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[00:00:01.09]
[orchestral music]

[00:00:14.05]
- [Keith] A lot of
people ask me, you know,

[00:00:15.08]
what's it like being on an airboat,

[00:00:18.03]
driving an airboat.

[00:00:19.06]
I go, "Have you ever ridden a motorcycle?"

[00:00:21.05]
They go, "Yeah."

[00:00:22.04]
I say, "Have you ever got on one with real

[00:00:23.05]
isolated roads, where
there's nothing but you

[00:00:26.00]
and the two green lines on
either side of the road?"

[00:00:31.06]
They say, "Yeah."

[00:00:32.04]
"So add a couple more cylinders

[00:00:33.02]
and take the green lines away."

[00:00:36.01]
That's the closest thing
to flying you can get,

[00:00:38.08]
and not leave Earth.

[00:00:40.00]
[engine roaring]

[00:00:43.04]
[electric guitar music]

[00:00:53.00]
- [Donnie] We actually run these airboats

[00:00:54.08]
to stick these frogs.

[00:00:57.06]
You see a pair of eyes,
you go towards them,

[00:01:00.01]
try to stick 'em and pirouette around him.

[00:01:03.07]
Go on to the next one.

[00:01:06.01]
The slower you go, the more you see.

[00:01:22.01]
I put it in the bucket and
hopefully we'll get to eat 'em.

[00:01:25.08]
[laughing]

[00:01:27.02]
[engine chugging]

[00:01:35.01]
I feel like I'm a keeper
of the Everglades.

[00:01:38.04]
It's my heart and soul.

[00:01:40.05]
I've just been coming here all my life

[00:01:42.04]
and being able to venture
out and see everything.

[00:01:46.02]
So when they take all this away,

[00:01:49.01]
then all of us are gone.

[00:01:51.05]
Then nobody's going to be able to take

[00:01:53.01]
the next generation out
to see what we see--

[00:01:56.09]
my Everglades.

[00:02:25.08]
- [David] This one right
here, that's Orion.

[00:02:28.05]
His sword points due north.

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- And up there somewhere
is the Big Dipper.

[00:02:33.06]
That's how we find our way around.

[00:02:38.01]
- Here we are, probably 14
miles from downtown Miami,

[00:02:43.06]
out in the middle of the Everglades,

[00:02:46.04]
sticking frogs.

[00:02:48.09]
Best camaraderie in the
world is right here.

[00:02:52.06]
- [David] Another glorious
evening of froggin'.

[00:02:56.02]
Now to go clean 'em.

[00:02:58.07]
- [Donnie] Sometimes you
get 40-50 pounds of legs,

[00:03:02.07]
sometimes 20 pounds of legs.

[00:03:04.07]
I probably killed 20 deer back here.

[00:03:07.06]
Hogs, maybe a good handful or more.

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Okay, we take this little bag of frogs,

[00:03:13.08]
reach down and you pull a frog up.

[00:03:17.03]
These dark black ones are the bigger ones.

[00:03:21.02]
These are the females.

[00:03:23.04]
Actually they all lay eggs,
from what I've been told.

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I guess we could call him a he-she.

[00:03:30.07]
But he's all speckled up.

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Make the cut.

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Pull the pants.

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Turn him over.

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In the bucket.

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That's it for me.

[00:03:51.04]
What a wonderful night.

[00:03:53.01]
[laughing]

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[gavel banging]

[00:03:57.08]
- [Keith] Ladies and gentleman, welcome to

[00:03:59.01]
the Airboat Association of Florida.

[00:04:01.04]
- [All] I pledge allegiance to the flag

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of the United States of America.

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And to the republic for which it stands,

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one nation, under God, indivisible,

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with liberty and justice for all.

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- [Keith] Thank you
everybody, please be seated.

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We gotta make the best of this, folks.

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We've got to make the
best of this, and we will,

[00:04:23.01]
and we will come out on top.

[00:04:24.08]
It's not gonna to be
resolved in this room.

[00:04:27.00]
It will be resolved by letters
to your state representatives

[00:04:29.09]
and your congressman.

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- Correct.

[00:04:31.09]
- That's who you gotta write to.

[00:04:33.03]
Now, I can't particularly
say I'm excited about

[00:04:35.09]
any one of these particular politicians

[00:04:39.02]
one way or the other, but,

[00:04:41.00]
if they're gonna get on my train

[00:04:44.03]
and they wanna walk the
gauntlet and go up there

[00:04:46.08]
and blow the whistle, then you know what?

[00:04:48.04]
Welcome aboard.

[00:04:49.06]
Bottom line, the U.S.
Department of Interior

[00:04:52.00]
now owns more land than it is capable

[00:04:56.01]
of maintaining to begin with.

[00:04:58.03]
The best way for them to maintain it

[00:04:59.09]
is to keep you out of it.

[00:05:02.03]
That's gonna be the final line.

[00:05:05.02]
If they can't give us the
rights to run back here,

[00:05:08.04]
I'll go to my grave
fightin' for that easement.

[00:05:11.07]
[applauding]

[00:05:15.08]
And now is the time for us to turn around

[00:05:18.09]
and get word out to the
other airboat clubs.

[00:05:21.06]
And all of a sudden, all these congressman

[00:05:24.06]
and representatives from
Florida are gonna be

[00:05:26.06]
gettin' hammered by all these other

[00:05:29.00]
congressman throughout
the United States, on

[00:05:31.07]
"What is going on in the Everglades

[00:05:34.06]
that it's coming to my
attention in Arizona,

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in Colorado, and in Nebraska?

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What can we do to change this?"

[00:05:43.03]
That's how it's gonna get done.

[00:05:46.00]
But when you get as many people involved

[00:05:48.00]
as we know we can get involved now,

[00:05:51.03]
it's not just a voice, it's a choir.

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We're gonna be heard.

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[applauding]

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I'd like to call some people
that have come before the board

[00:05:58.03]
and they're back here to present

[00:06:01.00]
themselves to the general membership

[00:06:03.01]
for petitioning to become a
member of the Airboat Club.

[00:06:07.08]
If you would, addressing
the general membership,

[00:06:09.08]
explain why you would like
to join our organization.

[00:06:13.02]
- Now they're closing down almost

[00:06:15.02]
every place to go airboat riding.

[00:06:17.01]
I wanna be part of-- of
the people that fought,

[00:06:22.00]
for the reasons that they try now

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to close us down, I want to be here.

[00:06:26.04]
I've been raised in the Everglades.

[00:06:28.08]
And I think this association
can push it forward

[00:06:33.08]
for us younger people
to keep riding airboats

[00:06:38.03]
here in the Everglades.

[00:06:40.01]
- [Keith] That's our future
Gladesman right there, folks.

[00:06:42.07]
[applauding]

[00:06:43.09]
Ladies and gentleman, the chair would

[00:06:45.02]
entertain a motion for adjournment.

[00:06:47.02]
All of those in favor
signify by saying "Aye."

[00:06:49.04]
- [All] Aye.

[00:06:50.06]
- All those opposed, go home.

[00:06:52.00]
[laughing]

[00:06:52.08]
By the way, anybody interested,

[00:06:54.01]
I've got the new NRA calendar gun raffle.

[00:06:58.09]
104 guns being given away
over a year's period.

[00:07:03.07]
[indistinct chatter]

[00:07:05.03]
- Work on this, for this is serious shit.

[00:07:07.06]
- You don't have to tell me!

[00:07:08.07]
I've been working on
this for 12 years now!

[00:07:10.09]
And you've been working at it longer.

[00:07:13.01]
But I've been working on this, right here.

[00:07:15.07]
- Yeah, but the whole picture
is bigger than just this.

[00:07:18.07]
And it's gotta be the
whole frickin' thing.

[00:07:21.04]
It can't be just back here.

[00:07:24.01]
- We'll talk later.

[00:07:27.03]
- No. No.

[00:07:29.05]
[upbeat acoustic music]

[00:07:34.04]
♪ Well there's lots of things ♪

[00:07:35.05]
♪ In the wide wide world ♪

[00:07:36.08]
♪ From the desert to the mountains ♪

[00:07:39.04]
♪ So many things in the wide wide world ♪

[00:07:41.09]
♪ That you'd never be able to count 'em ♪

[00:07:44.03]
♪ There are five oceans ♪

[00:07:45.08]
♪ Four winds ♪

[00:07:47.05]
- So welcome to the 100th anniversary

[00:07:49.06]
of Royal Palm State Park, the nucleus

[00:07:51.09]
to the beginning of
Everglades National Park.

[00:07:54.07]
♪ But there are some
things like nothing else ♪

[00:07:57.00]
- Last year we actually
had a 2.8 billion dollar

[00:08:01.06]
local economic benefit. We
are big business in Florida.

[00:08:06.03]
♪ There's only one Everglades ♪

[00:08:09.09]
♪ Only one ♪

[00:08:10.07]
- Most of Everglades National
Park is wilderness area.

[00:08:14.00]
That's the highest
protection afforded to any

[00:08:16.05]
public lands in the
United States of America.

[00:08:20.08]
It's about 1,500,000 acres.

[00:08:23.06]
- [Man] One, two, three, cheese!

[00:08:25.04]
- Within 50 miles of this park's boundary

[00:08:28.03]
there are seven million people.

[00:08:30.08]
♪ Right in our backyard ♪

[00:08:34.01]
[applauding]

[00:08:35.04]
- [Singer] Just one.

[00:08:37.04]
- Good morning, I'm Pedro Ramos.

[00:08:39.09]
I'm the Superintendent for Everglades

[00:08:41.09]
and Dry Tortugas National Parks.

[00:08:44.09]
I'm glad that we had some other

[00:08:47.06]
people out there walking around.

[00:08:50.01]
It can't be just park rangers donating

[00:08:52.08]
blood to these mosquitoes all the time!

[00:08:54.06]
[laughing and clapping]

[00:08:56.04]
In my opinion, we really do
stand on historic ground here.

[00:09:02.04]
We stand on some of the first
ground in the state of Florida

[00:09:05.03]
to have been set aside for the

[00:09:07.05]
benefit of not just some people,

[00:09:09.04]
but for the benefit of all the people--

[00:09:12.07]
the people of Florida,
the people of our country

[00:09:14.09]
and the people of our nation.

[00:09:16.04]
[clapping]

[00:09:19.00]
I oversee a staff of professional people

[00:09:22.05]
in a variety of disciplines,
from law enforcement

[00:09:25.09]
to interpretation to scientists,

[00:09:27.09]
in order to protect
Everglades National Park

[00:09:31.02]
and also to present it

[00:09:32.08]
and share it with the American people.

[00:09:37.07]
It was the first park
that was not set aside

[00:09:40.05]
because of the scenic values.

[00:09:44.00]
It was really set aside
because of its natural values.

[00:09:47.02]
[ambient atmospheric music]

[00:09:50.00]
Many many years ago we diverted its water,

[00:09:53.05]
its life source, and we are
now trying to restore it

[00:09:57.02]
because one out of every four Floridians

[00:10:00.00]
drinks water from the Everglades region,

[00:10:04.03]
and the Everglades region
contributes to the economy

[00:10:08.03]
in Florida upwards of a
billion dollars a year.

[00:10:13.03]
And natural areas like this help mitigate

[00:10:17.04]
the effects on the developed area,

[00:10:19.06]
so it helps Miami with
those sea levels rising.

[00:10:24.09]
Back in 1989, Congress had
the wisdom setting aside

[00:10:30.00]
what we now refer to as East Everglades--

[00:10:32.09]
a place that we knew back
then would be the receiver

[00:10:37.03]
of a lot of the water that
would come into the park

[00:10:40.05]
once we get all these
restoration efforts put in place.

[00:10:43.02]
And some of it needed to be set aside

[00:10:47.00]
without uses that carry a
certain level of impact.

