Last month, officials hastily constructed a detention center, known as Alligator Alcatraz, on an airstrip in a remote part of the Everglades. This tiny jetport, surrounded by Big Cypress National Preserve, has withstood a slew of terrible development proposals. Today, we explore why people are standing up to protect this revered national park landscape — and what you can do about it.
In late June, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announced that the state was moving forward on plans — negotiated without public or Tribal input — to build a tent-based immigration enforcement facility in the Western Everglades. This facility is designed to hold between 3,000 and 5,000 detainees on an isolated airstrip on the border of Big Cypress National Preserve at an estimated cost of $450 million a year. By July 2, just days after the public first learned about these plans, the facility was already open and holding several hundred people.
Ironically, the isolated jetport is the exact site where the National Parks Conservation Association once stood side by side with Marjory Stoneman Douglas and many others to defeat the development of a massive airport in 1968. This effort led directly to the creation of Big Cypress National Preserve. Two key stakeholders were part of that effort and have lived in and protected this landscape for millennia — the Miccosukee and Seminole Tribes who continue to speak out against the misuse of their homelands.
This episode, host Jennifer Errick speaks with Curtis Osceola, senior executive policy advisor to the chairman of the Miccosukee Business Council; William “Popeye” Osceola, secretary of the Miccosukee Business Council; Dr. Melissa Abdo, NPCA Sun Coast regional director; and Marisa Carrozzo, NPCA senior coastal and wildlife program manager.
The Secret Lives of Parks is a production of the National Parks Conservation Association.
Episode 45, Florida’s Untenable Alcatraz, was produced by Jennifer Errick, with help from Todd Christopher, Bev Stanton and Linda Coutant.
Special thanks to Edward Ornstein, Deputy General Counsel and Tallahassee Embassy Director for the Miccosukee Tribe. Special thanks also to John Adornado, Cara Capp, Kristin Gladd and Kyle Groetzinger.
Original theme music by Chad Fischer.
Learn more about NPCA’s opposition to Alligator Alcatraz and speak out at npca.org/alligatoralcatraz
Learn more about this podcast and listen to the rest of our stories at thesecretlivesofparks.org
For more than a century, the National Parks Conservation Association has been protecting and enhancing America’s national parks for present and future generations. With more than 1.6 million members and supporters, NPCA is the nation’s only independent, nonpartisan advocacy organization dedicated to protecting national parks.
And we’re proud of it, too.
You can join the fight to preserve our national parks. Learn more and join us at npca.org
Episode 45
Florida’s Untenable Alcatraz
Jennifer Errick: Last month, officials hastily constructed a detention center, known as Alligator Alcatraz, on an airstrip in a remote part of the Everglades. This tiny jetport, surrounded by Big Cypress National Preserve, is the same site where advocates defeated a plan in the 1960s to build the world’s largest airport. Today, we explore how people are fighting yet another destructive, ill-conceived facility in this revered national park landscape — and what you can do about it.
I’m Jennifer Errick, and this is the Secret Lives of Parks.
[Break]
In late June, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announced that the state was moving forward on plans — negotiated without public or Tribal input — to build a tent-based immigration enforcement facility in the Western Everglades. This facility is designed to hold between 3,000 and 5,000 detainees on an isolated airstrip on the border of Big Cypress National Preserve at an estimated cost of $450 million a year. By July 2, just days after the public first learned about these plans, the facility was already open and holding several hundred people.
Ironically, the isolated jetport where Uthmeier and other state officials chose to build this detention center is the exact site where the National Parks Conservation Association once stood side by side with Marjory Stoneman Douglas and many others to defeat the development of a massive airport in 1968. This effort led directly to the creation of Big Cypress National Preserve. For decades, environmental advocates have rallied around this site as a place of unity. But now, it’s become the focus of yet another terrible development plan that threatens the welfare of area residents and the fragile ecology of the region’s lands and waters.
