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Speaker 1: Welcome to Backwoods University, a place where we focus on wildlife,

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Speaker 1: wild places and the people who dedicate their lives to

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Speaker 1: conserving both. Big shout out to ONEX Hunt for their

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Speaker 1: support of this podcast. I'm your host, Lake Pickle, and

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Speaker 1: on today's episode, we're gonna be talking about the liquid

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Speaker 1: that fuels life itself, water, but even more specifically, we're

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Speaker 1: gonna be talking about a water crisis, one that's been

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Speaker 1: going on for over a century really, and to do

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Speaker 1: this story justice, we're gonna have to head south, and

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Speaker 1: I mean way south, to the beautiful and perfectly wild

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Speaker 1: state of Florida, specifically Lake Okachobee, the Everglades, and the

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Speaker 1: Calusahatchie and Saint Lucy rivers. Let's dive in.

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Speaker 2: The Army Corps of Engineers is about to open the

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Speaker 2: gates at Lake Okachobee.

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Speaker 3: White Cook often choked this summer with toxic blue green algae,

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Speaker 3: the result of fertilizer runoff from all the phosphorus and

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Speaker 3: nitrogen from farms and ranches that surround the big lake.

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Speaker 3: The Army Corps of Engineers has made it clear that

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Speaker 3: if that lake level should rise to sixteen and a

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Speaker 3: half fem then it would begin major releases to the

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Speaker 3: east and west to protect against flooding for the communities

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Speaker 3: around the lake. But what does that mean for coastal communities?

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Speaker 4: Mark Perry does not mince words. What will big releases

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Speaker 4: mean if it happens, Well, it'll be devastating.

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Speaker 3: Perry is a lifelong Treasure coast resident and heads up

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Speaker 3: to Florida Oceanographic Society.

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Speaker 4: You'll get algae that can be toxic.

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Speaker 3: You'll get water that messes up the salinity of the

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Speaker 3: estuaries that kills off.

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Speaker 4: The marine life that you need.

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Speaker 3: You have no balance, so you're on pins and needles

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Speaker 3: until you get out of Rangy.

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Speaker 5: Absolutely, and they you know, they got into it with

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Speaker 5: this lake being too high.

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Speaker 3: We're standing at one of the places that if they

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Speaker 3: have to open the gates full board the algae up

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Speaker 3: and down the sea. Fifty one good right here, just

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Speaker 3: south of our Palm Beach Airports right pau Beach International.

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Speaker 6: The director of Research and Conservation at the Florida Oceanographic

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Speaker 6: Society says seagrass is a foundational part of the Saint

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Speaker 6: Lucie Estuary as a food source, habitat, and much more.

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Speaker 1: The seagrass helps to stabilize our sediments in the water column, right,

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Speaker 1: And if you don't have the seagrass there, this sand

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Speaker 1: is constantly kicked up and it moves around much more.

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Speaker 6: But with freshwater discharges from Lake Okachobe pouring in, the

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Speaker 6: salinity levels in the Saint Lucie River have already dropped dramatically.

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Speaker 6: According to Society Executive director Mark Perry, environmentalist fhere, twenty

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Speaker 6: to twenty five days of discharges could not only destroy

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Speaker 6: the seagrass, but also oyster reefs. John Shaman WPTV News

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Speaker 6: Channel five.

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Speaker 1: Now, if you couldn't tell from those news clips that

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Speaker 1: we just heard, this issue involves some controversy, some conflict,

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Speaker 1: and some seeking out for a solution. So I feel

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Speaker 1: the need to share with you the same sentiment that

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Speaker 1: I did when we release the pogy Boat episode back

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Speaker 1: in the fall, and that sentiment is this, My job

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Speaker 1: is not to tell you how to think. Y'all don't

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Speaker 1: need my help with that. My goal is to present

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Speaker 1: you with the best facts possible in the best way

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Speaker 1: that I know how. And we're going to do that

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Speaker 1: today by diving into this issue with two individuals that

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Speaker 1: know it very well. But before we do that, allow

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Speaker 1: me a few minutes to set the stage so that

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Speaker 1: we all have a little more context. Starting at the top,

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Speaker 1: let's talk about Lake Okachobe. So, Lake Okachobe covers seven

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Speaker 1: hundred and thirty square miles and is the largest lake

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Speaker 1: in the state of Florida as well as the southeastern US.

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Speaker 1: This is a big body of water. It's just slightly

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Speaker 1: smaller than the state of Rhode Islands. That paints a

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Speaker 1: little bit clearer of a picture now onto its relevance

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Speaker 1: in this story. Lake Okachobe, this truly giant body of water,

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Speaker 1: for literal centuries, would fill up, spill over the top

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Speaker 1: of its southern banks, and then subsequently flow naturally all

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Speaker 1: the way down to the southern tip of Florida, and

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Speaker 1: the fresh water would dump into the Atlantic Ocean. Now,

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Speaker 1: another important element to note here is what lies between

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Speaker 1: Okachobe and the southern tip of Florida, The Everglades, a

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Speaker 1: vast area roughly one point five million acres that is

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Speaker 1: made up of marshes, mangroves, and wetlands, and it supports

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Speaker 1: an extraordinarily diverse array of wildlife, multiple bird species, panthers, alligators, Manatees,

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Speaker 1: just to name a few. It's one of the most

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Speaker 1: unique ecosystems in the country and the world. Presently, the

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Speaker 1: Everglades have been reduced to roughly half of its original

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Speaker 1: size for farming and urban development. Going back to Okchobe.

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Speaker 1: It's now surrounded by the Herbert Hoover Dyke, which is

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Speaker 1: basically one hundred and forty three mile long down and now.

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Speaker 1: Rather than the water spilling over naturally and working its

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Speaker 1: way through the Everglades to get down to the ocean,

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Speaker 1: now the water reaches Florida's southwest and southeast coast through

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Speaker 1: the Calusahachie and Saint Lucie Rivers, through canals that were

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Speaker 1: artificially created over one hundred years ago to provide navigation

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Speaker 1: routes and mainly to enable water management for flood control

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Speaker 1: and agriculture. When lake levels are deemed too high impose

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Speaker 1: a flood risk, excess water is then sent to the coast.

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Speaker 1: These two rivers, the Colusahachie and the Saint Lucie, can

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Speaker 1: now be thought of as almost safety valves, or at

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Speaker 1: least that's how they're being treated these days. In this system.

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Speaker 1: During high water events, water from Lake okachobee is routinely

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Speaker 1: discharged through these rivers and sent to the Gulf of

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Speaker 1: Mexico and the Atlantic ocean. Practice that has been going

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Speaker 1: on for a while. Now, okay, stage has officially been set,

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Speaker 1: So let's get into the meat of this conversation and

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Speaker 1: learn what's really going on here and more importantly, why

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Speaker 1: it matters.

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Speaker 4: So.

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Speaker 5: I got my captain's license in nineteen eighty six, So

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Speaker 5: this is my thirty ninth year cutting in Stewart area.

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Speaker 5: I fish inshore, a lot of fish, offshore lot, I

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Speaker 5: live chum. I fly fish a lot everything from you know,

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Speaker 5: sailfish to snook. We're very fortunate, you know, for where

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Speaker 5: we live, eight miles off shore, you're one hundred and

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Speaker 5: twenty feet of water. You can catch anything in the

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Speaker 5: ocean in that depth. Yeah, so on a lot of

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Speaker 5: days we have the option of running offshore catching something

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Speaker 5: and then coming back in shore at the end of

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Speaker 5: our day, you know, stop in and see even get

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Speaker 5: a tarp in or snook or permit or pompino, whatever

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Speaker 5: we want to chase that time of year.

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Speaker 1: The person you just heard talking is a man named

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Speaker 1: Captain Mike Holliday. He's a veteran fishing guide, and he's

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Speaker 1: also someone who has had a lot of firsthand experience

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Speaker 1: with this water crisis that we're here to talk about.

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Speaker 1: And y'all know that I always put heavy value on

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Speaker 1: the perspective of a citizen scientist, so to speak. Captain

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Speaker 1: Mike is going to help us understand what's going on

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Speaker 1: in Florida on a much more relatable level. So did

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Speaker 1: did you grow up fishing and doing outdoor stuff then?

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Speaker 4: Or did you you're all left? Yeah, my whole life.

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Speaker 5: You know, some people are just drowned drawn to the outdoors.

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Speaker 5: And for a lot of people, it's there. You know,

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Speaker 5: they're calming place. You'll see it, you know, anybody that

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Speaker 5: spends a lot of time either in the woods or

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Speaker 5: on the water. But you know, the minute you get away,

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Speaker 5: the minute you walk away from your car, the minute

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Speaker 5: you step in the boat and pull away from the dock.

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Speaker 5: I mean you can just see the posture change, how

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Speaker 5: much weight it takes off your shoulders.

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Speaker 4: It's amazing and I feel bad for everybody who doesn't

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Speaker 4: know about it.

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Speaker 1: I always like to take the time to establish someone's

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Speaker 1: appreciation for wildlife, wild places, and especially their connection to

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Speaker 1: the specific area that we're going to be talking about.

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Speaker 1: We're gonna hear a lot of good stuff from Captain Mike,

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Speaker 1: but before that, there's somebody else we need to meet.

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Speaker 2: In simplest terms, there is a massive fight over water

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Speaker 2: in Florida. Water is the commodity in Florida, Who controls it,

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Speaker 2: where it goes, how long it stays there, and where

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Speaker 2: it ends up. And over the last one hundred years

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Speaker 2: how water's flown in Florida has changed a lot. And

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Speaker 2: now as we're starting to make progress for the better

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Speaker 2: of the state and for the better of our natural

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Speaker 2: resources about where that water is going, you see industries

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Speaker 2: like the sugar industry trying to make pretty significant political

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Speaker 2: plays to protect their industry within that redistribution of water.

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Speaker 2: And what just happened recently and what's on you know,

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Speaker 2: everyone's headlines right now, was an attack within this same realm,

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Speaker 2: this political arena that I'm describing, But it was about

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Speaker 2: specifically free speech and our ability to foster and challenge

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Speaker 2: and have really difficult conversations that you know, free speech

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Speaker 2: in our country is based on. So we just you know,

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Speaker 2: I'm a conservationist and a fisheries advocate, and a clean

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Speaker 2: water advocate. And for the first time of my life,

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Speaker 2: I just became a free speech advocate and I wasn't

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Speaker 2: expecting that.