[00:10:53.05]
Airboating is an activity that

[00:10:55.09]
it carries the air pollution impact,

[00:10:58.08]
and it has the impact of affecting
the behavior of wildlife.

[00:11:04.02]
And airboats being ran over
grassy areas creates a path

[00:11:09.03]
and that feature can be visibly seen

[00:11:12.06]
for decades after its initial use.

[00:11:17.02]
Everglades National Park is a place

[00:11:19.09]
where Congress decided that we needed

[00:11:22.09]
to leave this place alone in many ways

[00:11:26.00]
so that we can help it thrive

[00:11:28.07]
and make sure that we have something

[00:11:30.01]
to leave behind in good
shape for generations ahead.

[00:11:57.02]
- We are so blessed to
have two national parks

[00:11:59.06]
in this county, that's
unprecedented in the country.

[00:12:02.02]
So we are embedded, if you
will, in these national parks.

[00:12:06.05]
The health of the parks is
a reflection on the health

[00:12:09.06]
of our entire community and society.

[00:12:12.01]
So let's get going, the
important thing here,

[00:12:14.08]
it's birthday time!

[00:12:16.04]
So one, two, three.

[00:12:18.03]
♪ Happy birthday to you ♪

[00:12:22.06]
♪ Happy birthday to you ♪

[00:12:26.01]
♪ Happy birthday Biscayne National Park ♪

[00:12:31.01]
♪ Happy birthday to you ♪

[00:12:35.00]
[applauding]

[00:12:38.03]
♪ And many more ♪

[00:12:40.02]
- We talk about the Greater Everglades--

[00:12:41.00]
that was bigger than New
Jersey. So it was everything...

[00:12:44.01]
- Isn't that amazing?

[00:12:45.00]
- ...from Key West to Disney World.

[00:12:46.03]
Historically it was one ecosystem,

[00:12:49.00]
and it's our human
interpretation to split them up

[00:12:52.02]
into Everglades Park, Biscayne Park--

[00:12:54.01]
but it's really connected.

[00:12:54.09]
- [Woman] Woo hoo!

[00:12:56.02]
- Happy birthday!

[00:12:57.04]
- We're celebrating the National
Park Service Centennial,

[00:12:59.04]
100 years of America's national parks.

[00:13:02.02]
We are thrilled to have
many national park units

[00:13:04.02]
here in South Florida--
we've got Everglades,

[00:13:06.02]
Dry Tortugas, Biscayne, and
Big Cypress National Preserve,

[00:13:10.05]
and these places are
incredible environmental

[00:13:12.07]
as well as cultural resources.

[00:13:14.07]
- So thanks for coming out
tonight and enjoy the evening.

[00:13:18.07]
[clapping]

[00:13:21.00]
- Thank you, Gary.

[00:13:22.05]
89% of Americans think it is the

[00:13:24.07]
federal government's duty
to fund our national parks.

[00:13:28.02]
That is a bipartisan answer.

[00:13:30.03]
The Park Services Centennial initiative

[00:13:32.03]
has been "Find your park."

[00:13:34.06]
NPCA's initiative to parallel that

[00:13:36.07]
and to work towards our centennial

[00:13:38.09]
in 2019 is to "Find your voice,"

[00:13:41.05]
find your voice and speak
up to create national parks,

[00:13:43.09]
to celebrate our national parks,

[00:13:46.06]
to advocate for our national parks,

[00:13:48.01]
to make sure that they're strong.

[00:13:49.03]
[crowd applauding]

[00:13:50.01]
We've lost more than
half of the Everglades

[00:13:53.03]
to development and agriculture.

[00:13:55.09]
And so, with that, Everglades
Restoration was born.

[00:14:01.06]
[ambient atmospheric music]

[00:14:08.05]
There's no airboat operations.

[00:14:10.03]
In fact, the majority of the area in

[00:14:11.09]
Everglades National Park
is wilderness designation.

[00:14:15.09]
Part of what the culture

[00:14:17.09]
and the activities that
occur with airboating

[00:14:20.01]
and that are not going to
continue moving forward

[00:14:22.07]
are hunting.

[00:14:29.00]
- My net in the wing, I have a net.

[00:14:32.06]
- Airboats themselves can cause

[00:14:35.03]
preferential flow patterns for water.

[00:14:38.09]
This is Miami here, Everglades
National Park is here,

[00:14:43.03]
Big Cypress National Preserve is here,

[00:14:45.05]
the water conservation
areas are along in here,

[00:14:52.00]
with Lake Okeechobee
and the Kissimmee chain

[00:14:54.09]
of lakes all up through here.

[00:14:56.08]
As we zoom in and come
along what is Tamiami Trail,

[00:15:00.03]
the historic road-- shortened
from Tampa Miami Trail--

[00:15:06.02]
US 41, cutting across the top
of Everglades National Park.

[00:15:10.06]
The area that we're talking about

[00:15:12.07]
for the 100,000 acres

[00:15:17.00]
of the expansion, the East Everglades,

[00:15:19.00]
is right along here, down to about here,

[00:15:22.03]
and up and over. But
as you zoom in further

[00:15:25.07]
you can see how airboat
trails start emerging

[00:15:32.06]
from Everglades Safari Park.

[00:15:36.06]
As you continue eastward,

[00:15:39.00]
another one of the airboat operations

[00:15:41.05]
and the Airboat Association.

[00:15:46.04]
And you can see how their
trails truly leave a mark

[00:15:50.09]
that are visible from satellite imagery,

[00:15:53.08]
and can alter and change the way

[00:15:55.06]
that water patterns can move.

[00:16:01.01]
This area of the Everglades
is critically important

[00:16:04.02]
for re-establishing the water flow

[00:16:06.04]
through the Greater Everglades ecosystem

[00:16:09.07]
and out into Florida Bay.

[00:16:13.06]
You know, I have a lot
of respect, deep respect

[00:16:16.01]
for our friends and allies
in the Gladesmen's culture.

[00:16:20.04]
We have different ways
of using the environment,

[00:16:24.04]
and we have a different
perspective on who should

[00:16:29.00]
and how they should be used.

[00:16:31.02]
There's a reason why, and a
choice for making this decision

[00:16:36.01]
to protect this part of the Everglades

[00:16:39.05]
because of its placement

[00:16:41.06]
and its importance for the
entire ecosystem's health.

[00:16:50.08]
[grand orchestral music]

[00:17:00.02]
- [Voiceover] Everything
was lovely in Florida,

[00:17:02.00]
so it seemed, but once you got
past the surf and the shore

[00:17:05.08]
there was trouble. The trouble was water.

[00:17:09.00]
When the rains came they
inundated the Platte Lowlands

[00:17:12.03]
of Central and Southern Florida,

[00:17:14.03]
overfilling the inland waters,
flooding the rich soils,

[00:17:17.09]
destroying crops, turning hard earned

[00:17:20.04]
farm profits into devastating losses,

[00:17:23.00]
covering towns, ruining homes
and businesses and roads.

[00:17:27.01]
And when the rains had
left, there was no water.

[00:17:30.07]
Once lush farmland,
now reduced to dry dust

[00:17:33.07]
by the crazed antics of the elements.

[00:17:37.03]
- So you had this terrible cycle

[00:17:39.01]
of incredibly harsh droughts
followed by terrible floods.

[00:17:44.08]
And it all culminated in 1928,

[00:17:48.01]
when a horrible hurricane
hit Southern Florida

[00:17:52.00]
and crashed Lake Okeechobee
through its dike.

[00:17:55.07]
It killed more than 2,000
people in the Everglades,

[00:17:58.06]
and that was when the United
States government really

[00:18:02.03]
realized that they needed to
take control of this water.

[00:18:05.02]
And the Army Corps of Engineers,

[00:18:07.06]
the shock troops in
America's war with nature,

[00:18:10.02]
they were put in charge
of the most elaborate

[00:18:11.09]
flood control project of its day.

[00:18:14.00]
- [Voiceover] The U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers

[00:18:15.09]
was assigned the mission
of planning and designing

[00:18:18.01]
a complete project for flood control

[00:18:20.00]
throughout the district.

[00:18:22.00]
Let's take a look at the problem.

[00:18:23.03]
The area takes in about
one-fourth of the entire state,

[00:18:26.05]
more than one-third the population.

[00:18:28.02]
The liquid heart of this
area is Lake Okeechobee--

[00:18:31.03]
"The Big Water," 730 square miles of it--

[00:18:34.07]
the second largest freshwater lake

[00:18:36.08]
wholly within the United States.

[00:18:38.03]
This monster had to be
controlled by bigger levees

[00:18:41.03]
and by bigger canals that would give

[00:18:43.08]
it bigger outlets to the sea.

[00:18:45.05]
That went for the other lakes, too.

[00:18:47.02]
More levees and improved
channels and water control

[00:18:49.06]
to discharge the flood
waters as fast as possible.

[00:18:53.02]
- [Michael] They came
in and built the most

[00:18:54.09]
elaborate water control
project of their day.

[00:18:58.04]
There were 2000 miles
of levees and canals,

[00:19:01.09]
pumps so powerful that
they had to cannibalize

[00:19:04.08]
the engines from nuclear submarines.

[00:19:07.06]
And they created this
water management system

[00:19:10.04]
that essentially grabs
ahold of every drop of water

[00:19:14.00]
that falls in South Florida and whisks it

[00:19:16.03]
into the lake or out to sea.

[00:19:18.06]
South Florida's safe
for the most spectacular

[00:19:21.00]
development boom in human history.

[00:19:24.00]
- [Voiceover] Now they've
come, and how they've come!

[00:19:25.09]
Bringing with them thousands of jobs

[00:19:27.09]
and millions of dollars
of additional income.

[00:19:30.07]
If it weren't for the
Flood Control Project,

[00:19:33.00]
many of them wouldn't be here.

[00:19:37.08]
- [Michael] We've built
this completely artificial

[00:19:40.04]
man-made water management system

[00:19:42.02]
which has sustained a civilization,

[00:19:45.01]
but it's been horrible for nature.

[00:19:47.09]
At first it was very subtle,

[00:19:49.02]
but you've seen these incredible changes.

[00:19:51.07]
Water doesn't hang out
here the way it used to

[00:19:54.07]
when there was an Everglades
covering most of South Florida.

[00:19:57.08]
[ambient guitar music]

[00:20:10.04]
And that's what led to this

[00:20:11.08]
comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan.

[00:20:14.06]
Really a re-plumbing
project for South Florida

[00:20:17.07]
to try to get the water right.

[00:20:19.05]
So Everglades Restoration
has become a model

[00:20:22.05]
for restoration projects
around the country,

[00:20:25.01]
and even around the world.

[00:20:26.05]
People are looking to the Everglades

[00:20:28.01]
to see if man can fix its mistakes.

[00:20:31.00]
The Everglades is a test, and if we pass

[00:20:33.06]
we may get to keep the planet.

[00:20:37.06]
- The Corps of Engineers got started

[00:20:39.04]
in all of this a long time ago.

[00:20:41.03]
Some of those projects
provided flood control

[00:20:46.02]
and water supply, and didn't
take as hard of a look

[00:20:50.06]
at the environmental impacts
and the environmental aspects

[00:20:53.07]
of what those projects would achieve.

[00:20:56.04]
What we have today is an effort to

[00:21:00.02]
really look at the environment

[00:21:02.05]
and more purposefully
balance the natural system

[00:21:06.09]
with the man-made system.

[00:21:10.00]
The bridge that we're looking
at is a one-mile bridge

[00:21:13.01]
that allows water to flow
into Everglades National Park.

[00:21:16.04]
It's critically important
to changing the way

[00:21:19.01]
that water flows from a canal system,

[00:21:21.09]
with point source inputs,
into a sheet flow system,

[00:21:25.05]
and how that really supplies
clean drinking water

[00:21:28.05]
to the eight million people
that live in South Florida.

