Discontinuing airboat tours in the northeast section of Everglades National Park My Concerns:

By: Glenn Wilsey, Sr.

My job and the jobs of many other locals, that live and work in or close to the Florida Everglades, is a "BIG" concern to all of us. My job and home are hanging on the balance of a grudge match. The argument is between the National Park Service and the right to have an airboat concession just inside of a newly established national park boundry.

I have to believe this month’s story might be the last that I will prepare for my loyal readers from my home in the Everglades because there is a good chance that I will have to leave the Everglades.

That means this story is for my loyal readers but is also directed towards

President George W. Bush: comments@whithouse.gov

Vice President Richard B. Cheney: vice_president@whitehouse.gov

Governor Jeb Bush of Florida: jeb.bush@myflorida.com

Mayor Carlos Alvarez of Miami-Dade County: mayor@miamidade.gov .

So, after you have read this months story, please send e-mails if you feel the need to show support for continuing a historic use of the everglades, but please be polite and respectful to these important elected officials if you do.

President George bush has come to the Everglades because he seems concerned about the environment. In his quest to SAVE "The Everglades" he sped as fast as he could down to Everglades National Park where he was met by an onslaught of reporters ready to hear just how he planned to help out the Everglades. Once "There" he got to take pictures and shake hands with the national park officials. I’m sure they told him how "they" think the Everglades should be saved. I’m also sure that the national park officials forgot to add in the BIGGEST part of their plan. "What part is that?" you may ask, well, that’s the part of the plan where they leave the locals out in the cold again. Because, the broadcast news stations and the newspapers are looking for the "BIG STORY", they walk over the locals to get to the "BIG STORY". It seems the news doesn’t care about the Everglades or the local people. Hold on a second, I have to take part of that statement back. If there is a plane crash or a big fire in the Everglades the press will rush right out here to interview us locals about how we were affected because we are the "BIG STORY" then. Or, they will have no qualms about asking us to take them out to the scene of the "BIG STORY".

It would seem, that the President of The United States also passed right by the locals on his way to the "BIG STORY". When President George Bush came to the Everglades we never saw him on an airboat. Didn’t even see anyone from his staff. President Bush did sign papers to help save "the everglades" but I think he wasn’t informed as well as you, my readers, that there is a lot more to the everglades than the national park. I don’t think he saw the part of those documents where lots of "Little" people, will lose their jobs and their homes. I know that The President has lots of big things on his mind. However, President Bush also needs to have some "little" things on his mind, ie., local people like us.

Mr. President, if you can’t come here to see us "little people", please send someone from your staff. If you really care about us locals, now is the time to send help. I know people around the world need you, but so do the little people who matter very much here in South Florida. Thank you.

Vice President Cheney, I’m not forgetting you, please read what I wrote concerning President Bush. You are a trusted advisor to the president so maybe you have enough influence that he will listen to what you have to say. Lives are on the line here. The invitation to come on down remains open for you as well, Mr. Vice-President, if you can’t come here yourself, please send someone from your staff. We will be happy to show you or them what the true everglades is all about and we guarantee a great time. Thank you.

Governor Jeb Bush has also come to the everglades and "YEP" all the news stations were there to take pictures. Governor Bush took pictures shaking hands with the national park officials and also signed those papers to save "The Everglades." Governor Jeb bush, like the other bureaucrats, also passed right by the locals, again leaving us out in the cold. We never saw anyone from the governor’s staff come on an airboat tour while they were here. Mr. Governor, if you can’t come here yourself to feel our love for the Everglades and perhaps develop your own, please send someone from your staff and we will ensure that they bring a new understanding back to Tallahassee with them when they return. Thank you.

Mayor Carlos Alvarez of Miami has shown much interest in the everglades (as far as the everglades falling partially within Miami-Dade County and the glades being the source of the county’s drinking water) but, here is one more bureaucrat that I don’t think has actually spent much time out of his office in the everglades. If Mayor Alvarez has come on an airboat tour, no one has ever told me about it. I only have one thing to say to Mayor Alvarez, Mr. Mayor, you live here, the everglades is your back yard too. You have no excuse for not coming on an airboat tour. I would love to be able to escort the Mayor of Miami-Dade County which includes a section of the Everglades through the Everglades on an airboat. It isn’t anything that thousands of people from around the world haven’t already made more of an effort to do than you or your staff would have to make yourselves. I’m sure that you would learn much more about our back yard.

