Eve Samples: On the marshes of Lake Okeechobee, a remarkable comeback

By Eve Samples

Tuesday, April 1, 2014

From our vantage point on the coast, looking toward Lake Okeechobee feels like looking down the barrel of a gun.

We see the looming threat of more polluted freshwater releases into the St. Lucie River estuary. Drive 45 miles west, though, and the view shifts dramatically.

It's not threatening. It's beautiful.

On the northwest side of Lake O, shoreline marshes that were obliterated during the hurricane years of 2004 and 2005 have rebounded. In the most pristine parts of the 730-square-mile lake, the water is now clear enough to see bottom. And the birds are back - big time.

Roseate spoonbills. White pelicans. Glossy ibis. Snowy egrets. Black-necked stilts, with their supermodel-like proportions (they have the longest legs compared to their body size of any bird in the world).

A dozen other species took to the air, too, as we skidded across the marshes in Audubon scientist Paul Gray's airboat last week. 

"The lake is in perfect shape," Gray told us.

The most striking indication of recovery are the 20 endangered snail kite nests recently mapped in the marshes. The raptor had virtually disappeared from the lake after the storm years. This year, it is rebounding. "I bring up people from the Everglades and they say, 'Wow, we never see this many birds,' " Gray said.

Cruising past thousands of birds in King's Bar shoal, it was hard to believe this was the same lake that wreaks such abuse on our estuary.

It's like there are two different Lake Okeechobees: one in the thriving marshes near the shore; another in the phosphorous- and nitrogen-dense center of the lake, where the bottom is thick and muddy. The latter is what's sent our way when the Army Corps of Engineers opens the flood gates from the lake into the St. Lucie Canal. But keeping those gates closed carries serious risks for the lake.

The reason the marshes of Lake O look so good this year has a lot to do with the fact that the Army Corps is keeping less water in the lake. Unlike in 2004 and 2005, when the lake surged to elevations in the 17- and 18-foot ranges, last year it barely reached 16 feet (and only briefly). The lower levels, combined with an experimental bottom-dredging project during the drought year of 2007, have allowed native plants and birds to flourish.

"All of this was open water. Not a single foot of vegetation," Gray said as he drove us across now-pristine marshes. It's not exactly what coastal advocates want to hear.

While last year was a boon for the marshes of Lake Okeechobee, it was devastating for the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee estuaries. From May through October, more than 136 billion gallons of lake water were dumped into the St. Lucie alone, bringing an estimated 72 tons of phosphorous, 656 tons of nitrogen and 15 million pounds of sediment.

On the coast, the pollution prompted cries for the Army Corps of Engineers to hold the lake higher now that it has repaired part of the Herbert Hoover Dike that encircles it. But Gray knows what danger waits if we return to the old practice of holding the lake too high.

As different as the on-the-ground conditions are, the ultimate solution is the same for Lake Okeechobee and the estuaries. It lies in sending more water south, reconnecting the lake with the Everglades. That would allow Lake Okeechobee to stay at lower levels, even in the rainiest years. It would spare the estuaries the gushing discharges from the Big Lake, too.

Nathaniel Reed, vice chairman of the Everglades Foundation, called the comeback of the lake marshes "one of the miracles of Mother Nature." If we fix the plumbing, we won't have to depend on a miracle to strike again.

Eve Samples is a columnist for Scripps Treasure Coast Newspapers. This column reflects her opinion. Contact her at 772-221-4217 or eve.samples@scripps.com