[00:21:31.08]
What we're looking at, really,
with Everglades Restoration

[00:21:35.00]
is that it's more important
than ever in the face of

[00:21:37.08]
climate change and sea level rise.

[00:21:40.00]
Making sure that we push
back the salt water intrusion

[00:21:43.08]
with continued flow of fresh water.

[00:21:48.01]
The more that you become involved
in Everglades Restoration,

[00:21:51.07]
the more important you realize that it is.

[00:21:56.02]
And the only thing that
keeps me up at night

[00:22:01.01]
is trying to get this done quicker.

[00:22:05.02]
[ambient atmospheric music]

[00:22:23.05]
[bluesy guitar music]

[00:22:25.04]
- Turn on the mag.

[00:22:26.03]
[engine rumbling]

[00:22:29.08]
Now we know she's gonna start.

[00:22:32.05]
Bring that big bad boy
out here and let him see

[00:22:34.09]
a big horsepower motor.

[00:22:36.00]
[laughing]

[00:22:46.03]
Hold tight.

[00:22:47.08]
[rumbling]

[00:22:53.01]
I dream about it at night,
to tell you the truth.

[00:22:57.02]
I dream about my
Everglades, riding to camp,

[00:23:02.06]
spinning around and seeing a big gator--

[00:23:05.03]
shut off and watch him.

[00:23:08.01]
It's just being away from
in town, and we get out here

[00:23:12.05]
there's no complication.

[00:23:13.06]
Everybody that comes here is
all like your best friends

[00:23:18.05]
or become your best friends.

[00:23:24.07]
I like riding airboats barefoot,

[00:23:27.02]
just the feeling of being free.

[00:23:30.04]
My name is Donald E. Onstead.

[00:23:35.00]
They call me The Legend.

[00:23:41.02]
Been doing this all my life.

[00:23:43.05]
I had my first airboat when I was 16.

[00:23:46.07]
Been an airboat club
member since I was 16.

[00:23:51.06]
Maybe I'll show you my
special little gator I got

[00:23:55.04]
over here, he's about a 12 footer

[00:23:57.04]
and he likes everybody.

[00:23:58.05]
[laughing]

[00:24:12.00]
[calling to alligator]
[banging]

[00:24:14.09]
[calling to alligator]
[splashing]

[00:24:19.05]
I know you love me.

[00:24:21.07]
I been messing with
this guy for six years--

[00:24:26.03]
ever since he's been about four
foot, three and a half foot.

[00:24:30.00]
Now he's really big.

[00:24:32.05]
[calling to alligator]

[00:24:36.05]
I know of guys that's gotten
bitten and lost fingers

[00:24:40.01]
and hands and so forth, but not for me.

[00:24:43.08]
I'm gentle.

[00:24:44.08]
I can feel a gator, I can
touch him, I can lift his tail,

[00:24:48.05]
I can hold him easy and let him back down.

[00:24:52.05]
You treat them with respect,

[00:24:54.04]
I believe they treat you with respect.

[00:24:59.09]
[engine roaring]

[00:25:04.02]
These little islands around
here, they're history.

[00:25:08.03]
It's unbelievable.

[00:25:09.07]
I remember going to those
camps when I was 15 and 16

[00:25:13.02]
and seeing all these
celebrities that came here then.

[00:25:18.00]
President Eisenhower, he'd
come out to the Duck Club.

[00:25:21.08]
He was an avid duck hunter.

[00:25:24.00]
[engine roaring]

[00:25:34.01]
In 1957, the game
commissioners came in here

[00:25:37.06]
and built this camp for the governor.

[00:25:40.06]
So after he quit being the
governor of the state of Florida,

[00:25:43.07]
they moved the Game Commission
out here to this facility,

[00:25:48.03]
which the old gator
poachers and the old guys

[00:25:51.06]
didn't like them having a house out here

[00:25:54.04]
in the middle of the Everglades.

[00:25:56.03]
So they burnt this camp to the ground.

[00:25:59.04]
In 1962, we built this camp.

[00:26:03.04]
In 1992, I became half owner of this place

[00:26:08.08]
for $1000.

[00:26:11.09]
You met my beautiful wife, Carol Ann.

[00:26:14.08]
Ow!

[00:26:15.09]
- Oh, you mean me?

[00:26:16.07]
[laughing]

[00:26:17.05]
[upbeat country music]

[00:26:20.01]
- That's my rat catcher
right there, buddy.

[00:26:22.05]
Right now I'm at war with
a rat that's probably--

[00:26:26.05]
no tail, from nose to back end, that big.

[00:26:30.04]
Looks like a small kitten.

[00:26:32.03]
- [Woman] Yeah, scary.

[00:26:33.05]
- He's mine.

[00:26:34.03]
I'm gonna eat that dude.

[00:26:35.07]
[laughing]

[00:26:37.04]
- This is the kind of area you look for

[00:26:39.06]
when you want to come out and spend more

[00:26:41.04]
than just a day out here.

[00:26:43.00]
I'm flattered that I
have Donnie as a friend

[00:26:46.02]
and that he thinks enough
of me to invite me out here.

[00:26:50.01]
Some people's country's in the mountains

[00:26:51.07]
or out in the prairies.

[00:26:53.04]
In South Florida, this is country.

[00:26:56.00]
It doesn't get much
more country than this.

[00:27:00.01]
- One time the water was so
deep it was like mid-calf.

[00:27:03.05]
Well I was standing on
this step right here,

[00:27:06.03]
casting and catching fish
right here-- tilapia.

[00:27:12.01]
[engine roaring]

[00:27:14.02]
- That water's ice cold.

[00:27:16.00]
You get underneath that
and that's the best shower

[00:27:18.03]
in the world.

[00:27:20.05]
[acoustic guitar music]

[00:27:23.08]
I'm a picker, I'm a bluegrasser.

[00:27:27.00]
Guitars, banjos, mandolins, fiddles--

[00:27:29.02]
little bit of everything, master of none.

[00:27:32.03]
But that's the kind of
stuff we do out here.

[00:27:35.07]
♪ Pig at home in a pen ♪

[00:27:37.07]
♪ Corn to feed him on ♪

[00:27:40.00]
♪ All I need's a pretty little gal ♪

[00:27:42.03]
♪ To feed him when I'm gone ♪

[00:27:44.08]
When I first met Carol Ann, I said,

[00:27:46.09]
"Would you like to join
the Alligator Club?"

[00:27:50.05]
She said, "Of course."

[00:27:52.06]
So I take her out and I grab
a little gator up about,

[00:27:56.02]
oh maybe two feet.

[00:27:58.07]
And I said, "You gotta
hold him in your mouth."

[00:28:01.04]
She said, "What?"

[00:28:03.03]
I bite on top of his mouth,
and "Hold your hands out for me

[00:28:08.00]
so I can take your picture
and show it to the guys

[00:28:11.05]
at the Alligator Club guys."

[00:28:13.08]
She takes this little gator,
she does this and holds

[00:28:16.08]
her hands out and I take the
pictures and I blow it up

[00:28:19.07]
about this big, give it to her.

[00:28:21.03]
[laughing]

[00:28:23.08]
- I was puffed up too, buddy!

[00:28:25.06]
- I 'member her saying, "Look,
I'm in the Alligator Club.

[00:28:28.07]
I'm in the Alligator Club!"

[00:28:30.09]
Said, "Girl, you're crazy!"

[00:28:32.06]
[laughing]

[00:28:33.08]
- Nobody does that!

[00:28:34.07]
- I'm like, well you guys did it!

[00:28:36.03]
"Nah, nobody does that."

[00:28:38.03]
It's been 30 years of
stuff like that, hadn't it?

[00:28:42.00]
- Okay guys, we're gonna
take a ride up through

[00:28:43.09]
Hoot Owl Hollow and try
to do a sundown ride out.

[00:28:48.09]
- Nice.

[00:28:49.08]
- There's nothing like the
sundowns in the Everglades.

[00:28:53.08]
I guess it would be the same
if we got up early enough

[00:28:56.09]
to see the sunrise.

[00:28:58.00]
[laughing]

[00:29:01.02]
[engine rumbling]

[00:29:16.00]
- Okay guys, on to the next one.

[00:29:18.04]
Nothing like having a little bit of fun.

[00:29:21.05]
Here's where she rides, right there.

[00:29:23.08]
She don't want to be down there.

[00:29:25.01]
She wants to be right there.

[00:29:32.06]
[upbeat country music]

[00:29:34.01]
This is nature at its best, right here.

[00:29:56.06]
♪ Some people out there ♪

[00:29:59.03]
♪ Would like to blow me up ♪

[00:30:03.05]
♪ Can't use a bus or train
now I don't drive my truck ♪

[00:30:10.03]
♪ What in the world ♪

[00:30:13.00]
♪ Did I ever do ♪

[00:30:16.07]
♪ I don't recall ever
doing anything to you ♪

[00:30:23.00]
♪ Get me outta here, help me to the door ♪

[00:30:29.02]
♪ I just don't like that
kind of livin' anymore ♪

[00:30:40.06]
- I was raised in the Everglades.

[00:30:42.06]
She's raising in the Everglades
as much as possible anymore.

[00:30:47.02]
It's your life, it's like
being at a certain town

[00:30:49.08]
for so long you don't know
anything else but that town.

[00:30:54.01]
And this is the way it is here.

[00:30:55.08]
We don't know anything else but this.

[00:30:58.05]
- I've been coming out here
since I was, like, a day old.

[00:31:02.04]
And when I hear my dad's stories,

[00:31:04.03]
it's sad how I can't do
half the stuff that he did.

[00:31:10.00]
Kind of, like, breaks my heart.

[00:31:16.00]
- Kind of reminds me of
that old hippie song--

[00:31:19.00]
♪ Signs, signs, everywhere's a sign ♪

[00:31:22.06]
♪ Blocking up the scenery
and changing my mind ♪

[00:31:26.04]
♪ Do this, don't do that,
can't you read the sign ♪

[00:31:30.05]
[laughing]

[00:31:32.09]
The perfect sign for it.

[00:31:34.04]
What it is, it's stopping us,

[00:31:35.08]
telling us we can't run out here no more.

[00:31:37.09]
No buggies.

[00:31:39.07]
They got a four wheeler,

[00:31:41.03]
and they got a motorcycle.

[00:31:42.08]
And at one time there was a
trail here that you could go

[00:31:46.00]
through the cypress and hunt
right over on the other side.

[00:31:50.00]
It's a mess.

[00:31:51.09]
Believe it or not, you
can actually eat sawgrass.

[00:31:56.01]
Tastes like coconut.

[00:31:58.02]
But the sawgrass-- if you
ever get really messed up

[00:32:01.08]
and have to eat something--

[00:32:06.03]
this white bottom piece, you peel it off.

[00:32:12.00]
Tastes like coconut.

[00:32:17.08]
But the sawgrass,

[00:32:18.08]
that's where it soaks up
all the water in the roots

[00:32:20.05]
and it tastes just like coconut.

[00:32:22.02]
But it has alot of moisture in
there and you get your water.

[00:32:25.07]
But sawgrass,

[00:32:27.07]
if you're looking at it,

[00:32:30.00]
you can run your hand one way

[00:32:34.06]
and it's smooth like a saw blade.

[00:32:37.00]
But if you come back the other way,

[00:32:37.09]
you'll see my finger jittering on it.

[00:32:41.00]
Okay, this is where they
made a designated airboat

[00:32:45.01]
launching area.

[00:32:47.04]
Now, all this property
used to be my family's.

[00:32:54.02]
- [Carol] Well, what we do here
is we check the hunters in.

[00:32:56.06]
We check their game when they come in.

[00:32:59.04]
We weigh 'em. I measure the horns,

[00:33:01.07]
make sure they're legal, pull
the jaw bone off the deer

[00:33:04.03]
when they come in so we can age the deer.

[00:33:07.05]
It's a nice job.

[00:33:09.05]
See this alligator right here?

