Wade in the Water

A conversation deep in the Everglades with conservation storyteller Luca Martinez

Photos by Luca Martinez | Photos of Luca by Austin Ellis

It’s hard to know just exactly where in the world a feature will take us. But we knew without a doubt we wanted to talk with Luca Martinez — conservationist, photographer, and good human. As it turns out, Luca spends quite a lot of his time in the waters of the Everglades, and so that’s where we decided to meet up. We stepped lightly into the cool water and asked Luca about the importance of the magic of the wetlands and what we can all do to help save them. And at under 20 years old, he left us inspired, impressed, and with wet socks. 

What first sparked your love for the Everglades?

I think to answer that question, I'd have to take you back to when all my weekends were spent in the Florida Keys. It's interesting that I'm answering these questions at my grandpa's house because all of my weekends were spent with my grandpa diving in the Keys on the coral reefs and diving to these places that, when I was snorkeling (I started snorkeling at 2 years old), were vibrant. A lot of these places, like Pickles Reef, were alive.

As I continued to return to these places around 12 years old and 13 years old, a lot of them just were no longer. That's when I started focusing on memorializing the beauty that I saw left in them, whether it was with my GoPro or just a little crappy camera out of the water. When I'd go out into these reefs with my grandpa on the boat, we would watch these ospreys diving just outside of the boat before the sun had risen.

These couple of ospreys would circle around and then begin to dive talons-first into the water. You'd see this bustle of whitewash, then they'd come up with a mullet or a snapper, depending on the location. I began to ask, “Where can I see more of this? Where do these birds come from?” 

I went out there the first morning to see an osprey, and I was delighted. I saw multiple birds within the first five minutes of getting onto Tamiami Trail and escaping Miami. The first morning out there, that's what sparked my love for the Everglades, but perhaps the time out on the water connecting with South Florida's landscape 15 years beforehand sparked something deeper.

I love the Everglades because I love the outdoors. I love spending time outside. On that first morning, the cicadas were screeching, the pig frogs were croaking, the sawgrass was swinging, the wind was blowing. It was nature like I hadn't heard it before — not on a boat, in the Keys, or at the beach. It was something so distant but so close to where I'd lived. That's what drew me to it. That's why I went out there so much.

From that first morning on, after seeing the sunrise over Ten Thousand Islands sitting on this never-ending sawgrass river, my obsession began and I continued to go out more and more, time and time again.

Can you tell us a little bit about what you know about the current restoration project for the Everglades?

Beyond the incredible biodiversity, the fact that the Everglades is the widest and slowest-moving river in the world, and the uniqueness of its landscape, what makes the Everglades so important right now is the massive restoration effort happening there — the largest of its kind in history. This effort is called the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP), and at its heart, it's about re-engineering Florida’s water system.

One hundred years ago, we drastically altered the landscape by dredging, draining, and compartmentalizing it. Back then, water used to flow from the Kissimmee chain of lakes to Lake Okeechobee. During the rainy season, the lake would overflow its banks, and the water would then continue southward, naturally following the state's topography, through the cypress forests, the mangroves, and into Florida Bay. Today, only a quarter of that water flows through the Everglades. The natural system no longer works as it once did.

On top of that, roads like the Tamiami Trail and I-75, which we use to travel across the state, are actually acting like dams. These roads block the natural flow of water from north to south, creating a massive barrier. How is the water supposed to flow naturally with these obstructions in the way?

The restoration project has many different aspects. It's about raising roads and building bridges to allow water to flow naturally, building water storage reservoirs, creating water preserve areas, and developing treatment wetlands. It also involves managing Lake Okeechobee properly and letting water move according to conditions, not a fixed schedule. The goal is to restore the right amount and quality of water to the Everglades at the right time, so it can flow as close as possible to how it did historically. Water is what sustains our state, the Everglades, and the cypress forests. Restoring a wetland as large as the Everglades is a massive effort — we’re halfway through the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP), but it could take another 25 years to complete!

How important is the protection of our wetlands?

I think obviously we wouldn't be here and I wouldn't be able to live the life I lived growing up without it — 8 or 9 million Floridians rely on the Everglades for drinking water, our coastal protection, and our biodiversity. There are thousands of people who belong to indigenous communities that call the Everglades home. It's not just home to the bears, and it's not just home to the bobcats, it's home to people.

