been made for 18,000 ha of treatment wetlands to be created, allowing naturally occurring biological processes to reduce the runoff of nutrient loads into the Everglades (Chimney and Goforth, 2006). The Everglades Nutrient Removal Project has enabled the monitoring of such techniques on 1,544 ha of prototype wetland to prepare for the large-scale plans. A mandatory best management practices program has targeted reductions of nutrient loading in the Everglades Agricultural Area, with decreasing trends in phosphorus loads observed after 7-10 years of implementation (Daroub et al., 2009).

Scientists and policy-makers have shaped the way people have understood the Everglades environment and its consequent management policies (Meindl et al., 2002). We now understand that fundamental errors were calculated in how much water should have been removed from the landscape to make it agriculturally productive. There was also a failure to realise that although soils were highly productive, the system as a whole was nutrient poor (Walker and Salt, 2006), and so manipulation of the system for agriculture has led to shifts in its ecological functioning.

Threats and Trajectories

Water Quality: Runoff from the EAA travels directly into the WCAs through a series of canals (Chimney and Goforth, 2001) contributing to nutrient enrichment, causing eutrophication. Heavy metal contamination is also an issue, particularly regarding mercury.

Altered flow regimes: coupled with the impoundment of the WCAs, this has exposed areas to extremes of flooding and over-drainage, as well as having significant ecological impacts through reductions in wildlife and fish populations who depend upon the timings and durations of flows for foraging and reproduction (Perry, 2004).

Invasive species: 1.5 million acres of land has become infested with invasive species (Kranzer, 2003). Most significantly, nutrient enrichment has facilitated a shift in dominance from sawgrass (which prefers low-nutrient environments) to cattail (which is adapted to high-nutrient environments) (Walker and Salt, 2006) Attempts to kill cattail, through fire and stem damage, triggers its reproductive process (Serbesoff-King, 2003). Under low-nutrient conditions, when sawgrass was burned it was replaced by wet prairie communities which were then re-colonised by sawgrass. The sawgrass/wet prairie marshlands were resilient to fire disturbances under this regime but the invasion of cattail has instigated a loss of this resilience. This has had significant impacts on ecology. For example, there has been a 90-95% decline of wading birds.

Habitat and species losses: 50% of the historic Everglades has been lost and cannot be restored, while flows of water have been reduced by approximately 70% (Perry, 2004). There are now 68 federally listed endangered species, such as the Florida panther and the American crocodile.

Declining Fisheries: the region has already seen erosion and collapse of a few coastal creeks with the erosion activating stored nutrients in peat and mud soil which is taken up by micro organisms increasing the risk of eutrophication. Loss of sea grass from increased depth of water and salinity at Florida bay has already been seen, affecting the world class fisheries in the location (Friar, 2007).

Population growth: Over the past century, the population of the Everglades has grown from 10,000 to 6 million and is projected to double to 12 million by 2050 (Walker and Salt, 2006). The South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) predicts an increase in water demand of 38% by 2010 (Mayer, 2001).

Climate Change: Sea level has been rising in Florida since the last ice age (10,000 yrs BP), increasing by 9 inches every 100 years up to 3,200 yrs BP when it dropped to 1.5 inches (Friar, 2007). 60% of park is less than 3% above mean sea level with the highest ground being 11 feet above. The IPCC report by Parry et al. (2007), modelled the impact using 6 different climate change scenarios, projecting a rise between 7-23 inches by end of the century, leading to a potential 10-50% of parks freshwater marsh being transformed to salt water marsh. The IPCC report predicts a 2-5^oC temperature rise by 2100, with potential to increase algal blooms and marine diseases, as well as kill off sea grass.

Floods and droughts: The Everglades experiences a wide variation in climate due to tropical weather systems and regional shifts in weather related to the southern oscillation (Perry, 2008). The area is increasingly vulnerable to shocks from extreme weather events. Hurricane activity is predicted to increase and as well as its direct damage, indirect increases in freshwater discharge and nutrient enrichment can also result (Williams et al., 2008).

Fires: Over-drainage is likely to have contributed to the large number of severe fires throughout the 20^th Century (Newman et al., 1998), which has contributed to the invasion of cattail.

