LAKE CITY REPORTER, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2005





it doors


Send your interesting Outdoors
story ideas and information to:
 Tim Kirby 754-0421
 tkirby@lakecityreporter.com


Santa Fe River comes alive M- u:4W


with canoe, kayak race *-
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 By TONY BRITT
 tbritt@lakecityreporter.com
 FORT WHITE The Santa Fe River in
 Columbia County will come alive this weekend
 with the sights, sounds and competition of
 canoe and kayak races.
 The Santa Fe Canoe and Kayak -Race will
, take place Sunday from the banks of Rum
Island Park in southern Columbia County as
part a club race for the Florida Competition
Paddlers Association. Registration begins at
9 a.m. and the race starts at 10 a.m. The entry
fee for FCPA members is $2 and $4 for
non-members.
 Tim Dodge, the club member who volun-
 teeredto organize the race, said this will be
 the second year the race has been on the Santa
 Fe River, after being on the Suwannee River,
 near the Georgia border, for years.
 "I live in Gainesville, that's why I moved it,"
 he said. "It was kind of a neat race up there
 because the Suwannee River was shallow and
 there was no motor boats there.",
 Dodge said contestants will come from as
 far away as St. Petersburg' and Key West,
 Panhandle-area in the Fort Walton Beach area
 to participate in the race.


 Contestants will race for points and at the
 end to the year, the paddler with the highest
 point total will get a plaque or trophy.
 The race has been divided into two courses;
 a recreational course and an experienced
 course.
 :'The recreational. course goes upstream
 from Rum Island to the Highway 27 bridge and
 then there is an experience course that starts
 at Rum Island and goes downstream to the
 Highway 47 bridge and finishes back at Rum
 Island," he said.
 'The recreation course is about nine miles
 and the experienced course is about
 13 miles."
 The canoes in the race are United States
 Canoe Association boats, solo canoes (C-I) or
 tandem canoes (C-I), typically 18-feet long
 and made out of carbon fiber or kevlar,-
 weighing between 18-30 pounds.
 "It's a pretty obscure sport, but it goes on,"
 Dodge. said '"There's usually two races every
 month. It's a marathon canoe race. You're rac-
 ing other canoes. The typical race is about
 2 hours long and the good paddlers can aver-
 age about 6 miles an hour."
 Dodge said, he's been kayaking and
canoeing since he was a young boy, about 30


 TONY BRITT/Lake City Reporter
Two local men secure their canoe in preparation for the Santa Fe Canoe and Kayak Race this
Sunday.


years.
 "Mostly canoeing," he said. 'There is a lot of
strategy involved in reading the river."
 Dodge said typically only about 20-30 boats


show up for the event.
 "It's a group of people that are basically all
good friends and when you go to a race its like
a reunion," he said.


STORIES FROM THE SWAMP


Little green monster plants

lurk in the Okefenokee Swamp


 By JIM BURKHART
 Special to the Lake City Reporter
 Little green monsters in the
 swamp? When people think of
 Okefenokee National Wildlife
 Refuge (NWR), they .often
 think of large predators such
 as alligators and black bears..
 But also within the refuge live
 much smaller but more devi-
 ous predators. Carnivorous,
 orflesh-tcating. plants that use
 deception to prey on,, capture,,
 and consume the unwary for
 their own survival.
 The Okefenokee NWR is a
 world of mystery and intrigue,
 where mini-dramas between-
 predator and prey play .out
 every day. A collection of
 swamp woods, sandy islands,_
 marshes and lakes surrounded
 by pine forest, thdie Okefenokee
 Swamp is one of the largest
 freshwater. wetlands in the
 United' States. Here in its
 waterlogged soils and dark-'
 ened waters, carnivorous,
 plants have survived for thou-
 sands of years. They are able to
 survive and thrive by doing
 what most other plants are
 capable of doing, consuming
 animal flesh. These masters of
 deception require, inorganic
 nutrients from insects, spiders
 or aquatic invertebrates to sup-
plement their diet.
 Without these additional
nutrients, carnivorous plants
won't reproduce and will soon
die.
 To attract their prey, carniv-
orous plants use scent and
color, similar to how humans
use fragrances and fashion to
enhance their attractiveness.
The plants also have special-
ized structures. and sensory
hairs designed to entice and
trap their quarry. These modi-
fications, while very strange in
appearance, allow them to


lure, trap, and consume their
prey. In this world of fierce
competition, four types of car-
nivorous plants struggle for
 ..'. survival in
 the .Okefe-
 Sno k e e :
 Pitcher plant,
 bladderwort,
 butterwort
 Bu and sundew.
 Burkhart Pitcher
 plants u-; '.v.,~t smelling nec-
 tar and bright colors on their
 hoods to attract ants.
 Once becoming strapped
'into its pitcher-shaped stem, a
captured ant will, after many
failed attempts to escape,
finally succumb to the plant's
enzymes and microbes.
 Sundews, on the other
.hand, reach out their gland-


covered leaves to. grab their
prey. Their bright red-colored
glands have a glistening drop
of a sweet, sticky secretion
that captures flies, and
secures them for a later meal.
 Often neighbors of sundews,
 butterworts have overlapping
 leaves, which are covered \ithl
 glands.
 SThese specialized leaves are
 -able to roll up prey, creating-a
 sarcophagus-like toimb.Unlike.
 their more terrestrial cousins,
 bladderworts fins their prey
 underwater. Their bladder-
 like leaves have trap doors to
 snare tiny unsuspecting
 aquatic creatures for a quick
 meal.
 Jim Burkhart is a refuge ranger
for the Okefenokee'NWR.


Okefenokee NWR generates


close to $40 million in 2004


From staff reports


 The Okefenokee National
 Wildlife Refuge (NWR) gen-
 erated $39,546,700 in total
 economic activity related to
 refuge recreational use and
 529 jobs (both part- and full-
 time) for nearby Charlton,
 Ware and Clinch Counties in
 southeastern Georgia and
 Baker County in northeast-
 ern Florida, according to
 Banking no Nature 2004: The
 Economic Benefits to Local
 Communities "of 'National
 Wildlife Refuge Visitation.
'The same report, issued dur-


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ing National Wildlife Refuge
Week, found that national
wildlife refuges are. major
economic engines for com-
munities,. putting almost $1.4
billion into the economy.
 Okefenokee NWR generat-
ed, $33.84 for every dollar
received for the refuge's oper-"
ations and: maintenance last
fiscal year.
 Nationally, the
$1.4 billion in total economic
activity related to national"
wildlife refuge recreational
use is nearly ,four times the
$391 million that the Refuge
System received in fiscal year.


2004 for operations and
maintenance.
 The National report details
 findings from 93 national
wildlife refuges, including
the Okefenokee NWR.
 The National Wildlife
Refuge System encompasses
nearly 100 million acres and
545 national wildlife refuges.
the Banking on Nature 2004
study included -money spent
for food and refreshments,.
lodging at motels and cabins.
 -The National report details
findings from. 93 national
wildlife refuges, including
the Okefenokee NWR.


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