A striving to protect Floridas Big Cypress National Preserve while hunting turkey

Mike ivory loves to hunt turkey, which is one of the reasons why he is committed to protecting the Big Cypress National Preserve. The opening weekend of the spring turkey season in South Florida was a perfect combination for him.

A new Friday evening was the Green Heart Gala in Ron Bergeron's alligator Ron's Saloon in Weston, where a auction for everything from a Kenyan Safari to a Python hunt with the Miccosukee strain was collected money for the Green Heart of the Everglades project.

Ivory who grew up in Miami and now lives in Englewood on the west coast of Florida is the executive director of the Cypress chapter of the Izaak Walton League of America (www.iwla.org), a 102-year preservative organization. The IWLA is one of the followers, together with the Bergeron Everglades Foundation, the family areas, the Wild Landscapes International and the Miccosukee strain of the Indians of Florida, behind the ambitious project.

The goal is simple and monumental: Buy the mineral rights among the 450,015 hectares of the Preserves and the Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge to not only prevent the bores for oil, but continue to hike, to watch wild animals, to camp, to hunt and fish in the long time of Miami.

In the morning after the fundraising campaign, ivory with Matt Parrish was on the Green Glades West Ranch von Bergeron in the forest, which borders on the northern border of the preserves.

They had a male turkey before sunrise, and when the gobbler finally came through the fog, he wanted to follow a group of chicken tutorage instead of getting into the Yelps and clucks, making the ivory on his slate call.

This is the mating season for turkey. Male turkey devours and struts, leaf through their feathers to impress the chickens who click on screaming and cling. This turkey devoured more than an hour and struggled continuously, but he didn't seem to get ahead with the girls. He looked at ivory, who had Turkey bait from his blind, from 250 meters, but he decided to stick to the chickens and disappeared behind them.

Then Parrish suggested going to another part of the property. They sneaked through a trench and when Parrish was looking for the field in front of us, he spied two gobblers about 300 meters away.

They moved quietly and used the trees to mask their approach and put themselves on the edge of the field. Ivory called to attract the attention of the gobblers, and he called again and again when the duo slowly went on his way.

“At first they didn't seem interested,” said Ivory. “They got a little closer, their heads turned and they just came somehow. The first bird, it ran 10 meters and then went in struts, and the second bird would run behind it, and the first bird ran in front of him and went back to Strud, and they did it and did the deeds and had to like 80 meters.

“When they came to 80 meters, I made another call and put their heads down and ran directly to me on a straight line.” And when they were in the shotgun rang, ivory dropped the stratch with a shot.

The Big Cypress Preserve enables truts to hunt during spring. The mineral rights on the country are owned by the Collier family, which 50 years ago sold a large part of the country to preserve the federal government, but kept the rights below the surface. Ivory said there were plans to drill for oil. By buying the mineral rights from the colliers, no holes would take place.

About 20 years ago, the federal government tried to buy mineral rights, but the deal had problems and never occurred.

Ivory said that the groups involved now “do it right. We have been working methodically on it for three years and in the end we are correct. “

Instead of using tax money, the purchase would be financed by land and water protection funds. Ivory said that the LWCF generates 900 million US dollars in license fees that have been collected by oil companies that develop mineral rights in the Golf.

“So we will use oil license to purchase oil rights,” he said, adding that LWCF money is acquired for every state. But some western states do not like federal politics and regulations that fit with the handles, so they return the money. “And we want to use about $ 300 million.”

The process is almost complete, whereby an assessment of the remaining Feds is required. The fundraising campaign will help pay this evaluation.

“We had some amazing, amazing meetings in Washington with the congress delegation, the office for Indian affairs, the Interior Ministry. And so far nobody has told us no, ”said ivory.

A big bonus of the plan is that he excludes the need for a wilderness designation for the preservation. This name would stop the oil drilling, but also prohibit access with motorized vehicles such as air boats, swamps buggies and off-road vehicles used by the public, the Miccosukees, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and the National Park Service.

“Now that we have found a way to legally relieve the colliers of their mineral rights, the idea is that we need wilderness to stop oil development out of the window,” said Ivory. “The people who hid behind the Wilderness to stop the oil drilling really just wanted to keep everyone away.”

Instead, the large cypress is preserved and open for everyone, including the turkey hunter.