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Guest
Guest
I presume you have seen this from our Everglades guide friend.
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/weather/hurricane/article173637481.html
He will likely be the best source of first hand information as the Everglades season commences; I know he would not be taking clients out into an unknown designated-site crap storm.
I am sure they will repair the Visitors Centers ASAP. Note that sport fishing in that Nat’l Park is the larger economical engine preference. Self-guided paddlers tend to the cheap side in comparison. If you already have to carry potable water in a canoe or kayak how much beer and ice can you buy in Everglades City?
Re-opening routes, repairing storm surge damaged chickee platforms and replacing the Porta-pots that blew into Colllier County will come second. And take longer, gotta re-open the routes before they can motor out to repair the damaged platforms or install new toilets. The air boat “guides” will be fine, but dead sea grass and honeypot prop motors are a bad mix.
Once they get the backcountry re-opened the big question to me is “What is a visit going to be like with mounds of dead, decaying sea grass and sea weed rafted ashore, or with the mangroves stripped of leaves?” And “Will there be another sea grass die-off from salinity or nutrient changes.
Especially bug-wise. I have no idea what the Everglades bug future may be, but I’d want me some serious bug spray, a screen house and maybe a telescoping retractable rake to use on the furrows of dead grass piled on beach sites.
https://www.lowes.com/pd/Garden-Plu...MItpfv1Oqx1gIVyx-GCh2KqwWmEAQYAiABEgLRu_D_BwE
What’s another 2 lbs if you are packing in water, especially to a site festooned with mounds of decaying vegetation.
Tip of the hat to friend Willie for that retractable telescoping rake; I tried to design and build my own version before he found that little wonder. It has come in handy a few times on post-storm surge sites, even mid-Atlantic. Kicking away a pile of dead grass, or a berm of flooded high-tide pine straw to clear space is inefficient at best, and why-did-I-kick-that bug-bit-itchy-pile at worst.
The Everglades are a wondrous place even in near stasis. Part of me would like to see the devastation, especially with some promise to come back, witness the recovery and gain a deeper understanding of “This happens, and then this happens, and then this and this…”
Do mangroves regenerate their leaves after being hurricane stripped bare? Red mangrove does, black dosen’t? Vice versa? Dead mangroves neither? Just that could be impactful.
What about the No-see-ums? Sand spurs? Did the #%&#@ raccoons survive, or get eaten while sharing storm surge treetops with the invasive pythons, or get wash away in clinging desperately to a Porta-jon? I’m voting B or C, but I’m still bringing a wrist rocket slingshot, and maybe a mousetrap to tie atop the covered decked canoe.
Thirsty freaking garbage Pandas. Seriously, my habituated procyonid opposable thumb brothers, there is whatsoever nothing left in this boat. Just leave me the heck alone and no one gets hurt.
http://s1285.photobucket.com/user/C...014/P2021618_zpsa572e928.jpg.html?sort=2&o=16
It could be a really interesting and educational next couple of years in the Everglades.
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