Beyond the weathered boardwalk in the Everglades, an hour’s drive west of Miami, the sawgrass and cattails looked like a field of wheat, swaying in the light breeze. Bill Colantuono headed for the shade of a pavilion, gravel crunching under his boots.  He talked about snakes. “Once,” he said, “I caught a 16-foot Burmese python.”

Colantuono is a ranger at Everglades National Park and often shows visitors a photograph of himself and the giant snake.  Many have heard that pythons have become a big problem in the Glades.

In fact, in Florida the Burmese python is now a symbol of what scientists like to call “invasive species” – creatures that usually live somewhere else, but for one reason or another, have been brought to the Everglades, or some other place, and turned loose. These invasive creatures then commence to upset the natural balance among wildlife in  their new homes.  In the Everglades, the Burmese python, native to Southeast Asia, has ravaged small animals like raccoons, marsh rabbits and opossums.

Researchers from Davidson College and four other colleges and universities, as well as from organizations like the National Park Service and the U.S. Geological Survey, say these little animals, once abundant, are now hard to find. And they think the pythons are to blame.

Nobody knows how many Burmese pythons are slithering around in the Everglades. Tens of thousands, for sure, experts say; maybe even as many as 100,000.

Everglades National Park officials would like to get rid of the snakes. But they don’t hold out much hope. The Obama Administration has established a ban on importing Burmese pythons into the United States and prohibits shipping snakes already in the country from one state to another. The Florida Legislature has made it illegal to import Burmese pythons and six similar snakes or to keep them as pets. But the Burmese pythons already in the Everglades are expected to keep mating and multiplying. Experts say the pythons routinely lay as many as 100 eggs at a time.

Efforts to hunt down the snakes have not been very effective. In one three-year stretch ending in 2011, about 1,000 Burmese pythons were captured, the authorities say – not that many, considering the estimates of how many are believed to be out there. Linda Friar, a spokeswoman for Everglades National Park, told the South Florida Sun Sentinel the snakes are hard to find. They are not only invasive, she said, “they’re evasive.”

Male Burmese pythons can grow up to 12 feet long. Females get even bigger, sometimes up to 18 feet long, and may weigh as much as a couple hundred pounds. As youngsters, the snakes are kind of cuddly. And that makes them popular pets. They are also admired for their distinctive buttery-colored skin with big black and brown markings.

A baby python that might be two feet long will fit comfortably into a small, living-room aquarium. Some people find it entertaining to watch them snap up snacks of baby mice. Within six months, Baby Python  often becomes five feet long, gobbling up half a dozen bunnies for breakfast and lounging around the family room.  About then, the romance goes out of the relationship for the people of the house. They decide that Baby Python must go. In Florida, that often means a quiet trip to the Everglades. Baby Python returns to nature.

Burmese pythons are a kind of snake referred to as a constrictor. They don’t bite their victims and inject venom; they squeeze them to death. When they’re hungry, experts say, the snakes sneak up to  grab a rabbit or a raccoon with their needle-sharp teeth and powerful jaws. Then they coil their muscular body around the animal and squeeze the life out of it.

Dan Kimball, the superintendent of Everglades National Park, says there have been “no incidents” of Burmese pythons attacking people in the Everglades.  But he says anyone out in the wilds of South Florida “should be vigilant.”

The Burmese python is not the only snake that worries environmentalists and government officials. When the Obama Administration moved against Burmese pythons, it also shut the door on imports and interstate trading of three similar snakes: The northern and southern African rock pythons and the yellow anaconda.

One of the other snakes may be more trouble than the Burmese python. “Northern African pythons are reputed to have a nastier disposition,” said Scott Hardin, the exotic species coordinator for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission in Tallahassee.

“African pythons are not as attractive as other constrictors,” Hardin said in an interview.  They have a thick body, he said, covered with brown and olive blotches, and they can grow up to 30 feet in length.

The Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission wants to rid the Everglades of Rock pythons, too.  But they are proving to be even harder to find than Burmese pythons. Over several years, Hardin said, the Commission has managed to bag 19 Rock pythons.

Not all the pythons in the Everglades got there intentionally.   Many were being held in snake warehouses when Hurricane Andrew raked South Florida 20 years ago. Miami had become a center for snake importing.  During the storm, the warehouses came apart in the high winds, and the snakes made their way toward the swamp.