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Speaker 1: The gentleman you just heard there is Captain Cody Rubner.

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Speaker 1: Cody's a fly fishing and light tackle guide out of Stuart, Florida.

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Speaker 1: He's an outdoorsman that is heavily involved with conservation efforts

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Speaker 1: and concerns about the natural resources in his local area.

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Speaker 1: It's also worth noting that both he and Captain Mike

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Speaker 1: are involved with Captains for Clean Water. Between these two

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Speaker 1: fine individuals, we're going to have this subject covered to

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Speaker 1: the fullest extent, So let's get into it. I want

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Speaker 1: to start out by asking Captain Mike about some of

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Speaker 1: his personal experiences and what he's seen over the years

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Speaker 1: with these water releases and the effects that it's made

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Speaker 1: on the river systems.

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Speaker 4: Changes in my lifetime have been pretty noticeable.

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Speaker 5: I've moved here in seventy eight, and even back then,

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Speaker 5: we were getting some very big discharges. And when I

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Speaker 5: say discharges, I mean we'll get a billion gallons of

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Speaker 5: water a day of untreated water. It'll come into the

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Speaker 5: system through the Saint Lucy River and push up into

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Speaker 5: the Indian River.

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Speaker 4: Now that the Indian River starts.

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Speaker 5: Where in my town of Stuart and then runs about

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Speaker 5: a hundred and ninety five miles north. And at one

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Speaker 5: time it was considered the most diverse saltwater estuary in

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Speaker 5: North America.

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Speaker 4: Now I don't know if that's the case or not,

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Speaker 4: because it's more like a moonscape at times.

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Speaker 5: There's shallow river two to three feet deep, big seagrass

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Speaker 5: meadows all the way across it. Incredible fishing, probably the

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Speaker 5: best sea trout fishing in the world, and close to

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Speaker 5: the best snoop fishing in the world, certainly for big

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Speaker 5: fish and big numbers of big fish. In the seventies,

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Speaker 5: late seventies and early eighties, we would see these discharges

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Speaker 5: and I might be fishing a bridge eight miles from

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Speaker 5: the river or eight miles from the inlet, and the

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Speaker 5: water would be fresh in that area where we would

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Speaker 5: have freshwater gars all the way up river there.

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Speaker 4: And it's a completely saltwater at estuary.

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Speaker 5: But the sheer volume of water and the sheer duration

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Speaker 5: which maybe you know, three or four or five months

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Speaker 5: of you know, billion gallons of water, we'll get two

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Speaker 5: hundred days of a billion gallons of water a day,

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Speaker 5: and at some point that turns those estuaries fresh. You know,

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Speaker 5: in an area where you're normally catching snooke and sea

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Speaker 5: trout and red fish, now you're seeing freshwater car for

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Speaker 5: months at a time.

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Speaker 4: And you can't catch anything else.

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Speaker 5: Say, the first thing that it does when we get

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Speaker 5: to release is is it turns water dirty, like a

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Speaker 5: coffee color, so you can't navigate in it, you can't

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Speaker 5: see in it.

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Speaker 4: And it just goes from there.

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Speaker 5: The freshwater is lighter than salt water, so it tends

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Speaker 5: to sit on the top, so in some areas you'll

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Speaker 5: still have fish underneath it, saltwater fish underneath it. But

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Speaker 5: over time that fresh water takes over and completely replaces

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Speaker 5: the salt water. And that's when you start seeing the

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Speaker 5: you know, the seagrass meadows die and all, and they

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Speaker 5: clams and the oysters. And you have to understand, I mean,

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Speaker 5: you're talking about a river that's two miles across and

224
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Speaker 5: two to three feet deep all the way across it,

225
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Speaker 5: So it's just giant meadows of seagrass, which is you know,

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Speaker 5: habitat and just full of everything shrimp, crabs, clams, fish, everything,

227
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Speaker 5: and then when that water gets in there, it kills

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Speaker 5: it off. And we would see over the years we

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Speaker 5: would see different levels of die.

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Speaker 4: Offs, you know, some more extreme than others. But it

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Speaker 4: was about twenty twelve it all died off. I mean,

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Speaker 4: we lost probably twelve to fifty miles up the river.

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Speaker 5: It went from seagrass metas to moonscape to complete sand

234
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Speaker 5: in one year. And you cannot lose that volume of

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Speaker 5: habitat without losing that volume of marine life. Yeah, you know,

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Speaker 5: so all of a sudden, you know, the only place

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Speaker 5: of fish ours on the docks and on the sea

238
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Speaker 5: walls and on the few mango of areas that we have,

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Speaker 5: and the numbers I mean, in let's say two thousand

240
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Speaker 5: and eight in the spring, in April and May, I

241
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Speaker 5: would be fishing a lot of Texas guys come because

242
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Speaker 5: I want to catch a trout over ten pounds.

243
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Speaker 4: So I'm fishing the Texas guys.

244
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Speaker 5: And on an average day we would catch thirty snook

245
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Speaker 5: and three or four trout, and most of those trout

246
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Speaker 5: would be over six pounds. If we just went trout fishing,

247
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Speaker 5: then we would catch probably twenty trout. But you know,

248
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Speaker 5: we found the bigger fish mixed in with the snook

249
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Speaker 5: closer to the inlet areas for the most part, and

250
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Speaker 5: from twenty thirteen to oh about two thousand and twenty four,

251
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Speaker 5: I don't think there was a year I caught more

252
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Speaker 5: than three trout in the entire year.

253
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Speaker 4: Oh wow, just gone. That's gone again.

254
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Speaker 1: That's that's hugely significant.

255
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Speaker 4: And you know, you never think it's going to happen

256
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Speaker 4: to you.

257
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Speaker 5: This habitat went from being what I considered probably one

258
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Speaker 5: of the best fisheries in the country to desolate to struggle.

259
00:13:58,760 --> 00:13:58,960
Speaker 4: You know.

260
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Speaker 5: When I first started snick fishing, you know, a fifty

261
00:14:03,640 --> 00:14:08,080
Speaker 5: snoop day was pretty common, and now eight snoop days

262
00:14:08,440 --> 00:14:09,160
Speaker 5: what I shoot for.

263
00:14:09,920 --> 00:14:11,800
Speaker 4: Wow, wow, that's in my lifetime.

264
00:14:12,280 --> 00:14:14,360
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, that's not I mean, that's not a very

265
00:14:14,880 --> 00:14:17,160
Speaker 1: on the grand scheme of things, like the rate at

266
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Speaker 1: which you're describing this happening is not a very long time.

267
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Speaker 3: No.

268
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Speaker 5: You know, they dug that canal in the nineteen forties,

269
00:14:25,360 --> 00:14:28,240
Speaker 5: so you're talking about in eighty five years, we've killed

270
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Speaker 5: off the Saint Lisa River for the most.

271
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Speaker 4: Part, and much of the Indian River.

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Speaker 5: Although you know, nature is very, very resilient, we're starting

273
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Speaker 5: to get some seagrass back, and with that sea grass,

274
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Speaker 5: we're getting our our crabs and our shrimp and our

275
00:14:41,440 --> 00:14:43,240
Speaker 5: forage base. And as we get the forage base and

276
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Speaker 5: we start seeing the fish. And the last two years

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00:14:45,680 --> 00:14:49,360
Speaker 5: we've starting to see trout. Yeah, mostly juveniles, mostly you know,

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Speaker 5: nine to fifteen inch fish.

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Speaker 4: But I mean the change has been dramatic.

280
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Speaker 5: A good example also, it's like the winter time, we

281
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Speaker 5: would pompano and ladyfish and you would just drift across

282
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Speaker 5: a flat, two or three people throwing jigs, and at

283
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Speaker 5: some point in time, everybody's on, you know, it's just

284
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Speaker 5: kind of pomping them.

285
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Speaker 4: It would be more jacks and ladyfish, but it's.

286
00:15:13,440 --> 00:15:18,120
Speaker 5: Jack jack jack, ladyfish, pompino jack jack, jack jack, ladyfish, ladyfish, ladyfish, ladyfish.

287
00:15:17,840 --> 00:15:20,880
Speaker 4: Jack jack, pompino. So you had this real good mixture

288
00:15:20,920 --> 00:15:23,760
Speaker 4: and lots of action, and in a four hour.

289
00:15:23,600 --> 00:15:27,640
Speaker 5: Trip you'd catch at least one hundred fish. And now

290
00:15:27,680 --> 00:15:30,360
Speaker 5: we have no jacks or ladyfish. We have a handful

291
00:15:30,360 --> 00:15:34,040
Speaker 5: of pompino. You know, they're migratory fish, so they'll come through,

292
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Speaker 5: they will not stay. There's no food to keep them there.

293
00:15:37,800 --> 00:15:39,960
Speaker 5: So they come through there, you know there that day,

294
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Speaker 5: they're moving somewhere else by the next day.

295
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Speaker 4: Very inconsistent.

296
00:15:46,120 --> 00:15:51,080
Speaker 2: Water should land in Florida, should rain, water flows south,

297
00:15:51,560 --> 00:15:54,040
Speaker 2: flows south into the Everglades. For people that don't have

298
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Speaker 2: a layout of Florida, obviously it's a giant, very it's

299
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Speaker 2: bigger than most people think by the time you go

300
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Speaker 2: from like Key West all the way up to the Panhandle.

301
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Speaker 2: But water should flow north to south. And this Lake

302
00:16:05,720 --> 00:16:08,240
Speaker 2: O Lake Okechobe as I met reference in the center

303
00:16:08,280 --> 00:16:11,640
Speaker 2: of the state is this massive holding pot. And essentially

304
00:16:11,680 --> 00:16:15,160
Speaker 2: think of it as historically water needed to go into

305
00:16:15,240 --> 00:16:18,360
Speaker 2: Lake O and then flow south over a long, slow

306
00:16:18,480 --> 00:16:21,040
Speaker 2: plain that they call the River O Grass. It's a

307
00:16:21,080 --> 00:16:23,880
Speaker 2: slow trickle and that's the fertile land. That's where the

308
00:16:24,280 --> 00:16:28,000
Speaker 2: Everglades agricultural area is. That's where a lot of the

309
00:16:28,040 --> 00:16:31,160
Speaker 2: farming is taking place in Florida. What has happened is

310
00:16:31,200 --> 00:16:34,440
Speaker 2: we dammed the water south of Lake oh and so

311
00:16:34,640 --> 00:16:38,640
Speaker 2: now because it is not going south, water keeps coming.

