Captain Steve's educational Big Cypress swamp buggy tour

The vast forest of dwarf cypress, pine and hardwood hammocks of the Florida Everglades had long intrigued my retired wife and I who have often vacationed in the Sunshine State. We had driven through via County Road 94, better known as Loop Road Scenic Drive, a quiet dirt byway off of the Tamiami Trail, and had planned to come back for an extensive guided tour of the area, seeking a little more than the typical Florida road side attraction.

During our latest trip in late January, we left Pine Ridge Road in Naples for an Everglades adventure, traveling 48 miles inland where we found Captain Steve and his swamp buggies deep in the Big Cypress National Preserve. Steve is a sixth generation Glades-man (family has been living in the Everglades since the 1870s) who loves the Big Cypress National Preserve, the largest subtropical swamp in the United States. Steve’s great grandfather, Captain Charlie Boggess, was the first to operate a tour in the Everglades National Park.

Captain Steve's Swamp Buggy Adventure is motored by a six-person, all-terrain vehicle outfitted with tractor tires and an elevated viewing platform. We were fortunate to have a private 3.5-hour tour of the 1.5-million-acre wetland. We arrived just after a frost advisory. Big Cypress was calm, peaceful, and untroubled; a little glimpse of what Heaven on earth might look like.

Captain Steve is a physically big man; he’s cheerful, charismatic and a natural storyteller. His outgoing nature invites a day of lunch and socialization. Steve explained to us that he would stop anytime for photo opportunities or quickly jumping off the buggy to amble around and more closely observe any unusual aspect of a particular habitat. Being a professional, Captain Steve not only shared wonderful experiences, but made sure that we had bug spray, sun block and binoculars.

Steve began the tour by explaining that although Florida is experiencing tremendous population growth and urban development, Big Cypress remains a wilderness, inhospitable and mysterious, the domain of countless creatures of both tooth and claw. The exotic waterscape features a delicate landscape with open grassy vistas, pinelands and dense islands of hardwoods. The swamp is a rich and varied biological preserve.

We came across a large tree that exhibited deformed growth and a distinctive bend in a vertical plane. Steve identified it as a directional tree or marker tree. Historically, these unique trees were commonly known as Indian Trail Trees. Proponents of trail tree lore claim these unique forms were modified by Native Americans and used to mark trails, river crossings or important locations. Native Americans would bend young trees into shapes that were not found in nature, such as right angles. Bent trees were originally saplings that were purposely bent in the correct direction for accurate trail navigation. The bend of the tree was secured with items such as sinew, bark, rawhide, or vines. Alternatively, the saplings were weighted down with dirt or rocks.

Early in the tour Captain Steve pointed out some cut timber remaining from the days of logging cypress. When the timber industry began to operate in the area, it built railroads and cut and hauled out most of the cypress ecosystem's old growth trees. Jerome and Copeland were logging towns and the Jerome lumber mill once was among the most productive in the United States. During the 1940s, loggers cut and finished 100,000 board feet every day. The Lee Cypress Railroad, built in the 1920s, transported cypress trees for more than 40 years, ending in the 1950s. By the time conservationists became concerned about the Big Cypress in the late 1960's it had already been logged. About three hundred sixty million board feet of Cypress were logged from the Big Cypress before it became a preserve.

Steve briefed us on the fascinating wading birds of the Big Cypress. The Great Blue Heron, Green Heron, the Great Egret, Snowy Egret and White Ibis are the most commonly spotted birds in the swamp. One other bird that captured our attention was the prehistoric looking Anhinga, present here in large numbers. The Anhinga has a minimal coating of oil that repels water. The oil allows them to be less buoyant and better able to dive and catch prey. In order to dry off after fishing, they must sun themselves on high perches with their wings outstretched.

American alligators are commonly seen in the preserve during the winter dry seasons when water is scarce. We observed an eleven-footer basking in a canal and some baby gators near a gator cave. Other reptiles in the swamp that can be observed include cottonmouth and rattle snakes, skinks, geckos, turtles and lizards.