NPCA has been defending the Everglades since the 1920s and has proudly been part of the coalitions that helped establish both Everglades National Park and Big Cypress National Preserve. It’s important to note two key stakeholders who have lived in and protected this landscape far longer — the Miccosukee and Seminole Tribes who have been stewards of this region for centuries.
I had the privilege of speaking last week with two members of the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida. Curtis Osceola is the Senior Executive Policy Advisor to the Chairman of the Miccosukee Business Council. William J. Osceola is the Secretary of the Miccosukee Business Council and goes by the name Popeye. I began by asking them how close this detention center is to Tribal members and their neighborhood. Several times in our conversation, we discuss the Tamiami Trail, a historic highway that runs through both Big Cypress National Preserve and Everglades National Park, which has undergone years of restoration work and is still under construction. Now, here’s Curtis, followed by Popeye.
Curtis Osceola: So, we have 19 traditional camps in the Big Cypress that are along the Tamiami Trail. And these are camps that moved there when the Tamiami Trail was built. A lot of them were in the middle of the Big Cypress and were used for hunting, fishing and served larger families. But as the roadway was built and the movement of water was altered, the families began to move toward the roadways to sell their wood carving, to sell their artwork and jewelry, so that they could make a living and participate in commerce. But they are traditional camps, and there are 11 that are within a few miles, and the nearest camp to the entrance of the detention facility, which is the former jetport, Tamiami jetport, is about 900 feet. So, they are in close proximity to the detention facility site. In addition, we have our sacred ceremonial grounds that are nearby, that are only one or two miles away. So that’s definitely a big concern for us.
William "Popeye" Osceola: Yeah. And actually, the entrance to the jetport as you go down that road, it actually passes where a former ceremonial grounds was in the past, so when you asked, like, is it in our neighborhood? Well, the whole Big Cypress and Everglades is our neighborhood. So that area has always been accessible to us. And the kids have always gone by there, even the jetport itself. So for us, it's very disconcerting to see something like that set up in a place that was so accessible to us and is part of our being in a sense.
Jennifer Errick: Can you expound on that a little bit, it being a part of your being? Because it's more than just, we live here. You've been here for generations. It's your homeland, correct?
William "Popeye" Osceola: Yeah. Like I mentioned, there is a former ceremonial grounds on the road into the entrance there. I know historically people would go back there to get supplies for building chickees or medicine, so it's just part of life, and it's never a good feeling when a part of your life is being taken from you.
Jennifer Errick: For reference, chickees are traditional shelters with thatched roofs. The word translates to “house” in the Miccosukee and Creek languages. Here again is Curtis.
Curtis Osceola: Yeah, the Big Cypress itself has been inhabited by the Miccosukee people and our ancestors for millennia, and we have a number of sacred and religious sites in that space. We've had other Tribal members describe it as, you know, it's our home, it's our church. It's our life. Because, you know, we have burial grounds there. We have medicine gathering sites. And when I say medicine, I mean traditional Indigenous medicine, which is like herbal remedies that are put together along with blessings by our medicine men that are older than time itself.
At this point the rituals are so ancient that we don't even understand the words that are in the songs, but we remember the songs. So, you know these are medicine and rituals that have been passed down for millennia. And so, these gathering sites, it's not just like we're going to pick lemons off a tree or something. These are really tied to our identity and to our connection with the land. And we have been doing this since before colonization, since before discovery, and our people have been within this ecosystem, on pilgrimages and in medicine gathering outfits for many, many, many generations. Back when the preserve was founded in 1974, we were a part of a coalition that pushed back against the creation of the world's largest airport, which would have been five runways in the middle of the Big Cypress.