The protection and restoration of this place should be a priority for that reason alone. Not only that but when you're talking about the largest restoration undertaking in the history of the planet and restoring something as complicated as a wetland, if we can get it right, it will be a framework for restoring broken ecosystems around the world.

The success of the Everglades restoration is really the success of future ecosystems, planet-wide, and globally.

A photo you've taken that you'll remember for the rest of your life.

I've spoken about it before. There's this black and white picture I took in the cypress forest and it's pretty foggy. Then, on the left side, there's a barred owl completing the composition perfectly. I wasn't even photographing the owl, I was photographing a landscape. 

What makes it special, and the reason I won't forget it, is that I know it will never happen again because that was the last time I was able to photograph that barred owl before she died. I had been photographing her and her mate every single week for a year up to that photograph. I learned a lot about the way they lived. I watched as she took care of and let go of her chicks and as she surveyed the prairie. She'd literally sit on this cypress branch until the sun completely went below the horizon line. She would do that every single sunset.

I'll share with you the first photo I ever took of her when I saw her for the first time on that cypress branch because what you'll see in that picture is an owl basking in the glow of a sunset. It's not just a moment, it's not just something I happened to capture. It's something that was a part of what she did every single sunset.

What it teaches is to appreciate the stillness like an owl does, the tranquility of each passing moment. That's what they do, and I think that's what that photo shows.

Okay, we’re going to play a game called “Pick the Animal.” The first one is easy, your favorite animal.

I'll say barred owl.

The animal or insect you're most afraid of.

Mosquito.

The animal you would want on your team in an Avenger-like situation.

Panther.

The most critical animal to their environment.

The alligator.

What's the most “swamp people” thing you've seen in the swamp?

I'm friends with a lot of swamp people out there, but I guess the funniest thing I’ve seen would be when I was hiking through Big Cypress National Preserve, and there was just a family on their inner tubes like we were in Weeki Wachee waterpark in the middle of Big Cypress.

Invasive species is a term that we hear a lot. Do you know what the current state of invasive species in the Everglades is? How do they impact the environment, and what's being done about it?

The current state is not good. There are too many invasive species to even speak about. There's obviously the Burmese python, which is the one that everyone thinks of first, or the tegu, a lizard. There are also tons of invasive plant life and tree species. When it comes to the Burmese python issue, there's not much right now that we can really do that's making that big of an impact, because the rate at which they're breeding and producing offspring is far faster than how many we can take out.

What I can say about invasive species is that they're everywhere, from the plant communities to the wildlife. That's part of what South Florida is known for. If you take the Burmese python, for example, it’s decimated small mammal populations, and in some areas, we’re seeing Around 99 percent loss of raccoon or opossum populations because of the way these snakes eat these small mammals and out-compete for food.

How is it that we became home to so many invasive species?

The thing is, Florida is this perfect low peninsula, and there are a lot of different islands around it along with a large variety of wildlife. The pet trade is a big problem too, because South Florida doesn't get cold, so these exotic animals can live out here. There are a lot of different theories for how the situation came to be if you're talking about the python. There are people who release them. 

The other thing is, there are 300,000 pythons in South Florida, but when you’re out there during the day, you’re not going to see them. There was a time when I was going out multiple times a week for a year and a half straight, and I didn’t see a single one during the day. They're extremely elusive, and there are so many of them. Once they're out and breeding, you can't do much about it. And these pythons don't have any real predators, really.

"...the magic that lies in that bond between this incredible seaside metropolis and this incredible, resilient river of grass. Go out and explore it — hire a fishing guide in Florida Bay, go on a swamp tour, and get in the water in Big Cypress National Preserve. If enough people can see and do that, perhaps they'll see the connection." 

What's something that anyone could do to help make an impact to save the wetlands?

I think the biggest threat to this system is the disconnection from it. When I visit a school or just talk to a group of people, I can't begin the conversation about the restoration project and why they should get involved with certain organizations, because why would a person care to protect something that they don't know or understand anything about?

I think the biggest thing with the Everglades is that it's so close to us and the magic of where we are in Miami — the magic that lies in that bond between this incredible seaside metropolis and this incredible, resilient river of grass. Go out and explore it — hire a fishing guide in Florida Bay, go on a swamp tour, and get in the water in Big Cypress National Preserve. If enough people can see and do that, perhaps they’ll see the connection.

