Big Cypress: The Western Everglades

Big Cypress, a.k.a., The Western Everglades, is a unique ecosystem in the world, because only here one finds both the royal palm and the bald cypress growing together.  Big Cypress begins East of Ft. Myers in Lee County and goes West to the Miami-Dade County and South to the Gulf of Mexico. 729,000 acres have been set aside as Big Cypress National Preserve, part of the National Park System. Fakahatchee Strand State Park, Picayune Strand State Park, Collier-Seminole State Park, The Florida Panther Preserve, 10,000 Islands National Wildlife Refuge, and The Everglades National Park comprise other acreage set aside to preserve this fragile eco-system.

The Big Cypress consists of five completely different Eco-systems: Mangrove forest in the estuary, cypress swamp and strands (which are deeper areas), marl prairie, pinelands, and hardwood hammocks.  Each Eco-system supports different flora and fauna within an elevation of less than fifteen feet.  Sometimes only inches separate one Eco-system from another.

We spend most of our time in Big Cypress National Preserve, taking sixth graders from all of the schools in Collier County in the S.W.A.M.P (Swamp Water and Me Program).  Four times per week we take approximately forty students at a time into three environments: swamp, prairie, and pineland.  They perform different scientific experiments in each environment and record their findings in their workbooks.

The teacher divides each class into three smaller groups of ten to fifteen students.  We further divide them into smaller groups of three to four students per group.  Each group has a backpack filled with a workbook, pencils and all of the equipment needed to perform the various experiments. Each of the groups starts in a different environment and then rotates to the next one.  We spend approximately three hours with the students.  A National Park Ranger teaches the students and he/she has at least one volunteer to help.  We encourage the schools to bring chaperones too, who also help the pupils keep on task.

Let us go on a typical program.  We meet the students at the EE center, where they all go to the restroom, get orange vests to wear, name tags to decorate.  They then proceed to the back porch where we have our skulls and skins display.  All of the skulls are reproductions, but the skins are from road kill.  The skulls we have are crocodile, alligator, black bear, Florida panther, bobcat, raccoon, fox, and otter.  The skins are alligator, bobcat, otter, fox, raccoon, squirrel, black bear, and spotted skunk.  The students are very curious and are surprised at the tiny brain that the alligator has.

After everyone has used the restroom, they go back on their bus and drive out to the lunch area.  They frequently see an alligator or two who reside in a pond near the site.  

Off we go to the cypress swamp.  We walk single file through the gate and pause on the plug over the man-made canal.  We explain that the water comes from the rain, is fresh, and empties in the Gulf of Mexico.  Then we get our feet wet in the swamp.  Everyone is surprise how clear the water is as the wade in to knee level.  After a few minutes we get used to the coolness of the water and proceed to our first experiment: track a Florida Panther with radio telemetry equipment. (Each group tracks a panther in the Eco-system where they start)  The panther is only a beanie baby, because we would not want to disturb a real sleeping panther.  The telemetry equipment is real and the students are always excited about finding it.

We then explain the use of landmarks for finding the spot with the baby.  We also teach the students how to use a compass and the GPS.  All of this information is recorded in their workbooks. Then we observe the vegetation and the animals that are in the environment.  Some of the vegetation include bald cypress trees, knees and needles, serpent ferns, swamp ferns, swamp maple, sabal palm, air plants, pickeral weed, etc.   The students then answer the question: what animals would eat what vegetation?  What vegetation would cover what animals?  What has man done to disturb the vegetation?  What has nature done to disturb the vegetation?

They go to the next page and record all of the animals they have seen.  The record the signs of animals.  What animals would be a predator of the alligator or panther?  What animals would be prey to the alligator and panther?

They then test the water.  They record its depth.  The measure its temperature with a thermometer.  They check the dissolved oxygen (DO) level and the pH (Potential for hydrogen) level.  Finally they look at and describe the color of the water.

The final experiment in the swamp is soil testing.  Once again using the depth stick, with lines every inch.  They take a handful of soil; match its color against a color chart, feel the texture, smell it, and decide what kind of soil it is.  In the swamp the soil is peat.

Vegetation, animal identification and soil testing is done in each of the other Eco-systems.

If time permits, the student use fishing nets to catch some of the fish swimming around.  They catch a variety: mosquito fish, kiley fish, chichlids, oscars, glass shrimp, crayfish, apple snails, etc.

The next area they go to is the prairie.  There the vegetation is the dwarf cypress, which is much older than the bald cypresses in the swamp.  Other vegetation include saw grass, mulhy grass, wax myrtle, swamp lilies, etc.  As the name implies the prairie is mainly grass.