And so the creation of the first national preserve in Big Cypress was key, not just to, you know, Floridians, but especially for the Tribes like the Miccosukee and the Seminole people, because of our connection with the land, because of the dispersion of our cultural resources like burial grounds, like medicine gathering sites, like former camps and ancient mountains and things like that. Because they're so dispersed throughout the land, we were able to get language in the legislation that memorialized our use and occupancy rights. And use and occupancy, it's a Western concept for us. It's just how we live our life. But you know, use and occupancy in those terms are important to the legal system and to the legal framework that surrounds us. It was vital that we had that kind of language so that we could continue to use and occupy the lands that has historically been a part of as part of our existence.
William "Popeye" Osceola: I think that’s important to highlight. As we’ve been out there speaking on this issue, trying to highlight it from our perspective, a common refrain I hear is, oh, the Tribe hasn't cared when they did it in the 60s, they didn't care this whole time. Why do they care now? As Curtis explained, we are part of the reason why it did not become the largest airport, and the Tribe ever since that timeframe has been fighting to get more of a voice in that area. It's only in recent times we actually got co-stewardship established with the park. We've always been trying to make sure our voice is more present in the area — and it has been present. Really, they haven't bothered to listen to us. But we've been speaking this whole time.
Jennifer Errick: How did you first hear about this detention facility being sited at this jetport site?
Curtis Osceola: We, like everyone else on the outside of this deal, found out on Fox News when the attorney general announced it. And you know, a lot of work had been done. Meetings had been done, planning had been completed. And so, you know, this was very much, you know, in the dark of night to get this thing done. And when we were alerted to it, and we, you know, utilized our political resources to communicate with the legislature and the executive branch of Florida, we were advised that this was a sort of a done deal, and that this was going to proceed, and so then it became more of us advocating that we need to wind this down as quickly as possible because not only are there lives in danger, but the environment’s in danger.
William "Popeye" Osceola: Yeah. So, we empathize with everybody else who felt like this just came out of nowhere. And I think it's important that the public voice is heard in these type of instances because it's an area that impacts all of us, one way or another. And although as a Tribe we do have a certain sovereign status, we are American citizens as well. So, we are members of the public. So, on both avenues, you know, just like you folks, our voice should have been heard in this process.
Jennifer Errick: Well, your voice should have double been heard, right? Because you have a legal right to be consulted as a Tribal nation in addition to any kind of public comment period, correct?
Curtis Osceola: So you're right, if this was a typical government action under, you know, the National Environmental Protection Act or some other action that was to be taken on the traditional homelands that are, you know, areas of concern for the Tribe, then yes, not only do we get a notice and comment period, but we also get formal consultation. But you know, as we've all learned about emergency powers, they are broad and sweeping, and that's what this facility was created under, was the state's emergency power under the governor's executive order on the immigration emergency, and then also backed by President Trump's executive order on the immigration emergency.
William "Popeye" Osceola: You know, the governor has been typically pretty communicative with the Tribe on matters to do with the environment. So, that's why it also caught us a little off guard that this just kind of happened so fast, so suddenly.
Jennifer Errick: I know that the Miccosukee have been outspoken opponents to the detention center, and we've touched on some of the reasons already. But what are some of your biggest concerns here?
William "Popeye" Osceola: You know, if you just look at reservation systems to begin with, that's obviously a historical concern. And even when it's not directly the Tribes, they often use Tribal lands to hold people that they're concerned about. You just look at World War II, a lot of internment camps for the Japanese were on Tribal lands. So, for us, it's, if history is not repeating, it's echoing. So, that's why we're on all 10 toes, because these battles — it's the same battles we've always been fighting, which is fighting to secure our sovereignty, fulfill our constitutional duty to protect the land and resources for our future generations. That’s what we keep going back and resting on because that’s what we’ve always had, even before everything around us was established, the government you see today.
Curtis Osceola: What I've always encouraged my friends and my peers and colleagues to do when they say, God, can you believe what this government did, or can you believe what this person said? Or, can you believe what happened today? I remind them, well, see it like a Native. You know, we have been around since the dawn of the republic, and before that. We have been conducting trade and commerce since before discovery of this continent by the West. And you know, we've seen a lot, and we have a lot of knowledge and stories and understanding about how the world works.
