Paradise Lost? Review: Introduction, Chapters 12 & 16

Introduction

The introduction briefly covers the diverse history of Florida. It describes the state as a vast area rich with wildlife and an incredible environment that settles first found when discovering Florida. Naturally, a nod to the futile search for the Fountain of Youth is mentioned as well. During the past 100 years, Florida has transcended from a plush “land of diversities” into the nation’s fourth largest state. Interestingly, this was due largely to a mixture of the roaring 1920s, post World War II prosperity, and the advent of the air conditioner. Indeed, the latter transformed the previous six-month tourist season into a year-round affair. The perfected drudge-and-fill process also made Florida more habitable, turning land into water and vice-versa. Carelessness led to irreversible scarring of Florida’s once paradisaical landscape. Now, campus oaks older than the university itself exist simply because man chooses for it to exist. The Everglades run on what is quite literally a life support system.

With a summarized look into the vast floral, fauna bird, and wild life, it is easy to see after just a few pages into this unappealing look into what Florida has become where the book’s title originated. The moral of Florida’s environmental history could perhaps best be summarized with the classic cliché: everything in moderation. While any sort of human contact would have undoubtedly scarred Florida’s environment, excessive construction and manipulation took its toll beyond any desired effect to the extent that environmentalists and politicians alike are trying to right its wrongs.


Chapter 12
Lake Apopka: From Natural Wonder to Unnatural Disaster
Nano Riley

Long ago, Lake Apopka—just north of Orlando—was once described as one of Florida’s most beautiful lakes. Once the state’s second largest lake, in the early 1900s it was touted for having water so clear, one could easily see the fish. Five decades of human activity, however, transformed the lake into literally a cesspool.

The first transgression against Apopka came in the 1920s with the local dumping of raw sewage and wastewater. However, this was just the first in a series of environmental disasters. Fears of food shortage during the Second World War would spark the Army Corps of Engineers to build a levee to drain 20,000 acres of the lake for farming. As a result of this tampering, the water’s color became green and an abundance of nutrients gave rise to algae and other plants, which in turn ruined the fish population. For the next five decades, farmers were allowed to use their part of the drained lake while the remaining 30,000 acres were used for drainage and dump-offs.

Attention to Lake Apopka came in recent years when environmentalists noticed a severe drop in the alligator population. Further examination showed that many of the male alligators had not developed sexually while others were not properly gender-defined at all. Alligators were not the only victims, however, as fish in adjoining lakes suffered abnormalities as well.

As it seemed like the pollution was getting out of hand, environmental activists and groups emerged and started to work together. A massive joint effort was established by the year 2000, 90% of the acreage belonging to farmers had been collectively bought out for the price tag of one $100 million. Gradually, the lake began to be flooded by to its original glory, but an old concentration of chemicals in the restored lake led to the death of over 1,000 birds. It would later be determined that this was the result of poisoned fish from said chemicals such as DDT.

The effects of the restoration effort reached beyond just birds and fish, however. Indeed, many farmers were without jobs. Families who lived on these farms were without other skills. The relocation program provided them did not leave them with adequate housing.

An investigation was eventually opened up and laid ultimate blame on the St. Johns River Water Management District. In an agreement settled in court, the United States agreed not to file criminal charges in exchange for them to comply under several rules and regulations that involved maintaining the lake and its wildlife in addition to educating other water districts regarding wildlife laws.

Currently, the lake’s restoration is still undergoing. Certainly, fifty years of damage cannot be undone immediately. While the story of Lake Apopka serves as a reminder as to what can happen when mankind messes with nature, it is also a testament to the ability of individuals to correct its environmental wrongdoings.


Chapter 16
“The Big Ditch”
The Rise and Fall of the Cross-Florida Barge Canal
Lee Irby

The story of the Cross-Florida barge canal is quite literally a roller coaster. Originating in the 16th century, lack of funds or support impeded its construction. The canal did not receive a large boost until after the Depression whereupon advocates of the project promised “unemployment relief” as a benefit to building the canal. Clearly, putting idle men to work as a definite perk at the time.

The plans to build went so far as to even have a clear route designed. Still, the proposal involved clearing a path through the pristine Ocklawaha River, known for its beauty to the extent that even natural dignitaries traveled its water on sightseeing tours. Railroad industries would also suffer and spoke out against the canal. Moreover, lobbyists touted the damage that could be done to the Floridan Aquifer used as drinking water. Indeed, the tainting of water by outside salt water would seem inevitable.

However, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt obviously saw the perks behind the canal and construction began in 1935. In 1936, however, a group called the Central and South Florida Water Conservation Committee pressured for construction to be delayed so that a more comprehensive study on the environmental impact of constructing the canal could be done. This is testament to the impact that environmentalism began to have. Thus the initial $5 million approved by FDR to begin construction would be the last dollar spent for another thirty years.

The Cold War years again saw the importance of a canal. So did John F. Kennedy who used the canal as a campaign platform to gain votes in Florida, at this time the nation’s twelfth largest state. Kennedy kept his promise and after election, construction again began on the barge canal. By 1971, however, a constant back and forth battle between environmentalists with the construction would cease as President Richard Nixon would issue an executive order, done so because of potential environmental impacts.

While this would be the end of the canal, it was not the end of the environmental struggle. Marjorie Carr and others who worked tirelessly to combat the building of the canal now served as advocates to the restoration of the Ocklawaha River and forests which were damaged by the construction, going so far as to address Florida Governor Jeb Bush who advocated restoration of the famous river by 2006.