Voices of the Tribe: Exploring the Relationship Between the Miccosukee Tribe of Florida

Diaz-Silveira 1

Voices of the Tribe: Exploring the relationship between the Miccosukee Tribe of Florida and the Everglades Restoration Effort.

The Miccosukee Tribe of South Florida is a federally recognized Native American tribe with a vested interest in preserving lands it owns within and on the border of Everglades National Park. The Everglades were established in 1947 after extensive drainage and water flow manipulation ravaged the wetland ecosystem. The park was the first large tract of wilderness in the United States to be protected for its ecology rather than its scenic value. Unfortunately, the ardent environmentalism that sparked the park’s inception and subsequent establishment has gradually faded since then, often becoming confused and bogged down in politics. The most recent plan to restore Everglades ecology was approved in 2000 as part of the Water Resources Development Act. The plan, the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration plan (CERP), was hailed by environmentalists as a beacon of hope in an otherwise dismal ecological tale. But its tremendous potential has translated into very little restoration activity. Indeed, in the year 2008 the National Science Academy gave the plan and its drivers a scathing review, stating that “it [was] too early to evaluate the response of the ecosystem to the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Projects because none [had] been completed.”

For a restoration effort otherwise lost and unfocused, it is important that voices rise against its many downfalls to guide it to fruition. Perhaps the most consistent voice that has risen against both water management and the restoration effort in South Florida is that of the Miccosukee Tribe. The tribe has engaged the state and environmental agencies in much litigation concerning water quality, water flow and threats to endangered species in the Everglades area.

The aim of this paper is to explore the relationship between the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida and the Everglades restoration effort. Specifically, I will investigate whether the interests of the tribe align with those of the restoration effort and whether as Miccosukee defense attorney Dexter Lehtinen once said, “What happens to the Indians is what happens to the rest of the Everglades.” (Spinner, 2009) I will do this by first explaining the ecology of the area and consequently the goals of the restoration effort. I will then explore three contentious cases the tribe is currently raising against the official proponents of restoration and water control (these include the Department of Environmental Protection, the South Florida Water Management District, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Florida Wildlife Services). The first case concerns ongoing litigation surrounding water quality that the Miccosukee tribe is involved in. The second case concerns an endangered species, the Cape Sable Seaside Sparrow, and the effects of protecting it on the greater Everglades Area and the last case concerns a new project, the Tamiami Trail Bridge Project, which entails removing long stretches of a road (the Tamiami trail) and elevating them to restore historical water flow to Shark River Slough area.

I. Historical Ecology

The Everglades was once a thriving ecosystem, host to a wide array of species typical to both temperate and tropical climates. The conditions for such faunal heterogeneity arose from three characteristics of the Everglades system: a subtropical climate, a limestone foundation and extreme oligotrophy. (McCally, 1999)

The Everglades is technically located in the Desert Belt but because it is almost entirely surrounded by water, it boasts a two tone climate with a very wet season from June to October and a very dry season from November to May. South Florida’s abundant water supply and abundant heat worked in tandem to attract and historically support a vast array of wildlife. This includes temperate species from the north like hawks, raccoons, oaks, bobcats and white tailed deer as well as species from the south like roseate spoonbills, loggerhead turtles, tree snails and coco plums. (Grunwald, 2006)

Geology, in addition to climate, helped shape the Everglades’ rich ecology. The limestone bedrock of the area is incredibly level, causing water to move very slowly down the Florida Peninsula and incredibly porous, once allowing water to accumulate during hydroperiods[1] for later use. After heavy rains, water would recharge aquifers within the rock and help maintain a high water table, making the everglades a continuously wet system even during the dry season.

It may seem counterintuitive that a lack of nutrients could foster much habitat heterogeneity but it was exactly its oligotrophic nature coupled with both its climate and geology that created an Everglades once teeming with life. To be specific, the Everglades were lacking in phosphorus. As a result, the species that did well did so because they were excellent scavengers of the nutrient and out-competed other marsh plants. Sawgrass, for example, demands very low phosphorus and was therefore the main vegetative form of the Everglades, providing cover and nesting sites for many animals. (Grunwald, 2006) This apparent dearth of vegetative opportunity also paved the way for a varied landscape, ultimately resulting in varied habitats consisting of extremely open sloughs adjacent to densely packed and slightly elevated sawgrass ridges.