What we're seeing is, is not novel, and you know, we are trying to be advocates for everyone. We're trying to advocate for the environment. We're trying to advocate for the people in these detention facilities that are being held. We're trying to advocate for the people who are supervising these facilities. We're advocating for the leaders who have policies and decisions to make that their constituents want them to make. And we understand and, I think, have a very strong empathy for what is happening, not just to us, but to the people all around us. A lot of times we get wrapped up in partisan talk of the day, and we get put on opposite sides, but in reality, we're all dealing with the same situation, and we're all going to live next to each other whether we like it or not. And so, we should be advocating for each other and having these open discussions and being able to guide each other to the better answer. When we say we're looking at this thing all the way around and we're concerned about history repeating itself, it has a lot to do with the fact that we've seen it before, and we remember it, and if our role is to be the nation’s memory, then that's the role that we are forced to play, and we have to remind everybody that, you know, hey, this was not a great idea back then, and here's why.
William "Popeye" Osceola: I just think back to, it's like, very divisive times and people always trying to polarize you one way or the other. And that's never a way to really get things done. So, I always try to go back to, like, what makes me want to connect with people. And usually, it's things like, my grandma Peggy. She's like, almost 100. She's lived down in Big Cypress. She was born out there, and she's always been very traditional-minded. And to me, she's like one of the most stable people I've ever met. So, I just think, what works for her? And it's that connection around her to the land that enables her to connect with us a little bit more freely because she feels free in that space. But even, you know, not everybody has a Grandma Peggy like I do. So, I'll just go back to something American. I just think back to, like Woody Guthrie. You know, he once sang, this land was made for you and me, but that's just not true when they start putting up gates to places that you used to be able to go to.
Jennifer Errick: Have you noticed any changes to the area in these eight or nine days since the facility opened?
William "Popeye" Osceola: Light pollution.
Jennifer Errick: Light pollution?
William "Popeye" Osceola: Listen, if you're out there with even just a flashlight, imagine how bad it is, mosquitoes, this time of year. And, you have that big ball of light just glowing, emanating. And, you know, one of the greatest joys of the Everglades is having a clear night sky to gaze up and look at all the stars, you know. And that's always been a big plus of being out there and not in the city. And that's being taken. And now you're also attracting more insects to this area.
Jennifer Errick: That's a surprise. I wasn't expecting that.
Curtis Osceola: I was just going to complement that just to say not everyone uses a calendar out there. We have a number of medicine men that read the stars, and they read the Milky Way and where it's pointing to measure what time of year it is, and that's how we determine when we observe our ceremonies. And right now, that's gone for a lot of our members. And so, it is very disruptive to our connection with the universe.
William "Popeye" Osceola: If I could add a bit.
Jennifer Errick: Please.
William "Popeye" Osceola: Having grown up on the reservation, unfortunately we have lost a lot of people to accidents on that highway and at least for the past 15 years, even before this facility, they've been trying to raise the highway because of water levels. You know, that's a whole other issue we've been trying to deal with. But we have students who live in Miami and students who live down the Big Cypress at traditional camps, so we send buses to pick them up down that highway. We've already had close calls with vehicles, and now you're just going to have an increased traffic. And unfortunately, the bigger the vehicle, the less considerate you are of the vehicles around you, and you know, that's a big concern that I don't think people are realizing is there's children's lives are potentially at stake here.
Jennifer Errick: Wow. Are there next steps that you're planning to take?
Curtis Osceola: Yeah, we're currently engaged in high-level discussions with the governor's office and with the president's office, as well as his cabinet, to try and find a way through this. And so that's one level — we are engaging with our elected members of Congress. And we are also engaging with the people of the Everglades, people who love it most. Not just the Tribes, but also, you know, the Glades people and the hunters and the sportsmen, who, they live half their lives in Big Cypress, if not more. And you know, we are engaging with them and really trying to find a consistent message that we can send to the decision makers in this situation so that we can guide their hand and help them find the right way, better way, through this than destroying what is sacred to us.