Thresholds

Water quality is a key threshold in the Everglades system. The system was once oligotrophic but has in parts become hypereutrophic. Excessive nutrient loads have caused imbalances in the natural fauna and fauna. Management aims to reduce phosphorous levels below 50ppb to begin with and achieve 10ppb in the long term. 10ppb has been identified as the key point at which the Everglades’ biota can be protected (DOI, 2005).

Mercury contamination has been linked to agricultural practices and is toxic. Sulphur is a major control on mercury levels and discharge from the EAA is the driving force. Increasing the water flow to the Everglades may result in sulphur concentrations increasing and thus mercury. Current safe body burden concentrations are set at 0.3 mg/kg. At present all fish species are above this threshold (Alexrad et al 2005).

Regional runoff is now transported to the coasts through a canal system. The waters cause significant damage to coastal estuaries through contamination, eutrophication and salinity changes. Algal blooms are a result and produce toxins that harm marine biota and are a human health risk. There is a point at which the runoff contaminates can no longer be absorbed without risking damage to coastal waters and marine life. Transported runoff is therefore a key threshold within the Everglades ecosystem (Perry, 2008).

IPCC’s 2007 projections could lead to submerging of tidal flats and inland freshwater marshes impacting on wading birds and other species. A 23 inches rise would submerge the pinelands (one of the largest ecosystems in S. Florida aka Everglades Flatwoods). The IPCC projections may also lead to erosion of beaches leaving fewer habitats for nesting sea turtles (Friar, 2007).

Adaptive Management

The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment board (MEA, 2005) define adaptive management as a systematic process which utilises management as an experimental tool in order to learn lessons and improve future policies. Adaptive systems are dynamic and can change in response to perturbations and complex problems more effectively than “trapped” and rigid management structures (Gunderson and Light, 2006). These ideas are linked strongly to resilience, as in order to be sustainable, a system must have a certain level of resilience to survive shocks without changing dramatically. Systems controlled by rigid management structures are usually less capable of adapting to sudden changes and thus can hinder long term sustainability through processes of stagnation in policy and beaurocracy.

Current Management and Future Trajectories

Current management in the Everglades is focused on resolving past conflicts as opposed to seeking sustainability for the future (Gunderson and Light, 2006). The Everglades management paradigm adopts a scientific approach rather than an adaptive one (Brunner and Steelman, 2005). Gunderson and Holling (2002) state that the Everglades is in a “management trap”, fuelled by conventional bureaucratic systems in play which control financial infusion into the system. Gunderson and Light (2006) describe the management system as resultantly being itself very resilient, governed by rules and policies which are no longer appropriate to tackle the complexity of the problems at hand. Such a system has strongly discouraged experimental research which is feared may not necessarily produce meaningful results reducing the overall ability for managers to learn from mistakes made.

Presently, in order for policies to be accepted, managers must first be able to rigorously predict every potential outcome of the proposal. Innovation is often stifled through complex social and political pressures which dissuade the diversification of management strategy. An example of this occurred in 1983, where managers have trialled a “free flow” program of water distribution following a period of heavy rainfall. The project was developed as a test to investigate the requirement of such heavily regulated control of water supplies throughout the region. Light et al. (1989) describe how the project was cancelled within a year as a result of lawsuits filed by local stakeholders who were worried the new system would not serve their best interests. This has produced a resilient management structure which focuses primarily on reactionary hard engineering solutions to problems as they occur, as opposed to learning from experience and testing the waters to inform a longer term future strategy of conservation. Wesley et al. (2005) describes this mismatch between solution finding and problems as the most major obstacle for social innovation in management strategising.

Future Implications

Whilst the social and political systems have suffered from their resilient and rigid policies, the ecology has experienced a loss of its resilience which has led to a shift from sawgrass to cattail dominance. This indicates that the benefits of resilience depend on individual’s perspectives of the system being managed.

For the Everglades to become a resilient system, the thresholds that have been identified must be considered. Currently the pressures are too great for the ecological system to absorb the disturbance without significant change. Phosphorous and mercury concentrations are currently too great for the system to tolerate without significant change. It will take a considerable reduction in these entities to move to a more ecologically resilient state.

