Bird Island partiers create nest of problems

Authorities hatching a plan to deal with loud music, trespassing

Orange County hopes to hatch a plan to deal with problems around Bird Island, a popular spot for boaters to drop anchor in Lake Butler.

“This island, inhabited by protected wildlife, regularly draws a significant number of boats to its shores,” Orange County commissioner Betsy Vander Ley said in a memo which prompted a board discussion at Tuesday’s meeting. “The boaters anchor at the shoreline and proceed to trespass on the island using it for a multitude of unwanted and illicit activities… This trespassing activity is accompanied by underage drinking, loud music, and dangerous interactions between water craft and swimmers.”

A 25-year-old swimmer died off the shore of the 10-acre island in July 2019 after he was hit by a boat propeller.

Windermere Mayor Jim O’Brien and three members of Town Council added their voices to this week’s safety discussion of the trouble spot owned by Audubon Florida and located in Lake Butler about 200 yards from the Windermere’s Fernwood Park boat ramp.

O’Brien, who submitted written comments read aloud during the county commission meeting, said town residents favor a strategy to protect the island and shrink the number of boats that create a “nonsustainable burden” on the Butler Chain of Lakes.

The problems aren’t new.

Three years ago, then-Mayor Gary Bruhn recounted complaints about noise, nudity and other nuisances around the island.

He said revelers have ferried a barbecue grill and a portable toilet to the shallows, danced to aquatic dee-jays, planted pop-up shade canopies in the sand, tied vessels to cypress trees, cracked open cold ones on hot days and left mounds of trash behind.

The boaters sometimes create “floatillas” by tying their vessels together.

In August, for instance, marine officers from the state Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission who regularly patrol the Butler Chain of Lakes counted 75 vessels at one time floating in shallows around the island, designated in 1958 as a bird sanctuary.

More and more frequently, personal watercraft — Jet Skis and SeaDoos — flock to party near the bird sanctuary.

Map of where Bird Island is located, in Lake Butler, near Windermere.

Others lounge on inflatable rafts.

Some swim to the festivities from the town’s boat ramp, braving murky channel waters and high-speed watercraft.

VanderLey said problems have worsened. She told fellow commissioners the parties on the water aren’t confined to weekends and holidays but are “pretty much seven days a week now that a lot of folks aren’t working” because of COVID-19.

She suggested an ordinance moving further off shore might help.

“The reason the island is so attractive to a party is that it offers an area deep enough for boats to anchor and shallow enough to walk between vessels,” she said in her memo.

Moving boats away would eliminate access to the island and likely most waders.

“While this may not be a solve-all solution to the existing issues of overcrowding and reckless behavior specifically at Bird Island and on the lakes in general, I believe it is a necessary step and should be implemented until a more permanent plan of action can be determined,” Town Councilman Bill Martini said.

Boaters weren’t part of the discussion week.

But in the past those who anchorA in the island shallows have said problems have been exaggerated.

Because land covered by the lake is considered to be publicly owned, no restrictions can be adopted without public input, a process which could take a year or longer, said Liz Johnson, assistant manager of Orange County’s environmental protection division.

She said the county must apply to state authorities for permission to create a boating-restricted area around the island.

Community meetings, as yet unscheduled, will help to draft a strategy to protect the lake, wildlife and public’s rights.

With Audubon’s permission, division staff posted “no trespassing” signs on the island. Though the warnings are largely ignored, Orange County deputies also have gotten permission from the conservation group to charge anyone the marine patrol catches.

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