Jennifer Errick: On July 15, several days after my conversation with Curtis and Popeye, the Miccosukee Tribe announced that it was taking legal action against the state and federal governments, joining a lawsuit by Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity as an intervening plaintiff. In a press release, Miccosukee Chairman Talbot Cypress is quoted as saying:
“The Miccosukee Tribe is committed to ensuring that our ancestral lands in Big Cypress will not become a permanent detention facility. We have reached out to the State and Federal governments and expressed our concerns, but we have not yet been advised of a closure date. As a consequence, we must take legal action to compel the parties to remove this facility, given its outsized budgetary, environmental, community safety, and logistical impacts.”
Here again is Popeye.
William "Popeye" Osceola: One thing about us, the Tribe. We're like Ents from Lord of the Rings. We don't rush things, but when we make a decision, you can be sure we're going to follow through on it. So, we're just trying to make sure we examine all options and figure out what is the strongest leg to stand on. Because we’ve got to think seven generations ahead. It's not just us figuring this out right now. We’ve got to figure out how it's going to impact our relations in the future. That's why we are, you know, making sure people understand our perspectives. What we're doing, we've always been following what worked for us in the past, so we're always hesitant when we have people trying to kind of push us to fight the battle on their terms.
Jennifer Errick: Coming up after the break, we explore what Big Cypress is like, how it’s essential to the larger Everglades ecosystem, and why the day-to-day operations of a detention center are not only impractical but dangerous in this wild area.
Dr. Melissa Abdo: People have fought for decades to protect this place, and indeed this very site. … Everything about this speaks to a blatant disregard for human life.
Jennifer Errick: That’s next. Stay with us.
[Music break with promotion]
Few people outside the Miccosukee and Seminole Tribes know Big Cypress as well as my colleague Dr. Melissa Abdo, who serves as NPCA’s Sun Coast regional director. I had the opportunity to interview Melissa four years ago when she was defending the preserve from seismic oil testing. At that time, she shared how she had been part of a research team more than 20 years ago attempting to document every plant species in the preserve, which is no small task. Big Cypress is nearly the size of Rhode Island. Here’s a favorite quote of mine from that conversation.
Dr. Melissa Abdo: We were fortunate to discover new populations of plants inside the preserve. And we did run from alligators a couple of times, but you really don't have to run too fast because most of them are quite passive.
Jennifer Errick: Melissa was obviously the first person I wanted to speak with when I first heard about Alligator Alcatraz. I began by asking her about her first experiences at Big Cypress, and I didn’t realize her time at the preserve went back much further than her work as a researcher.
Dr. Melissa Abdo: Honestly, it started in childhood. I remember going out to Big Cypress and playing with frogs as a little girl and mucking about in the swamp. I didn't live far from Big Cypress, and our happy place was always spending time outdoors, my brother and I. We spent time in Big Cypress, out off of Loop Road and other areas of the swamp, and it was always really special to us. It was a wild place and continues to be a wild place, fortunately. Then, early in my professional career, I was also so privileged to work for an amazing local research organization, the Institute for Regional Conservation, and at the time, we were contracted by the National Park Service to carry out some of the very first major biodiversity inventories for national park sites in South Florida, and one of those national park sites was indeed Big Cypress National Preserve. And through that work, I was able to traverse, I won't say every inch of the preserve, but probably pretty close to it. And I really look back on those days as golden days because I was able to see everything from the individual blades of grass that make up this part of the river of grass to finding new subpopulations of ghost orchids and even down to standing amidst the cypress swamp in the cypress dome and looking around at the trees and the subtropical bromeliads and orchids.
Jennifer Errick: You saw a ghost orchid as you were cataloging the biodiversity of Big Cypress?