312
00:16:38,920 --> 00:16:41,440
Speaker 2: So there's only one direction or two directions it can

313
00:16:41,480 --> 00:16:44,120
Speaker 2: be sent, which is east and west. So I live

314
00:16:44,160 --> 00:16:46,840
Speaker 2: in Stuart, Florida, I'm on the east coast what's called

315
00:16:46,920 --> 00:16:51,200
Speaker 2: outlet of this situation, there's also the west coast outlet,

316
00:16:51,400 --> 00:16:54,520
Speaker 2: which is the Colusahatchie River. So the Colusa Achie goes

317
00:16:54,560 --> 00:16:57,400
Speaker 2: west and the Saint Lucie River comes out to the east.

318
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Speaker 2: So basically this water gets built up up. They manage

319
00:17:01,160 --> 00:17:04,320
Speaker 2: how high they let lake levels, talking about Lake Okacho

320
00:17:04,440 --> 00:17:07,879
Speaker 2: begets and it balloons out. But instead of going south

321
00:17:08,280 --> 00:17:11,240
Speaker 2: as it historically should go, and as the Everglades, you know,

322
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Speaker 2: one of our national parks, one of God's most incredible creations,

323
00:17:15,359 --> 00:17:18,560
Speaker 2: needs that water while it's drying out, this water now

324
00:17:18,600 --> 00:17:22,320
Speaker 2: gets sent east and west. And these are massive pulses,

325
00:17:22,359 --> 00:17:26,040
Speaker 2: we call them discharges, massive massive pulses where they open

326
00:17:26,080 --> 00:17:29,680
Speaker 2: the floodgates very literally, and this water from Lake Okacho

327
00:17:29,760 --> 00:17:34,440
Speaker 2: becomes pouring into what used to be gin clear, pristine.

328
00:17:34,920 --> 00:17:38,239
Speaker 2: You know, think of your magazine tourism industry. Oh, I've

329
00:17:38,280 --> 00:17:41,200
Speaker 2: seen Florida. Look at the Indian River. It's so beautiful,

330
00:17:41,520 --> 00:17:45,320
Speaker 2: clear water and green seagrass and redfish roaming around. All

331
00:17:45,359 --> 00:17:47,840
Speaker 2: of a sudden, you have these massive discharges of fresh

332
00:17:47,880 --> 00:17:51,119
Speaker 2: water into these systems, and these systems while the West

333
00:17:51,160 --> 00:17:54,679
Speaker 2: coast needs a baseline a small amount of freshwater. The

334
00:17:54,720 --> 00:17:58,000
Speaker 2: East coast where I live needs basically none. So you

335
00:17:58,080 --> 00:18:01,280
Speaker 2: have these massive pulses of water overnight. When the gates

336
00:18:01,320 --> 00:18:04,720
Speaker 2: get opened, it looks like brown and black death. Like

337
00:18:05,040 --> 00:18:07,520
Speaker 2: my river can go from the Bahamas where I can

338
00:18:07,560 --> 00:18:09,680
Speaker 2: see the bottom of the channel in eighteen feet twenty

339
00:18:09,720 --> 00:18:14,080
Speaker 2: feet of water, to the entire water is black and brown.

340
00:18:14,200 --> 00:18:16,440
Speaker 2: There was a so called they called it the last

341
00:18:16,520 --> 00:18:19,359
Speaker 2: Summer right before I actually moved to Stuart, where the

342
00:18:19,400 --> 00:18:22,600
Speaker 2: water quality was so bad from these discharges that people's

343
00:18:22,640 --> 00:18:24,440
Speaker 2: dogs were dying if they went down to the river

344
00:18:24,480 --> 00:18:28,720
Speaker 2: and were by the water too much. So what basically

345
00:18:28,760 --> 00:18:32,800
Speaker 2: the water fight is, there's a campaign to try to

346
00:18:32,800 --> 00:18:35,119
Speaker 2: get people on the right track and re establish the

347
00:18:35,160 --> 00:18:38,560
Speaker 2: way water's natal path in Florida is. And there are

348
00:18:38,600 --> 00:18:42,840
Speaker 2: certain industries that would benefit significantly if that was not restored.

349
00:18:43,200 --> 00:18:46,359
Speaker 2: And so the fight is over keep the water north.

350
00:18:46,520 --> 00:18:49,639
Speaker 2: I don't want more sending south, Send it east and west.

351
00:18:49,800 --> 00:18:52,159
Speaker 2: And this is not a fight like this isn't just

352
00:18:52,200 --> 00:18:54,960
Speaker 2: a let's make the world better for a saltwater fishing

353
00:18:54,960 --> 00:18:57,800
Speaker 2: guide or a saltwater angler or hotels on the beach.

354
00:18:57,880 --> 00:19:00,320
Speaker 2: That's not what this is because when you believe the

355
00:19:00,320 --> 00:19:02,960
Speaker 2: water in the center of the state, you're actually significantly

356
00:19:03,000 --> 00:19:06,040
Speaker 2: hurting Lake Okachobee's health too. You know, I'm not just

357
00:19:06,080 --> 00:19:08,240
Speaker 2: a I'm a saltwater fishing guide now. I actually came

358
00:19:08,320 --> 00:19:10,800
Speaker 2: up through the college bass Fishing series. Used to travel

359
00:19:10,800 --> 00:19:13,320
Speaker 2: around the country. I had my logos and sparkle boat

360
00:19:13,320 --> 00:19:16,360
Speaker 2: and everything. And I have love for that community too, right,

361
00:19:16,760 --> 00:19:20,359
Speaker 2: And Lake Okachobe's an iconic bass fishing destination, one of

362
00:19:20,359 --> 00:19:22,840
Speaker 2: the most historic. And so the lake is suffering and

363
00:19:22,880 --> 00:19:25,000
Speaker 2: you hear the bass fishermen talking about it as well.

364
00:19:25,119 --> 00:19:28,520
Speaker 2: So the water management game, when I say it's a commodity,

365
00:19:28,840 --> 00:19:32,080
Speaker 2: it needs to restore aquifers, it's also our drinking water.

366
00:19:32,280 --> 00:19:35,520
Speaker 2: You know, this is not just for recreation or for agriculture.

367
00:19:35,520 --> 00:19:38,359
Speaker 2: It's also for you know, human and public health as well.

368
00:19:38,400 --> 00:19:42,280
Speaker 2: And so this fight is over where water goes. And

369
00:19:42,359 --> 00:19:44,760
Speaker 2: there's a campaign now and a charge to try to

370
00:19:44,840 --> 00:19:50,359
Speaker 2: re restore natal flow for the betterment of basically just

371
00:19:50,400 --> 00:19:52,160
Speaker 2: about everyone except one resource.

372
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Speaker 1: Let's face it, the information that Captain Mike and Cody

373
00:19:55,640 --> 00:19:58,720
Speaker 1: shared with us, it's not good. It's kind of depressing,

374
00:19:58,760 --> 00:20:01,360
Speaker 1: to be honest. That used to be teeming with all

375
00:20:01,400 --> 00:20:05,320
Speaker 1: sorts of marine life depleted, natural waterways deviated in a

376
00:20:05,320 --> 00:20:09,520
Speaker 1: way that's not beneficial, water quality suffering, the Everglades in peril,

377
00:20:09,640 --> 00:20:18,159
Speaker 1: just to name a few. We've got a lot to

378
00:20:18,240 --> 00:20:21,399
Speaker 1: unpack here. First, I'm curious what the locals in the

379
00:20:21,440 --> 00:20:22,720
Speaker 1: area think about all of this.

380
00:20:23,359 --> 00:20:25,240
Speaker 4: Oh no, they're pissed off and frustrated.

381
00:20:26,000 --> 00:20:29,399
Speaker 5: You know, they're frustrated with the slow movement of a

382
00:20:29,400 --> 00:20:33,919
Speaker 5: political process. You know, the problem is there's a solution,

383
00:20:35,119 --> 00:20:38,560
Speaker 5: and the solution is a comprehensive Everglades restoration plan. They

384
00:20:38,600 --> 00:20:41,600
Speaker 5: know the answer, and it's just it was a twenty

385
00:20:41,680 --> 00:20:45,199
Speaker 5: year plan that was instituted in two thousand and you know,

386
00:20:45,240 --> 00:20:48,240
Speaker 5: we're in twenty twenty six and it's still not done.

387
00:20:49,160 --> 00:20:51,919
Speaker 5: Funding is still not there yet for it. It's just

388
00:20:52,000 --> 00:20:56,639
Speaker 5: dragging their feet. Once they build the EA Reservoir and

389
00:20:57,119 --> 00:20:59,640
Speaker 5: you know, dramatically decrease the amount of water come into

390
00:20:59,640 --> 00:21:02,760
Speaker 5: our coat the sea, Lafe will come back, but that's

391
00:21:02,800 --> 00:21:05,440
Speaker 5: going to take time as well. But until that reservoir

392
00:21:05,560 --> 00:21:08,360
Speaker 5: is built, I mean, we're in a drought this year,

393
00:21:08,400 --> 00:21:11,720
Speaker 5: so we probably won't sea water. But at any time,

394
00:21:11,760 --> 00:21:14,000
Speaker 5: if we get you know, quite a bit of rain

395
00:21:14,040 --> 00:21:17,280
Speaker 5: and a hurricane comes through, they have to dump the

396
00:21:17,320 --> 00:21:20,840
Speaker 5: water to our coast just in the name of safety. Yeah,

397
00:21:21,400 --> 00:21:24,480
Speaker 5: and the people are just over it, they really are.