[00:33:11.05]
- [David] Oh, looka him.

[00:33:14.00]
- That gator...

[00:33:17.02]
...is about 14 foot long.

[00:33:19.05]
We call her my yard dog.

[00:33:21.04]
When people see it laying in the yard,

[00:33:22.07]
they don't bother to venture in there.

[00:33:25.06]
That's what we call our pets.

[00:33:28.00]
And finally somebody shot her in the head

[00:33:29.04]
and knocked her eye out

[00:33:31.04]
and they had to have her taken outta here,

[00:33:34.01]
because she was
malnutritious and dangerous.

[00:33:38.00]
[laughing]

[00:33:41.00]
There you go, there's another.

[00:33:44.09]
- This is the old man here when he was

[00:33:47.07]
probably my age right here.

[00:33:50.00]
Went hunting that morning.

[00:33:51.09]
This is all of us down here
running around in the airboats.

[00:33:56.00]
- It's the most fun you can
have with your clothes on.

[00:33:58.06]
[laughing]

[00:34:00.00]
How's that, that a good way to put it?

[00:34:02.00]
- [David] Not according to Grandpa.

[00:34:04.00]
- I was conceived on an airboat.

[00:34:06.04]
[laughing]

[00:34:07.09]
- The first time I went out in the airboat

[00:34:09.01]
was with him, his dad, and
David was six months old.

[00:34:13.06]
You cannot describe
what you feel out there.

[00:34:17.00]
You don't know if you're
gonna go around a head

[00:34:19.01]
and see a big old bear standing up.

[00:34:21.06]
You don't know if you're gonna see a cat.

[00:34:25.00]
I mean, the airboat takes
you where you can't get to.

[00:34:29.04]
- [David] That's one of
the game commission guys

[00:34:31.02]
and that's Dad.

[00:34:34.04]
- I grew up eating alligators,
'cause if it wasn't

[00:34:36.08]
for alligators sometimes we
wouldn't of had nothing to eat.

[00:34:40.08]
I love it.

[00:34:41.06]
But my father broke me from eating snakes.

[00:34:44.02]
'Cause I was the one that
had to kill the snakes

[00:34:46.07]
and skin 'em and all for him to eat 'em.

[00:34:48.08]
He liked to eat
rattlesnakes and moccasins.

[00:34:51.08]
And then my family had to do
something to make a living

[00:34:54.00]
and a dollar.

[00:34:55.00]
Well they logged the big
cypress in all the Everglades

[00:34:58.00]
and they had the largest mills.

[00:35:01.08]
'Course Grandpa Charlie
spelled it, not M-I-L-L,

[00:35:05.04]
but S-C-I-L.

[00:35:06.03]
There was more money in that.

[00:35:07.05]
[laughing]

[00:35:08.09]
Then later on, they asked
my dad to be a game warden.

[00:35:12.03]
- One of the first ones.

[00:35:14.02]
- You don't see a Game
Commission out here no more.

[00:35:16.04]
Game Commission just stepped
back and let Park Service

[00:35:18.02]
take over the whole thing.

[00:35:19.05]
And they ain't done nothing
but just stop us from

[00:35:21.00]
coming out here, and that's
how they can only have

[00:35:22.09]
four or five rangers take
care of the whole place.

[00:35:25.02]
It's crazy. It's crazy.

[00:35:28.06]
- There's these people want
to save it and everything.

[00:35:32.05]
Well, so do I.

[00:35:35.05]
I was the President of the
Airboat Association of Florida

[00:35:37.09]
for 26 years.

[00:35:39.05]
I testified in Congress
twice on Everglades issues.

[00:35:44.06]
An airboat and a buggy harms
nothing in the Everglades.

[00:35:49.08]
- If you didn't live it,

[00:35:51.08]
you wouldn't know what we're missing.

[00:35:54.09]
And we don't have it anymore.

[00:35:57.06]
It's sad, and it's sad for them.

[00:36:00.06]
She's not gonna be able to do

[00:36:01.09]
what he did when he was
growing up and it just...

[00:36:06.00]
It breaks your heart when you
know you can't have it back.

[00:36:10.02]
- And we gotta figure out
some kind of way to run

[00:36:13.02]
the National Park flat
out of South Florida.

[00:36:18.07]
I'd love to, but I don't know how.

[00:36:20.07]
[laughing]

[00:36:29.06]
[upbeat rock music]

[00:36:37.07]
- We mainly came to see some alligators.

[00:36:43.08]
- This little guy is
gonna grow to 18 feet.

[00:37:03.06]
- I've met people from every
country in this world I'm sure.

[00:37:07.01]
[laughing]

[00:37:08.01]
We educate them about the
wildlife that's out here--

[00:37:11.05]
something they've never seen before.

[00:37:13.07]
It's really the way to see the Everglades.

[00:37:17.08]
Now the lily pads that you
see growing in the water

[00:37:21.03]
on both sides, those are
called spatter-docks.

[00:37:26.09]
Now the Seminole Indian always
said that the flower itself

[00:37:31.07]
would never fully bloom
as long as man was here.

[00:37:36.09]
Folks, let's go for a ride
through the River of Grass.

[00:37:41.00]
Welcome to my backyard!

[00:37:45.03]
[engine roaring]

[00:37:49.05]
Right now we take thousands and thousands

[00:37:51.05]
of people a year out to see it.

[00:37:53.08]
And they keep coming.

[00:37:55.08]
[light acoustic guitar music]

[00:38:10.00]
This is a part of the channel
that we can usually find

[00:38:15.07]
a couple of alligators.

[00:38:18.05]
This is gonna be about
a five and a half footer

[00:38:20.05]
that we call Lily.

[00:38:24.08]
I mean, if they take this
away from the public,

[00:38:27.09]
how else are they gonna
see the Everglades?

[00:38:30.07]
You tell people that you got
the Everglades National Park.

[00:38:34.01]
I mean, yes, there are many
trails, many places to walk.

[00:38:37.06]
But the main way to see it is by airboat.

[00:38:41.07]
We're running in designated trails.

[00:38:44.09]
That's the biggest
thing-- staying in trails.

[00:38:48.06]
Now as far as the private
airboaters running out

[00:38:52.03]
and just being able to
go anywhere they want--

[00:38:54.03]
that's gonna tear it up.

[00:38:55.04]
If it's not taken care
of, it's not gonna be here

[00:38:58.04]
for the young ones to enjoy
later on down the life.

[00:39:14.04]
[engine roaring]

[00:39:32.03]
- [Man] Why aren't you afraid of your kids

[00:39:33.05]
being eaten by gators?

[00:39:35.05]
- [David] Them probably
the meanest kids out here.

[00:39:37.01]
Look at their daddy!

[00:39:38.09]
Gator wouldn't stand a chance.

[00:39:42.00]
- You follow the noise
off to the east of us,

[00:39:45.05]
there's a large boat, tour boat,

[00:39:47.02]
that's gonna be coming out in a minute.

[00:39:57.08]
We're all in agreeance
that airboating is by far

[00:40:00.07]
the best way to see the Everglades.

[00:40:03.06]
Back when they were anti-airboat 100%,

[00:40:06.04]
it was proven to the
National Park that two thirds

[00:40:10.01]
of the people in the world
that visit the Everglades

[00:40:14.01]
visit it by airboat.

[00:40:16.01]
Now, the larger boats,
their size, their weight--

[00:40:20.04]
these boats have a
greater impact than we do.

[00:40:24.09]
- It's like a dog in a yard.

[00:40:26.04]
If he runs the fenceline all day long,

[00:40:28.07]
that's the spot that's gonna get worn.

[00:40:30.09]
And the same thing with these.

[00:40:32.04]
They gotta push harder,
and it makes more noise

[00:40:35.04]
and the birds ain't
gonna be around as much.

[00:40:37.02]
The smaller boat, the more horse power,

[00:40:39.03]
the less noise and less
vibration you have on the water.

[00:40:43.09]
- Now they're going to allow
the three concessions to stay,

[00:40:47.01]
but run us out because of
our impact on the Everglades?

[00:40:50.06]
How can they pick out one
group and not the other?

[00:40:54.00]
Our impact is minimal compared to these.

[00:40:56.08]
We should be able to run within
the same airboating bubble

[00:41:00.05]
that they're allowing these guys to do.

[00:41:03.02]
- If they're gonna discriminate against us

[00:41:04.09]
and not lettin' us come out here,

[00:41:07.01]
why should the Park Service make the money

[00:41:08.09]
and throw us out?

[00:41:10.09]
It's not fair.

[00:41:11.08]
If they ain't got the money
to run an area, get out

[00:41:14.05]
and let the Game Commission have it back.

[00:41:17.02]
Bottom line.

[00:41:22.00]
- If I go out in the
Everglades, sometimes I'll just

[00:41:24.06]
drive for a couple hours or
so and I'll just stop the boat

[00:41:28.01]
and just feel nature around me.

[00:41:32.04]
To be connected with nature,
that's why a lot of people

[00:41:35.04]
get into airboating,
is to be a part of it.

[00:41:40.03]
And it's that love for being
out in the environment,

[00:41:44.02]
an airboat makes sense.

[00:41:59.00]
Buffalo Tiger Airboat Tours is named after

[00:42:01.08]
one of my husband's uncles,
William Buffalo Tiger,

[00:42:04.06]
who was the very first
elected chairman of our tribe.

[00:42:07.04]
And after he left chairmanship,
he started the airboat tours

[00:42:10.03]
as a way to continue to
educate about the Everglades.

[00:42:16.09]
This photo here...

[00:42:21.00]
...is a very important photo...

[00:42:23.08]
...taken in 1930

[00:42:28.00]
with Governor Schultz.

[00:42:30.04]
And they told him,

[00:42:31.05]
"Pohoan checkish,"

[00:42:33.02]
which means "Leave us alone."

[00:42:35.01]
And that meant, leave us
alone to be who we are,

[00:42:38.03]
to govern our own
people, to live our life.

[00:42:41.05]
We just want the right
and the freedom to exist

[00:42:45.02]
here in our homeland.

[00:42:48.04]
Basically what everybody else wants.

[00:42:51.04]
As communities got built,
the areas of the Everglades

[00:42:54.03]
got smaller and smaller,

[00:42:55.07]
and also the more chemicals
put into the water.

[00:42:58.08]
Our people left the tree islands
and came to the mainland.

[00:43:02.00]
I would love for my
grandchildren to grow up

[00:43:05.00]
the way I did, fishing
and hunting all the time.

[00:43:07.03]
If I did that now, I would
do that knowingly poisoning

[00:43:11.01]
myself with toxic fish, mercury,

[00:43:14.04]
consuming a lot of phosphorus
that's in the water

[00:43:16.09]
to drink the water.

[00:43:18.02]
That's a sad situation to be in.

[00:43:21.06]
There are times when the big
male alligators will kill

[00:43:25.00]
and eat the smaller alligators.

[00:43:27.00]
It's all a big circle of how the animals

[00:43:29.02]
and the environment out here exist.

[00:43:34.08]
In the time when I grew up,
you could no longer travel

[00:43:37.08]
by dug-out canoe, and so a
lot of the people progressed

[00:43:41.09]
to the airboat because maybe
they didn't have enough water

[00:43:45.02]
to use the dug-out canoe,
but with the invention

[00:43:47.07]
of the airboat, they could still hunt

[00:43:49.00]
and they could still fish.

[00:43:52.00]
The Everglades, for the Miccosukee people

[00:43:53.06]
we call it "Kahayatle,"

[00:43:55.08]
which means "shimmering waters."

[00:43:58.08]
It's supposed to be an open river.

[00:44:00.08]
Right now you're not seeing a river,

[00:44:03.07]
and that wasn't done by airboats.

[00:44:08.01]
[engine rumbling]

[00:44:11.01]
This particular island,
it's like the United States

[00:44:13.08]
has George Washington's house.