Dr. Melissa Abdo: Yes, yes, I saw several. They were not always in flower, and honestly, it took many months before I ever did. Yeah, I was fortunate to discover new subpopulations of ghost orchids and see them, and it was special.
Jennifer Errick: Everything you're saying just sounds so idyllic. Is it similar to the Everglades? It is sort of one large, interconnected ecosystem, isn't it?
Dr. Melissa Abdo: Definitely. So a good way to think about it is if you consider the Greater Everglades Ecosystem has this massive landscape of which Big Cypress National Preserve, Everglades National Park, and even Biscayne National Park, further in the east, are all part, and there are numerous other conservation lands, they're all part of what we refer to as the Greater Everglades Ecosystem. And Big Cypress is very much the heartbeat, the anchor of the Western Everglades.
As far as the habitats that you'll find in Big Cypress National Preserve, they're indeed comparable to those that you would find in Everglades National Park. But having spent a lot of time researching both parks, I can attest to the diversity of them both. There's plant life found in Everglades that's not found in Big Cypress, and vice versa.
Jennifer Errick: Can you describe this jetport?
Dr. Melissa Abdo: Yeah. So, the jetport site was really made famous by Marjory Stoneman Douglas, Tribal nations, hunters, fishers, recreators, hikers, birdwatchers — all the diverse people that came together back in the 1960s when this proposal was underway to build, alarmingly, the world's largest airport, and it was a really massive proposal at the time, and people came together saying no, you cannot do this in this treasured landscape.
And in a nutshell, that effort that brought so many people together, really was what former Department of the Interior Secretary Nathaniel Reed called critical to the later establishment of Big Cypress National Preserve. So, the jetport site and the existence of Big Cypress National Preserve are intrinsically connected. Without that threat, people wouldn't have come together, and we really wouldn't have Big Cypress National Preserve today.
Jennifer Errick: I just want to note here that NPCA didn’t just join the coalition in 1968 to defeat the proposal for the world’s largest airport — a facility that would have connected to Miami and Tampa with high-speed rail lines. NPCA has also stood with local and national allies to oppose oil drilling, hard rock mining, trade-style airshow exhibitions and the creation of a commercial park for off-road vehicles, all attempts to squeeze revenue out of this tiny training facility—and that’s just from the slew of ill-conceived proposals in the past 16 years. Here again is Melissa.
Dr. Melissa Abdo: If you can imagine that Tamiami Trail two-lane highway is then the main route that goes through Big Cypress, and off of Tamiami Trail, there is a poorly developed gravel-slash-dirt road that goes off to this jetport site, so it's only accessible from within Big Cypress from this rough road, if you will.
Jennifer Errick: And it’s surrounded by Big Cypress, correct?
Dr. Melissa Abdo: It's surrounded by Big Cypress, and there are also other adjacent lands. Everglades National Park is 6 to 8 miles from this site. It really consists of kind of one runway and some other paved areas, otherwise, wholly surrounded by wetlands and more or less natural habitat.
Jennifer Errick: How did you first hear about this detainee site being formed in this very unlikely, remote place?
Dr. Melissa Abdo: Well, unfortunately we heard about it along with most members of the public, and it's just almost unfathomable that we learned about this in the media, but that’s how we heard about it, and here we are a little over a week later, and the site is up and running.
Jennifer Errick: Is the Everglades really an appropriate place to put a detention center?
Dr. Melissa Abdo: It is absolutely not. Absolutely not. People have fought for decades to protect this place, and indeed this very site, and the notion of erecting a bare-bones detention center that is primarily tent-based on this remote airstrip, with no real infrastructure to speak of, where apparently everything from water to food will need to be trucked in, to waste that will need to be trucked off the site — everything about this speaks to a blatant disregard for human life. We are entering what's anticipated to be an intense hurricane season, and indeed the very first day that these tents were supposedly up and running, a mild Florida storm brought some water within the tents, and there was a little bit of flooding within the tents. And that's just after what we consider in Florida to be a mild summer shower. This type of tent-based detention center is untenable in the Everglades.