398
00:21:24,520 --> 00:21:27,000
Speaker 5: And you know it's trickling. It's not just inshore, it's

399
00:21:27,000 --> 00:21:31,120
Speaker 5: trickling offshore as well, because when you can't catch fish inshore,

400
00:21:32,680 --> 00:21:34,760
Speaker 5: the next movement is to go offshore. And now all

401
00:21:34,760 --> 00:21:37,359
Speaker 5: of a sudden, offshore is crowded as can be. Everybody's

402
00:21:37,359 --> 00:21:39,720
Speaker 5: got a bay boat, you know, in a lot of

403
00:21:39,760 --> 00:21:44,560
Speaker 5: calm days, now it's packed offshore. So it's impact in

404
00:21:44,600 --> 00:21:48,320
Speaker 5: those fisheries as well, just on the volume of fishing pressure,

405
00:21:48,600 --> 00:21:51,520
Speaker 5: but also on the you know, when the discharges come

406
00:21:52,160 --> 00:21:55,399
Speaker 5: there may be a plume of brown water that stretches

407
00:21:56,160 --> 00:21:57,920
Speaker 5: out the three hundred feet of water or more.

408
00:21:58,359 --> 00:22:00,600
Speaker 1: Is it typical for it you get a you can

409
00:22:00,680 --> 00:22:01,440
Speaker 1: get a discharge.

410
00:22:01,480 --> 00:22:03,120
Speaker 4: Is it typical for it to last that long?

411
00:22:03,200 --> 00:22:05,760
Speaker 1: Or you always talking about months of time where it's

412
00:22:05,920 --> 00:22:06,520
Speaker 1: just like.

413
00:22:06,760 --> 00:22:09,399
Speaker 5: Most of the discharges are long term, and when they

414
00:22:09,440 --> 00:22:10,720
Speaker 5: get to the point that they're going to have to

415
00:22:11,119 --> 00:22:14,720
Speaker 5: release water from the lake, it's usually because the lake

416
00:22:14,800 --> 00:22:16,920
Speaker 5: is you know, they've waited too long and the lake

417
00:22:17,000 --> 00:22:18,920
Speaker 5: is way too high, and they've got to draw it down,

418
00:22:20,320 --> 00:22:22,080
Speaker 5: you know, a foot and a half something like that.

419
00:22:22,760 --> 00:22:25,240
Speaker 5: And at a billion gallons of water a day, it's

420
00:22:25,240 --> 00:22:28,399
Speaker 5: not going down an inch a day now. It takes

421
00:22:28,440 --> 00:22:30,400
Speaker 5: a long time for that to go and there's still

422
00:22:30,480 --> 00:22:34,200
Speaker 5: water flowing into it. Discharges typically occurred during the rainy season,

423
00:22:34,720 --> 00:22:38,280
Speaker 5: which for us is you know, May through oh the

424
00:22:38,400 --> 00:22:43,080
Speaker 5: end of October, and it may start May first. Sometimes

425
00:22:43,359 --> 00:22:46,600
Speaker 5: it's pretty crazy how early in the season you can

426
00:22:46,640 --> 00:22:46,879
Speaker 5: get it.

427
00:22:46,920 --> 00:22:49,399
Speaker 4: We get it a lot in the summertime. You know.

428
00:22:49,480 --> 00:22:51,520
Speaker 5: The thing the thing to really remember is it's you know,

429
00:22:51,560 --> 00:22:54,679
Speaker 5: it's just untreated water that's coming down. It has it

430
00:22:54,720 --> 00:22:57,199
Speaker 5: has all the runoff from from all the land, so

431
00:22:57,240 --> 00:22:59,760
Speaker 5: it has all the fertilizers, it has all the pesticides

432
00:22:59,800 --> 00:23:01,480
Speaker 5: andrbicides and chemicals.

433
00:23:02,240 --> 00:23:05,520
Speaker 4: It's a mess, it really is. I at one time

434
00:23:05,600 --> 00:23:07,879
Speaker 4: I was snorkeling down in Hope Sound and I swam

435
00:23:07,920 --> 00:23:10,960
Speaker 4: into that water and I got an earache. That was

436
00:23:11,200 --> 00:23:12,120
Speaker 4: that was the first week.

437
00:23:11,920 --> 00:23:15,040
Speaker 5: Of lobster season, So that was in first week of August,

438
00:23:15,080 --> 00:23:19,359
Speaker 5: and I had an earache from that December took me

439
00:23:19,440 --> 00:23:21,040
Speaker 5: to get rid of it from the bacteria that was

440
00:23:21,040 --> 00:23:24,720
Speaker 5: in that water. Everybody knows the answers, and everybody knows

441
00:23:24,720 --> 00:23:26,520
Speaker 5: what has to be done, But it seems like these

442
00:23:26,640 --> 00:23:30,240
Speaker 5: large industries are just controlling the political will these days.

443
00:23:31,320 --> 00:23:34,440
Speaker 1: Okay, Like I said, there's a lot to unpack here.

444
00:23:34,640 --> 00:23:37,640
Speaker 1: The locals are upset, got it. It's causing all kinds

445
00:23:37,680 --> 00:23:40,320
Speaker 1: of issues, got it. One thing we did just here

446
00:23:40,359 --> 00:23:43,120
Speaker 1: that I want to highlight, though, is that Captain Mike said,

447
00:23:43,160 --> 00:23:45,680
Speaker 1: part of the reason why people are getting so frustrated

448
00:23:46,000 --> 00:23:49,000
Speaker 1: is because the solution to fix all of this is

449
00:23:49,040 --> 00:23:52,920
Speaker 1: already known, it's just not being carried out. The comprehensive

450
00:23:53,000 --> 00:23:56,440
Speaker 1: Everglades Restoration Plan was put into motion in the year

451
00:23:56,480 --> 00:24:01,000
Speaker 1: two thousand. This plan is extensive in there, but for

452
00:24:01,040 --> 00:24:04,720
Speaker 1: our intents and purposes, it includes projects that involve building

453
00:24:04,800 --> 00:24:08,560
Speaker 1: reservoirs that would store and clean excess water from Lake

454
00:24:08,600 --> 00:24:12,720
Speaker 1: Okachobee and would also reduce some of the incredibly harmful

455
00:24:12,760 --> 00:24:16,639
Speaker 1: freshwater discharges that we've been hearing so much about. So

456
00:24:16,680 --> 00:24:19,639
Speaker 1: the obvious question is, if they know this is the solution,

457
00:24:20,280 --> 00:24:24,119
Speaker 1: why isn't anything being done. But before we switch to

458
00:24:24,160 --> 00:24:26,520
Speaker 1: that topic, I want to hear what Cody has to

459
00:24:26,560 --> 00:24:30,360
Speaker 1: say about the effects that all this is having on wildlife.

460
00:24:30,880 --> 00:24:35,760
Speaker 2: It's awful. And so the impacts are like same, same,

461
00:24:35,840 --> 00:24:37,920
Speaker 2: but different from the East coast to the West coast.

462
00:24:37,920 --> 00:24:40,800
Speaker 2: So when you have these discharges, the West coast deals

463
00:24:40,800 --> 00:24:44,640
Speaker 2: with red tide. And that's something that I'm sure everyone

464
00:24:44,720 --> 00:24:47,400
Speaker 2: from all fifty states and around the world has seen.

465
00:24:47,440 --> 00:24:50,400
Speaker 2: When red tide happens in the Gulf, that's what makes

466
00:24:50,440 --> 00:24:52,560
Speaker 2: the news. And so and I have a lot of people,

467
00:24:52,600 --> 00:24:54,119
Speaker 2: I'm on the East coast, a lot of people call me,

468
00:24:54,160 --> 00:24:55,160
Speaker 2: oh my god, I saw that.

469
00:24:55,160 --> 00:24:55,840
Speaker 1: That's so awful.

470
00:24:55,880 --> 00:24:56,440
Speaker 4: Look at it.

471
00:24:56,640 --> 00:24:59,200
Speaker 2: You know, you have giant groupers and manatee and all

472
00:24:59,240 --> 00:25:02,080
Speaker 2: sorts of stuff like miles and miles of death, and

473
00:25:02,119 --> 00:25:04,640
Speaker 2: you can't they have to bring backos to scoop up

474
00:25:04,760 --> 00:25:08,960
Speaker 2: all the wildlife that die. It is absolutely awful. That's

475
00:25:09,000 --> 00:25:13,040
Speaker 2: its own situation where you get this massive nutrient loading

476
00:25:13,520 --> 00:25:15,640
Speaker 2: and it ends up in the Gulf waters. The Gulf

477
00:25:15,760 --> 00:25:20,800
Speaker 2: is very specific ecosystem, and you build these hypoxic zones,

478
00:25:20,880 --> 00:25:23,520
Speaker 2: and so you have a red tide equation on the

479
00:25:23,520 --> 00:25:26,800
Speaker 2: West coast, and when these discharges happen, it extremely fuels

480
00:25:26,800 --> 00:25:28,560
Speaker 2: this and eventually we'll you know, we're going to talk

481
00:25:28,600 --> 00:25:30,560
Speaker 2: about some of the Senate bill stuff. I think that

482
00:25:30,720 --> 00:25:33,320
Speaker 2: just went down. But like, this is one of those

483
00:25:33,359 --> 00:25:37,040
Speaker 2: things that is a major threat to public health, to

484
00:25:37,160 --> 00:25:42,000
Speaker 2: wildlife health. And as science has changed with this stuff,

485
00:25:42,440 --> 00:25:44,679
Speaker 2: there would be certain times where there would be certain

486
00:25:44,720 --> 00:25:48,640
Speaker 2: science about red tide that was they were trying to challenge, say, oh,

487
00:25:48,680 --> 00:25:51,439
Speaker 2: red tide isn't fueled by these discharges. So when we

488
00:25:51,480 --> 00:25:53,760
Speaker 2: start to talk about free speech and the ability to

489
00:25:53,760 --> 00:25:56,040
Speaker 2: have these really difficult conversations, I don't want to jump

490
00:25:56,040 --> 00:25:58,000
Speaker 2: the gun, but that's one of those cases where you

491
00:25:58,040 --> 00:26:00,320
Speaker 2: actually wouldn't be able to talk about it. So you

492
00:26:00,359 --> 00:26:02,680
Speaker 2: have the red tide getting juiced on the West coast,

493
00:26:03,200 --> 00:26:06,840
Speaker 2: on the East coast, this massive flood of freshwater does

494
00:26:06,840 --> 00:26:10,359
Speaker 2: a couple things. Sun sunlight, and sea grass growth are

495
00:26:10,359 --> 00:26:13,800
Speaker 2: critical to our inshore estuaries not just for fishing and

496
00:26:13,840 --> 00:26:16,879
Speaker 2: having good environments to target redfish and snook. These are

497
00:26:16,960 --> 00:26:20,760
Speaker 2: also the nursery habitats for a lot of our inshore

498
00:26:20,840 --> 00:26:26,840
Speaker 2: fish and near shore fish, birds, mammals, turtles, you know anything.