Mr. President, Mr. Vice-President, Governor Bush and Mayor Alvarez, please contact me gatorman1@aaof.us and I would be honored to be your tour guide.

Now that I have addressed some of the important people in our Government it is time to get back to the issue at hand in my story for this month.

This is a letter to the Everglades National Park compliance office. It is about the Airboat Contracts, scoping comments to consider whether Airboat Tour Companies should remain open indefinitely and why they should.

These are my concerns:

My biggest concern when I hear about discontinuing airboat tours in the north-eastern section of Everglades National Park is how that would affect the tourists that come here from around the world.

When tourists come to the everglades they want to have fun and since most tourists around the world have seen airboats on television, in the opening sequence of "CSI Miami" for example, they want to experience the fun of riding an airboat. They also want to learn about the Everglades from a local’s point of view. A local tour guide brings knowledge and stories of old Florida and how the everglades used to be along with their insight on how the everglades may turn out in the future, which at this point doesn’t look good. A local guide is a connection for the outsider between the everglades’ past, present and future. Airboats are a fun, interactive way to see the everglades and are the only safe way to see many parts of the everglades. Disallowing airboat use will mean cutting off any and all public access to and enjoyment of these remote areas.

Anyone who reads my stories knows how "into" the Everglades I am. The most awesome thing for a tour guide is the look on a tourist’s face when they look at an alligator just a foot or two away. What a surprise it is for a tourist when a purple gallinule runs across the lily pads and right up to the airboat for a picture. I have to giggle a little when a tourist looks into the water and sees an ocare (a fish from South America) looking up at them. Then, with a puzzled look, they ask "what kind of fish is that?"

The best part of the airboat tour for me is when I tell everyone to sit down and put in your earplugs. Before I even start the engine, you can feel the "tense" but excited energy from everyone on the boat. When I step on the gas they hear the engine roar and a little bit of "G" force presses them back against their seats. For a moment I can see some white knuckles and then they settle down for an awesome ride into the Everglades. The grass flattens out as we ski over it but the wind from the propeller blows the grass back up as we pass. Then the sound of the engine slows down and the airboat comes to a stop. The tourist’s take a deep breath and are then engulfed by the wide-open vastness of the Everglades. Sometimes we can take off our shoes and some of the braver tourist will join me in getting out of the boat. After a mass of questions, I re-start the boat and head back to the dock. At the dock I hear the tourists talking about how they’ve never been on anything like it. Airboats are a unique form of transportation and of course there isn’t anyplace else quite like the everglades. They tell me they are going to tell everyone they know to come to Florida and take an airboat tour (my airboat tour) of the everglades. Since we are the first part of Florida that many tourists see, we consider ourselves goodwill ambassadors for the state and we act accordingly. Tourists ask us where is a great place to eat, where is a good hotel and what other attractions should they see. The guys ask about fishing trips and other outdoor activities. The ladies sometimes ask where they can we find shopping centers and malls.

I’m sure that all of the business owners on the way into and out of the everglades are glad the tourists are coming to see us. The employees that work at these businesses depend on the tourists for their well being as much as we do. Lots of business owners also come to the airboat concessions. It feels good when a business owner tells me, after their airboat tour, that a tourist told them what a great tour we have so they finally decided to bring the family and see for themselves. We also see everything from corporate gatherings to birthday parties on a regular basis. If airboat concessions are shut down, I think the whole community will suffer.