Jennifer Errick: And is it, like, right on the tarmac, like, on a hot paved surface, in one of the hottest parts of the country?
Dr. Melissa Abdo: Yes, that's correct. From the pictures, we see that there's some kind of a layer that is laid down on the tarmac. But it was clear from the first summer shower that the water was seeping in. The water was also seeping in over doorways. So it really raises significant questions and emphasizes what everyone's been saying all along, that this is unacceptable, that this is potentially a place where there can be life-threatening conditions for people, and it’s a cruel and dangerous plan. Another aspect of this that has to be elevated is the fact that, as we talked about, there’s only one gravel road in and out. So the notion of putting people and staff in a detention center where the only evacuation route in the event of a hurricane is a gravel road, and that road in itself leads to just a two-lane highway that’s also under construction, is innately dangerous.
Jennifer Errick: What kind of strain does that put on the infrastructure that's already there?
Dr. Melissa Abdo: This place has been erected almost overnight, you know, in a little over a week, and it doesn't seem that any thought here or concern, much less anything resembling proper planning that has involved local stakeholders, has gone into this. The notion that you can somehow manage for 5,000 people and keep in mind the other people that live in the preserve and that other people, the residents of the area, that may need to use Tamiami Trail as an evacuation route in the event of a life-threatening hurricane — this is really unfathomable. It is dangerous. It's untenable. It's an ill-conceived plan and project that that needs to be stopped and turned around.
Jennifer Errick: And can we also talk about the extra cars on the road, the extra vehicle traffic?
Dr. Melissa Abdo: Yeah, it's the number one cause of mortality for Florida panthers, and we know that there is a family of Florida panthers that makes their home on and around the jetport site.
Jennifer Errick: Note that there are only an estimated 120 to 230 adult Florida panthers left in the wild, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, and Big Cypress is a key habitat for these endangered animals. So, we’re not just talking about the deaths of individual panthers. We’re talking about the survival of a species. Here again is Melissa.
Dr. Melissa Abdo: What we've seen just during the construction has been a massive increase in vehicles, and we're talking large vehicles. We're talking trucks, semis, vehicles carrying huge generators, lighting. I mean, massive amounts of infrastructure because really there is none — there was none existing on the site a little over a week ago. All of that has to be trucked in. You know, we're talking about a gravel road in an area that is very prone to flooding. Has any of this been considered?
Jennifer Errick: And, you know, the state and the federal government have both been investing billions of dollars in restoring this larger Everglades landscape. Could this facility create damage that undermines that ecosystem?
Dr. Melissa Abdo: Absolutely, that's an affirmative. Absolutely yes it could. In fact, Big Cypress is the seat of a critically important Everglades restoration project known as the Western Everglades Restoration Project. This project is essential to restoring the original hydrology and flow of the Western Everglades. And indeed, key components of this project are directly adjacent to the jetport site. So, there's a very real impact here that we can already foresee.
Jennifer Errick: I found it deeply ironic that this detention center is located smack in the middle of a multi-billion-dollar restoration effort. I asked my colleague, Senior Coastal and Wildlife Program Manager Marisa Carrozzo, for more information on the implications.
Marisa Carrozzo: The Greater Everglades is a vast ecosystem and historically covered approximately half of the state. Big Cypress — its really intrinsic connection to Everglades National Park — it actually provides about 40% of the water flowing into Everglades National Park.
Jennifer Errick: It really surprised me to learn that the site of this detention center was part of an Everglades restoration plan, and we now have this new development there that would seem completely inconsistent.