That's all you can ask someone's first steps to be because I didn't know about the Everglades or really care before I knew about it, or before I knew that perhaps the fate of the coral reefs that I loved was directly tied to the amount of freshwater flowing down our state into Florida Bay. It’s about giving the ecosystem a chance, going out there and experiencing it. 

How has social media helped amplify your message, and why do you think it resonates so well?

I wanted to show the beauty of the Everglades and then show the real story. That wasn’t necessarily the plan from the beginning, but that's how I actually witnessed and lived with the place. First, you notice the beauty, then you begin to see the real story.

Some of the scenes that you see underwater really resonate, at least with me. I remember when I first went out into a cypress storm underwater, I couldn't believe the world I was swimming in. I couldn't believe how crystal clear the water was. 

We've been taught that the Everglades is dirty and extremely dangerous. When, historically, the only time the Everglades is mentioned is because of a plane crash or to portray it as an alligator-infested swamp, it's no wonder that people don't want to go out there and that people don't care. I think my social media resonated with people because it was this new light shining on a place that hasn’t gotten that type of recognition in the past.

It wasn't considered beautiful. Perhaps in documentaries, it was made to look epic, but it wasn't viewed as beautiful. When you're actually out there, it's not this epic, alligator-infested place. It's beautiful and calm; it's a river, and it's slow. The farther you go in and the closer attention you pay to the seemingly simple things, the more epic it becomes. But you have to give it that chance first, then the Everglades engages back with you when you engage with it. That's why I think the message has resonated on social media, because I've taken the time to go underwater in these sloughs that take me three hours to get out to, and I'll be in this crystal clear water, and a gar will silently float by the camera.

The main reason I started on social media is because first of all, I was stunned by what I was seeing out there. I was thinking, I need to share this with people because I've never seen anything like this. I've never seen this type of water or an alligator sitting at the bottom of a cypress dome in Clearwater. And I’ve never seen a video of any of it. Another reason is that the future of the system is directly tied to my generation's relationship with it. If I'm not targeting that audience where they are, which is social media, I'm not going to make an impact on their mindset toward it.

So that's what I did. I am posting videos about, first the beauty of this place, connecting people with the beauty of it. Then I began to unveil the threats, the real thing that's happening out here, the fact that beyond the beautiful facade, beyond the crystal clear water and these alligators and these gars, lies the reality that this place is dying. The reality is that there are people living out there who understand the system best, so how are we going to move forward in a restoration project without the Indigenous people who have been staring at this place and understand how it works more than any of us without their input first?

"It's beautiful and calm; it's a river, and it's slow. The farther you go in and the closer attention you pay to the seemingly simple things, the more epic it becomes."

A note from Luca on a matter of importance.

Yeah, I think the one thing that I think needs to be in there when it comes to the story of the Everglades is the importance of recognizing that there are people — the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians, the Seminole people — that there are Indigenous communities that live out there. That's one of the reasons that it's really important to me.

What I'm trying to work on, what I'm trying to get people to see is the restoration project. When you're trying to restore something as complicated as a wetland, it's almost as if you need the input of people who have been studying the system for 300 years. We have that, and we have those answers. My hope is to inspire people to turn their heads and listen to those who know the system best, better than anyone else ever will, and those are the Indigenous communities and Indigenous wisdom.

Is there any sort of co-management program in place with Indigenous people for restoration projects? We know in California for controlled burns, they have tribal insight for effective controlled burns and things like that. Same with gold in Glacier National Park.

There has been an incredible pursuit for empirical proof and quantifiable evidence and “10-year studies” so to speak. With the speed we need this place to be restored, that alone will not work anymore. Indigenous wisdom must sit next to modern science. I just did a video about Indigenous rights being violated with the proposal from the federal government for the wilderness designation in Big Cypress National Preserve. The Big Cypress Preserve is struggling due to poor management, including suppression of fire, lack of controlled burns, and an absence of mammals. Despite these issues, the federal priority seems to be “Wilderness Designation,” stripping Indigenous rights, and limiting their ability to live, steward, and build in certain areas. Why is this the focus? Shouldn't restoring the land, its stewards, and its wildlife come first? The belief that “untouched” nature is superior fails to recognize that stewardship and cultural connection are vital for true preservation. If we are going to save the Everglades, all of the Everglades, we must embrace the knowledge and practices of those who have cared for this land for generations.

Follow along @lucamartinez.fl