Back in 2002, The Miami Herald did a story on tourism in Everglades National Park. They asked why 70% of the tourists visit concessions outside of the park rather than inside the park. It’s not hard to figure that one out. 70% of the tourists are here on their vacation and they want to have fun. Although the national park guides do a great job, they tend to get too technical. They tend to use big words and long sentences. Most people, who come here on vacation, come for a good time and to get away from school and their jobs and most of them are not biologists or scientists. They feel that the park guides overload them with technical information and that makes them tune out what the guides are saying. The park guides are rarely from around here so they don’t know all of the history and folklore of the everglades. I know this because the tourists tell me on a daily basis. I am an airboat guide and I speak in plain language. The tourists are very up front and tell me that they have been to the park but they really love coming on the airboat tours because they learn so much more. Many of the tourists have been to all the concessions over the years and they boast how great the different points of view are. I have had many other people who haven’t yet been to Everglades National Park say, "now that I have been on the airboat, I’m not sure if I should bother going to the national park." I tell them if they don’t then they are missing out. I tell them the trip to Flamingo is a "MUST." The scenery in the park is beautiful and the information along the way, while somewhat technical, is priceless.

Because I am a tour guide and I write about the everglades, I get to hear from tourists that e-mail me. They always tell me what a great time they had going to Flamingo and other places we have mentioned and recommended. They thank me and tell me how grateful they are for helping them to make the decision to go. If I lose my job and my home I also lose the opportunity to directly interact with people (live and in person, as they say) as a goodwill ambassador for Florida and the everglades. People from around the world will miss out on experiences that I have been telling people from around the world about for many years now online. How very strange. Can you imagine how those who have already been here will feel when they read what might be said on www.aaof.us in the "Stories of an Airboat Guide" column next month or in the future, that airboats are no longer allowed! Can you imagine how those who might have planned a trip to South Florida (especially after their friends told them what a great time they had on their airboat tour) will feel when they discover that they can no longer go on that same tour that was so highly recommended or was the highlight of many trips past because airboats are no longer allowed? The airboat concessions should stay. They are a vital part of information, jobs and commerce.

I am also concerned about the various (often conflicting) plans for everglades restoration. I grew up in the Everglades and have seen the many changes in the environment. The Army Corps of Engineers (and South Florida Water Management) came here about 60 years ago to "Save" the everglades. In doing so they have made levees and canals to steer the water where they think it should go. In other words their main concern was never the everglades but the convenience of the people in the cities that have been encroaching on the everglades for the last hundred years. In the past 15 years I have seen the water flow to the east, west and even north into the Tamiami Canal. We all know the water has been flowing to the south for about ten thousand years. By opening and closing the locks the Army Corps can steer the water the way they want it to go. I’m sure this is affecting the Florida Bay and the Atlantic and Gulf reefs by restricting vital nutrients to these vital areas.

There is a levee that runs north to south along the eastern edge of the Everglades. This levee starts at the Florida Bay and runs north, along Krome Avenue, to US-27. Then next to the Sawgrass Expressway up to Palm Beach. Everything east of that levee for about 10 to 20 miles, used to be an area that was semi-wet for most of the year (like a big sponge). That area slowly fed water to the main part of the everglades as the dry season (January to May) approached. That semi-dry area filtered our drinking water and kept the glades moist enough to prevent massive grass and brush fires such as we recently saw in Texas and Oklahoma. It’s now covered by asphalt and suburban housing. That area was vital to the everglades, it prevented the everglades from drying out all at once. This was a concern of many South Floridians who grew up here. All of the area east of that levee is now gone and we can’t take it back. This area supplied nutrients and extra water to the everglades.

The everglades, as I said, should flow from Lake Okeechobee south to the Florida Bay. All I seem to hear anymore is, "EVERGLADES RESTORATION" and that is a good thing. Many people like myself think that a river should be restored from the beginning to the end and that certainly includes the "river of grass". We should start from Lake Okeechobee and work our way south. It seems everyone in our government agencies wants to save Everglades National Park and that’s a good thing. What they seem to forget, however, is that there is more to the everglades than just the national park. Everglades restoration needs to include all of the everglades from Florida Bay all the way to Lake Okeechobee. From the lake heading south, much of what was historically "the everglades" is now sugar cane farms and sod fields extending for about 25 miles south and about 30 to 40 miles across. The agricultural industry dumps fertilizers and pesticides into the Everglades. As the water flows to the south some of that would have been removed by the natural filtration process of the everglades. Disrupted not just by the encroaching development, but by years of chemical dumping that has changed much of the spongy everglades floor to a gooey clay like mud, our water flows over it rather than through it so we don’t get the natural filtration. That is our drinking water folks and it is just full of nitrogen and phosphate and other chemicals from those fertilizers and pesticides and from other farming activities. If I’m not mistaken, Governor Bush recently signed a bill to let them dump even more contaminated water than they ever have into the everglades.