Marisa Carrozzo: So, there are multiple Everglades restoration projects that are in varying stages of planning and design and construction, and one of these really important projects is called the Western Everglades Restoration Project, and it is focused on restoring the flow of water in Big Cypress National Preserve. It has a suite of benefits for Big Cypress. The detention center location on the jetport site is within the footprint of this project. Everglades Restoration is a bipartisan effort. It has been for many, many years. It's received support from the federal government, from the state government, across multiple administrations.
Jennifer Errick: And Governor Ron DeSantis, too. Isn't he a huge advocate of Everglades restoration?
Marisa Carrozzo: Yeah, and the DeSantis administration has invested a record amount of funding.
Jennifer Errick: Do you know how much?
Marisa Carrozzo: He has committed over 6 billion.
Jennifer Errick: Six billion dollars? That's not a small amount of money.
Marisa Carrozzo: It is not. We don't want to see anything happen that could undermine Everglades restoration, and any type of development that could impede a restoration project, such as this facility, is, of course, of serious concern for all of us at NPCA as well as all of our partners. Big Cypress is the most highly visited park unit in South Florida.
Jennifer Errick: More than the Everglades?
Marisa Carrozzo: More than Everglades National Park. Big Cypress National Preserve brings in 1.8 million visitors as of the last Park Service numbers that were published in 2023, and $168 million of visitor impact spending associated with that. That means there's a lot of recreational use within the preserve. We talked about the importance of restoring the ecosystem and how critical that is to the Everglades and of course, Big Cypress. We're talking about the drinking water supplies for 9 million Floridians. It is an ecosystem and park issue, and it's also an important community-wide issue.
Jennifer Errick: Thank you for bringing that back to humanity for me — that it's not just a story about trees or about birds, that it's about the people who live in these in these places and drink this water.
Marisa Carrozzo: Absolutely. The Everglades and Big Cypress makes it possible for us to enjoy living in South Florida.
Jennifer Errick: This detention center is now open and operational, but opposition has been widespread, persistent and loud. NPCA is one of many voices speaking out against the facility. I asked Dr. Melissa Abdo if Alligator Alcatraz was a done deal and what we were doing about it.
Dr. Melissa Abdo: There is absolutely work to be done here. NPCA and the large emerging coalition of people are staunchly opposed to this, we're in it for the long haul, and we want to see this site unwound. The detention center does not belong in the Everglades. That focus and energy should absolutely be redirected to restoring the Everglades, something that the state historically has led on — and this atrocious project can really undermine all of that.
You know, any site in the Everglades would not have been acceptable for a detention center like this to be built, but this site with so much history, with so much connection to people — it is especially atrocious, and that's not lost on me, and I don't think it's lost on others as well. We need to see this development unwound, turned around, stopped and staunchly opposed.
Jennifer Errick: You can join us in telling Florida Governor Ron DeSantis that a detention center does not belong in this revered, ecologically critical national park landscape. You can take action at npca.org/alligatoralcatraz.
[Music break]
The Secret Lives of Parks is a production of the National Parks Conservation Association.
Episode 45, Florida’s Untenable Alcatraz, was produced by me, Jennifer Errick, with help from Todd Christopher, Bev Stanton and Linda Coutant.
Special thanks to Edward Ornstein, Deputy General Counsel and Tallahassee Embassy Director for the Miccosukee Tribe. Special thanks also to my NPCA colleagues, John Adornado, Cara Capp, Kristin Gladd and Kyle Groetzinger.
Original theme music by Chad Fischer.
Learn more about NPCA’s opposition to Alligator Alcatraz and speak out at npca.org/alligatoralcatraz
Learn more about this podcast and listen to the rest of our stories at thesecretlivesofparks.org
For more than a century, the National Parks Conservation Association has been protecting and enhancing America’s national parks for present and future generations. With more than 1.6 million members and supporters, NPCA is the nation’s only independent, nonpartisan advocacy organization dedicated to protecting national parks.
And we’re proud of it, too.
You can join the fight to preserve our national parks. Learn more and join us at npca.org