#southern rim of lake Okeechobee

[voguegreen]

At the hub of the dispute is Lake Okeechobee – one of the nation’s largest lakes, the wellspring of the Everglades and the freshwater heart of South Florida.

For 6,000 years, excess groundwater has spilled over the southern rim of the lake, nourishing the Everglades before draining into the Florida Bay. To make way for the cane fields, engineers raised and fortified the lake’s southern shore, funneling all that excess groundwater through an array of canals, levees and pumping stations into two rivers that then dump it into the sea along Florida’s east and west coasts.

This cleared the way for the cane fields, but choked off water to the rest of the Everglades. It also infected the two rivers and South Florida’s coastlines with toxic algae.

Even more fearsome – it created a ticking time bomb in the form of a seeping dike that, should the right storm come along, could lay waste to everything and everybody in its path.

[jthurlow]

LakeO Update Sunday, July 5, 2020

LakeO Update Sunday, July 5, 2020

Keeping up the Lake Okeechobee algae bloom documentation, Ed and I flew from Stuart to Lake Okeechobee during a hazy, hot high-noon, on Sunday, July 5, 2020. The algae was much toned down from our previous flights in June. Nonetheless, one could see the pattern, the outline, of the giant bloom from above. Rain may have disrupted its perk but the bloom remains in the water column. The most visual…

[jthurlow]

Southern Lake Okeechobee's Custard Apple Swamp, an Ecological History by Zachariah A. Cosner

Southern Lake Okeechobee’s Custard Apple Swamp, an Ecological History by Zachariah A. Cosner

Photographer Sarah Brown’s wonderful images of Ritta Island give us a feeling of what the ancient custard apple forest of Lake Okeechobee must have been like. The 32,000 acres of trees along the southern rim of the lake is something we can only imagine, as this highly important forest was eradicated for agricultural purposes.  Zac Cosner’s work below gives great insights into the function and…

[jthurlow]

Regarding: yesterday’s post, Eutrophic Lake Okeechobee

This morning, for purposes of documentation, I am posting the path my husband, Ed Lippisch, flew over Lake Okeechobee yesterday (6-10-20) and all aerials taken. Thank you to my brother Todd Thurlow, who shares technical information on his website, for re-creating Ed’s path via Flight Aware, and for also sharing the latest satellite high resolution images of Sentinel 2 retrieved 6-9-20. All of Ed’s phots displayed in gallery format below were taken from 2000 to 2500 feet on return flight along southern portion of Lake Okeechobee ending at Port Mayaca, east central, Martin County. His flight to the west coast was at 5000 feet and Ed said he saw no algae visible from that perspective.

High Res links to 6-9-20 Sentinel 2 imagery

EyeonLakeO website 

All aerials, Ed Lippisch flight, 6-10-20, Moore Haven to Port Mayaca: if you are having trouble viewing this gallery please go to (https://jacquithurlowlippisch.com)

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Moore Haven, Calooshahtchee canal C-43

Off southern rim. Cities of Moore Haven and Clewiston are in this area.

Turning over lake southern shore in distance

Now turned east, south eastern shoreline in view, getting close to Port Mayaca on east center in Martin County

Distinctive shape of S-308 at Port Mayaca in view

Algae bloom one mile or so off Port Mayaca, lighting makes difficult to see but it is clearly present

Ed said all algae was very bright, florescent, in color and his phone did not capture that aspect

  Satellite View, All Aerials, 2020 Algae Bloom Lake Okeechobee Regarding: yesterday's post, Eutrophic Lake Okeechobee This morning, for purposes of documentation, I am posting the path my husband, Ed Lippisch, flew over Lake Okeechobee yesterday (6-10-20) and all aerials taken.