Management is now somewhat at a stalemate as so many constraints are placed on future actions that the system is unable to progress forward (Gunderson and Light, 2006). Management therefore currently lacks the encouragement to employ innovation through experimentation. The varying interests of numerous stakeholders and pressures from past failures restrict the system’s capacity to adapt.

The replacement of sawgrass with cattail provides a good example of how shifts are driven by processes working at varying spatial and temporal scales (Walker and Salt, 2006). Vegetation structures form the most rapidly changing variable with plant turnovers of approximately 5-10 years. Fires occur in cycles of 10-20 years while freezes and droughts occur at return times of several decades. Finally, soil phosphorus concentrations form the slowest variable with turnover times over centuries. Development of the Everglades must recognise it as a linked socio-ecological system, with a range of linked ecological and social cycles.

The Everglades are beyond a point where they can ever be fully restored. Management schemes now face the challenge of balancing restoration and conservation against meeting the requirements of water supply and flood protection for present and projected populations. To address this there is a need to move away from the rigid paradigm of scientific management towards a more adaptive and holistic approach.

References

Serbesoff-King K. 2003 Melaleuca in Florida: A literature review on the taxonomy, distribution, biology, ecology, economic importance and control measures. Journal of Aquatic Plant Management, 41, 98–112.

Geary, T.F. and Woodall, S.L. 1990  Melaleuca. In Burns, R. M. and B. H. Honkala, Technical coordinators. Silvics of North America: 1.Conifers; Honkala, technical coordinators. Silvics of North America: 1.Conifers; Washington, DC. Vol. 2. [Online] Available: http://www.na.fs.fed.us/spfo/pubs/silvics_manual/volume_2/melaleuca/quinquenervia.htm

Bodle, J. M., A. P. Ferriter and D. D. Thayer. 1994 The biology, distribution, and ecological consequences of Melaleuca quinquenervia in the Evergladesp. 341-355. In S. M. Davis and  Ogden J.C. (eds.). Everglades: the ecosystem and its restoration., St. Lucie Press, Delray Beach.

Diamond, C., D. Davis and D. C. Schmitz. 1991 Economic impact statement: the addition of Melaleuca quinquenervia to the Florida prohibited aquatic plant list, 87-110. In Center, T.D., Doren, R. F., Hofstetter R.L., Meyers R.L., and Whiteaker, L.D. (eds.). Proc. Symp. Exotic Pest Plants. National Park Service, Denver, CO

Chimney, M.J and Goforth, G. 2001 Environmental Impacts to the Everglades ecosystem: a historical perspective and restoration strategies. Water Science and Technology, 44, 93-100.

Ogden, L. 2009 The Everglades Ecosystem and the Politics of Nature. American Anthropologist. 110, 1, 21-32

Perry W.B. 2008 Everglades restoration and water quality challenges in south Florida. Ecotoxicology, 17, 569-578.

Smith, S, M., Gawlik, D, E., Rutchey, K., Crozier G, E. And Gray, S. 2003 Assessing drought-related ecological risk in the Florida Everglades. Journal of Environmental Management. 68, 355–366.

DOI and USACE (Department of Interior and US Army Corps of Engineers). 2005 Central and Southern Florida Project Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan: 2005 Report to Congress. Washington, DC USA. [Online] Available:  http://www.evergladesplan.org/pm/program_docs/cerp_report_congress_2005.cfm

Axelrad D, Atkeson T, Pollman C, Lange T, Rumbold D, Weaver K. 2005  Chapter 2B: Mercury monitoring, research and environmental assessment in South Florida. In South Florida Environmental Report. South Florida Water Management District, West Palm Beach, Florida, USA. [Online] Available: http://www.sfwmd.gov/sfer/SFER_2005/2005/volume1/chapters/V1_Ch2B.pdf

Legendary golfer Arnold Palmer with his grandson. (Photograph courtesy Replay Sports Management)

