Eco-Tourism
OR WHY IT’S BETTER OUTSIDE OF THE PARK
Part Two
I wanted to make this story short and sweet, but I had to give you both sides of the story and that takes much longer.
In this part of the story I’m going to speak my mind and tell you, how most of the locals feel about eco-tourism. When I say locals I don’t mean the people who live in the city, I mean the people who live in the Everglades or who spend a great deal of their time here. The people in the city are local to South Florida, however, most of them do not visit the Everglades on a regular basis. The way I see it, a person who lives in Miami and visits the Everglades just a couple times a year or less, probably gets less out of their visit than a person who came from farther away and made a point of visiting the glades while they were here. The reason for that is people who live close by think the Everglades will always be here so they can visit any time they want to but then they don’t bother to visit. They don’t give it another thought until they decide to go on another picnic or the next time they have people visiting them from out of town. The locals, by contrast, come to the Everglades "MUCH MORE" than a couple of times a month.
YOU CAN NOT GO ON AN AIRBOAT TOUR IN THE NATIONAL PARK! I am frequently asked by family and friends as well as tourists (many of whom become friends), "do the airboats scare the animals?" I’ll tell them no, not really. The National Park Service has this program they call the "sound-scape" and they have posted signs reading, "Shhhh, nature in progress!". In theory, it sounds like they are trying to do something nice, but the fact is, "sound-scape " is an emotional reaction to a non-existent problem. I’ve said this before, but it bears repeating. People, animals and machinery can get along in any eco-system! One example would be Kennedy Space Center. For five miles in any direction around the space shuttle launch pad, is a bird sanctuary. The birds go there to have their babies and they don’t seem the least bit bothered by the light and the noise when NASA launches their space shuttles and rockets. If the animals can get along with the space shuttle, then I’m sure they can get along with people and their airboats and other less impressive vehicles. However, there still are no airboats allowed in the national park! Ask a park ranger "why not?" and the top two answers will be: 1, "airboats destroy the landscape by making ugly trails wherever they go and 2, the noise terrifies the animals." You’ve just heard my feelings on noise and it’s affect on the animals.
As far as destroying the landscape by making trails and blowing things over, well, that’s just not all true. The airboat is a flat bottom boat. As an airboat passes over the grass, the grass lays down and then the wind from the propeller blows it back up as the boat passes. We don’t make trails everywhere we go. We do make trails in places where we go between point "A" and point "B" a lot, because, we are constantly following the same path until it becomes a sort of airboat road. The areas around the " road" and in between don’t get run over enough to make new trails. It really takes constant use for a trail to stay open otherwise the trail would fill in and you wouldn’t be able to recognize it again if you looked for it. Oh and ask a park service scientist, how do you study the birds, animals and plants and they will tell you in an airboat ‘cause it’s the only way to get around. Now how can they do that if the airboats scare those birds and animals? Ask the park rangers, how do you patrol in the national park and they will say in an airboat. If airboats destroy the Everglades then "NO ONE" (especially those park personnel who don’t have years of experience in airboats) should be able to use them.
There have been many times when I’ve been in the National Park, just walking around listening to the wind and the birds, when in the distance I could hear an airboat zoom by. I just stand there until the sound disappears and instead of letting it bother me I just go along my marry way like it never happened. That’s not so hard is it. That’s exactly what the animals do both in and out of the park. Bottom line, There wouldn’t be eco-tours in The Everglades without airboats. Without airboats you couldn’t see much of the real everglades at all. You could only see what you could make out from the road or from hiking trails that are laid out by the park rangers so that you see what they want you to see. That gets pretty boring pretty quickly and when people get bored they tend to stop caring about what you and I want them to care about, the Everglades beyond what can be seen from the road. Making more roads deeper into the glades would solve that problem but wouldn’t that actually cause more permanent damage than any airboat trail?
Oh yeah, while in the national park ask any park ranger "hey, where are you from?" you’ll be hard pressed to find one that is from South Florida. I find that works in any national park. Employees of the National Park Service are from all over and while it’s good for them to get to see different beautiful places and learn about them and get paid for it, they learned about The Everglades in a classroom and won’t be able to tell you about it’s history and folklore. Not everyone who comes to the park comes to learn something but I always feel that if people have fun they may learn something besides. Most people do not have fun when someone lectures them in that dull classroom drone that seems to go on and on and on.
I’ve never been asked by a reporter about the history of the everglades or about how I feel about what the park service or the Army Corp of Engineers is doing, wants to do or has done to The Everglades. When the papers have something about the glades it is usually loaded with scientific language and quotes from people who are in Washington D.C. or have probably never actually been to the Everglades. It is unfortunate that our local news agencies will only give one side of the story, but newspapers are businesses. They make their livings by selling newspapers which are, in fact, purchased primarily by those bored and uncaring people who have only seen The Everglades through their car windows.
I’m not trying to sell anything, I’m just trying to give everyone an idea of just how magnificent the Everglades is. I’ve lived here my whole life and when I step outside in the morning, with my coffee in hand and look around me, I still say "wow." I just hope you all can experience that sometime in your life while the glades are still here. I really don’t like to do these kinds of stories but I think everyone’s point of view is important.
If the national park was less restricted and offered more fun things for everyone to do, I feel that more people would go there, have FUN and learn something too!
"NATURE RULE’S!!!!!!!"
PS. If any of my stories can help you with anything for education (a grade, class project, or a science fair) just e-mail me, and I will give you permission to use the story. All I ask is that you e-mail me back, and tell me what grade you got or if the class liked my story THANK YOU!!!!
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