Clyde Butcher Announces Friends of Big Cypress Nonprofit 

As the Alligator Alcatraz immigration detention center gains worldwide attention for its location within Big Cypress National Preserve, renowned photographer Clyde Butcher announced the establishment of a new nonprofit - Friends of Big Cypress National Preserve.  

Butcher announced the new organization during his Christmas in July event which drew approximately 800 visitors over the span of about five hours on Sunday, July 13. 

Few things threaten the Everglades more than a lack of knowledge and understanding about it, which is remedied by education and experience, said Butcher.  

“The nonprofit is a way of helping Big Cypress to survive, mostly for the educational part of it, teaching kids about Big Cypress. Kids love the swamp walks,” said Butcher. 

Speakers at the event included Butcher, Betty Osceola of the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida, and Scott Brown of the Friends of the Everglades nonprofit.  

Though Butcher and Osceola are known for teaching children about the Everglades, adults looked to them for guidance.  

Mark Sell, an audience member, editor, writer, and consultant visiting the Gallery from Miami, asked how to handle conflict regarding Alligator Alcatraz.  

“What do you think is the best way to engage with people like that?” Sell asked of conversing with people who applaud migrants being eaten by alligators and arguing about the related issues.  

Love, replied Butcher. Osceola agreed.  

“We love Big Cypress. We love the Everglades. We don’t understand what’s happening here, but we love it,” Butcher said. “You can’t bat back and forth,” he added. 

“In the words of the late William Buffalo Tiger, if there was a lot more love in the world, the world would be a lot more beautiful of a place,” said Osceola.  

Tiger was the last of the traditional chiefs of the Miccosukee people and the Tribe’s first elected chairman. He’s the namesake of Buffalo Tiger Airboat Tours that Osceola now runs.  

“Peace and respect is what you can fight it with,” Steven Villacis said of the differing opinions about Alligator Alcatraz and the interrelated issues.  

“Just pray for them. That’s all you can do. You’re not changing anything right there,” said Nora Espinal, an attendee at the event.  

“No matter what, we’re all going to have some different views,” Villacis said.  

Villacis was also among the hundreds of visitors to the event and leads educational swamp walks.  

Brown spoke of ongoing litigation filed by Friends of the Everglades, Center for Biological Diversity, and Earth Justice, in opposition to Alligator Alcatraz for environmental and due process concerns, which the judge, Jose Martinez, had yet to rule on as of Brown’s talk on Sunday.  

Osceola discussed details of what she witnessed outside the gates to the detention facility near her home. She spoke of her deep connections to Creator, Earth and the meaning of being a human being.  

"When you’re in nature, it reminds you, and it gives you time to contemplate life and the greater universe and what’s around you versus, say, that gerbil-in-the-wheel that’s going round and round,” Osceola said. “It gives you time to be a human being again,” she added. 

“That’s what Clyde is doing with his photography. It’s showing people how beautiful this place is,” Osceola said. 

Like a tree shares nutrients with other trees through their root systems, humans, too, should help each other rather than begrudge each other, she said. 

“You have to connect as human being to human being, not as republican, democrat, this, that, one or the other,” Osceola said.  

Even if she doesn’t agree, she always listens, she added.  

Butcher echoed Osceola.  

“I just feel that we have to get together and learn how to be humans again. I think we’re losing that human contact. Be nice to one another, no matter who you are, what color you are, what nationality you are,” Butcher said.  

Butcher’s daughter and wife participated in the event, sharing stories and greetings to the groups and one-on-one among hundreds of guests in the Big Cypress Gallery located along U.S. 41 in Ochopee, about 10 miles west of Alligator Alcatraz.  

The Butchers bought the property, then called Orchid Isles, in the 1990s, said Niki Butcher, Clyde’s wife and also a celebrated photographer.  

She told stories of the previous owner shooting his gun toward Butcher to get him to leave the area when he was first visiting and interesting in photographing. It didn’t scare him away forever. He came back and bought that man’s property, moving out of Fort Myers in the 1990s, she said. 

The couple are now in their 80s and still enjoying the swamp life, encouraging people to go on swamp walks. 

Just like you can’t judge a book by its cover because we haven’t read the book yet, people don’t accurately describe the swamp, the Everglades, or Big Cypress until they experience it, Osceola said.  

“We’re out here trying to bring them in to experience it,” Osceola said.  

Osceola and Butcher know firsthand that it’s not a place to fear, even though yes there are Burmese pythons and alligators. They both spend hours of their lives in the water of the Everglades. 

That’s how non-dangerous the place is, Butcher said. Alligators are more likely to swim away from you - unless there is a mother protecting a nest or a person otherwise harasses them. 

“This is a pretty place. This is a place to rebuild your soul. This is a place to relax. So, what we’re trying to do all the time is take people on the swamp walks. Because if you take a swamp walk, you’re in the water, you’re connected because we’re made of water,” Butcher said. 

Clyde and Niki Butcher host an event November 1 to connect and go on swamp walks, with free gallery admission and paid swamp walks. More information is on the new nonprofit’s website, FriendsofBigCypressNationalPreserve.org.