It’s this sentiment that made attending the PNC Father/Son Challenge at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club in Orlando that much more poignant.
First played in 1995, this event celebrates family as much as it does championship golf. So it was with extra reverence that I watched the likes of Jack Nicholas and Arnold Palmer share their love for the game and their children on the green.
It seemed only appropriate that a tournament pairing golf’s greatest legends with their sons (and daughters) be held in Orlando. After all, the sunny city is renowned the world over for bringing families together.
Traveling to Disney World with the kids has been a right of passage for generations. When my parents first took me to the Magic Kingdom in the mid-1970s,  Sea World had just opened, but construction on Universal Studios wouldn’t begin for another decade.
Animal Kingdom, Discovery Cove, and Hollywood Studios have since been added to the long list of attractions. Couple that with the proximity of the Space Coast and the the the Everglades, and suddenly a week in Central Florida may not be enough.
With so much for families to do in and around Orlando, the question becomes where to take up residence. Booking a room at one of the Disney properties is convenient if your sole purpose is visiting the parks. But if you’re planning for an extended stay, my time at the Ritz-Carlton and JW Marriott Orlando Grande Lakes confirmed they’d make  a wonderful home base.

Spending time with nature at the Ritz Carlton Orlando. (Photograph by Rainer Jenss)

Inspired by watching some of the best players in the world, I signed up for a private golf lesson at their Golf Digest School. After spending just an hour with my instructor, Todd Casabella, I had a clear understanding of how to correct some of my mistakes. Todd shared with me that he often works with families, which I can appreciate since I wouldn’t want my boys picking up dad’s bad habits.
The resort’s location between the major theme parks guarantees you’re never too far away from the action. But there’s so much for families to do together, it’s tempting to stay on the hotel grounds.
Besides golfing, you can ride Surrey bikes, go fly fishing, play lawn games, float along a lazy river, or tackle their new adventure course. And for parents for a little alone time in the spa, Ritz Kids programs will take care of children ages 5-12 with a range of fun activities (including ice-cream making).
What’s more, the 300 acres of native habitat that surrounds the resort invite you to spend quality time in nature. Since it’s easy to forget what Central Florida looked like before the theme parks and the fast creep of Orlando’s urban sprawl, I really appreciated their two-hour Eco Tour on Shingle Creek.
After spending a few minutes quietly paddling our kayaks along the headwaters of the Everglades, admiring dozens of native bird species and watching for gators, my guide and I started chatting about what’s kept him at the resort for more than four years. He told me he’s just as fascinated with the guests as he is with the tranquil surroundings.
“I’ve had some pretty high-powered executives completely open up to me about their lives while out on this river,” he confided. “How being on the water just listening to the sounds of wildlife reminds them of what’s really important.”
I responded by telling him how traveling with my children and sharing the world with them is what really matters to me.
We both smiled and continued paddling up river without saying another word.
– Post-Newtown Priority: Family Time

While, I’m not much of a nature photographer, I do like to please others. My sister and I go on frequent photowalks so we can hang out and do something we both enjoy. She’s given my old Canon Rebel XT DSLR a home and has breathed new life into it’s viewfinder, and in return I take her with me when I go out shooting.

This year on Halloween, we went to one of the scariest places on Earth….the swamp! Just kidding. It’s not so scary out there really. She has has never been to a National Park, and a National Preserve is the closest we have that I haven’t already enjoyed 100 times already. She wanted to see some Alligators and so I showed her some. Big Cypress National Preserve is a huge vast place, very calming and peaceful, but quite honestly, not so scenic. Everglades National Park which is very close to the preserve has a lot more things to experience.  We walked around looking for the infamous “Skunk Ape” and had a good chuckle, indeed.

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Want to get the most out of a day trip to a National Park or similar place?

1. Research. Do your homework and spend an hour or so reading up on the place you will be visiting. I often don’t follow this advice because I like to be surprised, admire adventure, and aren’t easily disappointed. However, if you are taking a super long trip and don’t want to feel let down, read up a little so you know what to expect and can plan accordingly. Check maps for the best vantage points. Look at Flickr for perhaps hidden or well know spots that are a must-see!

