LAKE OKEECHOBEE, Fla. — Scott Martin is a professional angler who has Lake Okeechobee water flowing through his veins.
He recently took me out on the lake on a blustery winter day.
WATCH BELOW: Fisherman discusses the importance of restoring Lake Okeechobee's aquatic vegetation
"I've lived here basically my entire life, over 40 years, and it is the worst I've seen it in regard to habitat that's been left on the lake," Martin said.
Martin said vegetation — submerged and above the surface — once covered up to 70,000 acres of Lake Okeechobee. It is now virtually gone.
"The mass depletion of the lake has been the mismanagement of vegetation, (and) has been the mismanagement of the water level being kept too high for too long," Martin explained.
High water means less sunlight reaches the aquatic vegetation, which leads to stunted growth. Martin heads the group called Anglers for Lake Okeechobee (AFLO).
They, and many others, are upset about the loss of fish hatcheries, which have been impacted as vegetation has disappeared. Also, the waterfowl are now gone and there is pollution on the lake.
"It is just like a swimming pool at your house," Martin said. "If you lose the swimming pool filter, your water is going to muddy up and you're never going to clean your pool until you put your filter back in."
The problems do not end there.
Too much water flushed from Lake Okeechobee to our coasts has often led to huge toxic algal blooms.
"We have to start over and get the lake back to a level that can regenerate itself," Martin argued. "The range (that is) healthy for Lake Okeechobee, I believe, is anywhere between 11 feet up to 15 being your max. We can also absorb 16-17 (feet) for short periods of time like we have over the years."
Environmentalists say reaching that goal includes storing more water north of the big lake — a lot more.
At the headwaters of the Everglades ecosystem in central Florida, WPTV spoke with Dr. Paul Gray, a renowned Everglades expert with Audubon Florida, to get his thoughts.
"If we can get this (planned) million acres of storage up here, instead of (the lake) going to 17 (feet), we go to 15 (feet)," Gray said. "And then during dry season, we still have water up here that is slowly flowing into the lake, and it doesn't drop too low, so we are trying to smooth out this extreme pattern we created with drainage."
That is the long-range goal — a reservoir north of the lake and water flowing down a broad, revitalized Kissimmee River floodplain, which is happening in many places now.
There also is a continued push for federal or state-purchased conservation easements, which in effect pay landowners to use pieces of their land to store water.
The bottom line is that storing water and then releasing it slowly allows plant life to absorb fertilizer runoff instead of deluging Lake Okeechobee with phosphorous and nitrogen. That is a recipe for algal blooms.
Martin makes his case this way.
"For the people at the coast watching this, if we fix this lake and get it back to 50,000, 60,000 or 70,000 acres of vegetation in this lake at all times, we are going to clean the water," Martin argued. "So when they do send water east and west or south, it is going to be cleaner water."
It's cautious optimism from an outdoorsman fighting for his home.
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