[00:44:16.00]
Here is our version, we have
Buffalo Tiger's ancestral home.

[00:44:19.08]
This is how our people would've
lived in the Everglades.

[00:44:24.01]
Some of the islands like this one,

[00:44:25.06]
in certain times of the year,
naturally it can get flooded.

[00:44:28.09]
Tree islands, more than
30 days being submerged,

[00:44:32.04]
start to deteriorate
because of the mismanagement

[00:44:35.05]
and the water flows.

[00:44:36.06]
Over 40% loss of tree islands
within the Everglades.

[00:44:40.08]
We're tied to this land.

[00:44:43.00]
This defines who we are as a people.

[00:44:45.09]
[ambient atmospheric music]

[00:44:50.08]
What's happening to the other airboaters

[00:44:53.02]
in Everglades National
Park, I don't agree with it.

[00:44:56.07]
A lot of them call themselves Gladesmen.

[00:44:59.02]
Most of the ones that
I have met are very--

[00:45:02.03]
almost similar to the
indigenous people of how

[00:45:05.04]
they respect nature.

[00:45:08.06]
And for the National
Park to force them out--

[00:45:12.02]
if you're gonna get rid of boating,

[00:45:15.03]
get rid of all boating. Just
don't pick one user group.

[00:45:19.09]
It's all about being responsible

[00:45:21.04]
in how you use that airboat.

[00:45:23.09]
For us, it's a way to get
around in the Everglades.

[00:45:26.05]
But I think there's more
damaging things happening

[00:45:28.08]
to the environment by
other man's creation.

[00:45:33.00]
It makes me sad that
more people can't realize

[00:45:36.03]
without the Everglades,
there will be no us.

[00:45:40.06]
She can survive without us,

[00:45:42.01]
but we can't survive without her.

[00:45:45.03]
We hid in the Everglades
during the Seminole Wars,

[00:45:49.01]
and we've been here ever since.

[00:45:52.04]
She protected us in our time of need,

[00:45:55.01]
and now it's our turn
to do the same thing.

[00:46:05.00]
[upbeat music]

[00:46:07.07]
- Consider a comprehensive
Everglades Restoration Plan.

[00:46:09.07]
There's a...

[00:46:10.06]
- The plan to fix this.

[00:46:11.08]
- ...the plan to restore the Everglades.

[00:46:16.03]
We've just departed our
headquarters in Palmetto Bay

[00:46:19.06]
in south Miami to kick off

[00:46:21.02]
a 12 day, 20 city bus
tour engaging the public

[00:46:25.00]
on the importance of
Everglades Restoration.

[00:46:27.02]
We've got about a third of
the original Everglades left.

[00:46:30.04]
We have to ensure that we protect it.

[00:46:33.09]
- With the focus of advancing
the "Now or Neverglades"

[00:46:37.02]
petition, getting folks to
understand this campaign

[00:46:41.00]
and the need to sign on to that.

[00:46:43.02]
It's about advancing Everglades
Restoration, a plan that

[00:46:46.00]
we've had in place for
almost 16 years now.

[00:46:48.07]
And we feel like we need this
push to make more progress.

[00:46:53.02]
- We're here this morning
because we're in the midst

[00:46:55.06]
of a state of emergency.

[00:46:57.05]
The beauty of this is we have a plan,

[00:46:59.07]
and that plan calls for a new way

[00:47:02.05]
to take polluted lake water

[00:47:04.05]
and send it south, store it so
that it can then be cleansed

[00:47:08.04]
so that we can flow it south
and ultimately send that water

[00:47:11.02]
down to Florida Bay in the Florida Keys.

[00:47:14.06]
The plan is in place, we have the money.

[00:47:17.00]
What we're lacking now
is the political will

[00:47:19.03]
to ensure that these
massive restoration projects

[00:47:22.03]
come online sooner rather than later.

[00:47:25.00]
It is Now or Neverglades.

[00:47:26.09]
Join this movement.

[00:47:27.09]
[crowd clapping]

[00:47:28.08]
- [Woman] We're trying to
collect 100,000 signatures.

[00:47:30.07]
- Cool, cool, cool.

[00:47:31.05]
I'm sure guys will get there.

[00:47:33.04]
- Thank you.

[00:47:34.08]
- So basically what we've
been focusing on this year

[00:47:37.07]
has been talking to young people.

[00:47:39.09]
They can actually do
something to affect change.

[00:47:44.05]
- You're part of a big movement.

[00:47:46.01]
- I've been here in Miami all my life.

[00:47:47.04]
I want to make sure that
my daughters can see

[00:47:50.01]
the Everglades and be
able to see the animals

[00:47:52.00]
and be able to drink clean water.

[00:47:54.01]
It's the last thing I want to see,

[00:47:56.01]
that the Everglades go to waste.

[00:47:59.08]
- Some of the impacts
that we are taking into

[00:48:02.01]
consideration when we're
doing restoration is to try

[00:48:04.08]
and minimize any activities
that might disturb

[00:48:08.00]
the ecosystem.

[00:48:09.00]
Airboating is something that's very fun,

[00:48:10.08]
but we have to take into
consideration that that

[00:48:13.00]
might disturb wildlife.

[00:48:14.05]
- We have a national park
that is actually critical

[00:48:17.08]
to our future.

[00:48:19.05]
So anything that happens in the Everglades

[00:48:21.04]
has not only an impact
on the flora and fauna

[00:48:24.00]
of the Everglades, it has
an impact on the survival

[00:48:28.03]
of people in South Florida.

[00:48:31.01]
We're mutually interdependent.

[00:48:35.04]
[engine rumbling]

[00:48:40.08]
- Good to make the jump to light speed.

[00:48:45.07]
My name is Tom Frankovich, I'm a biologist

[00:48:47.06]
at Florida International University.

[00:48:49.04]
I study marine ecology,

[00:48:51.06]
specifically ecology in seagrass beds.

[00:48:54.08]
We are in eastern Whipray
Basin, which is in Florida Bay.

[00:48:59.09]
This area has historically
been one of the best

[00:49:02.01]
sport fishing areas.

[00:49:03.05]
These seasgrasses contain
a lot of life that the

[00:49:07.05]
sea trout feed on.

[00:49:08.04]
So all the arthropods,
shrimp and small fish

[00:49:12.02]
all get their nutrition
from stuff that grows

[00:49:14.02]
in or on the seagrass beds.

[00:49:16.04]
[water splashing]

[00:49:20.03]
We're seeing a large area
of dead seagrass leaves

[00:49:24.00]
that are laying on the top.

[00:49:25.03]
So we're going through
what appears to be an area

[00:49:27.02]
that was affected by seagrass die-off.

[00:49:29.06]
Without seagrasses, we
would have a flat mud bottom

[00:49:32.09]
without that three-dimensional structure.

[00:49:35.01]
So that provides the habitat
for all these organisms

[00:49:38.02]
and also the nutrition,
production of algae

[00:49:40.08]
that leads up the food web

[00:49:42.00]
up into the higher trophic levels--

[00:49:43.08]
our game fish, and also
our pelicans and ospreys

[00:49:47.02]
that we saw earlier.

[00:49:49.08]
- This area is probably what was once,

[00:49:53.01]
prior to that die-off, one
of the prime fishing spots

[00:49:55.09]
in Florida Bay.

[00:49:57.06]
You don't see any of that here.

[00:49:58.07]
It's very different.

[00:50:00.01]
Thinking long-term, we know
the solution is to flow

[00:50:03.06]
more water from Lake Okeechobee

[00:50:05.03]
back to the Everglades,
ultimately into the Florida Bay

[00:50:09.06]
where we are today, to make
this more of an estuary

[00:50:12.04]
as it once was.

[00:50:15.08]
[ambient atmospheric music]

[00:50:35.01]
[Crowd] People over sugar profits!

[00:50:37.02]
People over sugar profits!

[00:50:39.07]
People over sugar profits!

[00:50:42.01]
- We have a water management
district that is parroting

[00:50:44.07]
the talking points of Big Sugar.

[00:50:47.02]
If we want change, we
need it from the governor.

[00:50:49.07]
He needs to step up and be
our hero and take action

[00:50:52.06]
to save the Everglades,
save the estuaries,

[00:50:55.03]
save our water.

[00:50:56.07]
Next up we have Marty
Baum. Come on down, Marty!

[00:51:00.05]
[crowd cheering and applauding]

[00:51:01.05]
- Just two days ago they
refused to pass a resolution

[00:51:04.04]
in support of the only thing that will

[00:51:06.04]
properly hydrate the Everglades,

[00:51:08.00]
reduce our unnatural
discharges east and west

[00:51:10.05]
and put a positive head
on the Biscayne Aquifer--

[00:51:13.04]
buying land south of the lake.

[00:51:16.03]
We, the citizens of this
state, put an amendment

[00:51:19.02]
on the ballot to provide
funding to restore

[00:51:21.07]
our land legacy monies
to buy the needed land

[00:51:24.04]
to protect our water.

[00:51:25.07]
Then we re-elected the
same officials who stole it

[00:51:28.08]
the first time, and now
they have stolen it again.

[00:51:32.02]
Last summer's toxic algae
blooms will now become

[00:51:35.03]
the new normal for
Florida's water statewide.

[00:51:38.05]
And if you don't believe me,
look at this lake behind us

[00:51:42.00]
full of blue-green algae,

[00:51:44.06]
sponsored by the South Florida
Water Management District.

[00:51:48.02]
Without clean water we
have no tourist industry,

[00:51:50.05]
no fishing, no small boating.

[00:51:52.00]
Fishing alone is worth
more than of all of Ag.

[00:51:56.05]
Water is life.

[00:51:59.02]
Demand clean water. It is your right.

[00:52:03.01]
Thank you.

[00:52:03.09]
[Crowd] Buy the land! Buy
the land! Buy the land!

[00:52:06.03]
[crowd cheering]

[00:52:07.04]
The rally was about the lack of action

[00:52:11.03]
of the South Florida
Water Management District.

[00:52:14.01]
We've gotten 200 billion
gallons of polluted water

[00:52:17.09]
dumped into our estuary.

[00:52:19.04]
We're talking two and a half
million pounds of nitrogen,

[00:52:22.00]
a million pounds of phosphorus,

[00:52:24.01]
three million pounds of
sediment into what was just

[00:52:27.06]
a couple years ago the most
biodiverse estuary in all of

[00:52:31.06]
North America, that contains
more than 800 species of fish--

[00:52:36.04]
all of the Bahamas only has 500.

[00:52:38.07]
And that is now all a desert,

[00:52:41.08]
thanks to polluted water
and Florida water policy

[00:52:45.03]
that favors agriculture
instead of the people.

[00:52:54.00]
[acoustic guitar music]

[00:53:26.08]
- [Man] We have a full agenda
today, and with that in mind

[00:53:29.01]
I want to emphasize,
everyone, please be brief.

[00:53:31.09]
We're gonna start to
my right and go around.

[00:53:34.00]
- [Woman] We're all so conscious
of the fact that there are

[00:53:36.02]
eight million plus people
that have to be considered

[00:53:39.01]
in South Florida when
we're looking at working to

[00:53:41.01]
restore the Everglades.

[00:53:42.07]
- The South Florida Water
Management District is one of

[00:53:45.01]
five districts that are
created by the state.

[00:53:47.03]
Our mission is flood
control and water supply

[00:53:50.00]
for the human environment,

[00:53:51.04]
however based on the
restoration plans that have been

[00:53:54.07]
laid forward by the
legislature so that we could do

[00:53:57.02]
Everglades Restoration--
which makes us a little unique

[00:53:59.06]
from some of the other districts.

[00:54:00.08]
- [Man] If there is a need
for additional storage

[00:54:02.08]
in the area, the district
would look at funding

[00:54:06.03]
the remaining 73 to 96 million dollars.

[00:54:09.00]
- They'll take every drop
that we can send them.

