Memory is short. No longer worried about drowning themselves, the people of Okeechobee are fighting nobly for the survival of the black crappie as well as the endangered snail kite. Farmers and developers hungrily consumed the drained wetlands. During the rainy seasons of a century ago, Okeechobee would spill over its rim, creating a broad perimeter of marshland all around. In the rainy seasons, Okeechobee rises and rises and rises against the levee.
Water remains stored in the lake as a hedge against droughts.
The lake is being managed for the 170-plus golf courses and countless condos in Palm Beach County, Fox contends. What it's not being managed for is its own health. Busily gathering ammo for the hearing, Fox foists me on Steve Gornak, a fisheries biologist with the commission. Gornak graciously shows me a fraction of the massive lake during a four-hour airboat tour. It doesn't take long to see that what's not here is more important than what is.