DryTortugas National Park, no palm trees!

[David S]

My destinations have been Big Pine Key and Punta Gorda's Charlotte Harbor with my O'day 22. With the help of the internet the last 2-3 years, I have been pouring over pictures of Dry Tortugas with its coconut palms lining the front entrance and dreaming of a sailing trip there.
A few days ago I got on the National Park Service website and to my horror, the palm trees are no longer there on the front entrance. I emailed the NPS and Jimi Sadle, Botanist, replied, "...were probably killed by the hurricanes in 2005, though not certain...and since coconut palms are not native to Dry Tortugas Islands there are no plans to replace them." Quote May 10, 2010.
Has anyone been there before and after that event and knows more details of there demise? I would like to see a group of people interested enough about this to petition the NPS to replace them. Come on guys how do we do this?

David S

 

[Benny]

Seen plenty of coconut palm trees in my lifetime and have been to the Dry Tortugas and truly the vegetation in the atoll is not what it is usually found around them.

 

[MrUnix]

It's been years since I've been to the Dry Tortugas, but I don't remember seeing a lot of them down there back then.. at least not cocount palms.. mostly just mangrove, thatch palm and palmetto, which are all natives to the Florida keys. I imagine between the hurricanes and the Lethal Yellowing disease that has devistated hundreds of thousands of coconut palms in Florida over the past few decades, those few that were in the Dry Tortugas didn't make it either. I really don't blame them for not replacing.. it is a shame, but they are not native to the area and there is a good chance that they will fall prey to Lethal Yellowing as well. And large palms are very expensive to import, particularly when you can only get there by boat!

Cheers,
Brad

 

[r.w.landau]

Tortugas 2002

Here are some pictures from our 2002 trip to Fort Jefferson. My avitar is Fort Jefferson.
r.w.landau

 

[zeehag]

i was in tortugas at ft jefferson just last yr--is gorgeous--if ye wants coconut palms, go to ft myers. ft jefferson is fine as it is.there was a lot of hurricane damage to the place in the past few years--just be glad is still open and ye can still go there. with the cutbacks and such in the federal spending, it is a miracle there is still a ft jefferson to go to . i have similar pix--there are fewer trees of all kinds now----

 

[jackhartjr]

David, we live in Hickory, and are thinking hard about making the run from Key West to the Dry Tortugas in two years.
Maybe you yours would like to do it together?
Jack

 

[seadaddler]

Cold

Don't know about Ft Jefferson but a lot of Florida got hit with some really cold weather this year and did a ot of damage to to plants and crops and some different palms and so a lot was lost.
Nick

 

[Ed Schenck]

So RW is that your boat looking through the shackle on the anchor? You been hiding that one from us? Great pictures though. Sure wish I could sail down there and get some current ones.

 

[r.w.landau]

That is not my boat.......

Ed,
These are actually pictures my brother took. He is a professional. Mine pictures were not so good. The boat was just one that happened to be there.
Anyway, here are a few more.
r.w.

 

[Jerry Clark H356 SV Persi]

Just after Hurricane Charlie in 2005

The fort weathered Charlie very well, but the vegetation took a real hit. We were there three weeks after Charlie in a rental Island Packet 380 from Burnt Store. The fort was closed to visitors.

When we arrived, most of the nav aids were broken off. Garden Key shown in the previous post connected to the fort was severed and most of the vegetation other than the mangroves was wiped out!

Here are a few of the photos from that trip. I would like to see how five years has helped recover the vegetation.

 

[David S]

Dry Tortugas Palm Trees

Thanks for all the replies guys and gals. R.W. your pics of 2002 warms my heart to see the palm trees. Jerry Clark, thanks for your pics too, 3 weeks after Charlie, shows the stark reality of the destruction of hurricanes. So the pics and websites I have been looking at the last couple of years are old and not dated. My heart is sad. :cry:
Jack Hart, yes I would like to sail in company with you some time, do you have your boat docked in Lake Norman? Isn't that about 2-3 hours from Asheville?
One good fortune for me from Charlie is that I got my O'day 22 FREE at Port Charlotte, Fla. with only slight damage, the hatch was blown away and centerboard broken off just below the pivot shaft, scrapped 2 inches of barnacles off the bottom. I made a new hatch of cherry wood and new centerboard,and bought a new main sail, and painted the bottom. I have trailed it to Fla Keys 2007 and Punta Gorda 2008.
See my recent post on dingy towing and lazy jacks.

David S