2. Bring your Patience. The one thing about photographing wildlife is a true test of your patience. I have sat for sometimes hours, observing the wildlife and their patterns. It takes skill to get the perfect shot, but it also takes patience waiting for it to happen. Unlike portraits of your family or friends, nature moves at her own pace and there’s no opportunity for posing.

3. Remember your composition. In photographing animals, or landscapes, (it matters for people too) you simply must have a strong sense of composition to really make the image pop. It is especially important when you are photographing a landmark, or something that has “been done.” You want to stand out, and composition is the next important thing beyond the subject. Please the eyes, and they will come back for more.

4. Bring a telephoto lens. When observing wildlife, it is generally understood to be illegal to harass, molest, or otherwise bother animals in the wild. This applies from city to national parks and most places in between. Remember, that just because animals tell you themselves, you must give them space. They feel the stress and threatened just as you and I would. So stay away, and use a longer lens to capture the memory.

Florida Everglades swampland

. The Everglades swampland‘s are one of the largest wetlands in the world. Compared only to the swamps or delta area of Louisiana’s Mississippi River, Nile River Delta and Amazon River Basin. These Eco-systems receive some of the greatest rain fall averages in the world approximately 120″ or more annually. A mix of fresh and salt waters create a brackish water estuary full of wildlife. Estuaries are watery grass areas with island called hammocks in the middle of the Everglades. These islands hold all kinds of wildlife such as deer, hogs, snakes, rabbits and more. The wetlands considered a nursery hold many other species such as fish like the tarpon, snook, redfish, from saltwater and bass, blue gills, from freshwater along with crabs, crayfish, snails and frogs just to name a few. If you have never seen the Everglades swampland an airboat tour through the Everglades is one of the greatest ways to see all these things. Airboat rides are fast fun and a great deal of fun for the family! f you like a slower pace there are also canoes or locals with pole boats which are more work but less expensive. For more info about airboat tours.

THE EVERGLADES

You ride one of these airboats to get a much closer look at alligators although there is no guarantee that you’d see them.

But we did!  And tension mixed with excitement started to build up.

And this fellow could have snatched me without much effort on its part.  That was how close it was!

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Karen Russell’s Swamplandia! is a mythical romp through the Florida Everglades, complete with magic, danger, and ghosts.  This novel, based on the short story “Ava Wrestles the Alligator” from St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves, follows the tale of the Bigtree children as they struggle with the recent death of their mother (Hilola Bigtree, world famous alligator wrestler) and to keep Swamplandia!, their family’s alligator theme park, viable.  As 13 year old Ava sets out into the swamps after her sister Osceola attempts to elope with a ghost, Kiwi Bigtree, the book-smart and life-stupid older brother, escapes to the mainland to try to find a way out for his family.  Instead, he finds himself navigating the all too real (but, refreshingly hilarious) world of minimum wage jobs, crooked employers, and adolescent agony.

Russell creates, in the Bigtree children, characters that are sympathetic, but somehow just a few clicks away from realistic.  All three of them have an undeveloped sense of intuition; they are all unable to clearly distinguish the good guys from the bad guys, the real from the fictional.  Their uninitiated state allows the reader to enter and navigate the magical fictional world of Swamplandia! in a similar state:  a state of open wonder, curiosity, and suspended disbelief.  Although Russell gives us all the clues we need to discern the good guys from the bad guys in this story, we, like Ava, are reluctant to see things clearly, unable to pierce the veil of mystery and lush hope that Russell draws around her.

Russell stays close to the action throughout the book, but it is not necessarily a plot based novel:  Swamlandia! is language based, and that language is grounded in local ecology.  In fact, the Florida Everglades is an apt metaphor for the language in the book:  lush, fecund, and dense.  There is barely a sentence that does not bear the imprint of Russell’s distinct prose.  The truly bizarre and unusual landscape of the Everglades comes alive in Swamplandia! through sentences like this:  “The cloud of moths drew their darker blues across the pale egg of the sky.”  The equally unusual inner landscapes of her characters are painted with the same charged brush.