In the prairie they check the weather.  First they find the wind direction by holding up a piece of orange flagging and the record the wind direction, by using a compass.  Then they measure the wind speed with an anemometer. They then measure the humidity by wetting the wet bulb of a sling psychrometer.  They swing it above their head for one minute.  Then they read the dry bulb temperature and the wet bulb temperature.  Subtract one from the other to get the wet bulb depression and then use a chart to get the relative humidity.

The students test the soil as they did in the cypress swamp.  Here they find the soil is called marl: greenish gray black, clumpy like clay and has periphyton.  We then explain what periphyton.  The lyrics of the song give a good explanation.
PERIPHYTON
Sung to tune of Davey Crockett
Lyrics by John Pelley ©

Chorus:
C    F         C
Peri Periphyton
G7                            C
Queen of the Everglades.
C                                           F         C
Formed in the waters of the summer rains.
G7
Dried in the heat on the winter plains.
C                         F            Am6
Home to critters, great and small.
G7                                       C
Life giving refuge to them all.

Chorus:

Soaking up the water is its fame.
Allie the algae is its frame.
Green, or white, beige or brown,
Periphyton wears the crown.

Chorus:

Squeeze me, tease me when I’m wet.
Never, never to forget
Little eggs within me lie.
Tho’ I’m hard, when I’m dry.

Chorus:

Remember me when you walk
In the Prairie, as you talk.
I’m its lifeblood, water and me,
In the grass, a great big sea.

Once again we pick up our waling sticks and go up another Florida mountain of less than one foot into the pinelands.  Here the vegetation is dominated by Florida slash pine, which was used to make turpentine from its sap.  Sabal palm, a.k.a., cabbage palms also dominate the area.  Saw palmetto fills out the most prominent of the vegetation.  Bears love to eat saw palmetto berries and rip apart the sabal palm for the heart of palm inside.  Panthers d
en in the saw palmetto fronds.  Most animals find refuge in the pinelands, because it is drier than the prairie or swamp.

The soil in the pinelands is predominately sand: gray brown, gritty glittery and filled with pine needles.  Many of the trees show evidence of fire.  Big Cypress has a prescribed fire policy, whereby the Preserve is set afire every three to five years.  This area was torched eight months ago.  Fire allows the pinecones to release their seed, rid the undergrowth of dead material, nourishes the soil, and allows new growth to thrive.  Very few animals are harmed, but thrive on the young shoots.  Deer especially benefit from the fire with the fresh vegetation.  Birds of prey are drawn to the smoke for easy meals of mice rats and other small animals escaping the flames.

One final stop in the pinelands is to observe the bones of a deer, which was killed years ago by a Florida Panther.  We explain how important the panther is to the wildlife of Florida.  The Panther is an umbrella species.  Many other animals depend on it for their food. Vultures, raccoons, bobcats, mice, rats, various insects all help devour the kill.  Without the Panther many animals in Florida would not survive.

We return to the bus via the prairie and the cypress swamp after three to four hours with the students.

Summing up life in Big Cypress, the Western Everglades are the lyrics to another song:

FLORIDA ENVIRONMENTAL SONG
(tune: The Lion Sleeps Tonight
Lyrics: John Pelley

C                          F                      C
Anhinga-wak, Anhinga-wak, An-
G7
hinga-wak, Anhinga-wak,
C                          F                      C
Anhinga-wak, Anhinga-wak, An-
G7
hinga-wak, Anhinga-wak,
C
1. In the mangroves,
F
The coastal mangroves,
C                           G7
The sea cow swims tonight.
C
In the mangroves,
F                  
The coastal mangroves,
C                           G7
The sea cow swims tonight.

(Chorus)
C   F       C     
Oooh, Anhinga-wak, Anhinga-wak
G7
away.
C   F      C
Oooh, Anhinga-wak, Anhinga-wak
G7
away.

2. In the swamp lands,
The cypress swamp lands,
The gator waits tonight.
In the swamp lands,
The cypress swamp lands,
The gator waits tonight

(Chorus)

3. In the prairie,
The sawgrass prairie,
The vulture flies tonight.
In the prairie,
The sawgrass prairie,
The vulture flies tonight.

(Chorus)

4. In the Pinelands,
The Mighty Pinelands,
The black bear sleeps tonight.
In the Pinelands,
The Mighty Pinelands,
The black bear sleeps tonight.

(Chorus)

5. In the hammock,
The hardwood hammock,
The panther stalks tonight.
In the hammock,
The hardwood hammock,
The panther stalks tonight.

(Chorus)