[00:54:12.01]
- That river was designated in 1985.

[00:54:14.06]
We still haven't gotten water to it.

[00:54:15.09]
- Why did we not send the extra--

[00:54:20.09]
at least 600,000 acre feet of water--

[00:54:22.09]
through the park into
Florida Bay this year?

[00:54:26.04]
- We need to focus on what's
best for the taxpayer.

[00:54:29.02]
When I say what's best for the taxpayer,

[00:54:30.08]
I mean we need to focus on what we have

[00:54:32.04]
for state-owned lands.

[00:54:39.04]
- We're in the control room right now--

[00:54:40.05]
our four technicians that
are here all the time,

[00:54:42.07]
monitoring the system for
everything from bad sensors to

[00:54:46.04]
high water levels that require responses.

[00:54:49.03]
So we cover all the water
management from up in Disney World

[00:54:53.02]
all the way down to the Keys
and over on the west coast

[00:54:55.09]
and Fort Myers and Collier County.

[00:54:57.04]
We have 50 major pump stations,
and by major pump stations

[00:55:00.05]
we mean pump stations
that would fill this room

[00:55:03.00]
in seconds with water.

[00:55:04.07]
We can open gates, turn on pumps,

[00:55:07.04]
we can look at the whole system.

[00:55:09.07]
We can see the rain as it
falls-- we have about 300

[00:55:12.04]
rain gauges that we see
online within seconds

[00:55:14.09]
of the rainfall so we can
get ahead of the runoff.

[00:55:17.07]
Over here, we have our control systems.

[00:55:20.09]
That is just a small portion of it.

[00:55:22.08]
If you put them all on one
screen, it would be unreadable.

[00:55:27.00]
- The overwhelming majority
of water that we have

[00:55:29.08]
to sustain life here arrives
as rain in our district.

[00:55:33.02]
If we get a 20% drop off in
rainfall in any given year,

[00:55:36.04]
that's a big impact because
there's a lot of people,

[00:55:38.03]
a lot of straws in the water.

[00:55:40.00]
It's kind a like cutting
back 20% of how much

[00:55:41.07]
you get to eat everyday.

[00:55:42.09]
It takes a toll the longer it lasts.

[00:55:49.07]
- On a nice breezy day,

[00:55:51.08]
sitting in the middle of the sawgrass

[00:55:53.08]
and you hear the wind blow,

[00:55:55.05]
that sawgrass just...

[00:55:57.03]
[vocalizing]

[00:56:00.07]
[trumpet music]

[00:56:09.09]
- There was concern a few
years ago that the culture

[00:56:12.08]
that I'm a part of, the Gladesmen culture,

[00:56:14.06]
the local history and culture

[00:56:16.07]
was being lost and disappeared.

[00:56:18.05]
The Park Service was ignoring it.

[00:56:20.04]
And so they came up with the
wonderful idea to have an

[00:56:23.08]
annual Swamp Cultural Heritage Festival

[00:56:27.03]
and have people from the
surrounding area come in

[00:56:30.01]
and talk about their growing up here

[00:56:32.01]
and their life experiences
and in their interaction

[00:56:35.02]
with the Big Cypress Swamp--

[00:56:36.09]
which is my favorite place in the world.

[00:56:38.08]
[laughing]

[00:56:40.01]
- You want a demonstration on
how it constricts something

[00:56:42.03]
and kills it?

[00:56:43.03]
Well, let me get your sound guy.

[00:56:44.09]
[laughing]

[00:56:45.09]
♪ Cowboys and Indians roam free ♪

[00:56:49.03]
And so I've fallen in love
with wild Florida hard,

[00:56:51.09]
but there's a lot of fightin' to do left.

[00:56:54.05]
♪ Every chance I get ♪

[00:56:56.07]
♪ In old Florida I ride ♪

[00:56:59.00]
- Gladesmen, today, it's our extinction.

[00:57:02.07]
You're the last of your race.

[00:57:04.01]
You're the last of the dinosaurs,

[00:57:06.07]
stomping around in the swamps.

[00:57:08.07]
I'm here for the last
part of the Everglades.

[00:57:10.07]
I'm here to see the end
part of the Everglades,

[00:57:12.08]
where other people got to enjoy it.

[00:57:14.05]
♪ Chance I get ♪

[00:57:15.07]
♪ In old Florida I ride ♪

[00:57:17.07]
[crowd applauding]

[00:57:23.00]
- This is right behind the
house in the Big Cypress.

[00:57:26.05]
This is one of the first shots I took.

[00:57:28.03]
The shutter didn't work.

[00:57:31.00]
And I made some interesting
comments to nature.

[00:57:34.04]
[laughing]

[00:57:36.06]
And then I started
exploring more and more.

[00:57:39.05]
And then of course the most
dangerous part of Everglades--

[00:57:42.08]
lightning.

[00:57:44.04]
You ever got your hair stand on end?

[00:57:46.04]
Lightning come out of your fingers?

[00:57:48.07]
Yeah, that's good stuff.

[00:57:50.08]
I started walking the Everglades in 1984.

[00:57:54.01]
I have never met another person here.

[00:57:58.02]
How many places in the
United States in parks

[00:58:00.03]
can you say you've never
met another person?

[00:58:03.00]
How many places?

[00:58:05.05]
It's hard to find something
like this anywhere in the world.

[00:58:09.04]
This swamp here, you just
can't keep it from growing.

[00:58:12.07]
It has a life of its own.

[00:58:15.04]
It's always changing.

[00:58:17.02]
I can go back to the
same spot year after year

[00:58:19.01]
and its different.

[00:58:22.00]
A lot of tourists love
the airboats out here.

[00:58:24.06]
But to me, it's disserving the wildlife.

[00:58:27.02]
You're making canals out of the airboats.

[00:58:30.07]
So there's other ways
of seeing the Everglades

[00:58:32.06]
besides airboats.

[00:58:33.08]
I think you get a lot more if you walk

[00:58:37.04]
or you canoe, going slow.

[00:58:40.07]
Going that fast, you're getting
a kind of an overall brush

[00:58:43.02]
feeling of it, but you're
not getting the real feeling

[00:58:45.07]
of what it's all about.

[00:58:47.01]
[soft acoustic music and chanting]

[00:58:50.09]
Our son with three other
guys were going to a movie.

[00:58:54.03]
And they were making a left
hand turn and there was a car...

[00:58:58.06]
broadsided the car and
killed him instantly.

[00:59:03.06]
When our son was killed,
I basically went to the

[00:59:07.01]
environment to heal.

[00:59:09.05]
When you get something that's beyond you,

[00:59:11.02]
that's been here 10,000 years,

[00:59:14.00]
you know there's consistency in life.

[00:59:16.03]
I think that's really important,
when you have a problem,

[00:59:20.08]
to go to these places.

[00:59:23.09]
If there's no places like this to go,

[00:59:25.03]
it makes it a little more
difficult to cure yourself.

[00:59:29.01]
My concern about global
warming is we're not gonna have

[00:59:32.00]
any Everglades.

[00:59:33.01]
We're only at 10 feet here.

[00:59:35.08]
When Greenland goes, it's
gonna be 20 feet here.

[00:59:39.05]
We're gonna be underwater.

[00:59:43.06]
If the Everglades is not here,

[00:59:45.08]
Miami's not here.

[00:59:47.09]
Fort Lauderdale's not here.

[00:59:48.09]
New York City is not here.

[00:59:52.01]
I just love this place, and
to have it under the ocean?

[00:59:57.09]
Not that far off in the future.

[01:00:01.01]
[water splashing]

[01:00:05.06]
- It's right where we found an alligator

[01:00:07.06]
a few weeks ago when we were out sampling.

[01:00:10.00]
I was feet from its mouth.
Now we're a little bit

[01:00:12.08]
more cautious when we come out here.

[01:00:15.01]
Obviously we're in the
Everglades and you need

[01:00:17.06]
to pay attention to that.

[01:00:23.00]
[acoustic guitar music]

[01:00:29.07]
In the Everglades, one
of the main types of soil

[01:00:33.00]
is called peat, and it
stores a lot of carbon.

[01:00:40.09]
So one thing that we're worried
about with sea level rise

[01:00:44.02]
is that the ability of the Everglades

[01:00:47.01]
and other coastal wetlands
to store amounts of carbon,

[01:00:51.05]
preventing the release
of green house gases,

[01:00:55.01]
that function will be
altered as salinity comes in

[01:00:58.07]
and stresses the system.

[01:01:00.03]
At this site it's historically
fresh, and it's still fresh,

[01:01:04.06]
but in the future it may see
some increase in salt levels.

[01:01:08.08]
So one of the things we're
trying to figure out here

[01:01:12.02]
is how adding salt--

[01:01:15.03]
like what you would see
with sea level rise--

[01:01:17.04]
will affect that ability of this peat soil

[01:01:21.03]
to maintain its function
as a carbon storage area.

[01:01:28.03]
What we do is we come
out, we add our salt water

[01:01:30.05]
and then take a bunch of
measurements to see how

[01:01:33.01]
different processes will
change in the future

[01:01:36.07]
when it gets saltier
because of sea level rise.

[01:01:39.09]
And in the future, when sea
level rises, there will be more

[01:01:42.07]
salt water coming in and
it will alter the species

[01:01:47.03]
composition that you see in the marsh

[01:01:49.07]
and it will affect the Everglades' ability

[01:01:52.04]
to recharge our aquifers.

[01:01:55.02]
Even if you aren't necessarily
fond of the Everglades,

[01:02:00.00]
it provides a service
of clean drinking water

[01:02:03.01]
to South Florida and that
will affect everybody.

[01:02:08.00]
- You can smell the sulfur.

[01:02:12.05]
And the sulfur comes from salt water.

[01:02:15.08]
So the rock underneath
us is really porous,

[01:02:18.09]
so it contains these holes
that allow water to move

[01:02:23.09]
through this rock pretty easily.

[01:02:26.07]
So as the sea level comes up,
there's no barrier between

[01:02:31.00]
that salt water from below
and the wetlands above.

[01:02:36.04]
I mean, really, the only
thing that's protecting

[01:02:39.04]
our fresh water from salt
water is more fresh water.

[01:02:44.00]
[laughing]

[01:02:45.09]
Over 90% of Miami-Dade
County residents get their

[01:02:49.04]
drinking water from the Biscayne Aquifer,

[01:02:51.08]
which these Everglades wetlands protect.

[01:03:07.01]
In South Florida, it's
not just sea level rise

[01:03:10.03]
that contributes to salt water intrusion.

[01:03:12.00]
It's the diversion of fresh water

[01:03:14.05]
from its historic flow path.

[01:03:19.00]
The way that we manage
the system will have

[01:03:22.02]
a large impact on the
future of the Everglades.

[01:03:27.01]
- My name's Harold Wanless,
I am the professor and Chair

[01:03:30.03]
of the Department of Geological Sciences

[01:03:32.02]
at the University of Miami
in Coral Gables, Florida.

[01:03:35.08]
My research have been looking
at the last 7,000 years

[01:03:40.01]
of our evolution of our
coastal environments

[01:03:43.02]
as sea level rose to its present position.

[01:03:47.01]
Right now, the amount of
carbon dioxide we put in

[01:03:49.07]
the atmosphere, we haven't
seen this for nearly

[01:03:52.03]
a million years-- and last
time carbon dioxide levels

[01:03:56.01]
were at this level, sea level
was 70 to 90 feet higher

[01:03:59.02]
than it is today.

[01:04:00.09]
That's where we're headed.

[01:04:03.00]
Global warming is really
the buildup of the heat

[01:04:06.03]
that's caught in the atmosphere,

[01:04:07.06]
it's transferred to the ocean.

[01:04:09.00]
Over 93% of our heat's
transferred to the ocean.

