A Hidden Treasure

Momma alligator lies in the sun, while the babies wriggle around her at Highlands Hammock State Park.

Oh, what a treasure we have found at Highlands Hammock State Park, in the center of the state. It is old – by Florida standards – having been created back in the early 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps, that outstanding program created during the Great Depression by Franklin Roosevelt.

The program put more than three million young men to work, paying them $1 a day. Twenty five of those dollars were sent home each month to the family, while the worker kept $5. He got three meals a day, classes in the evening which helped him learn to read and write. The program resulted in bridges being built, along with roads and hundreds of parks throughout the land. 

Even though the government had access to heavy building machinery, very little of it was used so that more men could be employed. It brought back a memory of a town I visited in Namibia where the workers were complaining the government had brought in a trench digging machine to make a work project go quicker. The men of the town complained that the machine took jobs away from them. And jobs meant money - precious in a population where the unemployment level is 56 per cent. It was a brilliant program that lived on until World War II when the men transferred out to become our greatest generation.

A statue honoring the young men of the CCC stands outside the museum at Highlands Hammock State park (where Jo will volunteer as a docent).

This park is a jewel. Not only are there camping facilities, there are large areas tucked away in the back of the park with wandering trails that take you through cypress swamps, alongside canals that are teeming with alligators and wading  birds.

Jo and I don’t begin our duties for another few days so we have taken advantage of the free perks, traveling the park on the trolley with a veteran volunteer who knows much about the flora and fauna. Kevin took us along a dirt track where the general public is not allowed to travel on its own. He stopped to point out the lurking gators, dozens of them, but urged us to keep out eyes peeled for more exotic creatures. 

He explained the huge value of each of the creatures but made a point of highlighting the gopher tortoise with which we've gotten up close and personal at numerous parks. The gopher tortoise is a very important part of the local ecology.  As in any food web, if you start taking certain flora or fauna out of the equation, then you can adversely affect the survival of that ecosystem.  

The gopher tortoise is especially important because the burrows, which are dug by the tortoises, also provide homes for other animals, such as indigo snakes, gopher frogs, mice, foxes, skunks, opossums, rabbits, quail, armadillos, burrowing owls, snakes, lizards, frogs, toads and other invertebrates. Kevin said gopher tortoise burrows are home to about 250 species of animals at one time or another. They are the key to survival of the different species in time of forest burns where a scorched earth above ground requires safe havens below the earth.  Since the burrows are used by so many species, it does not take a rocket scientist to see that removing the tortoises from the local habitat would leave many animals without homes. 

We spotted a wood stork and heaps of red-bellied turtles clambering onto logs to sun themselves. But the most interesting thing he pointed out was a wonderful little aquatic plant, the floating bladderwort. This little thing has an umbrella-like series of legs with bladders on their ends. The plant floats on the still waters and eats the larvae of mosquitoes. It is carnivorous and does a world of good by cutting down on the pesky mosquitoes.

We met up with another campground host couple this morning. They travel south each year from Indianapolis, Indiana, to spend three months in the park. Bill and June walked with us over to the maintenance yard where they checked out an electric cart and gave us a tour of some other areas of the park while telling us about the facilities and the people who make it work so well.

They took us to the Cypress Swamp Trail, a boardwalk that took us over the watery swamp with thousands of cypress knees that rise two or three feet above the water. These are part of the root system of the cypress trees, allowing the tree to breathe in the swamp. Part of my duties require me to head into the swamp every third week, along with all of the other trails in the park, to check that they are clean and passable. Not only will I get great exercise, but I’ll be able to carry my camera shortly after dawn breaks to capture the primitive majesty of the place.