![]() ![]() ![]() The park’s proposed general management plan for the next 15 to 20 years calls for an end to all private airboating in the East Everglades once the “grandfathers” who operate there now have died. The three Gladesmen - all longtime members of the airboat Association of Florida ranging in age from 60 to 72 - will be among the last private airboaters to operate in the vast marsh south of Tamiami Trail if officials at Everglades National Park get their way. “We are the protectors of the Everglades,” Erwin said.īut maybe not for much longer. They rescue stranded airboaters, escort Boy Scout and Girl Scout troops on slough slogs and pick up countless party balloons that float in from town. They hunt for artifacts on tree islands like the Duck Club - named for a ramshackle cabin built in the 1950s that’s reputed to have hosted former President Dwight Eisenhower for duck hunting and card playing. They buzz through the sawgrass to a lone pond apple tree they call the “Christmas Tree” - a makeshift memorial decorated with stuffed animals and topped by an American flag where several of their departed friends’ ashes have been scattered by propeller wash. MIAMI – Today, South Florida airboat owners such as Keith Price, Don Onstad and Charlie Erwin range freely throughout the East Everglades in their roaring, slough-skimming craft as they have for decades. ![]()
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