Lillian Russell . pic course credit : Pittsburgh City Paper
Feathers might not have been ruffle if actress Lillian Russell , and other former 20thcentury fashonistas , had not swagger around in hats with colorful plumes , pick off from wading birds . And , if there had not been a fight to save the birds , there might not be aCorkscrew Swamp Sanctuaryin southwest Florida today .
The plumage of Florida wading birds at that metre fetched as much as $ 30 an ounce , twice the economic value of gold . The Florida legislative body was pressured to ban the search of wading birds . That was insufficient , so activists view as a fundraiser to hire warden , three of whom were killed in the wrinkle of duty . Other warden disappear . Nobody know what take place to them . equal group pressure proved more effective , and safe , in the fight against plumed couture .
Lillian Russell. Photo credit: Pittsburgh City Paper
Great egret . Depositphotos .
Here ’s a link to anNPR storyabout women who keep open birds :
2.5 million pack birds once live in Florida wetlands .
Great egrets. Depositphotos.
Today exit of shallow wetland habitat is the primary terror . An estimated 100,00 bundle birds now live in Florida . In the former hours they forage for food in the swampland and the shallow wetlands , and then the birds return to the swampland to roost late in the twenty-four hour period .
To reach the Audubon ’s Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary , on the northeasterly outskirt of Naples Florida , you tug past cookie - cutlery suburban exploitation with cut back hedge and man - made lakes with their gush fountains . ( The Corkscrew River got its name because of its twists and turns , but Florida developer did n’t think it sounded amatory , so changed it to the Imperial River . )
This was once part of a born landscape of bald-headed cypresses that spread out over 50,000 acres . Bald cypresses were extensively edit out for saw timber during World War II . The logging expanded during the post - war U.S Marshall Plan . Rot - resistant cypress timber was shipped to Europe . Business was in effect .
Beginning in 1954 , 2,880 acres , include 768 acres of old - outgrowth cypresses , were deeded from two local baseball bat caller to the National Audubon Society . nigh 14,000 acres of the Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary is protected today . There are 500 - year - one-time - growth bald cypresses that attain over 100 ’ magniloquent . The largest bald cypress tree has a circuit of 28 ’ .
Rose Cooper and a big , denuded cypress tree .
Keith Johnson take our morning tour a few weeks ago . The former vigour executive from Columbus , Ohio , has been guiding chemical group for ten year . Keith has absorb a staggering amount of the sanctuary ’s born account . I needed his enlistment more than I had imagined . My senses had been deaden by months of Kentucky ’s wintertime of cold and rain .
Rose Cooper and a big, bald cypress.
At the outset of our circuit , my province of mind made me withdraw a Mark Twain quote : “ You ca n’t look on your eyes when your imagery is out of focus . ” When I first get , I could barely see the swamp for the bald cypresses . A venereal disease of Florida wild slowly brought me back around .
Keith Johnson loves the Corkscrew Swamp . His tour was more informative than a “ punning - lobbing , side arm - wielding ” master on a Disney World Jungle Cruise . Keith ’s base on balls , along a twist , elevated paseo , followed a tiny portion of the sheet flow of seasonal water that begins in Lake Trafford , before it hand the Corkscrew Sanctuary and descends indecipherably downhill into pine flatwoods of slash true pine and sabal palm , dotted with yellow - flowering tickseedCoreopsis leavenworthii . The water supply keep through wet prairie of grit cordgrass and buttonbush until it reaches swamps filled with monolithic bald-headed cypress , air plants , Spanish moss and Florida garroter figs .
Keith Johnson
Keith Johnson
There was so much I did n’t know about the bald cypress .
Bald cypress(Taxodium distichum)is a preponderantly Eastern North American coinage of the coastal plain stitch from Cape May , New Jersey , to East Texas . But the monoecious Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree ( the male flower come about high-pitched in the tree and rain down down pollen on the females for fertilization ) also arise in wetlands , north to Kentucky and southern Illinois . Bald cypresses , for landscape , are very various conifers capable of growing in sun or fond shade , in wetland or dry soils that are either acidic or alkalic . I have examine Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree grow in the Miami tropics , and they are stale dauntless ( Zone 4 ) to Toronto . concord to Mike Dirr’sEncyclopedia of Trees and Shrubs , “ The rich , gullible foliage appear on feather - like branches and reverse rusty Orange River to brown in autumn . ”
Bald cypress tree foliage . Depositphotos .
Bald cypress foliage. Depositphotos.
I had antecedently intend the knobby “ knee , ” that acquire around the periphery of denuded cypresses , allowed the trees to breathe . But the articulatio genus play no office in oxygenation . Keith explained that these buttressed trees , together with the knees and roots of nearby tree , when thread among one another , support the trees from hurricane - strength winds . Though treetops can be swash out , few trees are tumble in hurricane .
Knobby articulatio genus in the Corkscrew Swamp .
Toward the terminal of the term of enlistment , we saw what I thought was a big alligator insolate herself on a dry hummock . She was eight foot long . Not so big , we were told . Keith said the creation - record alligator sighting was 19 feet long . This scared the wits out of us .
Knobby knees in the Corkscrew Swamp.
The tour radical soon circularize . Rose and I travel along our enlistment guide . I require to watch more ; Keith was ready for lunch . He told us how an Anhinga can aviate into the swampland ’s water supply , dip just below the surface and thrust angle with its “ stiletto ” greenback .
A pig frog grunt near a clump of inland leather fern with ten - foot - long fronds . Keith point to a dahoon Buddy Holly and two dame — an American Aramus pictus and a bittern — and then we said au revoir . We ’d only walked one - half mile in two and a half hours .
This unique , remnant ecosystem , once so threatened , and now so carefully bonk and keep , might not exist if activists had not stand up for preservation and fight popular fashion .
Bald cypress knees in Cave Hill Cemetery in Louisville, Kentucky on March 7th.
Bald cypress knees in Cave Hill Cemetery in Louisville , Kentucky on March 7th .
Over the preceding few weeks , since our visit , I ca n’t finish thinking about the Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary . Inside it , Keith Johnson helped me pose aside thoughts of the outside humankind for a few hours .
I realize , now , how golden I have been for approval I have find oneself — outdoors — in public Rosa Parks , gardens and natural areas . These random epiphanies pass in the blink of an eye but always stay with me .
I will remember Keith ’s tour whenever I see a bald cypress tree .
