MANGROVES AND MUD

Those of you who share some of my fascination with Lac will undoubtedly have noticed the water level rising. Mangroves may be just about one of the toughest trees in existence, but even they can have too much our relentless sun and sea and salt. Right now thanks to a winning combination of high seas and regular rain showers our mangroves are looking truly magnificent. Even some of the driest and most inhospitable areas, like the Awa di Lodo, are flooded and the mangrove trees are flowering like there's no tomorrow. So grab your field glasses and bug spray and go take a peak at the action.

Whether you choose the dirt road to Cai or whether you stay on the metalled road and head for Sorobon, the Awa di Lodo is the barren landscape of spectral trees and unrelenting mud that greets you as you first approach the bay. It is particularly aptly named as "lodo" is simply papiamento for "mud". There are those who staunchly believe that the Awa di Lodo is "dead". Having waded around in the worst of it, I can assure you, it's very much alive! It just doesn't happen to be one of our more appealing landscapes.

You see mangroves typically grow in a successional fashion. That is to say the hardiest species pave the way for their more conservative cousins. Red mangroves (Rhizophora mangel) for example, grow below the high water mark along the waters edge. With their magnificent prop roots these are the trees you see majestically marching out into the water. Their roots trap silt, encourage sedimentation and so begin to "create" land. If you've not figured out why they are called "red" mangrove the answer lies in the colour of the prop roots when they are broken open. And believe it or not, before the advent of synthetic lines, the sap was used by fishermen to strengthen their lines.

But, like all successional plants, Red mangroves have the unfortunate habit of growing themselves out of a living space. As soon as consolidated mud prevails over water the next in the successional chain, the Black mangrove (Avicennia germinans), moves in. These are the mangrove trees you can see lining the water's edge on the dirt road to Cai. You can tell Black mangrove trees by their characteristic aerial roots (pneumatophores), which stick up around them in an impressive woody fringe and allow the tree to take oxygen out of the air and "breath". Our mangroves at Lac are made up of approximately half Red and half Black mangrove though you'd be hard pushed to see that from the waters edge or from the road.

Finally, claiming the high, or rather dry ground, are the salt tolerant White mangrove (Laguncularia racemosa) and Buttonwood trees (Conocarpus erectus). You will see these trees on the dry areas near the road which according to visiting scientists are some of the most overgrazed mangroves they have ever seen thanks to our abundant free roaming goats and donkeys.

What we are seeing at the Awa di Lodo is simply successional change. Change compounded by a particularly harsh hydrological regime. At extreme low water (around March) every year this muddy bay is separated from the rest of the mangroves for up to four weeks. With no water exchange, temperatures and salinities soar so that even the amazingly tolerant killifish die by the hundreds at the edge of dried out ponds. Naturally enough mangroves don't do too well either. Add to this the fact that rainwater inflow has been severely reduced by the dam built in the 1950s to the north of Lac and by the road to Cai itself and you have the whole picture. But mostly what we are seeing is purely and simply nature at work. Unfortunately for us it's just not very beautiful.

Except right now, that is, when even die hard critics of Awa di Lodo have to be impressed by the amazing bird life. Simply add water and Awa di Lodo turns into a wonderful foraging area for all kinds of wetland birds. So grab those birding books and prepare to be impressed by the feathered aggregations of everything from herons and egrets to ducks and of course our particular favourites, flamingos.