Despite the importance of these three characteristics in determining the structure of the Everglades, however, they are just precursors to a still greater determinant of the Everglades’ distinct ecology: water flow.

Historical Water Flow

Water flow in the historical Everglades started with the Kissimmee Chain of Lakes. Located in South Central Florida, these lakes fed into the Kissimmee River, which then flowed into Lake Okeechobee- the main water source for the Everglades. Lake Okeechobee itself had no traditional outlet. Consequently, when high water events like summer storms occurred, the Lake would spill over its southern rim, into the Northern parts of the Everglades (Fig. 1). (SOFIA, 2003)

Figure 1: (Left) General locations of the major landscape types in the Everglades prior to human intervention. Adapted from South Florida Information Access Report on The Role of Flow in the Everglades Ridge and Slough Landscape. (Right) Image of the pre-development flow of water from Lake Okeechobee to the Florida Bay. Adapted from U.S. Geological Survey.

The flow of water that proceeded from these headwaters was the driving force behind pre-drainage Everglades hydrology. Water from Lake Okeechobee flowed toward coastal South Florida down a 30 mile wide expanse of limestone peninsula. There was no central drainage area, and in fact, no peripheral drainage area either. The flow was broadly distributed and remarkably uniform, resulting from the flat limestone bedrock previously mentioned. Much of the water was discharged south and west through the Shark River Slough to the Gulf of Mexico. (Grunwald, 2006)

The Everglades is thought to have formed over the last 5,000 years as rising sea levels and precipitation fostered water retention in a shallow basin. The portion of the basin south of Lake Okeechobee filled with peat. It did so evenly in the east west direction but because of the concavity of the basin, more peat accumulated in the center-where it was deeper- and less accumulated along the ridges. This resulted in a level east to west water flow surface and a very gradually downward sloping north to south flow surface. Currently, the north to south elevation gradient is below 3 inches per mile. (SOFIA, 2003) The habitat types that formed due to these conditions include the vast sawgrass plains south of Lake Okeechobee and the ridge and slough habitats south and east of those plains.

The ridge and slough landscape

One of the most prominent characteristics of the historical Everglades was its ridge and slough landscape. Ridges developed in areas of higher peat accumulation, elevating them above the water level whereas sloughs, adjacent, relatively open areas had peat levels two to three feet lower, and were consequently too water filled to host sawgrass. (USGS Biennial Report, 2002) Ridges and sloughs were regularly spaced, parallel to one another and parallel to water flow. Tree islands-clusters of trees, shrubs and ferns interspersed throughout sawgrass marshes- also formed parallel to water flow. They hosted two to three times the plant and animal diversity of the surrounding wetlands, mainly because of their relatively high elevation. During the wet season, tree islands and ridges were the only landforms in the marsh that remained dry enough to serve as refuges and nesting sites for animals. (USGS report, 2004) Historically, the ridge and slough landscape encompassed what are now Water Conservation Areas 2A, 2B, 3A, 3B and the Shark River Slough. Much of that landscape is currently degraded but scattered tree islands remain throughout the areas. The Miccosukee Tribe leases lands in Water Conservation Area 3A. (Figure 2)

Figure 2: (Left) Map of Everglades lands and important surrounding water bodies. The red rectangular portion highlights Miccosukee lands; the purple highlights Seminole lands. Adapted from: South Florida Water Management’s 2009 South Florida Environmental Report. (Right) Comparison of distribution of plant communities in Water Conservation Area 2 before and after construction of the C&SF Project. Adapted from: USGS Tree Islands of the Florida Everglades—Long-Term Stability and Response to Hydrologic Change, 2004.

Overall, the ecology and functionality of the pre-drainage Everglades was driven by a climate that appealed to a wide range of species, a relatively uneventful geologic history resulting in a practically flat wetlands and a unique hydrological regime. These conditions worked together to create the abundant life the restoration effort aims to resuscitate.

