Mehrenfl
01-03-2005, 01:30 PM
Everglades cleanup gives duck hunters a shot
By J. Christopher Hain
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Monday, January 03, 2005
The state's efforts to clean up the Everglades have gotten mixed reviews, but they've caused total disruption for duck hunters.
Treatment marshes created to cleanse tainted runoff from suburbs and sugar farms before it enters the Everglades are attracting ducks in massive numbers and producing some of the best hunting in the entire country.
At the same time, some hunters report seeing far fewer migrating ducks in traditional habitats around Lake Okeechobee or at Everglades Holiday Park in Broward County.
Some environmentalists say the ducks and other birds are being driven away from a polluted, overfilled Lake Okeechobee. And hunters see ducks being attracted to Everglades cleanup sites rich in plants that ducks like to eat but are hard to find elsewhere.
"It's not rocket science why the ducks are leaving these public areas for hunting," such as Lake Okeechobee, said Jeff Allen, chairman of the Everglades Chapter of the Delta Waterfowl Foundation. "There's a salad bar across the street" in the treatment marshes.
Rosa Durando, conservation chairwoman of Audubon of the Everglades, said she thinks the ducks and other birds are leaving Lake Okeechobee because the water levels are too high and too polluted with phosphorous.
"They're migrating because of the deplorable condition of Lake Okeechobee," she said.
And Durando said she thinks the same will happen to the treatment marshes because Everglades cleanup efforts just haven't gone far enough.
The South Florida Water Management District is creating six different marshes to clean polluted water. The marshes include underwater and surface water plants that help suck the damaging phosphorous from the polluted water.
One such plant, the hydrilla, is considered invasive by the state Department of Environmental Protection and removed from other public waters.
But ducks love it, said Terry Gibson, associate editor of Florida Sportsman magazine. It provides food for the ducks and creates a false surface that helps attract both shallow-water and deep-water ducks, he said. And it grows in abundance at the treatment marshes.
"They've created perfect waterfowl habitat," he said.
So, beginning in November 2002, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission allowed one-morning-a-week duck hunts on a Hendry County treatment marsh during the November-January duck season. It was wildly successful.
"I think the majority of the people that go out there are getting their bag limits of six ducks in a very short period of time," said Steve Coughlin, regional biologist for the state FWC. "It's been very popular."
The Hendry County hunts have continued and doubled to morning and afternoon hunts once a week. This year, the FWC began once-a-week hunting days at a treatment marsh west of Wellington.
The duck hunts on two of the marshes are part of move by the South Florida Water Management District to allow recreation on all the treatment marshes, said Jerry Krenz, the district's Everglades recreation program manager. A bird-watching tour is already held once a month on the marsh west of Wellington.
Allen, of the Delta Waterfowl Foundation, said he's hunted many of the United States' best duck-hunting areas and has never seen anything like the number of ducks at the Hendry County marsh. And the marsh near Wellington is only slightly behind it. "It's still unbelievable," he said.
By J. Christopher Hain
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Monday, January 03, 2005
The state's efforts to clean up the Everglades have gotten mixed reviews, but they've caused total disruption for duck hunters.
Treatment marshes created to cleanse tainted runoff from suburbs and sugar farms before it enters the Everglades are attracting ducks in massive numbers and producing some of the best hunting in the entire country.
At the same time, some hunters report seeing far fewer migrating ducks in traditional habitats around Lake Okeechobee or at Everglades Holiday Park in Broward County.
Some environmentalists say the ducks and other birds are being driven away from a polluted, overfilled Lake Okeechobee. And hunters see ducks being attracted to Everglades cleanup sites rich in plants that ducks like to eat but are hard to find elsewhere.
"It's not rocket science why the ducks are leaving these public areas for hunting," such as Lake Okeechobee, said Jeff Allen, chairman of the Everglades Chapter of the Delta Waterfowl Foundation. "There's a salad bar across the street" in the treatment marshes.
Rosa Durando, conservation chairwoman of Audubon of the Everglades, said she thinks the ducks and other birds are leaving Lake Okeechobee because the water levels are too high and too polluted with phosphorous.
"They're migrating because of the deplorable condition of Lake Okeechobee," she said.
And Durando said she thinks the same will happen to the treatment marshes because Everglades cleanup efforts just haven't gone far enough.
The South Florida Water Management District is creating six different marshes to clean polluted water. The marshes include underwater and surface water plants that help suck the damaging phosphorous from the polluted water.
One such plant, the hydrilla, is considered invasive by the state Department of Environmental Protection and removed from other public waters.
But ducks love it, said Terry Gibson, associate editor of Florida Sportsman magazine. It provides food for the ducks and creates a false surface that helps attract both shallow-water and deep-water ducks, he said. And it grows in abundance at the treatment marshes.
"They've created perfect waterfowl habitat," he said.
So, beginning in November 2002, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission allowed one-morning-a-week duck hunts on a Hendry County treatment marsh during the November-January duck season. It was wildly successful.
"I think the majority of the people that go out there are getting their bag limits of six ducks in a very short period of time," said Steve Coughlin, regional biologist for the state FWC. "It's been very popular."
The Hendry County hunts have continued and doubled to morning and afternoon hunts once a week. This year, the FWC began once-a-week hunting days at a treatment marsh west of Wellington.
The duck hunts on two of the marshes are part of move by the South Florida Water Management District to allow recreation on all the treatment marshes, said Jerry Krenz, the district's Everglades recreation program manager. A bird-watching tour is already held once a month on the marsh west of Wellington.
Allen, of the Delta Waterfowl Foundation, said he's hunted many of the United States' best duck-hunting areas and has never seen anything like the number of ducks at the Hendry County marsh. And the marsh near Wellington is only slightly behind it. "It's still unbelievable," he said.