Fisheating Creek
Aerial view of the water
Template: Infobox River / Obsolete
Fish Eating Creek is a river in Florida, which flows into Lake Okeechobee. It is the only remaining free-flowing watercourse that flows into the lake and the second largest source that feeds the lake. The largest part of the country on the river remains in public ownership or building development is restricted by environmental regulations. The lower reaches of the river is largely in original condition, at the headwaters, there are efforts to restore a more natural state.
Description
The name Fish Eating Creek is derived from seminolischen name for the river, Thlothlopopka - Hatchee, which can be translated "are eaten the abundance of the fish " as. The length of the Fish Eating Creek is differently; it ranges from 64 km to 82 km. The water flows south through an area in the southwest of Highlands County, called Cypress Swamp, and into the Glades County, where the water is about two kilometers north of the Glades County Road 731 east turns and 32 km long, flows to Lake Okeechobee. The river is spread over the last eight miles of its course in the Cowbone Marsh, a marsh before it flows into the lake. Fish Eating Creek is the second largest natural freshwater source for the Lake Okeechobee and contributes nine percent of the amount of water that flows into the lake.
The headwaters of the Fish Eating Creek forms a series of resistant marshes in Highlands County west of Lake Placid. Each of these marshes brimming slowly and are so water from the next lower-lying marsh, until finally the Fish Eating Creek comes about. In the 20th century crossed ditches and channel these marshes and drained the area in order to transform it into agricultural land. 2010 acquired the Ministry of Agriculture of the United States, a conservation easement over 26,000 acres of land in the Highlands County south of State Road 70 and plans to land in this area in a March landscape transformed back. By this measure, although the property remains with the previous owner, the U.S. government will, however, be granted the permanent right to dispose of the area for nature protection purposes. The binding effect is roughly equivalent to an easement under German law.
Fish Eating Creek flows through a prairie landscape, both dry and moist, the fresh water swamps, called Hammocks -. These are slight elevations of limestone, which are densely covered by trees, riparian forests and floodplain swamps are characterized Human influence has brought other land uses in the area, including plantations of eucalyptus and pine trees. 1842, the Fish Eating Creek was described in the dry season as a large river, very " wound ", whose width varies from a creek to a river. The Lake Okeechobee was being kept at a lower level than before the 20th century and so a large part of Cowbone Marsh was trockengeleget and converted into agricultural land. The lake is almost completely surrounded by the Herbert Hoover Dike. The only gap in the dike is located at Fish Eating Creek, where the dike follows the two banks of the river for a distance of a few kilometers, so the creek is the only non-controlled inlet to the lake.
The watercourse is located almost entirely within the Fish Eating Creek Wildlife Management Area. The only settlements in the vicinity of Fish Eating Creek Palmdale crosses are near the point where U.S. Highway 27 the watercourse and Lakeport at the mouth of the creek into Lake Okeechobee. Twenty-seven rare species live in the catchment area of the Fish Eating Creek. The preservation of the ecosystem of the Fish Eating Creek is considered crucial for the long-term survival of Florida panther, American Black Bear, Schwalbenweih, Whooping Crane, Crane Canada, Schopfkarakaras and other species in the region.
History
The area around the Fish Eating Creek was inhabited by members of the Belle Glade culture as early as the year 1000 BC. In the area there are several archaeological sites in the area, which is known the most famous of Fort Center. It was inhabited from about 450 BC to about 1700.
Fort Center is a palisade of trunks of Palmettopalme, which is named after Lieutenant JP Center of the United States Army and was built during the Second Seminole. This fort was the archaeological site its name. 1842 explored a troupe of 83 sailors and marines of the United States Navy under the leadership of John Rodgers in 16 carved wooden canoes Key Biscayne from the Everglades, Lake Okeechobee, and both the Kissimmee River up to Lake Tohopekaliga and the Fish Eating Creek to end of his open water course before she returned to Key Biscayne. Fort Center was already abandoned, and the expedition members had to repair the palisades, as they were staying in it for a few days. The fact-finding mission found evidence that the Seminoles lived in the area around the Fish Eating Creek, however, encountered in the course of the 60 -day exploration of any of them. Fort Center was reactivated during the third Seminole and served as a station on the military road from Fort Myers to Fort Jupiter, a portion of the route provided for the use of canoes on Lake Okeechobee time.
An investigation in 1881 revealed that the surrounding area of the Fish Eating Creek is one of five areas in Florida was formed, which was inhabited by Seminoles. The non- Indian settlement of the area began in the 20th century; Lakeport at the mouth of Fish Eating Creek was founded in 1915. The increase in the development of the Fish Eating Creek drove the remaining Seminoles to 1930, almost entirely from the field, even if the Brighton Seminole Indian Reservation, founded in 1935 in the neighborhood lies to the waters in Glades County.
Current Status
Lykes Brothers purchased the land around the Fish Eating Creek at the beginning of the 20th century and used it as largely little developed Pasture. The company owned 67 % of the land in Glades County. For many years allowed Lykes Brothers of public access to the waters and on the adjoining land, among which were a park on the shore, a campground and a canoe rental in Palmdale and 76,000 acres of land, the lease to the general public for hunting in the state of Florida been.
Lykes Brothers began to restrict public access to their land at Fish Eating Creek in the 1980s, apparently as a response to the increase of vandalism and poaching. Lykes Brothers renewed in 1987 the Treaty on the Wildlife Management Area not more but leased the land to a private company, which raised fees for the right to hunt on the land. 1989 joined Lykes Brothers and outdoor swimming pools, camping and canoe rentals and erected fences and gates to prevent entry to the previously public land. In the Creek tribes and other obstacles were installed to make the driveway impossible boats in the area.
In March 1989, residents of the Glades County broke open a gate to an old access road. The Glades County Commission ordered that the gate and the fence is torn down nearby and claimed the area in question as belonging to the County. Lykes Brothers sued then the County. The dispute focused soon on the question whether the Fish Eating Creek is a navigable waters or not. If the water is considered navigable, then its bed would be up to the high water mark to the State of Florida belong. 1998 a court ruled that this were so, and that the watercourse therefore stand owned by the State. Lykes Brothers were preparing an appeal action, but a comparison between the state and the company ended the dispute.
In the context of this comparison Florida paid 46.4 million U.S. dollars to Lykes Brothers for an area of 18,272 acres ( about 74 square km ) along the river. This surface was then used to Fish Eating Creek Wildlife Management Area (WMA). The State acquired a conservation easement also for other 41 523 acres ( about 168 km ²), which belonged to Lykes Brothers. The comparison obliged the State and for the entertainment of navigability for boats between Lake Okeechobee and the bridge of U.S. Highway 27 in Palmdale. Motor vehicles and jet - powered watercraft are prohibited in the WMA, riding along with swamp boats is permitted in parts of the Cowbone Marsh. Also, hunting is limited in the area.