499
00:26:27,240 --> 00:26:31,560
Speaker 2: The entire ecosystem is built upon clean water. When you

500
00:26:31,720 --> 00:26:35,280
Speaker 2: get this turbidity and all this fresh water into the system,

501
00:26:35,400 --> 00:26:37,800
Speaker 2: two things One a lot of the grass and the

502
00:26:37,840 --> 00:26:41,880
Speaker 2: bases of the pyramid. The ecosystem in this estuary can't

503
00:26:41,880 --> 00:26:44,480
Speaker 2: support all that fresh water. They can't handle that fresh water,

504
00:26:44,680 --> 00:26:46,879
Speaker 2: so the fresh water will do its own damage, and

505
00:26:46,960 --> 00:26:49,320
Speaker 2: you also have this turbidity that's going to change the

506
00:26:49,359 --> 00:26:51,440
Speaker 2: water quality, so you're not going to get the same

507
00:26:51,520 --> 00:26:54,800
Speaker 2: vegetation growth as well. When you lose the sea grass,

508
00:26:55,200 --> 00:26:57,800
Speaker 2: that's the base of everything. You know, it's the classic

509
00:26:57,880 --> 00:27:01,320
Speaker 2: food lab you got in first grade. Makes the little shrimp,

510
00:27:01,359 --> 00:27:03,880
Speaker 2: which makes the crab, which makes the pinfish, which makes

511
00:27:03,880 --> 00:27:05,760
Speaker 2: the sea trout. You start to go up to all

512
00:27:05,800 --> 00:27:07,639
Speaker 2: the big names that are on the you know, the

513
00:27:07,680 --> 00:27:10,280
Speaker 2: tourism flyers, you know, tarp and stuff like that. But

514
00:27:10,280 --> 00:27:13,119
Speaker 2: when you lose the grass, everything is gone. So the

515
00:27:13,160 --> 00:27:18,000
Speaker 2: ecosystems cannot handle these massive and it's not just also

516
00:27:18,080 --> 00:27:21,840
Speaker 2: what's coming in, but the sheer volume I've taken on

517
00:27:22,200 --> 00:27:24,120
Speaker 2: some of the days a couple of years ago when

518
00:27:24,119 --> 00:27:26,320
Speaker 2: they opened it back up in a significant way, I

519
00:27:26,359 --> 00:27:30,160
Speaker 2: went down to the side of the locks where basically

520
00:27:30,160 --> 00:27:33,840
Speaker 2: that gate's being opened, that metaphorical and literal floodgate into

521
00:27:33,720 --> 00:27:37,920
Speaker 2: to my ecosystem that I live on, and it's horrifying, man.

522
00:27:37,920 --> 00:27:40,639
Speaker 2: I mean, it's hundreds and hundreds of millions of gallons

523
00:27:40,720 --> 00:27:44,440
Speaker 2: of just dark brown, black water. It looks like something

524
00:27:44,480 --> 00:27:46,880
Speaker 2: out of a movie. You can't. You can't. The last

525
00:27:46,880 --> 00:27:48,960
Speaker 2: time they did it, I took a scoop of water

526
00:27:49,000 --> 00:27:50,600
Speaker 2: in my live ball because I run a bay boat,

527
00:27:50,920 --> 00:27:53,119
Speaker 2: and I went to a coffee shop that's on the water,

528
00:27:53,200 --> 00:27:55,120
Speaker 2: a couple of miles down the river, and I bought

529
00:27:55,119 --> 00:27:57,560
Speaker 2: like a cappuccino, and I put them side by side,

530
00:27:57,560 --> 00:27:59,840
Speaker 2: and then I texted people photos and they couldn't tell

531
00:27:59,840 --> 00:28:01,000
Speaker 2: what one was the coffee.

532
00:28:01,160 --> 00:28:02,040
Speaker 4: Oh gracious.

533
00:28:02,760 --> 00:28:04,960
Speaker 2: So the impact from the east coast to the west

534
00:28:04,960 --> 00:28:07,840
Speaker 2: coast is just a little bit different ecologically but same, same,

535
00:28:07,880 --> 00:28:08,359
Speaker 2: but different.

536
00:28:09,880 --> 00:28:12,080
Speaker 1: I feel like we've got a solid idea of all

537
00:28:12,080 --> 00:28:14,840
Speaker 1: the problems that this is causing, as well as the

538
00:28:14,840 --> 00:28:17,960
Speaker 1: public sentiment towards it. So now let's turn our attention

539
00:28:18,000 --> 00:28:20,800
Speaker 1: to what we learned earlier about how there's apparently a

540
00:28:20,800 --> 00:28:24,119
Speaker 1: solution known for all this, but for some reasons not

541
00:28:24,200 --> 00:28:26,919
Speaker 1: being carried out. I want to find out why that is.

542
00:28:27,560 --> 00:28:29,879
Speaker 5: It's not like everybody doesn't know the answer that the

543
00:28:29,920 --> 00:28:31,080
Speaker 5: water needs to go south.

544
00:28:31,880 --> 00:28:33,520
Speaker 4: Yeah, the Everglades needs it.

545
00:28:33,960 --> 00:28:35,879
Speaker 5: You know, they need it just for their natural salt

546
00:28:35,880 --> 00:28:40,360
Speaker 5: freshwater balance, but also the entire Everglades ecosystem needs it,

547
00:28:41,280 --> 00:28:43,400
Speaker 5: you know, to create the river of Grass, which no

548
00:28:43,480 --> 00:28:46,440
Speaker 5: longer exists, and to keep all that area healthy as

549
00:28:46,480 --> 00:28:47,000
Speaker 5: well as.

550
00:28:46,920 --> 00:28:49,680
Speaker 4: For you know, to maintain our drinking water for all

551
00:28:49,680 --> 00:28:50,440
Speaker 4: of South Florida.

552
00:28:50,920 --> 00:28:53,920
Speaker 5: And it really all of this boils down to an

553
00:28:53,960 --> 00:28:56,960
Speaker 5: issue of water. And if you think about it, you

554
00:28:57,040 --> 00:28:59,280
Speaker 5: can you can go a month without eating, but three

555
00:28:59,320 --> 00:29:01,120
Speaker 5: days without water and you're dead as a stone.

556
00:29:02,080 --> 00:29:04,080
Speaker 4: You think people will be a little more concerned about it.

557
00:29:05,160 --> 00:29:07,320
Speaker 1: Yeah, I know that. So that leads me to the

558
00:29:07,320 --> 00:29:10,320
Speaker 1: other question. It's like, I mean, you outlined it. I

559
00:29:10,360 --> 00:29:13,480
Speaker 1: mean it's like, the right answer is not hard to

560
00:29:13,480 --> 00:29:16,280
Speaker 1: figure out. What's hard to figure out is how do

561
00:29:16,320 --> 00:29:19,320
Speaker 1: you get there? Like, from your perspective, is there a

562
00:29:19,400 --> 00:29:20,160
Speaker 1: path forward?

563
00:29:21,400 --> 00:29:25,600
Speaker 5: Well, you know, the nonprofits that are all fighting for

564
00:29:25,640 --> 00:29:29,080
Speaker 5: Everglades restoration are making away. For the first time we've

565
00:29:29,120 --> 00:29:31,760
Speaker 5: seen in a very long time. It wasn't going anywhere

566
00:29:31,840 --> 00:29:36,200
Speaker 5: until about you know, twenty sixteen, twenty eighteen. In the

567
00:29:36,280 --> 00:29:40,120
Speaker 5: last you know, six or seven years, these projects are

568
00:29:40,120 --> 00:29:43,040
Speaker 5: getting done and they're getting funded and it's all built

569
00:29:43,040 --> 00:29:46,480
Speaker 5: on political pressure, and it's actually built really the first

570
00:29:46,480 --> 00:29:49,800
Speaker 5: time that you're seeing the power of social media, and

571
00:29:49,920 --> 00:29:53,240
Speaker 5: they can people aware. You can control the slant and

572
00:29:53,320 --> 00:29:56,160
Speaker 5: the information that gets out when you control social media,

573
00:29:56,640 --> 00:29:59,840
Speaker 5: and you know, when the truth comes out, people are pissed.

574
00:30:00,880 --> 00:30:03,080
Speaker 4: You know, they care about their wildlife.

575
00:30:03,120 --> 00:30:05,600
Speaker 5: It's very important to them, and it's very important that

576
00:30:05,640 --> 00:30:09,720
Speaker 5: we have these large wild spaces that are still natural

577
00:30:09,760 --> 00:30:12,440
Speaker 5: that we can get away to, and it's very important

578
00:30:12,480 --> 00:30:16,400
Speaker 5: that we have these national parks like Everglades National Park

579
00:30:16,440 --> 00:30:19,239
Speaker 5: that we can escape and get away to, not just

580
00:30:19,280 --> 00:30:22,800
Speaker 5: buffers for our wildlife, but you know, helping maintain the

581
00:30:23,360 --> 00:30:26,280
Speaker 5: carbon balance and our oxygen balance on this planet.

582
00:30:26,640 --> 00:30:29,719
Speaker 1: According to both Captain Mike and Captain Cody, there actually

583
00:30:29,760 --> 00:30:32,200
Speaker 1: does seem to be some momentum being made in terms

584
00:30:32,240 --> 00:30:35,440
Speaker 1: of seeing some of the Everglades restoration being carried out

585
00:30:35,480 --> 00:30:38,600
Speaker 1: the way it's promised. And personally, it's always nice to

586
00:30:38,600 --> 00:30:41,120
Speaker 1: hear of the democratic process functioning the way that it's

587
00:30:41,160 --> 00:30:43,640
Speaker 1: supposed to by way of the public letting their voice

588
00:30:43,720 --> 00:30:46,880
Speaker 1: be heard. Listening to Captain Mike, there seems like that's

589
00:30:46,880 --> 00:30:50,719
Speaker 1: happening down in South Florida. In fact, Cody has an

590
00:30:50,760 --> 00:30:53,880
Speaker 1: example of this happening very recently.