[01:04:12.05]
That warmed ocean water is
getting in under the outlet

[01:04:16.04]
fjords and glacial
outlets to both Antarctica

[01:04:19.06]
and Greenland, and accelerating ice melt.

[01:04:22.04]
And that's the huge
concern for the future.

[01:04:24.07]
This whole area, Miami-Dade
County and Broward County,

[01:04:29.01]
is basically uninhabitable.

[01:04:31.01]
It's truly unbelievable
how low the land is

[01:04:33.07]
that we live on.

[01:04:36.08]
I don't think that there's
anything we can do to stop it

[01:04:39.00]
because when you start
looking at the feedbacks

[01:04:42.02]
we're seeing that are
speeding up ice melt,

[01:04:44.04]
it means we're probably
in for a 10 to 20 foot

[01:04:47.00]
rise of sea level

[01:04:48.01]
shortly after the end of this
century, or maybe before.

[01:04:52.02]
South Florida

[01:04:55.04]
is gonna be underwater soon.

[01:04:59.07]
We knew about sea level rise

[01:05:01.03]
when they started Everglades Restoration,

[01:05:03.06]
and so you do have to look at,

[01:05:05.04]
is this worth doing?

[01:05:07.00]
And I been up to Florida
legislature several times.

[01:05:10.08]
And you know darn well
they're looking for an excuse

[01:05:12.08]
not to spend money.

[01:05:15.01]
You can question whether
we should be doing it,

[01:05:17.06]
but rather than look at that
as the end of the Everglades

[01:05:21.02]
and look at that as learning how to manage

[01:05:24.08]
a dynamic, evolving coastal
wetland with sea level rise--

[01:05:28.01]
I think that's money very very well spent

[01:05:31.00]
that will apply all over
the world to learning how

[01:05:35.07]
to manage dynamic, evolving wetlands.

[01:05:43.07]
- As a child here growing
up in South Florida,

[01:05:46.06]
one of the things I was
taught as a kid was how to

[01:05:48.07]
take and prepare a conch shell.

[01:05:52.09]
Back when I was still
working, we were working the

[01:05:56.03]
Lake Kissimee Drawdown.

[01:05:59.04]
Well, for this to be out there
in the middle of the lake

[01:06:03.00]
dates it back to when
Florida was underwater.

[01:06:06.03]
So this puts it around

[01:06:07.06]
about maybe 10,000 years old or better.

[01:06:11.00]
Took the tip off of it.

[01:06:14.06]
And like the old Key West conchs...

[01:06:17.08]
[shell blowing]

[01:06:30.04]
[banging]

[01:06:38.02]
My toy shop.

[01:06:41.09]
Me occupied, and out of
my lovely wife's hair.

[01:06:49.01]
This prop up here, in my rafters,

[01:06:51.08]
is my original prop
when I bought the boat.

[01:06:54.03]
It was great in the trails and stuff.

[01:06:57.07]
I'll be working on the airboat again soon.

[01:07:04.04]
- This is my new airboat,
and it's a fine machine.

[01:07:09.01]
When you get out in the
middle of them woods,

[01:07:11.00]
you want everything tight and right.

[01:07:14.05]
She puts out about 250 horsepower
and it's a crazy motor.

[01:07:19.01]
Figured out everything
I could from my last

[01:07:22.01]
hoorah of airboats.

[01:07:23.03]
[upbeat rock music]

[01:07:24.02]
♪ Yes, I'mma trading up ♪

[01:07:28.01]
♪ Time to get me a new ride ♪

[01:07:31.07]
Going to the airboat club tomorrow

[01:07:33.06]
to show off a little bit.

[01:07:35.03]
[laughing]

[01:07:36.09]
Okay, this is my kitchen.

[01:07:41.00]
I'm sorry, Carol Ann's kitchen. Excuse me.

[01:07:43.04]
- No, our kitchen!

[01:07:47.09]
- This is my sweetheart here.

[01:07:52.02]
- Me to you too.

[01:07:54.06]
- She takes care of me, all these years.

[01:07:56.08]
- Have to, 'cause you
have to take care of me.

[01:07:58.08]
[laughing]

[01:08:01.06]
- I love music.

[01:08:02.06]
[laughing]

[01:08:03.05]
[light piano music]

[01:08:04.09]
It fills up that other side.

[01:08:07.09]
The going and doing and airboating,

[01:08:10.01]
you could only do so much of that.

[01:08:12.01]
This can continue all your life.

[01:08:14.09]
[fiddle music]

[01:08:18.01]
[banjo music]

[01:08:24.02]
Give you an idea of where I
come from, there's my daddy.

[01:08:27.08]
18 years old in Bozman, Montana.

[01:08:31.02]
He was... broke horses,
caught wild horses.

[01:08:35.05]
Wound up being chief inspector
of Pan American Airways

[01:08:39.02]
in Miami, Florida here.

[01:08:42.02]
We're involved with the woods all my life.

[01:08:49.07]
This is 1958.

[01:08:52.04]
I was on the swim team
at Hialeah Senior High.

[01:08:56.08]
[laughing]

[01:08:58.06]
I don't know if I changed
too much, except got grayer.

[01:09:07.00]
Showing my Tequesta Indian beads.

[01:09:10.07]
- [Carol Ann] Tequesta are
the original Gladesmen.

[01:09:13.07]
- Just makes me feel good
in the woods to wear it.

[01:09:19.07]
When the Miccosukee see me, they tell me,

[01:09:22.08]
"I know you some time."

[01:09:25.00]
I got Fireman Of The Year one year.

[01:09:27.02]
Guy had his arm cut off
by an airboat propellor

[01:09:30.05]
and Carol Ann and I ran
down, jumped on him,

[01:09:33.01]
and got the tourniquet on and

[01:09:36.05]
about eight months later, he
showed up at the airboat club

[01:09:39.06]
with his arm attached.

[01:09:45.08]
This is behind the airboat club.

[01:09:48.06]
- [Woman] 'Cause there's a story to this.

[01:09:50.05]
- [Man] 'Cause we're gonna
video this whole thing, Whitey.

[01:09:52.09]
Look at me, dammit. Alright.

[01:09:56.02]
- Barbecue chicken, barbecue ribs cookin'.

[01:10:01.06]
Carol Ann's collecting money
for the grease pole climb.

[01:10:07.05]
- [Man] Oh yeah, oh yeah.

[01:10:10.01]
Yeah, this is going right
in my mouth right now.

[01:10:15.04]
You have to barely touch him,

[01:10:18.03]
and barely lift him

[01:10:22.07]
and he'll let you do
that to him right there.

[01:10:28.07]
[laughing]

[01:10:32.04]
No more. I'm a good guy, I'm a good guy.

[01:10:37.03]
We do some airboat drag
racing out in the back.

[01:10:40.08]
My little boat was the fastest
one out there at the time.

[01:10:44.05]
It run right about 87 miles an hour.

[01:10:50.02]
Okay, here we go.

[01:10:52.00]
When I see this, it makes
me think of that moment.

[01:10:54.06]
I don't ever want to do that again.

[01:10:56.06]
She's catching air under that bow

[01:10:58.08]
and I didn't let enough of it
off the corner of the boat.

[01:11:03.08]
Coming up, it's coming up, oh shit!

[01:11:06.08]
[laughing]

[01:11:08.06]
I went straight to the moon, I thought.

[01:11:11.08]
And the grass-jumper,
the boat went clean up,

[01:11:15.02]
back down, bent this

[01:11:17.06]
all the way up, hit me in the head

[01:11:20.05]
and ripped my hull in half.

[01:11:23.00]
14 stitches in my head,
27 in the back of my leg.

[01:11:27.05]
Then my own rescue truck
from my own station

[01:11:30.03]
came to get me.

[01:11:32.03]
- [Woman] That's too high Donnie!

[01:11:34.04]
[alarm buzzing]

[01:11:38.01]
- Okay, go ahead.

[01:11:40.03]
I'll see you at the club.

[01:11:43.01]
I can't wait, I can't wait. Okay.

[01:11:46.07]
Okay. Alright, bye.

[01:11:55.09]
[light acoustic guitar music]

[01:12:03.06]
- I think it's time for
me to take a look at

[01:12:05.01]
and work on that letter.

[01:12:06.08]
This'll be my door-opener
to various congressmen

[01:12:10.06]
and state representatives.

[01:12:13.04]
Dear fellow Americans, the
Airboat Association of Florida

[01:12:18.00]
was established by a
culture of Gladesmen in 1951

[01:12:23.02]
and remains the oldest not-for-profit

[01:12:25.09]
airboat conservation club in
America. The Gladesmen culture,

[01:12:30.09]
including most of the founding fathers

[01:12:32.08]
of this airboat conservation
club and their forefathers,

[01:12:37.00]
have co-existed with the
Everglades for over 100 years.

[01:12:41.01]
We, the Airboat Association of Florida,

[01:12:44.01]
are disappointed by not
allowing us to continue

[01:12:47.03]
passing along our
Gladesmen culture, heritage

[01:12:50.07]
and history to our
children and grandchildren.

[01:12:54.04]
Airboats, like any vessel,
have to be registered

[01:12:57.03]
with FL numbers and their stickers.

[01:13:01.06]
As this is the month of September,

[01:13:04.02]
I am due to put my sticker on my boat.

[01:13:06.08]
Now, we can legally go
riding in the Everglades.

[01:13:11.08]
Everglades air conditioning.

[01:13:13.02]
[laughing]

[01:13:15.01]
Laws for over 200 years have
been created and written

[01:13:17.07]
by men, they've been
changed and amended by men.

[01:13:20.05]
And this is one that will be amended.

[01:13:22.03]
This is something that we're working on.

[01:13:24.09]
I'm not done until they
lock me out the gate.

[01:13:27.02]
I'm gonna be petitioning politicians.

[01:13:29.07]
This will be a fight to the finish.

[01:13:31.08]
[engine roaring]

[01:13:34.03]
My daughter can run an airboat
as good as any man there is,

[01:13:37.02]
and for my daughter not to
be able to go back there,

[01:13:39.01]
where I raised her--

[01:13:41.00]
it means alot to me.

[01:13:42.06]
And hopefully this visit
with our congresswoman

[01:13:46.04]
will allow us to get
our point across to her

[01:13:48.05]
and get our foot in the
door towards doing this.

[01:13:53.07]
Apparently this is the building here.

[01:13:58.09]
Mr. C.

[01:14:01.00]
- Thank you, thank you.

[01:14:01.08]
- [Keith] Last year we
couldn't of had this meeting

[01:14:03.01]
and I do appreciate it.

[01:14:13.03]
- [Ileana] How are you doing?

[01:14:14.04]
- [Keith] How you doing?

[01:14:15.03]
Keith Price, President of
the Airboat Association.

[01:14:17.01]
- Well nice to see you, Keith.

[01:14:18.06]
- Carter Burrus....
- Carter, thank you.

[01:14:20.03]
- ...board member of
the Airboat Association.

[01:14:21.01]
- Airboat Association, come on in!

[01:14:23.06]
Let's chat about the
present and the future.

[01:14:27.01]
Yeah, I find people who grew
up or have an affinity now to--

[01:14:31.08]
whether it's Biscayne
National Park or Everglades--

[01:14:35.01]
they're the best stewards
of the environment.

[01:14:38.03]
What happened to the Airboat Association?

[01:14:40.05]
- The Airboat Association
was granted the right

[01:14:42.02]
to keep our land.

[01:14:43.09]
- So you are grandfathered
for the operation.

[01:14:46.01]
- Only the people that
were operating airboats

[01:14:48.01]
in that area from 1989 could continue.

[01:14:52.02]
If they're going to keep this open

[01:14:55.07]
for the commercial boats...

[01:14:58.08]
- Why not you?
- ...why not us?

[01:15:00.07]
- We're gonna be able to
continue here as long we we live,

[01:15:03.00]
Keith and I.

[01:15:03.08]
But once we die out,

[01:15:05.03]
they won't be able to go out there either.