The everglades, is also the approach pattern for Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Palm Beach International Airports. Jet exhaust and dumped fuel from the airplanes falls into the Everglades.

These are my main concerns, if we do not address these massive problems, then we lose everything.

The impact of airboat use in the everglades by locals and visitors is such a small impact source compared to my other concerns yet that is the focus of many of the restoration plans, stopping airboat use in the everglades and other traditional activities. In an airboat you get to see the wildlife up close. Contrary to what the armchair environmentalists and certain academics will have you believe, airboats do not scare the animals and birds away. In fact, the birds and animals are curious and they approach the boats all the time. This makes it easy for us tour guides to talk about the animals and birds and for the tourists to obtain those treasured close-up pictures. My parents taught me to be nice to the animals and they won’t mind sharing the ecosystem. My parents were right, as illustrated by two great examples of how people, animals, the loudest noises in Florida and the biggest machines in Florida all get along in harmony:

The first example is Merit Island. We all know that Merit Island is a massive bird sanctuary where people flock (no pun intended) to see the birds. The resident birds at Merit Island build their nests, hatch their babies and live there happily ever after. Migrating birds also flock to Merit Island to have their babies and then fly back to where ever they came from. People also congregate on Merit Island but not just for the bird watching. The people flock there to see the biggest and loudest machine in Florida, the Space Shuttle, launch into outer space. That’s right, Merit Island is part of NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. It seems to me that if the animals can get along with a space shuttle, then an airboat would be like nothing to them. The space shuttle poses no threat or danger to the birds and animals. The space shuttle doesn’t chase the birds. It is not a predator so they do not fear it. Same goes for airboats and many other traditional human activities. I have to thank my parents every night in my prayers for teaching me these lessons.

The second example is here in South Florida. We have an owl called a burrowing owl that is only about 6 or 7 inches tall. The burrowing owl likes to dig a hole into the ground and makes it’s nest there. The owl’s biggest problem is construction companies that have come to south Florida and built houses on top of the burrowing owl’s nests ( that’s not nice) and left them hardly anywhere to live. There is one place where the burrowing owl has found no one will build anything on top of his home. The burrowing owls now make their burrows between the runways at Miami International Airport. It’s awesome that these cute little burrowing owls can live a happy life with something as big as a 747 taking off and landing within just a few yards of their burrows.

Getting back to my concern for the tourists, airboats are the safest vehicle for the everglades ecosystem because they have a low impact on the plants and grasses. An airboat is a flat bottom boat and if it lays any grass down, the wind from the propeller blows it back up. The airboat is also safer for the animals of the everglades because the flat bottom would not hurt an animal if the animal were run over. I know this for certain, because, I was run over by an airboat myself, in just 2 inches of water. All the airboat did was push me down into the mud and fly right over me, it didn’t even leave a scratch. If airboats scare the animals away then how is it that scientists are able to get close enough to study any animals when they are studying them in areas that are only accessible by airboat? Simple, they couldn’t get close enough to study any animals if the airboats were scaring the animals. Their logic seems to be that their airboats don’t scare animals but the boats used by the rest of us do. I ask you all, does that make any sense?

The agencies that are sent here to assess the impact of airboats on the everglades are being paid by our government. These people are assessing with blinders on that lead them to their bank account. When tending to your bank account it’s hard to look at things from both sides. If we don’t save The River of Grass starting at the source it is obvious the rest of the river to the south will die. When that happens, even the southern end of the Everglades, The National Park, will die with it. Because the human race is very diverse, we all have a point of view. If we don’t listen to other points of view before making drastic decisions, we all lose. I thank you for considering mine.

Thank you.

Glenn W. Wilsey Sr. (Gatorman)

*This story or any part of it can not be used or reproduced with out written permission of the author!