Fire in The Everglades

By: Glenn Wilsey, Sr.

While on airboat tours in the heart of The Everglades I tell tourists about the alligators, the birds, the fish, the trees and the plants that flourish in this unique ecosystem. When I stop the boat I ask the tourists if they would like to get out of the boat and walk in some everglades’ mud with me. Of course, eye brows are raised and I get funny looks as the tourists tell me I’m crazy for getting out of the boat in alligator infested waters. As I stand in the water and mud I explain to the tourists that, first of all, the alligator stories they listened to in the city, were all told by people who don’t come to The Everglades. Alligators are territorial and are loners, because they are loners they are cowards and won’t come looking for big things like people. I tell the tourists come on in it’s safe. I explain to the tourists that alligators bite people but do not eat them because alligators don’t have salt in their diet so an alligator will bite a person and realize how bad we taste and spit us out. I let the tourists know that the alligator stories they heard in the city were made up by people who needed a good story to tell, but were afraid to come to the glades to find out the truth. Slowly, but surly, people start stepping off the boat and into the water. As we wade in knee deep water and ankle to knee deep mud, I tell them about the natural cycle of decay and exactly what the mud they are standing in is composed of. I also tell them of the droughts we have and how The Everglades will dry up almost entirely every four to seven years (or so) and burn to the ground. I explain how necessary this is for the replenishment of the nutrients in the mud they are standing in. Most folks find it hard to believe that all this water could dry up and that The Everglades could catch on fire.

The last drought we had in the everglades was in 1991, the year before Hurricane Andrew. That was eleven years ago, but just this past year, starting around march 2001, The Everglades started drying up. By May we couldn’t take our tour boats out of the man made channels which only held a little water because they were a few feet deeper than the surrounding area. We stayed bone dry for March, April, June and part of July. In total it was about four months of drought (totally dry). I do my best to explain to the tourists that a drought is good (even though we couldn’t go out on the airboats) because it kills aquatic plants, fish and algae and that this becomes fertilizer for the plants to thrive on for the next four to seven years until the next drought.

It is important to understand how fire plays a role in the nutrient cycle in The Everglades. While the glades are dry it catches on fire, usually caused by lighting. Once a fire starts it could burn down just about the whole everglades, the river of grass region. The intensity of the fire (how hot it burns and how fast and how far it spreads) is determined by how dry everything is. In some drought years the ground will still be wet and the fire may only burn off the grass leaves but leave the roots intact. In other drought years the ground is so dry the ground itself will catch on fire and burn underneath the surface, smoldering just one or two inches or even more than a foot below the crust of dried mud.

No matter how dry conditions are when a fire starts it will be an intense burn. Tourists ask me, where do the animals go and how do they escape the fire. The animals all run for the hardwood hammocks, the tree islands that are thick with green vegetation. The animals run to the side of the small islands that is away from the fire and wait until the fire starts to come around the island. The fire burns up to the thick wet vegetation of the hammock and stops and then it starts to burn around the island, seeking the easier to burn dry grasses surrounding the island rather than the heavy brush on the island itself. As the fire burns around the island the animals all run back to where the fire has already burned. The animals can step right back out into The Everglades where the grass was. Now all the grass is gone and the glades are wide open. The animals can now see for miles. Before the fire, the animals probably could not see more than ten feet in front of themselves for the thick clumps of grasses as high as some of the trees. At this time it looks like the glades will never have grass again and the animals have to find what little food they can back in the hardwood hammocks. The Everglades looks devastated after a fire, but we have to keep in mind that here in The Everglades fire is nature’s lawn mower. Fire mows the lawn and leaves behind ashes. These ashes contain the minerals and nutrients the animals and plants need to survive until the next drought.

Sometimes, as I said, the ground itself catches on fire because it is not dirt like most of you are familiar with but is actually layer upon paper thin layer of decayed plant and animal matter that never completely has the chance to turn into dirt because it stays wet most of the time. When it dries out it sometimes starts itself on fire spontaneously because the decomposition that is so slow when the ground is wet speeds up dramatically when it dries out and decomposition (like our own digestion) is a chemical process that produces heat. These ground fires are even hotter than the grass fires and could burn as deep as two feet or more below the surface. Where these deep burns happen, vegetation won’t grow back for many years to come.

When the water does come back these deep burn areas will become wide-open ponds and are now called slough ponds. When the rain starts again in June or July the process starts all over again. Three days after the first heavy rain, little green grass sprouts start to emerge and the animals will have plenty of new vegetation to eat. Three months after the rain starts the whole area looks like a Kansas wheat field, green grass and little tree sprouts everywhere.

Unfortunately, we didn’t have much in the way of fires during this past drought and when we did they were quickly put out (because the city folks complain about the smoke). Putting out fires is not always a good thing. Remember, this area hasn’t dried out or burned down the way it needs to in eleven years. We need the fires but we did allow them to burn when we got them because we were unhappy about the roads closing due to heavy smoke. Hopefully, we’ll develop enough common sense to let the fires burn during our next drought or The Everglades won’t have the nutrients it needs to properly support and replenish itself in years to come.

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If you are a teacher or student and this story or any of my stories can help you with a school project, all you have to do is e-mail me and I will give you permission to use it. Any teacher may read my stories to his or her classes. All I ask in return is for you to e-mail me and let me know what grade you got or tell me if the class liked my story THANK YOU!!!!!!

I hope you enjoyed this month’s story and will come back next month to check out our web site and next month’s story.

THANKS SO MUCH…

Glenn W. Wilsey Sr. (GATORMAN)

PS. Some of you have noticed that some months I don’t write a new story. That is because I am an airboat tour guide full time. I also wrestle alligators and train animals and I do animal shows for parties with Wild Florida Productions’ John Jones (otterman.net). I also do volunteer work. So, with all those activities I don’t always have time to write, so please forgive me if I miss a month thank you.

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!!!!

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