591
00:30:54,000 --> 00:30:56,440
Speaker 2: You know, as this clean water fight has gone on,

592
00:30:56,560 --> 00:30:58,840
Speaker 2: and I've really been involved that, let's say the last

593
00:30:59,240 --> 00:31:04,160
Speaker 2: six or seven years. You know, throughout each year you're

594
00:31:04,200 --> 00:31:07,840
Speaker 2: trying to progress Everglade's restoration, right, and so there's all

595
00:31:07,880 --> 00:31:10,280
Speaker 2: You're watching all these different bills and you're just trying

596
00:31:10,280 --> 00:31:14,520
Speaker 2: to protect progress. And one really crazy one came on

597
00:31:14,560 --> 00:31:19,080
Speaker 2: the radar during this legislative session that transcended everything that

598
00:31:19,080 --> 00:31:22,040
Speaker 2: I've ever been a part of. You know, I'm a

599
00:31:22,040 --> 00:31:24,680
Speaker 2: degree in marine science, and I'm a fisheries guy working

600
00:31:24,760 --> 00:31:28,240
Speaker 2: fisheries advocacy and clean water advocacy. I'm proud to be

601
00:31:28,280 --> 00:31:30,280
Speaker 2: an American, but I'm not like a day to day

602
00:31:30,360 --> 00:31:32,720
Speaker 2: you know. These are the amendments that I'm out here

603
00:31:32,760 --> 00:31:35,200
Speaker 2: to protect them. I've never been a free speech advocate,

604
00:31:35,360 --> 00:31:37,840
Speaker 2: like in a very public setting. Obviously I support it,

605
00:31:38,280 --> 00:31:41,040
Speaker 2: but there was a really unique bill. It was a

606
00:31:41,120 --> 00:31:43,480
Speaker 2: farm bill, and so it has a Senate and a

607
00:31:43,520 --> 00:31:46,800
Speaker 2: House proponent that both have to go through. But there

608
00:31:46,840 --> 00:31:50,440
Speaker 2: was a provision hidden in both of these versions of

609
00:31:50,480 --> 00:31:54,040
Speaker 2: the bill. I'm not making a statement when I said this.

610
00:31:54,160 --> 00:31:56,560
Speaker 2: The bill sponsor on the Senate side said he was

611
00:31:56,600 --> 00:31:59,200
Speaker 2: specifically doing this for the sugar industry, and he can

612
00:31:59,280 --> 00:32:03,640
Speaker 2: be found quoted is doing so there was a disparagement clause.

613
00:32:04,160 --> 00:32:06,000
Speaker 2: And so the short of it, and I have I

614
00:32:06,040 --> 00:32:07,920
Speaker 2: can read us the text, you know, so we're going

615
00:32:07,960 --> 00:32:10,720
Speaker 2: word for word or whatever. But the short of it

616
00:32:10,880 --> 00:32:15,520
Speaker 2: was industry could sue anyone that was speaking in a

617
00:32:15,560 --> 00:32:20,240
Speaker 2: disparaging way against them. And so a food libel law

618
00:32:20,280 --> 00:32:23,000
Speaker 2: has existed in Florida. There's like a dozen states that

619
00:32:23,040 --> 00:32:25,320
Speaker 2: have them. It's existed for like thirty years something like that,

620
00:32:25,360 --> 00:32:28,880
Speaker 2: twenty five thirty years to protect perishable crops. Right, So

621
00:32:29,000 --> 00:32:32,240
Speaker 2: me and you couldn't say, hey, farmer Joe's strawberries, I

622
00:32:32,280 --> 00:32:34,240
Speaker 2: think you know they're making me sick. No one go

623
00:32:34,320 --> 00:32:37,200
Speaker 2: eat farmer Joe's strawberries because they're perishable, because something like

624
00:32:37,200 --> 00:32:39,040
Speaker 2: that could be the reason, you know, all of his

625
00:32:39,160 --> 00:32:41,840
Speaker 2: crop doesn't sell and it goes back. So that's already

626
00:32:41,840 --> 00:32:44,520
Speaker 2: existed and it's almost never used. I believe it's only

627
00:32:44,560 --> 00:32:48,040
Speaker 2: been used once or twice in its like thirty year existence.

628
00:32:48,640 --> 00:32:52,440
Speaker 2: What was changing was an amendment to that that had

629
00:32:52,480 --> 00:32:55,920
Speaker 2: three kind of important aspects to it. The first was

630
00:32:55,960 --> 00:32:59,120
Speaker 2: that it removed perishable goods, so it was also referencing

631
00:32:59,160 --> 00:33:02,120
Speaker 2: non perishable goods, and that was to focus on sugar

632
00:33:02,400 --> 00:33:06,800
Speaker 2: very explicitly. The seconds was that it was not just

633
00:33:06,840 --> 00:33:09,720
Speaker 2: about the product, it was about all the processes involved.

634
00:33:10,080 --> 00:33:14,760
Speaker 2: So that comes down to management decisions around water and agriculture,

635
00:33:14,880 --> 00:33:17,680
Speaker 2: also comes down to pesticides, herbicides, all the things that

636
00:33:17,720 --> 00:33:20,320
Speaker 2: are used in the process of it. And then the

637
00:33:20,360 --> 00:33:24,280
Speaker 2: third thing was an addition of one way attorney fees.

638
00:33:24,560 --> 00:33:27,240
Speaker 2: So a conversation like me and you are having right now,

639
00:33:27,840 --> 00:33:31,760
Speaker 2: if they deemed that I was a threat to their business,

640
00:33:32,320 --> 00:33:36,800
Speaker 2: they could sue me, and in doing so, at worst,

641
00:33:36,840 --> 00:33:39,520
Speaker 2: I would be on the hook for my own attorney's fees.

642
00:33:39,560 --> 00:33:41,200
Speaker 2: I'm not a rich man. You can see one of

643
00:33:41,240 --> 00:33:43,640
Speaker 2: the three rooms in the apartment that I live in

644
00:33:43,720 --> 00:33:46,160
Speaker 2: right now, right But then if I were to lose

645
00:33:46,200 --> 00:33:49,040
Speaker 2: the lawsuit against this massive industry that has a million

646
00:33:49,040 --> 00:33:51,160
Speaker 2: times the resources that I do, I would be on

647
00:33:51,200 --> 00:33:54,000
Speaker 2: the hook for their attorney fees as well. So this

648
00:33:54,120 --> 00:33:57,280
Speaker 2: is essentially what you would call a gag bill because

649
00:33:57,280 --> 00:33:59,640
Speaker 2: the reality is is that those lawsuits aren't going to

650
00:33:59,680 --> 00:34:02,520
Speaker 2: play out that much because it's it's meant to impose

651
00:34:02,600 --> 00:34:05,000
Speaker 2: fear Lake, You're not going to say anything bad about me,

652
00:34:05,040 --> 00:34:07,240
Speaker 2: because you know, even if you're on the right side

653
00:34:07,240 --> 00:34:09,960
Speaker 2: of this lawsuit, all it takes is me to sue you.

654
00:34:09,960 --> 00:34:12,279
Speaker 2: You can't talk about anything related to the case for

655
00:34:12,320 --> 00:34:14,080
Speaker 2: a couple of years, and you're gonna be on the

656
00:34:14,080 --> 00:34:16,239
Speaker 2: hook for a lot of money. And so that gets

657
00:34:16,360 --> 00:34:20,000
Speaker 2: really scary. Because I'm a man. I am fully and

658
00:34:20,040 --> 00:34:22,560
Speaker 2: wholeheartedly rely on free speech because I like to have

659
00:34:22,600 --> 00:34:26,439
Speaker 2: difficult conversations about fisheries, clean water, everything. I think that's

660
00:34:26,480 --> 00:34:28,839
Speaker 2: that's productive in what our country is based on, whether

661
00:34:29,040 --> 00:34:31,439
Speaker 2: you know, if you disagree or let's let's and you've

662
00:34:31,480 --> 00:34:33,320
Speaker 2: you've done a great job. I've seen with your podcasts

663
00:34:33,320 --> 00:34:35,839
Speaker 2: where you'll say we're going to have both sides of

664
00:34:35,880 --> 00:34:38,560
Speaker 2: this conversation on let's have let's let people make their

665
00:34:38,560 --> 00:34:41,640
Speaker 2: own decisions. Can you imagine if the starting point of

666
00:34:41,680 --> 00:34:45,080
Speaker 2: one of those conversations was illegal. So that's the basis

667
00:34:45,080 --> 00:34:47,239
Speaker 2: of it. I'm happy to field any questions, but like

668
00:34:47,719 --> 00:34:50,799
Speaker 2: holy you go from like I want to defend how

669
00:34:50,840 --> 00:34:53,800
Speaker 2: water is flowing in some water management you know process,

670
00:34:53,840 --> 00:34:56,320
Speaker 2: which water mint you know, that's stuff that a certain

671
00:34:56,520 --> 00:35:00,360
Speaker 2: small sector the community should care about even though more should,

672
00:35:00,360 --> 00:35:02,120
Speaker 2: but a small do the all of a sudden, like

673
00:35:02,280 --> 00:35:05,080
Speaker 2: free speech is literally under attack in Florida, and it

674
00:35:05,080 --> 00:35:08,480
Speaker 2: has consequences way outside just Florida, Right.

675
00:35:08,560 --> 00:35:09,680
Speaker 4: Yeah, no, no doubt.

676
00:35:09,719 --> 00:35:11,680
Speaker 1: Well, I mean, like my first question is, like what

677
00:35:11,880 --> 00:35:12,320
Speaker 1: came of it?

678
00:35:12,440 --> 00:35:15,680
Speaker 4: Like it didn't pass? Or did it? It didn't?

