From: sandee@Think.COM (Daan Sandee)
Newsgroups: rec.birds
Subject: Re: Everglades recovery?
Date: 6 Jan 1993 03:07:37 GMT
Organization: TMC
NNTP-Posting-Host: tremor.quake.think.com

In article <tjo.725642606@bugatti>, tjo@siemens.com. (Tom Ostrand) writes:
|> Has anyone been to the Everglades since the hurricane came through
|> last summer?   The only information I've heard is that the area was
|> completely devastated; there was one report that total silence greeted 
|> visitors to areas like the Anhinga Trail, Royal Palm, etc.  

Andrew cut a trail about 20 miles wide across the peninsula ; the southern
edge hit the area around the main park entrance. The visitor center (a large
building) was badly damaged ; they have set up something temporary in
trailers. The park reopened Dec 15. I was there Dec 18.
At Royal Palm, the palms survived, although they lost a lot of their 
leaves. The boardwalk among the anhingas is closed ; I don't know how bad
the damage is. About two-thirds of the trees all over the area are down,
and the ones left standing lost most of their leaves. Gumbo Limbo Trail,
which used to be a dark and gloomy ( or nice and shady) place, is now open
to the sky. You walk there among six-to-eight-foot-high piles of tangled
greenery (not dead, just blown over) with the odd naked red gumbo limbo
sticking out.
There are lots of large waders and anhingas around and I think the
anhingas will do fine. There weren't very many small birds around, nor
many raptors.
Further down, Mahogany Hammock had a lot of visible damage - less than half
of the greenery had disappeared. Odd to see the signs saying "you can still
see the damage from Hurricane Donna in 1960". Actually, that damage has
long disappeared but they can use the old signs - just change them a bit.
(Maybe they should read "you can still see the damage from the recent
hurricane"? Would last forever.) Lots of warblers and things hopping around
- had 8 species including Magnolia.
Further south, starting at Nine Mile Pond etc, there is no damage. Flamingo
had no problems and did a lot of business because the repair crews lived
there.
Altogether, the important birds (the waders - the songbirds are mostly
winter visitors, they weren't there anyway) look like doing OK. The 
vegetation was badly damaged, but it'll come back. It just looks like a mess.

The north edge of the damage is just south of Miami. I understand Bill Baggs
State Park is wiped out, all those Australian Pines gone (good). It's
closed indefinitely.
In the suburbs, from Kendal down, all damage has been cleaned up and the
area just looks different - instead of lush and near-tropical, it looks
like the Southwest - subtropical all right but only a third of the
trees left. Very strange. The live oaks, those that remained standing,
had all leaves and small branches stripped, and now have leaves sprouting
directly out of the main branches, a weird sight. This is how Monkey Jungle
looks. At Castellow Hammock, the building has sustained major damage and
nothing has been done ; it looks like it's been abandoned. I don't know
what the hammock itself looks like, it's presumably impenetrable. It will
survive, as a hammock, but hardly as a tourist attraction.
In all that area, there were noticeably few birds. Most birds were
associated with trees anyway (from blue jays to parakeets). No trees, no
birds, except for the inevitable grackles. I don't know whether they were
killed in the storm, died of starvation soon afterwards, or moved out of
the area, like the humans. It will be interesting to see the CBC results.
There is a Biscayne NP count and a Dade County count ; don't know where
in Dade County. The Biscayne count may be a problem because the keys
had major damage and the park is closed indefinitely. There was an article
in the Florida Naturalist from an entomologist who had happened to 
schedule a butterfly census on the Biscayne NP keys in September. It partly
turned into a rescue operation. I can't remember the butterfly details
(yes, there were federally endangered species involved, etc.) but I
remember the impression of general devastation. This was the area that
got the direct hit.
Then even further south, there were fewer trees anyway, but the damage to
property was enormous. As everybody knows, virtually every building in
Homestead was damaged. After four months, it looks like one third is back
in business, one third is being worked on, and one third is abandoned.
The place is full of signs saying "YES WE'RE OPEN - NOW HIRING" (the
ones that aren't open, aren't advertizing). A huge sign saying "Eckerds now
open - turn right" and you turn right and Eckerds is located in a mobile 
home smaller than the sign, next to the old Eckerds which looks like a
multimillion dollar job.

|> I'm especially interested in the Shark Valley area on the north side
|> of the Everglades; this has always been a favorite spot. 

Sorry - I didn't go there, I did hear it but just can't remember. There
weren't many trees to get blown over anyway, but I wouldn't know if the
tower survived.

|> Any recent information would be appreciated, as I plan to be in Florida 
|> late next month.
|> 
|> Tom Ostrand			E-mail:  tjo@siemens.siemens.com

Daan Sandee                                           sandee@think.com
Thinking Machines Corporation
1010 El Camino Real, Suite 310
Menlo Park, CA 94025                                  (415) 329-9300
Newsgroups: rec.birds