Rich Mckee

Sentinels Rich Mckee

After a catastrophic hurricane unleashes placid Lake Okeechobee, destroying and flooding much of South Florida, the government decides not to rebuild decimated small towns and businesses, but simply expand Everglades National Park and capitalize on environmental tourism. Many state legislators object strongly, going as far as quietly hiring great white hunters to go into the newly formed forests and wetlands to kill off endangered species, thus weakening preservation arguments and efforts. Jane Kowechobe, an environmental consultant whose MS thesis inspired the expansion plans, and her fiancé Sean McDuff, are over their heads in evidence that favors protection of the wilderness. Some very tall and hairy residents live several miles up the remote Cypress River from the couple's home, a secret that Sean and Jane must protect at all cost. There are also Ivory-billed woodpeckers and red wolves. Then there is Sean's sci-fi author friend, Jules Karlov, whose controversial rants on world overpopulation and old time religion require that they keep his fishing trip visits there quiet. Nevermind that he won the Nobel Prize last year. Can it be that perhaps the best solution to most of the quandaries is a large chainsaw?