In the Everglades, 4,000 square miles of swamp and marshes, the American alligator is at the top of the food chain.  A few times, a Burmese python has taken on an alligator. The Florida Nature Conservancy says pythons can swallow alligators up to 4 feet long.

In some cases, Burmese pythons have stealthily glided through murky water and water lilies and wrapped themselves around an alligator in a death grip.  One python-alligator battle was documented by Heiko Kiera, a Florida wildlife photographer and videographer, in a marshy spot south of Everglades National Park.

“The fight lasted over two hours,” Kiera told me.  At one point, the snake and the alligator were frozen in combat: most of the snake coiled around the alligator and squeezing, a section of the snake clasped in the powerful jaws of the alligator.  Finally, the alligator relaxed its jaw muscles and the python pulled away. On camera, the wounded python seemed to throw the alligator one last haughty glance before slithering off into the sawgrass.

Some battles have ended in death for both combatants. One photo widely viewed on the Internet shows a 13-foot-long python dead in a watery field with the carcass of a 6-foot-long alligator protruding from its ripped midsection.

Florida officials and the Florida unit of the Nature Conservancy, an international nonprofit organization with headquarters in Arlington, Va., that is dedicated to protecting natural habitats and wildlife, have been working to counter the proliferation of pythons.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has set up what it calls its Non-Native Pet Amnesty Program.  Under the program, people give up their snakes and other non-native pets like monkeys and parrots for adoption, and the commission arranges for the animals to go to new owners. Hardin said there are no penalties or fees involved.

Seven years ago, the Florida unit of  Nature Conservancy started a “Python Patrol” program.  Experts at the Conservancy ask people to report pythons sightings and they train wildlife officials in 10 southern Florida counties in how to capture pythons.

The Conservancy has set up a hotline, 1-888-IVE-GOT-1, to report python sightings, and uses an iPhone application called IveGot1 created at the University of Georgia Center for Invasive Species and Ecosystem Health. People using the application can snap a photo, tag the invader’s location, and send in a report to the Conservancy.

When someone reports seeing a python,  the Conservancy calls into action one of its trained wildlife officials.  Cheryl Millett, a biologist at the Conservancy who runs the python patrol program, says the program especially tries to capture pythons on the outskirts of the Everglades. That way, she said, “We may be able to stop the spread and prevent new breeding.”

They teach two capturing techniques: Treadmilling and distraction. In treadmilling, a responder holds the back end of the snake loosely, and then drags his or her hands along the snake’s underbelly. This rhythmic motion tricks the python into thinking it’s escaping. It’s as if the snake is on a treadmill. In distraction, one person distracts the snake so another can sneak up on it. The distractor may wave a piece of cloth or jump around – anything to get the snake’s attention. The idea is to trick or tire the snake. When the python is tired, Millett told me, it is fairly easy to grab it at the base of the head and avoid having it coil  around the capturer’s arms or legs.

“They don’t use nets or long poles,” Millett said of the Python Patrol  officers.  Instead, the snake catchers use a short stick with a steel hook at one end to coax snakes into a pair of double-stitched, closely-woven bags. “We generally use pillowcases because they fit the bill, are easy to find and are inexpensive,” Millett told me.

“We ask the responders to consider safety first and then work to tire out the snake before they capture it,” Millett said. “Luckily these pythons tire very quickly.”

Bagged pythons are sent to research centers or used to train members of the Python Patrols.  When a snake is captured, the Conservancy wants details. “The general information we like to have about each python includes: length, weight and sex,” Millett told me. If the snake is dead, she said, researchers can discover what it’s eaten and whether it was carrying eggs.

During the breeding season, in March or April, researchers sometimes implant small radio transmitters in female snakes to track them and to help locate male Burmese pythons.  The female pythons give off an aroma that attracts mates, Millett said.  When a male python catches a whiff of the scent and heads for the female, the Python Patrol moves in with a steel-hooked stick and a trapper’s bag.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission issues permits to expert snake handlers to hunt pythons. The annual permit fee is $26.  So far only a little more than a dozen snake experts have applied and they have not brought back many snakes. The hunters can either kill or capture the snakes, Hardin told me by  phone. Allowed weapons are those in season – bow and arrow, for example, during the archery season. The Wildlife Conservation Commission requires hunters to photograph the snake and, with the help of a GPS device, report exactly where it was caught.