II. The Drainage effort: Why the Everglades Need Fixing

Plans to drain the Everglades began as far back as the 1840s when Buckingham Smith of St. Augustine was asked to investigate the area’s potential and report his findings. He concluded that the Everglades could be tamed by deepening streams that flowed to the coast and by creating a complex canalling system. Despite this initial fervor, however, not much happened in the way of water modification from 1848- the date of Buckingham’s report- to 1881. Railroads that had been destroyed during the civil war demanded more attention than conquering the Everglades and the Internal Improvement Fund awarded during reconstruction became too entangled in politics to accomplish any actual reconstruction. The fund plunged into several million dollars of debt and a receiver was appointed to assume control of said debt. The main objective for the state and the fund’s trustees became to restore the fund through land sales. It was not until 1881, however, that a substantial buyer was found. Hamilton Disston, an industrialist and real estate developer who had recently inherited his father’s fortune, bought a huge tract of land for development. Thus began the first set of extensive drainage projects and wetlands manipulations in the Everglades. In 1881, Disston signed the first major contract to drain overflowed lands in select Florida townships. He began by making the Caloosahatchee River an outlet to the Gulf of Mexico. Many of Disston’s subsequent projects led to over-drainage and his efforts did not necessarily meet the grand expectations hanging over his work, but his was the first large scale project to be completed in the central and southern Florida area and a large part of it still functions today. (Everglades Digital Library, FIU)

In the early 1900s, drainage efforts became serious. Between 1906 and 1913, 225.4 miles of drainage canals were dug. These included: the Miami, North New River and South New River Canals. From 1913 to 1927, 440 miles of canals, 47 miles of levees and 16 locks and dams had been created. They were these initial drainage efforts in the early 20th century that paved the way for agriculture to take hold and for waves of farmers to settle in the area. By 1920, sugar cane, tomatoes, beans, peas, peppers and potatoes were grown commercially.

In 1947, the south Florida area suffered two back to back hurricanes and an estimated $59,000,000 in flood damage, according to the Army Corps of Engineers. The Corps stepped in and began conducting public hearings throughout the area to determine how to remedy the water control situation. On December 19, 1947 the Corps presented its report and stated that “the problems of flood protection, drainage and water control [were] considered to be physically inter-related, and that the St. Johns, Kissimmee, Lake Okeechobee, Caloosahatchee and Everglades drainage areas all form[ed] a single economic unit” whose dire state required the creation of a comprehensive repair program. The program that was created was called the Central and South Florida Project (C& SF) and was set to begin in 1950. The project authorized the building of 30 pumping stations, 212 control and diversion structures, 990 miles of levees, 978 miles of canals, 25 navigation locks and 56 railroad relocations in the form of bridges. (evergladesplan.org/about/restudy_csf_devel.aspx)

In 1962, the same year that the Miccosukee tribe became federally recognized, the Army Corps of Engineers completed its Water Management Plan, a component of the C& SF. This plan included the construction of three water conservation areas (WCAs) to be operated and controlled by the Florida Freshwater Game and Fish Commission and the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS). (Fig. 3) The WCAs (WCA 1, 2 and 3) were designed to provide flood protection and water supply through a series of canals, levees, pumps and control structures. They were built on about 900,000 acres of the central Everglades, providing flood protection in the wet season by storing water and discharging excess water into the ocean. In the dry season, they supplied water for irrigation and municipal uses. The Everglade National Park was established on 1.5 million acres of marshlands south of the WCAs. Today, the water management areas and the Miccosukee lands within them are located directly under the Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA), a 470,000 acre area developed by the C &SF mainly for sugar production. (SOFIA, 1996)

Figure 3: Most of the natural and historical Everglades are located in WCA 2 and 3. Adapted from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ STA & Reservoir Performance Measures for the Everglades Restudy, 1998.

When EAA farmers began using chemical fertilizers to boost their productivity, WCA 2 and 3 felt the backlash. The historically nutrient poor Everglades became flooded with phosphorus from agricultural runoff and intentional pumping into these areas. As a result, the sawgrass so characteristic of the area was in many places out-competed by phosphorus loving cattails. The cattails impaired the ability of the Miccosukee tribe to navigate their own lands, as well as dramatically altered the ecology of the Everglades.