VOLUMES
BY JANIE GOULD
Indian River County has a lovely natural
asset that you probably have
never seen: Blue Cypress Lake, a 10-
square mile freshwater preserve 30
miles west of Vero Beach. It’s a place I’ve
always associated with bass fishing and
have seen only once. Even that was a
mere glimpse from the banks at
Middleton’s Fish Camp.
There’s only one way to see Blue
Cypress, and that’s from a boat, as
Richard and Juanita Baker point out so
beautifully in a book they wrote and
illustrated, “Reflections of Blue Cypress:
Photographs, History and Poems of the
Headwater Lake of the St. Johns River.”
The Bakers take readers back to prehistoric
times, when mastodons and
mammoths roamed the Blue Cypress
area, and they detail various efforts to
drain and develop the marsh that
occurred in the 19th and early 20th centuries,
along with logging operations
that decimated countless cypress trees.
Blue Cypress Lake didn’t even appear
on a map until decades after Florida
achieved statehood in 1845. An 1885
map of Brevard County, which at the
time included present-day Indian River
County, left some places blank with the
following notation: “Unsurveyed,
Impassible (sic.) Morass.” Blue Cypress
Lake and Fellsmere were in this supposedly
impenetrable corner of western
Brevard County. Finally, in 1895 a surveying
crew spent six weeks slogging
through the swamp before “discovering”
the lake. On an 1896 map, it was
called Lake Wilmington, which the
Bakers say might still be the “official”
name of Blue Cypress.
Florida developers began draining
swamps early in the 20th century, most
notably the Everglades. In 1910, a retired
English engineer named Nelson Fell
bought about 118,000 acres around Blue
Cypress for $1.35 an acre. But his plans
to drain and develop the land were
washed away in the 1915 Fellsmere
flood, when 39 inches of rain fell in one
month. Today, the lake is protected by
the St. Johns River Water Management
District, but, given Florida’s growth, its
future can’t be left to chance, the
Bakers say.
The Bakers present a well-researched
and exceedingly detailed account of the
history and ecology of Blue Cypress and
the surrounding land. During the three
evenings I spent reading the book, I
found myself poring over some of the
history, then turning to the photo section,
and then repeating the process, like
a pendulum. The Bakers’ photos, of
birds and butterflies and remarkably
sculpted cypress trees, show what a
diverse place it must be.
Richard Baker, a mosquito biologist,
and Juanita Baker, a psychologist, have
been canoeing the lake regularly since
1990. They usually go at night and sleep
in their van so they can be on the lake
before sunrise, which lets them capture
the varying early-morning colors – gold,
purple and orange – on film.
One photo spread indicates that
Florida does indeed have a change of
seasons. It shows cypress trees in the
four seasons of the year, from the lush
green growth of summer to the bare
wooded sculpture of winter.
Juanita Baker says every visit to the
lake is different. She and her husband
always see birds, who often entertain
them by showing off their fish. One of
the most striking photos is of the
“Grande Ole Osprey,” also known as a
fish hawk, and its majestic wingspan.
On the day they made that photo, they
spent nearly 12 hours in their canoe and
took six rolls of film.
“At the end of our adventure around
Blue Cypress Lake, we have counted 158
osprey nests,” the Bakers write. “Our
final bird count is 38 species. A
marvelous day. We’ve made it back to
the west side, waiting to watch the
sunset …”
The Bakers say Blue Cypress Lake
must never be allowed to go the way of
Lake Okeechobee or Lake Apopka. It
needs to remain healthy and natural, for
the sake of wildlife and Florida’s
groundwater supplies. Given the large
agricultural holdings in the area, and
the rapidly growing population of
Central Florida, constant vigilance
is necessary.
“If we don’t act to prevent excessive
development, pollution, undue water
fluctuation, and invasive species, both
Blue Cypress’ and our species’ survival
will be in question,” they write.
The Bakers, who are donating all proceeds
from sales of the book to the
Pelican Island Audubon Society, make a
good case for protecting this treasure
that is in our own back yard.
‘Blue Cypress’
a pleasant journey
“Reflections of Blue Cypress:
Photographs, History and
Poems of the Headwater Lake
of the St. Johns River.”
Author: Dr. Richard H. Baker
and Dr. Juanita N. Baker
Introduction: Dr. George
Schaller of the Wilderness
Conservation Society
Publisher: Pelican Island
Audubon Society
Pages: 116
154