There is no pay for killing a python, but hunters can sell the meat and the skin.  Some people are willing to buy the skin to make things like shoes and purses, which can bring fairly high prices.  There doesn’t seem to be much of a market for the meat. The authorities say it is loaded with mercury that the snakes absorb through their diet. Mercury levels are high in some parts of the Glades, polluted with city and hospital waste, said Hardin.

At his post in the Everglades at a place called Shark Valley, Ranger Colantuono was getting ready for one of the regular tram tours that take tourists on a looping route past sunning alligators and, often, exotic birds like snow-white ibises with long, curved beaks and stunning, pink, roseate spoonbills.

Dark clouds were closing in. But it could be an hour, maybe two before the rain, Colantuono figured. The people on the trams would probably see some gators. A few long-legged water birds too. They might even catch sight of a Burmese python. But probably not.  The pythons are well camouflaged.

Thanks everyone.

SNORKELING OFF BIG PINE KEY

Jesssica Marshall emerges from the blue water around Looe Key during the snorkeling trip on Monday.

SEA TURTLE RELEASE

Hannah Hamilton, Cheryl Reifsnyder, Gordon Henrichs and Jaclyn McDougal on Tuesday assist staff of the Sea Turtle Hospital in releasing Karsten, a rehabilitated loggerhead sea turtle.

ECONOMICS AND THE ENVIRONMENT

Post-conference  tour participants on Tuesday listen as Park Manager Eric Kiefer  discusses visitation and the economic impact of Bahia Honda State Park.

SUNSET OVER PARADISE

A golden sunset viewed from the old bridge at Bahia Honda State Park on Tuesday.

More than 100 protestors for varying causes held signs, beat drums and chanted Saturday at a “Rally for the Environment” in a park outside the International Hotel in Miami, site of SEJ’s national conference.

Ana Campos of Fort Lauderdale described herself as one of the “culprits” who organized the event, involving more than 40 groups in South Florida along with the Miami version of Occupy Wall Street.

She said the groups were welcomed by SEJ and felt they were “preaching to the choir.”

“We are celebrating them (SEJ),” Campos said. “We are the ones who couldn’t afford it (to participate in the conference) so we infiltrated their conference. And we were greeted with applause and hugs and thumbs up.”

While SEJ conference participants boarded buses for three-hour mini-tours of environmental sites, the rally participants held signs protesting a variety of issues including Monsanto Co. and genetically-modified foods, Florida Power & Light Co. for its proposed nuclear power plant expansion at Turkey Point and Florida Gov. Rick Scott for his environmental policies.

Liam Scheff, an independent journalist who has written for independent newspapers in Boston and New York and for Naturalnewsradio.com, said he felt marginalized because so few SEJ members came over to visit the rally.

“They should have walked over across the street — that’s all,” Sheff said. While he said only two to four came over, he pointed out “a couple of hundred people got on those (tour) buses.”

“I guess I just would have expected more of them to care,” Sheff said. “I guess if we had pictures of Paris Hilton or what’s her name — Demi Moore — and Ashton Kutcher, we would have more (coverage).”

Matthew Schwartz held a sign saying, “No FPL power plant in panther habitat” — a reference to what he says is a possible Florida Power & Light Co. natural gas power plant in Hendry County.

What was different about Schwartz was that he also was on the SEJ conference agenda. As executive director of the South Florida Wildlands Association, he spoke Friday during the “Florida’s Iconic Critters” panel.

He said Saturday that south Florida’s landscape, with its biodiversity and threatened species, is a national treasure that deserves the attention of a broader audience.

“This (protest) is sending a message in a different way,” Schwartz said. “Hopefully we will get some good press coverage about this.”

Our itinerary was ambitious: in two and a half days, we visited ecological centers, state parks, a marine protected area, a coral nursery, a coral out-planting site, and a turtle hospital. We heard from marine scientists, wildlife biologists, conservationists, park rangers, fellow journalists, and local residents. And we learned about everything from pelagic seabirds and leatherback sea turtles to endangered elk horn coral and pine rocklands.

And that’s just a sampling.