679
00:35:15,800 --> 00:35:19,440
Speaker 2: And so all of us drove. If you're driving up

680
00:35:19,480 --> 00:35:21,920
Speaker 2: to Tallahassee to get a minute on the microphone to

681
00:35:21,920 --> 00:35:24,680
Speaker 2: give a public comment, you're driving anywhere from ten to

682
00:35:24,719 --> 00:35:27,520
Speaker 2: twenty four hours round trip. I mean, one of my buddies,

683
00:35:27,600 --> 00:35:30,319
Speaker 2: Captain Brandon Sere from the Keys, drove about twenty two

684
00:35:30,360 --> 00:35:35,160
Speaker 2: hours round trip. So you say, okay, we can't let

685
00:35:35,160 --> 00:35:37,560
Speaker 2: this happen. You get the bill language, you figure out

686
00:35:37,560 --> 00:35:39,880
Speaker 2: what's going on, and you mobilize, we're going to.

687
00:35:39,920 --> 00:35:40,560
Speaker 4: Go speak on it.

688
00:35:40,880 --> 00:35:43,799
Speaker 2: The first time that a group of advocates went up

689
00:35:43,800 --> 00:35:46,200
Speaker 2: to speak on behalf of it, it was immediately pulled

690
00:35:46,200 --> 00:35:48,719
Speaker 2: from the docket. So they're sitting there waiting to give

691
00:35:48,719 --> 00:35:51,480
Speaker 2: their public comment pulled. Nope, there's nothing to talk about here.

692
00:35:51,760 --> 00:35:54,880
Speaker 2: That immediately raises some red flags. Right, that was on

693
00:35:54,920 --> 00:35:58,120
Speaker 2: the Senate side. The next step is the House version,

694
00:35:58,160 --> 00:36:00,759
Speaker 2: because it's two versions of the same bill is being

695
00:36:00,800 --> 00:36:04,719
Speaker 2: heard in essentially like an appropriations or budget committee, and

696
00:36:04,800 --> 00:36:06,880
Speaker 2: so they say, oh, this is just about budget, we

697
00:36:06,920 --> 00:36:09,799
Speaker 2: can't make any changes to it. And you've seen a

698
00:36:09,800 --> 00:36:12,040
Speaker 2: lot of the videos of people giving public comment. That's

699
00:36:12,040 --> 00:36:14,680
Speaker 2: where everyone flooded like you have to be an honest

700
00:36:14,719 --> 00:36:17,440
Speaker 2: and respectful American and play by the rules, but at

701
00:36:17,440 --> 00:36:19,239
Speaker 2: the same time, you got to shake the game up

702
00:36:19,239 --> 00:36:23,120
Speaker 2: a little bit. So like everyone funneled into this arena.

703
00:36:23,440 --> 00:36:25,480
Speaker 2: They're hoping that they can just pass this really quickly

704
00:36:25,520 --> 00:36:27,360
Speaker 2: and say it's about a budget and move on. And

705
00:36:27,400 --> 00:36:30,000
Speaker 2: you get hours of testimony from all these people explaining

706
00:36:30,000 --> 00:36:32,320
Speaker 2: how big of a threat this is. You have farmers

707
00:36:32,320 --> 00:36:34,200
Speaker 2: in the room, right, you would think like, oh, this

708
00:36:34,239 --> 00:36:37,000
Speaker 2: sounds like fishermen versus farmer. No, you have farmers in

709
00:36:37,040 --> 00:36:39,440
Speaker 2: the room saying we're sick of the government. Everyone leave

710
00:36:39,520 --> 00:36:41,319
Speaker 2: us alone. We don't want nothing to do with this.

711
00:36:41,840 --> 00:36:44,879
Speaker 2: So you have a voice like that, I mean calling

712
00:36:44,920 --> 00:36:47,400
Speaker 2: your representatives to the point they're all unplugging their phones.

713
00:36:47,680 --> 00:36:49,960
Speaker 2: You're just trying to get through to say like, hey, representative,

714
00:36:50,000 --> 00:36:52,359
Speaker 2: do not support this, and you're getting the dial tone

715
00:36:52,400 --> 00:36:55,240
Speaker 2: every time you call because they're getting hundreds of thousands

716
00:36:55,239 --> 00:36:59,360
Speaker 2: of calls, and that basically you get told from start,

717
00:36:59,360 --> 00:37:03,000
Speaker 2: one bill sponsor tells you, we can't remove this, we

718
00:37:03,040 --> 00:37:05,280
Speaker 2: don't need to, and we can't. And how it ended.

719
00:37:05,920 --> 00:37:08,640
Speaker 2: They removed it word for word exactly what we asked

720
00:37:08,680 --> 00:37:10,600
Speaker 2: that one line, we want that out, You remove that

721
00:37:11,000 --> 00:37:12,960
Speaker 2: and then go on with the rest of this. So

722
00:37:13,200 --> 00:37:16,440
Speaker 2: this is a great example of we the people standing

723
00:37:16,520 --> 00:37:21,320
Speaker 2: up against basically massive industry trying to pull political strings.

724
00:37:21,440 --> 00:37:24,640
Speaker 2: And if there's one thing people can take away from

725
00:37:24,640 --> 00:37:26,560
Speaker 2: this from if they're not from Florida and they have

726
00:37:26,640 --> 00:37:28,840
Speaker 2: no clue what's going on and how we got to

727
00:37:28,880 --> 00:37:32,080
Speaker 2: this conversation is that Florida just went through trial by

728
00:37:32,160 --> 00:37:34,919
Speaker 2: fire and if this had passed, this would be everywhere else.

729
00:37:35,239 --> 00:37:39,440
Speaker 2: It would be in Maine, Montana, Texas, California, you name it.

730
00:37:39,480 --> 00:37:41,640
Speaker 2: This would be the next Well, you guys can't talk

731
00:37:41,640 --> 00:37:44,279
Speaker 2: about public land sales. You can't talk about you know,

732
00:37:44,400 --> 00:37:47,319
Speaker 2: how this agricultural operation of Montana might be destroying this

733
00:37:47,560 --> 00:37:50,520
Speaker 2: iconic river and creek that you know, it would be

734
00:37:50,600 --> 00:37:53,120
Speaker 2: deployed everywhere else if it went through here.

735
00:37:53,840 --> 00:37:56,520
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, like I said, that's the one silver lining

736
00:37:56,560 --> 00:37:59,239
Speaker 1: I could pull out of that story is like the

737
00:37:59,320 --> 00:38:02,200
Speaker 1: same kind of silver lining you could pull out of

738
00:38:02,239 --> 00:38:04,680
Speaker 1: the you know, proposed public land sell from last summer.

739
00:38:04,719 --> 00:38:09,400
Speaker 1: It's like if the public gets involved and calls their representatives,

740
00:38:10,360 --> 00:38:11,480
Speaker 1: it can work.

741
00:38:12,000 --> 00:38:15,279
Speaker 2: I think it's a growing ground swell. I mean, this

742
00:38:15,320 --> 00:38:19,640
Speaker 2: fight's been going on for decades, right, but I think

743
00:38:19,760 --> 00:38:22,720
Speaker 2: each year you have this evolution of social and digital

744
00:38:22,800 --> 00:38:26,040
Speaker 2: communications and all these things. There's two things coming to

745
00:38:26,080 --> 00:38:28,640
Speaker 2: a head. Our ability to connect and communicate has never

746
00:38:28,680 --> 00:38:32,600
Speaker 2: been greater at scale, and also the damage to all

747
00:38:32,600 --> 00:38:35,759
Speaker 2: these ecosystems has never been greater, so I think there's

748
00:38:35,960 --> 00:38:39,399
Speaker 2: less place to ignore it. And also what's really cool

749
00:38:39,440 --> 00:38:42,279
Speaker 2: is I think this has expanded far beyond just some

750
00:38:42,360 --> 00:38:45,840
Speaker 2: fishermen realizing their favorite places are dying, or some hunters

751
00:38:45,840 --> 00:38:50,719
Speaker 2: feeling realizing their favorite places are dying. It's like hotel industries.

752
00:38:50,800 --> 00:38:53,680
Speaker 2: Florida's entire economy is based on tourism. If people stop

753
00:38:53,760 --> 00:38:55,560
Speaker 2: coming the way the taxes and everything are set up

754
00:38:55,640 --> 00:38:58,160
Speaker 2: like it's a you come visit here, it's so incredible,

755
00:38:58,200 --> 00:39:00,680
Speaker 2: it's hard to live here. You come visit, And that's

756
00:39:00,680 --> 00:39:03,680
Speaker 2: how our economy's based. If this place all dies, all

757
00:39:03,680 --> 00:39:06,120
Speaker 2: of our natural resources die and everyone stops coming here.

758
00:39:06,320 --> 00:39:09,839
Speaker 2: This entire ship collapses in on itself. So you have

759
00:39:09,920 --> 00:39:14,000
Speaker 2: hotels and restaurants and you know, all these other industries

760
00:39:14,120 --> 00:39:17,520
Speaker 2: that are realizing their voice matters, that their way of

761
00:39:17,560 --> 00:39:20,520
Speaker 2: life matters, that their public health and their drinking water.

762
00:39:20,560 --> 00:39:24,600
Speaker 2: At steak, you have more people recognizing that's what's going on.

763
00:39:24,760 --> 00:39:27,600
Speaker 2: Is far bigger than the outdoor industry. Just like the

764
00:39:27,640 --> 00:39:30,440
Speaker 2: public land fight right like that wasn't just a couple

765
00:39:30,440 --> 00:39:32,759
Speaker 2: guys who like el hunt, right like that was like, No,

766
00:39:33,160 --> 00:39:36,560
Speaker 2: this is what our country's based on and our natural resources.

767
00:39:36,840 --> 00:39:39,799
Speaker 2: Here's the reality. We the people, they work for us,

768
00:39:40,320 --> 00:39:42,480
Speaker 2: they have. That's how the systems set up and they

769
00:39:42,520 --> 00:39:46,080
Speaker 2: always will. And it's really cool to see, Like I'm

770
00:39:46,120 --> 00:39:48,759
Speaker 2: just an average dude. I mean, I obviously had dive

771
00:39:48,800 --> 00:39:51,080
Speaker 2: head deep into this. I'm just a thirty year old

772
00:39:51,120 --> 00:39:53,480
Speaker 2: fishing guide. And like the fact that my voice mattered

773
00:39:53,480 --> 00:39:55,560
Speaker 2: in a way to protect free speech even in zero

774
00:39:55,560 --> 00:39:58,680
Speaker 2: point one percent capacity. I'm not claiming anything from this

775
00:39:58,800 --> 00:40:01,239
Speaker 2: victory is really cool and it should inspire a lot

776
00:40:01,280 --> 00:40:03,520
Speaker 2: of people to realize, no matter where you live or

777
00:40:03,520 --> 00:40:05,680
Speaker 2: what you believe in, like, your voice matters way more

778
00:40:05,680 --> 00:40:06,280
Speaker 2: than you think.

