ArtsLINC

Kissimmee Basin

Kissimmee Basin: the Northern Everglades

Kissimmee Basin: the Northern Everglades

Director and Producer Elam Stoltzfus has a long and successful history of telling Florida stories including the stunning Big Cypress Swamp–The Western Everglades that was a Public Television favorite in 2010. LINC is currently serving as the Fiscal Agent for Live Oak Productions for the production of a 1 hour high-definition broadcast quality film documentary for Public Broadcasting.

With seventy-five thousand dollars of support from the South Florida Water Management District, LINC is serving as the Fiscal Agent for the Kissimmee Basin: The Northern Everglades documentary to help provide a multi-media outreach effort to educate Florida residents and a national audience about the most crucial watershed in need of protection in the Kissimmee–Okeechobee–Everglades ecosystem. This focus on the Kissimmee Basin will also address the St. Lucie River and southern Indian River Lagoon’s primary pollutant—fresh water.

The Everglades ecosystem encompasses all or part of the 16 counties at the southern end of the Florida peninsula. But when most people think of the Everglades restoration activities planned to rehabilitate the environment and sustain the regional water supply, they think about the historic “River of Grass” in the areas south of Lake Okeechobee. The hydrology of the vast Everglades system is interconnected which means that agricultural and urban activities in the upper regions of the ecosystem — just south of Orlando — have a profound impact in other areas of the interconnected waterway.

The Kissimmee River Basin north of Lake Okeechobee is essential to Everglades restoration because the hydrology of the system starts in the north. The water flows south. Legacy pollution from agricultural uses and water quality threats from urban landscaping have left Lake Okeechobee, the heart of the Everglades ecosystem, heavily polluted.

This “demo” video shows the work of creating the documentary film. This is part one of four of a series of videos that reveal the character of the landscapes and the human inhabitants within.

Stoltzfus’s story gains momentum by exploring the proposed Everglades Headwaters National Wildlife Refuge and Conservation Area that could protect some 150,000 acres of ranchlands between the Kissimmee Chain of Lakes and Lake Okeechobee. Drawn up by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the project would buy development rights — in the form of conservation easements — from private ranches for 100,000 of those acres. The ranchers could keep ranching, but they could not develop the property.

Up to 50,000 additional acres would be purchased outright, but it is the proposed conservation easements that represent a major stride toward truly sustaining the Everglades.

“Not only is the story about the water, the Kissimmee River basin, and its connection to the lake and eventually Everglades National Park, it’s the story is how the people are connected within the basin–and then of course how they are connected to the land.”

The idea is to sustain a viable ranch economy and reduce the pressure to develop the land. Working landscapes, like rural ranches, offer an incredible opportunity to improve water quality north of Lake Okeechobee. Willing landowners could volunteer their property to provide simultaneous protection of both their agricultural interest and the environment, in exchange for funding for retiring the development rights. The culture of these landowners—their heritage and stewardship of the land–is crucial to the success of Everglades restoration.

If the refuge and conservation area proposal succeeds, the USFWS will be able to protect and manage the unique assemblage of rare species and habitats found in the Northern Everglades, manage and restore the wetland resources contributing to the Everglades ecosystem, and anticipate the migration of species and systems in response to climate change.

To follow the filmmaker’s progress in completing Kissimmee Basin: Northern Everglades, go to: www.NorthernEverglades.com, or Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube.

Life on the Edge

Life on the Edge

Life on the Edge: The Story of Florida’s Nature Coast

Conservation photographer Eric Zamora is the 2008 winner of the prestigious International Conservation Photography Award for “Natural Environment at Risk” and is recognized as part of the “Emerging League” of the International League of Conservation Photographers.

His Life on the Edge project was designed to document the natural and cultural heritage of Florida’s “Nature Coast”— 240 miles of Gulf coastline, stretching from St. Marks Wildlife Refuge near Tallahassee to Pasco County, north of Tampa. Nowhere in Florida does such a small number of people share such an expansive reach of undeveloped coast, and now the area is under threat.

Eric’s images appeared in a series of multimedia presentations which introduced the viewer to both his project’s intent and his subjects. In this narrated slideshow, Eric explains the challenges to the region as well as what remains to be saved.

Hoping to inspire more awareness of the “lessons learned” from the unplanned growth, industry, and urban development in the rest of the state, Zamora illustrates the threat to rural North Florida from current plans for new mining, development, and industry by documenting the places that may be gone if such development proposals are approved. He uses his art to bridge the gap between knowing and feeling what is at stake.
To experience the photographer’s vision, visit http://EricZamora.com.