If you think the tour was a series of information-intense presentations and discussions, you would be right. And wrong.

It wasn’t just a chance to collect facts. It was also an opportunity to sink our feet into the spongy seaweed that lines the shores of Bahia State Park and snorkel over fields of sea grass and feel the salt crusting the leaves of a mangrove tree.  It was an opportunity to help carry an endangered loggerhead sea turtle to the ocean and watch it scrape its flippers against the front of its bin and try to climb out, somehow sensing salt water and impending freedom. And it was an opportunity to hear from countless people who are passionate about this beautiful and fragile place. It was an opportunity to experience the Keys in a way that goes far beyond facts and numbers.

Throughout our travels, we received one consistent message: The Florida Keys are unique and beautiful, but they are also vulnerable. This magical place faces numerous challenges and could easily disappear.

As this busload of writers heads back toward the “real world” though, we carry an understanding of a place that you can get only by going and smelling, tasting, touching.  We carry the Keys’ stories with us. We carry stories that will help readers of all stripes, old and young (my personal audience), rich and poor, well-traveled and homebodies, to fall in love with a locale that they may never have seen.

That’s why 20-some SEJ-ers spent two and a half days swimming through a flood tide of information and images to gather stories, because stories are our most powerful weapons against threats such as climate change, overfishing, and pollution. #

Cheryl M. Reifsnyder, Ph.D.

Freelance Science and Medical Writer

Member AMWA, SEJ, SCBWI

www.cherylreif.com

Cheryl@cherylreifsnyder.com

Listen to the Session:

The latest digital tools for environmental journalists are DocumentCloud and Google Ocean and participants at the Society of Environmental Journalists conference in Miami got a quick course on using these tools during a Saturday morning panel session.

DocumentCloud in an online catalog of user-uploaded documents that can be annotated, organized, shared and published. It is free to use.

“Our biggest competitor is highlighters and Post-Its, but you can search those,” said Amanda Hickman, program director of the website.

Amanda Hickman

The site is mostly geared toward news organizations that have formal newsrooms, but is slowly becoming more freelancer-friendly.

“It’s increasing its use as a research tool as time goes on,” Hickman said.

Once a single document or a set of documents are uploaded, the user can interact with them in multiple ways. They can organize a group of documents by date, share them with outside experts, and link to portions of the document in the online version of a news article.

“”You’re inviting your readers to fact check,” Hickman said. “You’re letting them in on the story. It makes it more engaging.”

She emphasized that the documents uploaded should mostly be source documents in order to prevent any violation of copyright laws.

The second tool introduced during the session was Google Ocean, an extension of Google Earth. Users can access this portion of Google Earth by zooming in until they see the water’s surface and then pressing shift and the down arrow key together.

As users move around underwater, they will encounter white dots that represent stories that have uploaded by the Sylvia Earle Alliance. On the alliance’s website, users can also access the stories by searching for specific topics.

“It’s growing,” said Charlotte Vick, Google content manager of the Sylvia Earle Alliance. “This year we are moving into Spanish, French and Portuguese.”

Vick also took session participants through a general tour of Google Earth.

“There are tutorials for virtually anything and everything you want to do,” Vick said. “If I can do it at my age, you can definitely do it.”

She recommended that users visit Google’s LatLong blog is they had any further questions.

Dan Fagin, moderator of the session and an associate professor at New York University, reminded the audience to be careful about using the material they found, but to also actively use there tools.

“It’s somewhat of the Wild West, but the sensible rules of the road should apply,” Fagin said. “Don’t be afraid to plunge in and find new ways to tell stories”

When it comes to thinking as a nation about the effect of the climate change on animals and other organisms, Americans need a better understanding of not only what is going on today, but also the effects of 25 years from now.

As explained in an energy and climate change session at the Society of Environmental Journalist conference Saturday morning in Miami, there are “winners” and “losers,” but it difficult to say which species wins and which loses.

A recent study has projected that many ecosystems will need to be relocated about a quarter-mile every year for that species to survive. Another study projects that one in 10 species may go extinct due to climate change by the year 2100 due to the current emissions trajectory.

Jake Weltzin, executive director of the USA National Phenology Network for the U.S. Geological Survey, explained that the public should get involved and, by engaging, help determine who the winners and losers of the change will be. He also explained that the climate change affects what leaves come out in the spring, where animals nest and how their behaviors in reproduction can be altered.

