In progress: Everglades I

South Florida Water Management District scientists drive along the Southeastern rim of Lake Okeechobee on the Hoover Dike, which was constructed around the entire lake to control water levels and flow. Scientists test the water at different stations every day around the lake.

Of all the long-term projects that I'm currently working on, none of them is as ambitious or logistically daunting as the Florida Everglades. Not only is it huge physically, but its politics, restoration efforts, and history is so immensely complex that its nearly impossible to figure out where to begin trying to understand it... other than actually just running head on into the monster and starting, which is exactly what I've done.

But why? The River of Grass is like no other place on Earth, and the history of it, as I've come to learn through a lot of research, is really the history of not only the state of Florida, but also metaphorically of man's dominion over nature, and fight to bend all lands to their "good use." As a kid growing up in Miami, I don't think my family ever went there (it was then, and is still now, thought of mostly as a barren and strange other world) but I fostered a fascination about the Everglades that was heightened during the 90's when Clinton passed the historic deal to try and save it for all future generations. And that is what is so amazing about the Everglades to me... it has this incredible story arch... from waste land that stood in the way of the riches of progress and development to an international environmental treasure that must be protected and returned to nature at any cost.

So, where to begin then? Having already learned some lessons from my ongoing work documenting the development boom in Miami (a project which is also deeply connected to Glades politics and restoration), I decided to begin by looking at the current efforts at restoration, and then work my way back to the actual park and how its being protected and enjoyed by millions each year. In short, I decided to basically go at the ugly end of the stick first -- far from alligators and air boats -- and make some friends with the many different organizations who are committed to restoration. My first call was to the South Florida Water Management District.

At the very beginning it was VERY slow going. Proposing a big story is hard almost everywhere, and doing so as a freelance photographer is much harder even still. But trying to get people to take me seriously that I wanted to do a multi-year, long-term project on the Everglades and the many different aspects to the current state of restoration... well, it wasn't easy. Eventually the best way to prove my seriousness was to show up in person. I kept in touch, and did whatever I could to be professional... and when I was given access to a media event early on... one that was several counties away and very early in the morning, I showed up and proved I was willing to make a big effort to do this work. That was my ticket.

Since that morning, in which I photographed one of the hundreds of ground-breaking events that celebrate a new phase of construction in the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERN), I've been steadily moving towards trying to get access to the major systems and projects that are being undertaken by a coalition of Federal and State groups, (SFWMD, Army Corps of Engineers, State of FL). But again, even now with some good contacts... its slow going. And here is the problem that I've now discovered with working on BIG projects: in order to create a body of work that looks at the whole issue and explains the complexity in an interesting way, you have to become an expert. Becoming one takes a lot of time.

And that's where I'm at now... I'm learning everything that I can. I get access to different sites to photograph different restoration efforts (different both in kind, and in visual scale and type... dirt is dirt, swamp is swamp; and you have to find ways to make things separate visually) and I ask a ton of questions about how this thing is related to that thing, how the amount of water flow here affects there, what each scientist thinks is the most interesting part, and the most visual part. And then I ask more questions. When photographing I let my mind wander and explore how to make each single piece as visually arresting as possible because I know that it'll be combined with a lot of other "process" images that need to engage the sense in order to move the viewer forward.

SFWMD scientist Pat Essex examines a sample of water for its phosphorus content at pump station S-2 on the Southern rim of Lake Okeechobee. Phosphorus is a critical indicator of health in the Everglades, and has been a major focus of restoration efforts.

Next week I'll head back up to Okeechobee, this time on the north side, to take a first look at one of the most fascinating single projects involved with the Everglades restoration: the re-crooked-ing of the Kissimmee River, which feeds into the lake and was once one of the most winding and confusing bodies of water in the nation, absolutely teeming with wildlife, until the Army Corps made it straight as an arrow to try and control its water flow and flooding, much as they have with the Mississippi. After spending millions and millions to make it straight, they are spending billions to make it crooked again. And amazingly, as the project reaches its second stage, its already working and the wildlife has rebounded in an incredible way. A crooked to a straight to a crooked river again... god I love Florida.

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