779
00:40:06,719 --> 00:40:10,120
Speaker 5: I'm very optimistic that the change will come about. The

780
00:40:10,160 --> 00:40:14,160
Speaker 5: plans already enacted. They're working on building the reservoir right now.

781
00:40:14,200 --> 00:40:17,200
Speaker 5: They've already they've already built the sta around it. Now

782
00:40:17,200 --> 00:40:20,120
Speaker 5: they're working on the reservoir. If you stop the water

783
00:40:20,160 --> 00:40:24,160
Speaker 5: from coming to our coasts, you will clean up the coast.

784
00:40:24,280 --> 00:40:27,200
Speaker 5: Nature is resilient. It will come back. It will take

785
00:40:27,280 --> 00:40:30,239
Speaker 5: some time, but it will come back. And the fresh

786
00:40:30,320 --> 00:40:34,680
Speaker 5: water going to the Everglades will help that area come back,

787
00:40:34,680 --> 00:40:37,120
Speaker 5: and there are seagrass to come back and become healthy again.

788
00:40:37,920 --> 00:40:41,200
Speaker 5: The people are getting more and more frustrated every day,

789
00:40:41,320 --> 00:40:44,879
Speaker 5: and the political pressure is increasing every day. People are

790
00:40:44,920 --> 00:40:47,960
Speaker 5: tired of it, and you know, they're just tired of

791
00:40:48,000 --> 00:40:51,439
Speaker 5: seeing the things they love destroyed. And you look like, dude,

792
00:40:51,480 --> 00:40:54,800
Speaker 5: I never thought it'd be an activist. I'm a fisherman,

793
00:40:55,440 --> 00:40:57,799
Speaker 5: you know. But when you see something you really love

794
00:40:58,040 --> 00:41:00,640
Speaker 5: destroyed in front of you, you have two options. You

795
00:41:00,680 --> 00:41:03,879
Speaker 5: can move or you can fight. And I just love

796
00:41:03,920 --> 00:41:06,960
Speaker 5: this place too much to move. So all of a sudden,

797
00:41:07,120 --> 00:41:10,040
Speaker 5: you know you're in this fight. And it's one voice,

798
00:41:10,080 --> 00:41:11,960
Speaker 5: then it's two voice, then it's one hundred voices.

799
00:41:12,000 --> 00:41:14,640
Speaker 4: Then it's a thousand voices, then it's ten thousand, and

800
00:41:14,640 --> 00:41:15,840
Speaker 4: then it's one hundred thousand.

801
00:41:15,600 --> 00:41:18,880
Speaker 5: And at some point the army and the voices are

802
00:41:18,920 --> 00:41:23,680
Speaker 5: so loud that the politicians have no choice but to listen.

803
00:41:24,280 --> 00:41:25,880
Speaker 5: You know, their job is to get re elected. They

804
00:41:25,920 --> 00:41:28,400
Speaker 5: will not get re elected if they don't. And so

805
00:41:29,360 --> 00:41:32,520
Speaker 5: I feel like now the outrage is there and the

806
00:41:32,520 --> 00:41:33,839
Speaker 5: rest of the country is seeing it.

807
00:41:34,239 --> 00:41:35,320
Speaker 4: You know, if you look.

808
00:41:35,160 --> 00:41:38,399
Speaker 5: At South Florida and the Florida Keys, you know that's

809
00:41:38,400 --> 00:41:40,239
Speaker 5: a bucket list place to go fish for a lot

810
00:41:40,239 --> 00:41:44,960
Speaker 5: of people, and when they see that that place is disappearing,

811
00:41:46,120 --> 00:41:49,920
Speaker 5: they get pissed. And you know, this will not happen

812
00:41:49,960 --> 00:41:52,319
Speaker 5: without federal funding. So it's not just the state of

813
00:41:52,360 --> 00:41:54,160
Speaker 5: Florida that has to be behind it. You have to

814
00:41:54,160 --> 00:41:58,320
Speaker 5: have people in Montanago. We care about Florida and the Everglades.

815
00:41:58,360 --> 00:42:00,799
Speaker 5: We care about the keys and it being there. We

816
00:42:00,840 --> 00:42:02,319
Speaker 5: want to be able to go back and fish there.

817
00:42:02,360 --> 00:42:05,040
Speaker 5: And and I think the awareness is getting there. I

818
00:42:05,040 --> 00:42:07,120
Speaker 5: think we're starting to see it much like we've we've

819
00:42:07,120 --> 00:42:09,160
Speaker 5: seen in you know, like in a pebble mine issue

820
00:42:09,200 --> 00:42:12,280
Speaker 5: and in the in the boundary waters mine issues. We're

821
00:42:12,280 --> 00:42:15,680
Speaker 5: starting to see public awareness really heat up that pressure

822
00:42:16,280 --> 00:42:19,560
Speaker 5: and that's what it takes, and you can fight city all.

823
00:42:19,640 --> 00:42:22,480
Speaker 5: We're seeing it for real. I think we all realize

824
00:42:22,480 --> 00:42:25,800
Speaker 5: the importance of wild areas and the and the ability

825
00:42:25,800 --> 00:42:30,879
Speaker 5: to escape from you know, the concrete jungles that we've

826
00:42:30,920 --> 00:42:34,360
Speaker 5: created for a lot of us. It's it's very calming,

827
00:42:35,200 --> 00:42:37,520
Speaker 5: more so than you know. When I go fishing, I

828
00:42:38,000 --> 00:42:40,360
Speaker 5: really don't even care if I catch a fish. I'm

829
00:42:40,400 --> 00:42:42,920
Speaker 5: just kind of I just I'm happy to be on the.

830
00:42:42,880 --> 00:42:45,760
Speaker 4: Water and just you know, it's peaceful and it's nice

831
00:42:45,800 --> 00:42:49,040
Speaker 4: and there's no pressure, and I'm seeing beauty when I

832
00:42:49,040 --> 00:42:50,240
Speaker 4: go somewhere I travel.

833
00:42:50,880 --> 00:42:54,040
Speaker 5: The natural beauty of it is what amazes me. And

834
00:42:54,120 --> 00:42:56,480
Speaker 5: everywhere in this country is so different, and they're all

835
00:42:56,600 --> 00:43:00,520
Speaker 5: very unique and they're all very beautiful and very important

836
00:43:00,560 --> 00:43:04,880
Speaker 5: to our lives. And when they're gone, they won't come back.

837
00:43:05,320 --> 00:43:06,640
Speaker 5: You know, when you put it, when you put a

838
00:43:07,360 --> 00:43:10,239
Speaker 5: building there, you put a parking lot there, it's never

839
00:43:10,280 --> 00:43:12,359
Speaker 5: going to be a bunch of trees again. It's never

840
00:43:12,440 --> 00:43:14,400
Speaker 5: going to be a little pond you know that you

841
00:43:14,400 --> 00:43:17,880
Speaker 5: could walk over to and catch crappie or perch or

842
00:43:17,880 --> 00:43:19,960
Speaker 5: whatever it is. Past whatever it is you like in

843
00:43:20,000 --> 00:43:23,400
Speaker 5: your area that as a kid set you free and

844
00:43:23,440 --> 00:43:27,600
Speaker 5: put you on this trek into the outdoors and enhanced

845
00:43:27,640 --> 00:43:28,080
Speaker 5: your life.

846
00:43:28,760 --> 00:43:31,640
Speaker 4: It's funny. I mean, we all, we all work extremely

847
00:43:31,680 --> 00:43:34,319
Speaker 4: hard so that we can go do these things and

848
00:43:34,360 --> 00:43:36,480
Speaker 4: be in these places that set us free.

849
00:43:37,400 --> 00:43:39,600
Speaker 5: We just have to protect them. It's super important. I mean,

850
00:43:39,719 --> 00:43:42,320
Speaker 5: you know, going all the way back to Teda, Israel,

851
00:43:42,360 --> 00:43:44,640
Speaker 5: he's the one who had the vision who said, you know,

852
00:43:44,719 --> 00:43:47,440
Speaker 5: these places are super important to us and we really

853
00:43:47,440 --> 00:43:50,560
Speaker 5: need them. And it even such small things as a

854
00:43:50,600 --> 00:43:53,839
Speaker 5: park in a city. If you think of where you

855
00:43:53,880 --> 00:43:55,759
Speaker 5: live if you didn't have those parks, what that would

856
00:43:55,800 --> 00:43:58,560
Speaker 5: be like. Then how much time we spend it him

857
00:43:58,560 --> 00:44:02,960
Speaker 5: and how much which happiness they bring to our lives.

858
00:44:04,520 --> 00:44:08,480
Speaker 1: Wild places like the Everglades, Lake Okachobee, the Saint Lucy

859
00:44:08,560 --> 00:44:12,000
Speaker 1: and Calusahatchie Rivers, they are important to us all, and

860
00:44:12,080 --> 00:44:14,040
Speaker 1: I know they're important to you if you're listening to

861
00:44:14,080 --> 00:44:14,879
Speaker 1: this podcast.

862
00:44:15,160 --> 00:44:16,680
Speaker 4: It's kind of what we talk about here.

863
00:44:18,280 --> 00:44:21,280
Speaker 1: Wrap this up. I think it's clear that these particular

864
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Speaker 1: natural resources of South Florida still have a long road

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Speaker 1: ahead of them. However, thanks to the perseverance and care

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Speaker 1: from like minded folks. It seems the momentum is moving

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Speaker 1: in the conservation direction. This story is far from over,

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Speaker 1: so we're gonna have to keep up with this one

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Speaker 1: and see how it unfolds. I want to thank all

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Speaker 1: of you for listening to Backwoods University as well as

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Speaker 1: Bear Greece in this country life. It means so much

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Speaker 1: to all of us over here. If you like this episode,

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00:44:49,000 --> 00:44:51,919
Speaker 1: share with a friend this week, and stick around. There's

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Speaker 1: a whole lot more on the way.