Elizabeth Grossman

Organisms are also affected by this change in climate and Weltzin said, in an example, when weeds come up earlier than normal, they produce their seeds earlier, therefore their patterns change. The emergence of flowers changes as well and also the patterns of migratory birds are altered.

Another example, given by Paul Tritaik, manager at Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge, was that the sea turtles in the Florida area who nest on the beaches become affected by climate change as seas level rises. With an increase of erosion, the eggs that they lay can be washed out and that can lead to 100 percent loss.

The temperature in the water and on beaches also affect nesting success of sea turtles, Tritaik stated. As the temperature rises, the male-to-female ratio is skewed due to the fact that the hotter it gets, the less male sea turtles come out to mate. That alone can potentially cause extinction among the species.

Tritaik made a point of saying that, as people, we should pay close attention to the change in the environment because it can impact long-term changes in the ocean current that could potentially change the Gulf Stream.

Sea turtles swim out to the Gulf Stream and ride it into the Atlantic Ocean until they become teenagers and then return to their natural habitat. If the current changes, that can hinder the sea turtles from ever returning.

Kassie Siegel, Climate Law Institute director and senior council member of the Center for Biological Diversity, posed a question.

“Are environmentalists contributing to the problem by being too passionate about the subject?”

“We know what we need to do about the climate” she explained. “We have laws, let’s use them”.

There are many definitions of subsidies. One explanation would be that they are measures that reduce costs for consumers and producers.

Panelists at a Society of Environmental Journalists conference session discussed the different types of energy subsidies, how the government intervenes in the energy market and the effects they have on U.S energy policy.

John Pendergrass, a senior attorney at the Environmental Law Institute, explained how consumer and energy producers benefit farmers and workers and for crops used in a substantial amount.

Oil companies earn what seems to be large profit, he said, but only because they sell a lot, according to Katherine Sgamma, director of Government and Public Affairs at the Western Energy Alliance.

She also explained that fossil fuels provided more energy than renewable resources. An increase on taxes would put that production at risk, she said.

Wind, according to Peter Kelley, vice president of Public Affairs at the American Wind Energy Association, is now more affordable than ever. He also explained that the American Wind Energy Association wanted to make sure that they provide people with “clean energy that will never run out.”

Paul Bledsoe

The question still stands.

Which fuels should receive the most support from the government and could these energies compete on a leveled playing field? It has been suggested that a subsidy shift would help to level the playing field and support growing energy sectors, mainly solar power, wind power and biofuels resources.

Such shifts would help subsidies learn toward clean energy and help them become more reliable and consistent.

“To offer a little bit of perspective from our 1,000-foot view of the good and the bad in the world of journalism today,” said moderator Curtis Brainard as he opened the media critics session at the Society of Environmental Journalists conference.

The group convened Saturday morning for the “Media Critics Dissect Science and Environmental Journalism” event.

Brainard, a science editor at The Observatory, moderated the event and introduced the three other panelists.

Back in 2006 he said climate change reporters did not know to what extent they should be reporting the story, which resulted in attacks on their work. Instantly, scientists began to correct the record.

“They were scratching an itch that was irritating the industry,” Brainard said.

“Media criticism matters,” he said. “Balance is biased and it continues to be an issue in the media today.”

Paul Raeburn

Bud Ward, co-founder of SEJ and editor of The Yale Forum on Climate Change & the Media, said that balance is a pervasive concern.

“Journalism has changed a lot so the media extends to a number of sites,” Ward said. “Media is not narrowly defined.”

Ward focused on how media coverage focus has gone from how news is reported to the tools used to cover climate change.

Paul Raeburn, a blogger, touched on the topic of how some skeptics need to conduct research in order to not be skeptical anymore.

“Be very careful about case sensitive searches. My point was ruined by a small mistake, you lose your point if you do that,” he said. “Self examination is an important thing.”

Raeburn stated that the downside of media criticizing is when he criticizes the media he is criticizing all of us.

“The people you critique, won’t be shy,” he said.

“I don’t like to critique,” Pere Estupinya, a Spanish-language blogger, said. “I like to write my own stories.”

Even though he may not like to critique, he does realize that it is an important function. He likes to encourage Latin Americans to make a network that connects different dots from journalists.