[01:15:06.07]
Even though they're members of the club,

[01:15:08.03]
they weren't airboating from 1989.

[01:15:10.07]
- The only way it can be changed

[01:15:12.04]
is an amendment to that Act--

[01:15:15.01]
- Holy moly.

[01:15:16.03]
- ...that will allow you us to pass it on.

[01:15:17.05]
I've got to start somewhere.
I've got to start somewhere.

[01:15:20.02]
- That's like saying I'm
gonna be a billionaire

[01:15:23.03]
because I'm gonna have to start somewhere.

[01:15:25.06]
That's a big enchilada you're proposing.

[01:15:28.01]
- Nothing's impossible.

[01:15:29.08]
- I would say this is pretty darn close.

[01:15:32.05]
Anything that has to do with

[01:15:35.07]
expanding use in
Everglades National Park--

[01:15:40.05]
holy moly.

[01:15:41.08]
If you could pull this off,
that would be a miracle.

[01:15:45.04]
So, it's--

[01:15:46.08]
- I believe in miracles.
- I like that.

[01:15:48.07]
- I still believe in Santa
Clause, I mean come on.

[01:15:51.03]
- I like that.

[01:15:52.05]
I like that.

[01:15:53.08]
But that's what it would take.

[01:15:56.09]
[engine roaring]

[01:16:03.00]
- Let me tell you what,
I've never had a person

[01:16:05.04]
that I brought out here for the first time

[01:16:07.03]
and didn't say this was
the most beautiful place

[01:16:09.06]
they've ever seen.

[01:16:11.05]
Never.

[01:16:12.06]
I can sit out there in the
sawgrass on the airboat

[01:16:18.04]
all day long, and enjoy
listening to the wind blow

[01:16:21.08]
through the sawgrass.

[01:16:23.08]
To somebody else, looks
like a bunch of weeds.

[01:16:29.01]
Between development, the Park Service

[01:16:32.03]
and the government, the
day of the Gladesmen

[01:16:34.03]
in South Florida is coming to an end.

[01:16:36.07]
So this will probably be our
last big outing out here.

[01:16:42.05]
- I was airboating when I
was in my mom's stomach.

[01:16:45.05]
Explore what's out there.

[01:16:48.01]
See alligators. And
that's what the government

[01:16:52.02]
and the Park Service trying
to take away from us.

[01:16:55.04]
[engine rumbling]

[01:16:59.08]
- Me and my husband
and my children grew up

[01:17:03.05]
in these Everglades.

[01:17:07.03]
My husband was very, very
involved until his death.

[01:17:12.08]
It was something that he wanted to do.

[01:17:15.04]
And I came aboard

[01:17:18.03]
and it sort of makes him closer to me.

[01:17:25.00]
I miss him very much,
and I know that this is

[01:17:28.03]
what he wanted me to do.

[01:17:32.07]
We are who we are.

[01:17:34.07]
We are the Gladesmen.

[01:17:37.03]
And the Gladesmen will
always stick together.

[01:17:40.06]
Always.

[01:17:43.06]
- [Gunky] G-U-N-K-Y.

[01:17:45.09]
- [All] Gunky.

[01:17:47.01]
[laughing]

[01:17:48.06]
- I got it over in Vietnam
and it come back with me,

[01:17:51.03]
and I've had it ever since.

[01:17:53.02]
And I'm fixing to tell
you about my grandson.

[01:17:56.04]
I got a $25,000 airboat.

[01:17:58.08]
But now, it's his boat.

[01:18:01.04]
But what good is it if
he has no place to run?

[01:18:07.01]
I'm done.

[01:18:08.00]
I'm sorry, I just get so upset about it.

[01:18:14.04]
Nevermind.

[01:18:15.04]
- No, no, no. Gunky, it's...

[01:18:18.06]
This is what we're talking about.

[01:18:20.03]
This is what we're trying
to get across to the world,

[01:18:24.08]
that what we have here is irreplaceable.

[01:18:29.04]
But what we're doing now--
right here, right now--

[01:18:32.03]
is the footprint. Okay?

[01:18:36.01]
The beginning.

[01:18:37.04]
We've already got two
congressmen on board.

[01:18:40.06]
They believe in our culture,

[01:18:42.02]
they believe in the fact
that we need to pass it on

[01:18:44.03]
to our youngsters.

[01:18:45.05]
- We'll do the best we can
do to keep everything we can.

[01:18:48.06]
You gotta start somewhere!

[01:18:50.07]
You could be a critic, it's fine,

[01:18:53.05]
but you gotta start somewhere!

[01:18:57.00]
Goddammit, then start somewhere!

[01:19:00.03]
Help these goddamn people!

[01:19:02.04]
They're trying to do
something good for us!

[01:19:05.06]
Dammit!

[01:19:08.03]
I want my damn grandkids
to be able to come out here

[01:19:12.06]
and ride!

[01:19:13.09]
- [Man] I do too!

[01:19:15.01]
- [Keith] It's the guys like you

[01:19:17.07]
that inspired me to
push for what I'm doing.

[01:19:22.08]
And I'm not gonna turn this loose.

[01:19:25.06]
- I don't want to give it up either.

[01:19:27.09]
- I'm not gonna turn it loose.

[01:19:29.04]
Trust me buddy, it's gonna happen.

[01:19:33.02]
- [Gunky] I'm behind you 100%!

[01:19:43.04]
- Audience, attention.

[01:19:45.00]
Color Guard, forward march.

[01:19:47.00]
Audience, please join me in
The Pledge of Allegiance.

[01:19:49.03]
- [All] I pledge allegiance to the flag

[01:19:51.06]
of the United States of America,

[01:19:53.09]
and to the republic for which it stands,

[01:19:56.07]
one nation under God,

[01:19:58.09]
indivisible, with liberty
and justice for all.

[01:20:03.02]
- [Man] This is a song I
wrote about the Everglades.

[01:20:05.07]
Here we go.

[01:20:06.05]
[Country rock music]

[01:20:13.02]
- A Gladesmen is someone
that holds this whole area

[01:20:16.02]
close and dear.

[01:20:18.09]
It's a heritage that's been passed on.

[01:20:21.01]
Goes all the way back to my birthright

[01:20:22.05]
there in the Everglades, in
the Everglades National Park.

[01:20:25.05]
♪ Dead full drive ♪

[01:20:27.00]
♪ We are living the swamp
life out in the 'Glades ♪

[01:20:31.08]
♪ Deep in the sawgrass ♪

[01:20:33.05]
♪ With the gators and the rattlesnakes ♪

[01:20:36.07]
- You can't learn about
this place in a university.

[01:20:39.01]
This is something you have to experience.

[01:20:41.03]
But you gotta have mud in your blood.

[01:20:43.02]
And this isn't for
everybody, but it's for us.

[01:20:47.05]
- So we got gator, we got fish,

[01:20:50.02]
we got fixings and they're
fixing to close down the kitchen.

[01:20:53.05]
- Feel, listen to, see--

[01:20:56.09]
all of those senses that the Everglades

[01:21:01.03]
offers us is inspiring.

[01:21:04.02]
And losing that is almost
like losing a sense.

[01:21:11.02]
- Because Everglades
National Park is already

[01:21:14.03]
started, if you weren't 16 in 1989

[01:21:18.05]
you can't drive an airboat.

[01:21:20.03]
This might be the last hoorah
for us at this airboat club.

[01:21:25.08]
And we need to keep that going somehow.

[01:21:32.02]
- Park Service, it's an
ongoing battle with 'em.

[01:21:36.00]
And eventually we're
not gonna have anything.

[01:21:39.03]
It is what it is.

[01:21:41.06]
Can't do nothing about it.

[01:21:43.08]
You're already trying to
get my blood pressure up

[01:21:45.01]
this morning.

[01:21:46.00]
[laughing]

[01:21:48.07]
- This is some of the best
airboating country there is.

[01:21:52.05]
If they have their way, this
club will not be allowed

[01:21:55.03]
to go out into the Everglades.

[01:22:02.06]
My granddaughter grew up,
since the time she was two,

[01:22:05.08]
riding around with me on the airboat.

[01:22:11.02]
And for you to tell these
kids, you know, growing up

[01:22:13.06]
out here, that they're not
allowed to run an airboat here?

[01:22:20.05]
You're stealing the
culture from these kids.

[01:22:25.03]
Thank you all for coming out and enjoying

[01:22:27.01]
all of our Everglades.

[01:22:33.05]
["Taps" being played]

[01:23:16.01]
[engine rumbling]

[01:23:26.04]
- I'm gonna tell you guys about
a story of me and Carol Ann.

[01:23:29.09]
And we were at a place
called the Duck Club.

[01:23:32.02]
The old 145 Continental starter broke down

[01:23:35.05]
and I couldn't get the boat started.

[01:23:38.02]
[banjo music]

[01:23:40.03]
So I told Carol Ann, "Listen.

[01:23:42.00]
Leave right now and walk
back four miles to the back

[01:23:45.05]
of our airboat association."

[01:23:51.00]
And we started walking out.

[01:23:52.04]
Water's probably hip deep on me,

[01:23:55.05]
and almost shoulder deep on Carol Ann.

[01:24:02.03]
- We didn't have too much trouble

[01:24:03.03]
with mosquitoes that night.

[01:24:04.07]
We were worried about bigger things.

[01:24:06.09]
- As far as gators, well,

[01:24:09.09]
no headlight-- so whatever
was there, was there.

[01:24:16.08]
So we're walking along and
I said, "Listen, I am not

[01:24:19.04]
walking from here to the
club with my Levi's on."

[01:24:25.02]
When you walk with Levi's in the water

[01:24:27.00]
they weigh twice as much, your legs.

[01:24:30.09]
So I took mine off.

[01:24:34.09]
Carol Ann says, "I can't, I can't do it."

[01:24:37.09]
I said, "Why?"

[01:24:39.03]
She said, "I don't have any skivvies on."

[01:24:41.01]
[laughing]

[01:24:42.07]
So I took my shirt off...

[01:24:44.07]
- Girl, you went commando!

[01:24:46.03]
- ...a long sleeve shirt off and I...

[01:24:48.01]
- [Carol Ann] He made me a diaper.

[01:24:49.04]
- ...I made a diaper for her.

[01:24:53.08]
I could see a light at the airboat club,

[01:24:56.08]
in the distance, on a high pole.

[01:24:59.04]
I said, "That's where we're going."

[01:25:02.00]
So I had him singing.

[01:25:03.03]
♪ I saw the light ♪

[01:25:05.01]
♪ I saw the light ♪

[01:25:06.06]
Singing all the way in.

[01:25:07.08]
I say, "How 'bout number one?"

[01:25:12.03]
"Oh, I'm OK!"

[01:25:14.01]
She was way in the back.

[01:25:16.02]
We had to slow down, 'cause
her legs were so short.

[01:25:20.09]
We walked for hours.

[01:25:26.08]
- Step on the mud and it
sinks to the bottom and

[01:25:30.04]
it comes back up, floats back
up and bumps you in the leg

[01:25:33.08]
and it's like, 'What the??"

[01:25:34.08]
[laughing]

[01:25:36.03]
I was like, "What is that?
That didn't happen before!"

[01:25:42.00]
And that's when I was
like, "Get me outta here."

[01:25:48.01]
- And I'd say somewheres before
midnight, we walk up on to

[01:25:52.03]
the land at the airboat club.

[01:25:54.07]
Carol Ann just throws everything off.

[01:26:03.00]
- And the next day, it was
like I had 10,000 paper cuts

[01:26:09.02]
all over my body from the sawgrass.

[01:26:12.03]
I mean, you think a paper cut hurts?

[01:26:14.03]
Boy, I'll tell ya.

[01:26:18.02]
- That was quite an
adventure on an airboat.

[01:26:22.02]
[ambient atmospheric music]

[01:26:25.08]