Steve informed us that Big Cypress is home to 35 species of mammals, the most popular being the Florida panther, black bear and manatee. An endangered species since 1967, about 150 panthers live in Big Cypress. Panthers are strictly carnivores, with white-tailed deer and feral hogs making up most of their diet. They will also hunt smaller animals such as raccoons, rabbits, armadillo, birds and young alligators. Black bear males can weigh up to 450 pounds and are omnivores. Their diet consists of plants, insects, and scavenged meat. Manatees, Florida's most beloved mammals, can live in fresh, salt or brackish water and reside in Florida’s springs, rivers, estuaries and coastal areas. Manatees spend eight hours a day eating aquatic plants. Adult manatees are around 9-10 feet in length and females can weigh an average of 1,000 lbs.

The swamp buggy adventure is not, generally speaking, an animal safari. It is more an in-depth look at the Big Cypress habitats spectacular scenery. Captain Steve introduced each fascinating habitat as the tour motored through them.

The Cypress Swamps are dominated by bald cypress trees. Many types of woody plants are found here. Growing on the trunks and branches of the cypress trees are epiphytes or air plants. Steve said epiphytic plants attach themselves to other living plants, in this case the cypress trees. Instead of having their roots in the soil, they wrap around the cypress tree to stay securely in place. Well known epiphytes in the Big Cypress are bromeliads and orchids. Epiphytes use photosynthesis to create their own food and obtain moisture from humidity, like fog and rain.

Cypress trees grow in water filled solution holes which are depressions in the limestone bedrock. The roots of the cypress are able to break through the bedrock and take hold to grow. In a cypress dome, the tallest trees grow in the deepest water and the smaller trees grow along the edge in the shallower water. The center of the domes have no trees, and often ponds are found here. This type of open dome is inviting to the alligator flag plant and coastal plain willow tree that can tolerate deeper water. As these deeper solution holes almost always hold water year-round, they are an important refuge for alligators.

Pinelands are mostly saw palmetto, South Florida slash pine and mixed grasses. The slash pine is very tolerant of fire. Pinelands are part of a stable stage community and depend on fire to help clear out the grasses, shrubs and other trees that will crowd out the slash pine over time and possibly change the habitat. The slash pine is a very hard wood and extremely resistant to termites. This has made it a very desirable wood for building houses resulting in the logging of the old growth trees in Florida. Steve said the term "slash" comes from the practice of the early timber workers extracting its sap by cutting diagonal slash marks in the trunk, draining the sap from the cuts and using it to make turpentine.

Cypress Prairies are dominated by ground cover like muhly grass or saw grass. Dwarf bald cypress trees are common in these prairies but seldom attain a large size. This is partly because the limestone caprock that is a common component of substrates here is close to the soil surface and inhibits the establishment and growth of cypress trees. Prairies usually burn once during a five-year period. Without fire, woody plants would push out the prairie plant species. Steve said this would in turn cause prairie mammals and birds to lose their habitat.

Hardwood hammocks are found on slightly elevated bedrock areas. Hammocks look a bit like a tropical forest due to the rich diversity of ferns, epiphytes, lichens and vines that grow in their sheltered interior. Oaks, wild tamarind, cabbage palms, maple and saw palmetto are also found here. The densest part of a hardwood hammock is in the canopy overhead, making it hard for plants at ground level to find enough light to grow. The Florida panther likes to lounge in the shade of the tall trees during the day and the Florida black bear likes to forage for saw palmetto berries and swamp cabbage palm hearts.

Estuaries and mangrove swamps are located along the southwest edges of the preserve, where the freshwater from the swamp meets the saltwater from the Gulf of Mexico. Estuaries are very productive ecosystems. They are often referred to as "nurseries of the sea" because marine mammals such as dolphin and manatee give birth to their young here. Fallen leaves from the mangrove trees are broken down in water and form debris. Debris decomposes and becomes nutrients and food for thousands of organisms. The red mangrove's roots hold and traps the nutrients making this a safe haven for all types of marine creatures, like shrimp, crabs, snails and small fish. Steve believes marine fish such as snook, trout, mullet, jack, grouper, redfish, silver perch, spot, catfish and spiny lobster also rely on this area for sustenance.

The swamp is an everchanging environment that experiences dramatically fluctuating water levels. The casual drive through this pristine otherworld enriched our bond with nature and assisted us to better understand the unique and sometimes misunderstood ecosystem. The delightful and educational tour ended in the early afternoon and before we exchanged goodbyes, the captain provided us with some great recommendations for other Big Cypress area tours and restaurants in Everglades City.