Swamplandia! was one of the three works of fiction considered for the Pulitzer Prize in 2012, although the judges were unable to come to agreement on a winner, and none was awarded at all.  Swamplandia! is an interesting, and worthy, choice for that award.  While, on one level, this story appears to be a fanciful farce about a doomed alligator theme park, it is far more than that.  Myth and allegory frame the story, and symbolism abounds.  The writing is mature and fresh, the lessons learned both specific and universal, and the truth is as dark and disturbing as any truth can be.  As Emily Dickenson wrote:  “Tell all the truth, but tell it slant…. Truth must dazzle gradually, or every man be blind.”  Swamplandia! is not short on the truth, but it does tell it with a mighty, swampy, reptilian slant.

Beautiful Peacock

Strike a Pose

Open Waters

Great Egret

And away we go!

Blue Dragon Fly

Pac Man Lily Pads

Beautiful Lotus Flower

We found a gator!

It’s about 30 years old!

Made friends with a little gecko lizard!

Purple Gallinule

Baby Dragon Fly

That’s a big one!

Adult Dragon Fly

Resting

See ya later alligator!!

]]> http://blogs.theprovince.com/2012/10/19/cycling-around-the-globe-alligators-in-shark-valley/ Fri, 19 Oct 2012 23:16:20 +0000 Rudy Pospisil http://blogs.theprovince.com/2012/10/19/cycling-around-the-globe-alligators-in-shark-valley/

Since I rode 86 miles today into Louisiana and am exhausted I thought Id post a blog of a ride I did recently near here. Yes I did see Gators today and took pictures but Im too tired to download them.Stay Tuned!

This has got to be one of the most unusual and thrilling cycles in North America. Its called Shark Valley in Florida, its 45 minutes west of Miami.

It is a 25 km paved loop trail through a alligator infested swamp, leading to an observation tower and back. As you will see from the pictures there are more alligators along this path than people. You will come across more alligators than any other wildlife. Some birds, deer, wild pigs, coyotes, manatees, and non native pythons ( that are actually killing the alligators). So you get the bike, pay $7.50 an hour, sign a whole bunch of waivers and start riding. Swamp and water pockets are on each side of the path. Alligators sun on the path and as you can see and cross it frequently. They can run busts up to 30 mph. I can only ride short burst of 25 mph.

Gators are quite easy to see far ahead. You just have to try to avoid getting to close to them. Like this guy below!

But check this ad out from the park…For a unique view, during a clear night with a full moon, ride to the observation tower to watch the sunset (park outside the main gate). On the ride back, you will not need a light! With moonlight reflecting off the river of grass like a mirror, you can’t tell when twilight ends and night begins. During the cooler months, local bike clubs often meet here for this moonlight ride, so you won’t be alone.

So I decided to check it out at night as well. We found that if you shine a flashlight ahead you can see the alligators eyes like a road reflector. So you should be OK. Its quite exciting at night, not only because you cant see as well but the alligators are way more active as its cooler and that’s when they feed!

Ride at night along this trail at night, without a light, just using the full moons light? I am sure you have to sign a few extra waivers for that .Now that is more exciting than going to a movie or out for dinner. So the picture below is the observation deck at the half way point. As you can see sometimes you have to wait for the road to clear.

Once safely up the spiral stairs to the top of the platform you have a clear view of the Everglades. Here you and are safe from Gators as they can’t climb the spiral stairs. You can watch the gators swimming up to catch unsuspecting birds on the water. I happened to see a bird get snapped in the water just under  the tower. I wondered if it would be a similar catch on a cyclist

There are some interesting side trails as well like ‘Snake Bight Trail” signs do keep you on the path though.

It says CAUTION DRAINAGE DITCH INFESTED WITH POISONOUS SNAKES

The Park Rangers are quite good at moving the pythons out of your way if you don’t like snakes.

If that’s not exciting enough, or you don’t cycle you can rent a canoe and paddle along as well. Which of course I had to try. After signing multiple waivers to rent the canoe off you go. I felt much safer on the bike. Here is a picture from the canoe coming up to a huge gator. It’s a strange uneasy feeling stroking that paddle when you can see these sets of eyes disappear under the water around you.

