March 04, 1999 - Where the sugar cane reignsMarch 4, 1999 • The Suffolk Times • 5A
Where the sugar cane reigns
I'm writing this in a parking lot out-
side of Clewiston, Fla., the sugar capital
of the world. We're heading to our new
campground after spending a delightful
two weeks at Ortona Locks. What a
spot it was, right on the Caloosahatchie
River, but now that's all behind us and
we look forward to our new location at
the bottom end
of Lake Okee- FOCUS
chobee. We'll
take the only ON
road across the NATURE
flatlands of sugar b Paul
cane that runs Y
east and west Stoutenburgh
through south
Florida — straight and flat with a wide,
menacing, ribbon -like ditch running
along its side. It makes me wonder
what happens should a car run off the
road and into it. The material for the
road was taken from this "borrow pit,"
which is where it gets its name.
Most of this waterway that parallels
the highway is matted with water
hyacinths, plants that grow out of con-
trol everywhere down here. In some
locations a type of water lettuce is
doing the same thing. These mats grow
so thick they give you the impression
you could walk on them.
Canal cuisine
Every once in a while we'll see coots
(small duck -like birds) paddling or
walking on the plants' surface looking
for insects. If not coots, there's usually a
tricolored heron, snowy egret or great
egret or one of the many herons stalk-
ing for frogs or killies along the canal's
edge. Then there's always a chance of
seeing a few turkey vultures soaring
above the road looking for that
unfortunate road kill.
Turkey vultures are what most would
call ugly birds when viewed up close.
They are true "skinheads," having no
feathers from the neck up. There's a
reason for that, for when they are dig-
ging deep inside that road kill fora spe-
cial tidbit, their head and neck get quite
messy and are easily cleaned if just
skin, but if there were feathers, it would
be an entirely different story. What the
Main Road, Cutchogue
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vulture lacks in looks on the ground is
made up for in its graceful soaring
which it seems to do effortlessly all day
long. One never tires of watching them.
As we drive we keep our eyes open
for any sign of life in this sterile sugar-
cane expanse. If lucky, we'll see an
occasional caracara, a type of large
hawk that also enjoys a free meal
whenever it can get it along the road-
side. Then there's always that chance of
seeing my old friend the osprey, either
flying by or sitting
atop a telephone
pole or some other
upright awaiting
the unlucky fish to
show itself.
Resident ospreys
are common
throughout most of
Florida. They
apparently don't
migrate but stay in
the same general
area throughout
the year. This is in
marked contrast to
our Long Island
ospreys that have
spent the winter
anywhere from
Georgia south,
through the Carib-
bean and on into
Brazil and South
America. From the
middle of March
you will see them
once again about
their nesting sites
along our local
waters. As the flounder and eels come
out of the mud, the ospreys move up to
feed on them. Everything has its time in
the scheme of things.
While sitting here I see bits of black
material drifting across the parking lot;
some are long and threadlike, others
short and frail. All are sooty looking.
They are the residue from burning sugar
cane. In this part of the country you can
look in any direction at any time and see
the distinct signs of smoke from the
burning of sugar cane. Some of the
plumes resemble giant mushroom
clouds and on still days they take on the
ominous shape of an atomic explosion.
They call this sooty fallout "Pahokee
snow" from the name of the area where
much of the sugar cane is grown. In this
day of no outdoor burning, it seems to
make a mockery of the law. But then the
sugar cane is big business down here. As
one local put it, "The little guy can't
burn a matchbook cover, but Big Sugar
can burn thousands of acres of cane and
ing stacks of white smoke. It seems to
me if man can invent a machine that can
pick cotton, he should be able to create
a machine that could remove the leaves
of sugar cane from the stalks and there-
by eliminate the "Pahokee snow" that
constantly drifts down on the country-
side here in south Florida.
Barbara's shopping for supplies is
over and we leave the parking lot and
head east on Route 80. We pull into
South Bay RV Campground at the
southeast corner of Lake Okeechobee.
We'd reserved Site No. 6 on a small
manmade lake that is ringed by campers
from every corner of the country and
Canada. As we
pull in and get set-
tled in our new
location ($15 per
night with water,
electricity and
sewage), Barbara
points out a visitor
along the shore-
line just 20 feet
from our site. It's a
little blue heron,
stalking in true
predator fashion.
Its eyes are glued
to the water
below. Each step is
deliberate and
ever so slow, then
the stalking be-
comes more
intense. Its head
lowers and it
seems all its body
is focused on the
water. One last
slow step and
"Zing!" Out goes
the recoiled neck
and the prize of a
squirming little fish is flipped and
maneuvered and is gone.
As the day progressed the wind
picked up out of the northwest and the
temperature took an unusual dip for
this time of the year. A cold front had
moved in. What they call cold down
here is 40 or 50 degrees. The wind had
churned up the lake and was blowing a
gale. About dusk I noticed a great
mass of birds drifting on the air cur-
rents just over the lake shore. It
reminded me of the gulls and terns
working over bluefish in the Gut, but
these birds were much higher, more
like gulls over the landfill when some-
thing spooks them. I had to find out
what they were. With my glasses I
could see they were vultures, a thou-
sand or more of them all soaring in
endless gyrations like some giant
swarm of bees. Why they didn't collide
with each other I can't imagine. Usually
you see four or five or maybe 10 soar-
ing on a thermal looking for that
always - important meal. I think they are
like crows at home looking for a place
to roost, but with the strong winds they
were having difficulty settling in the
swaying trees. No matter what, it was a
spectacular sight of soaring birds.
We'll have to explore this area of
Lake Okeechobee. There is a huge
levee that surrounds the lake. It towers
on the average of 35 feet and seems
almost mountain -like in this flat land.
It was built to control the runoff from
the huge watershed that surrounds this
now- important agricultural area.
There are always dikes, dams, levees,
ditches, canals, pumping stations, etc.,
that regulate the water levels through-
out all of south Florida. Tomorrow
we'll explore the great bike trails that
run for miles along the top of the levee.
Suffolk Times photo by Paul Stoutenburgh
Within a few weeks ospreys will be returning to our local bays and creeks to
nest once again. We see resident ospreys in Florida almost every day, but the
ones that you see *&the East End are those which have spent the winter as
far south as the Amazon.
it's perfectly okay."
We're told the reason they burn the
ripe cane is to get rid of the undergrowth
and the eight- to 10 -foot -high leaves on
the stalks. Once these are burned off,
they go in with huge harvesting
machines that pick up the blackened
stalks and take them to the refineries.
These harvesting machines rumble
through in clouds of sooty dust and trav-
el in crawling groups over the charred
land. The refineries lie off in the dis-
tance like some giant monsters bellow-
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