“I like to find stories that are untold,” he said.

While each of the speakers uses criticism differently, Brainard said they are “complimentary rather than competitive.”

All of the panelists found the media critiquing has its ups and downs.

“It is easier to praise someone than critique their work,” said Ward.

Brainard agreed with Ward, stating that one has to try to find a balance because not everything they do is critical.

“The press also needs a defender at times,” Brainard said. “We need to highlight the exceptional work out there.”

Distribution of solar power in the United States is growing and Florida is taking steps to increase its power production, most noticeably in the City of Gainesville.

“The U.S. is responsible for only 6 percent of solar deployment in the world,” said Pegreen Hanrahan, former mayor of Gainesville, but, she added that her medium-sized university city has been taking creative steps in the right direction.

“Gainesville is the first city in the U.S. to use a feed-in tariff for solar energy,” she stated during a panel at the Society of Environmental Journalists conference in Miami Saturday morning.

The panelists discussed the state of solar power in the U.S. and its chances of increased production in the future.

The goal of the Gainesville’s program is to reduce carbon dioxide levels to 7 percent less than they were in 1990 by 2012. The city expects that goal to be met by 2013.

Pegeen Hanrahan

Since the program started in 2009, the city has reduced its carbon footprint by 711,079 metric tons of carbon dioxide, Hanrahan stated.

“Feed-in tariff is the best mechanism for public utilities,” said Peter DeNapoli, eastern regional manager of solar panel manufacturer Scanworld USA. “It’s mind boggling that they aren’t racing to these policies.”

DeNapoli explained that for solar deployment to increase, the conditions must be just right. There must be a great solar resource, high energy costs and a population that wants to embrace renewable energy.  DeNapoli said these conditions are present in Florida, but there are obstacles as well.

“The U.S. has too many decision makers and no national energy policies,” DeNapoli said. “There’s no set place to start reform.”

Yet despite this lack of direction, renewable energy has also been furthered by the PACE Program, a topic approached by the final panel member, Sun-Sentinel reporter Julie Patel.

“PACE allows people to take out loans to pay for energy efficient upgrades to their home or business,” Patel said, “These loans are long term and transferrable.”

PACE, however, has experienced problems with people defaulting on their loans, an issue that has put the entire program on hold for now.

Despite these challenges, more and more communities in Florida are considering new ways of managing their utilities.  Winter Park, Sarasota and Coco Beach already held meetings to discuss the future.

“There’s huge demand for energy efficient utilities programs,” said Hanrahan.

To take matters even better, there is no development period for this technology.

“We don’t have to invent this,” DeNapoli said, “the blueprint is already there.”

Hopefully that blueprint leads to a greener Florida.

Management of the quantity and quality of water available to people both in America and around the world is an issue affecting everyone in a variety of ways.

These days water is always an issue.

“There is a water story, I would argue, everywhere,” said Peter Gleick, president of Pacific Institute for Studies in Development, Environment and Security and author of The World’s Water. “Water is a huge topic, it is connected to everything we care about.”

The fact that water is important is not a new or debated issue, what is being discussed is the problems we as human beings are having in managing our most important resource.

Droughts in places such as Texas or Australia contrast with the parts of Central America that have recently had 60 inches of rainfall in just 10 days. These extreme weather patterns are caused by climate change, but many people are ignorant about water issues.

“People in general don’t know where their water is coming from,” said Gleick.

Valerie Nelson

Valerie Nelson, director of Water Alliance, however, believes this is beginning to change.

“I think there is a rapidly increasing understanding that we have not looked at water properly recently,” she said.

She offers encouragement and advice on how this situation could be handled. Nelson believes that we (people) need to use this water and economic crisis to change the way we are doing things.

“We need to take a much more complex view of things we are trying to achieve,” she said.

There is agreement that the general public need to be better informed and more involved. Bradley Udall, a University of Colorado researcher, thinks that the “general public need to be brought into the discussion.”

Udall referred to climate change too and how it was inseparable from water issues.

“Climate change is really water change,” he said.

He also referred to his novel way of thinking when it came to water conservation and management and explained this with a quote from Kentucky conservationist Wendell Berry;

“Do unto those downstream as you have those that are upstream do to you.”