Yes its all real.  Shark Valley exists,  I’ve been there twice and lived.So there you go it’s a thrilling destination plus a good incentive to get into shape before you go. Preferable be able to do 30 mph sprints on your bike for short distances. Who needs Disney World head to Shark Valley for cycling year round !

I am a firefighter and cancer survivor circumnavigating the globe by bicycle for breast, prostate, and lung cancer charity. I will cross the United States from September 22 to November 2012 riding 100km per day covering 3000 miles and 100,000 ft of elevation..  The posted blogs are my personal opinion and thoughts.

 My global ride site that maps me on Google Maps is www.thirty4three.com . Read my blogs sign up on twitter @copsfire, or RSS feed here

My friend Debbie and I headed out early in the morning because it is about a 4 hour drive from Tampa down to Clyde Butcher’s Gallery. We were scheduled for a 2 pm walk. Clyde Butcher is well known for his wonderful black and white photography. Through his camera lens many begin their love of the swamps and outdoors. He has photographed some of the most beautiful places in the world, but the Florida Everglades still remain magical to him. Each year he invites the public out to his “Loose Screw Sanctuary”. Here you will find a wonderful gallery of his work, 2 rental units that overlook the swamp – Swamp Cottage and Bungalow, bath-house, and picnic area. Their guided tours state that they are “for the
brave who dare to explore the difficult swamps and cypress strands in order to
understand the beauty and peace found in more than a million acres located in
the Everglades eco-system of South Florida.” I do not believe you need to be
brave as the water flowing over Western Portion of Big Cypress National Preserve is
crystal clear and you walk on mostly limestone bedrock. I am not saying it is
easy, there are roots and holes that you have to watch out for, but our guide
Bob showed us how to properly use our walking sticks (that were provided) and
he taught us many wonderful things about the swamp I never knew!

Clyde Butcher's Gallery

All the water that feeds the swamps west of Lake Okeechobeecomes from rain. The water in most places along this limestone shelf in under 3 ft deep. New soil is growing under that water. It takes thousands of years just to break down that limestone surface along with natural debris to make the smallest layer of dirt.

Heading into the Swap

As we were guided thought the swamp we stopped often for photo opportunities, questions and to just look at where we were at. There were very few mosquitoes! We were told that this is because of a healthy population of Gambusia, these small fish love mosquito larvae and keep the numbers down in this area. Also we learned that snakes were more of a problem when water was very low. In the higher water the snakes actually feel the ripples of the water and just want to get away from the “predator” heading their direction.

Dwarf Cypress

Bob showed us amazing Dwarf Cypress, these small trees growth is stunted by the lack of nutrients available. He also answered many questions on pond apples, bromeliads and why we did not see any birds. There were birds all around us as he pointed out at one of our stops. We all were asked to be very quiet and still. Within seconds the swamp came alive with sound! We were surrounded by birds all just out of sight and joining their
chorus were a multitude of insects and frogs. It was amazing to hear all that
was around us when we just took a moment to listen.

Our walk in the swamp was too soon over and after we put on dry clothes we headed over to the gallery to see the swamp through Clyde’s eyes. His gallery is amazing and it was such a joy to meet him. I felt I was in the presence of royalty – this one man has so much influenced the world on the importance of saving the Everglades, this eco-system is unique in the entire world and he has shown us its beauty through his photographs. Clyde told us
stories of bringing many persons thought the swamp, even President Jimmy Carter
and his family – now that was a story!

Clyde Butcher and Jeanene Arrington-Fisher

Guided Swamp Walks require reservations and can be scheduled
by calling 239-695-2428 or by visiting www.clydebutcher.com

I encourage you to take some time and give this adventure a try. Next Labor Day, go down and meet Clyde, his wife Niki and their staff, take a swamp walk and visit the gallery. You will come away with a new appreciation for this small part of the world that remains wild and free.

For more information please check out the following links:

BigCypress Swamp – The Western Everglades

Big Cypress NationalPreserve

Clyde Butcher’sGallery

Additional photos from our trip can be found at: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150428929511982.451214.123289366981

Please consider Nota Clue Adventures  when booking your
next Florida adventure!