Six Mile Cypress Slough Long-Term Ecological Monitoring
As recently as the 1970’s Six Mile Cypress Slough (SMCS) was a relatively remote and unimpacted 2500 acre slough in rural Lee County southeast of Ft. Myers. At the present time, land development and water management activities may have reduced the historical 57 square mile watershed to 32.6 square miles or a 43 percent reduction. Much of the loss of watershed has occurred in the southern and southwestern basins.
The majority of the cypress slough is now owned by Lee County or the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD). Much of the remainder of the watershed including native uplands and wetlands, its source and quality of water, is controlled by others. The consequences and management implications in regard to land ownership within the SMCS watershed are poorly understood.
Six Mile Cypress Slough Preserve is ecologically impaired and the current hydropattern in the slough will not allow cypress communities or swamp forest communities to be sustained. The future ecological condition of the slough is unclear.
The SFWMD determined that a more thorough evaluation of the slough and its watershed was appropriate including a long term ecological monitoring effort with the capability to address present and future management activities throughout the SMCS system. The nature and timing of this effort is critical in light of the continued pressure for future land use changes in the entire watershed. At the District’s request KLECE developed a Long Term Ecological Monitoring Plan (LTEMP) that will:
- construct a detailed ecological history of the Slough and its watershed;
- provide an accurate predictive hydrological model;
- provide a conceptual ecological model;
- provide data for determining long term ecological and hydrological trends and
- identify targets and processes for ecological restoration, resource management and sustainability.
The monitoring plan focuses on hydrology (groundwater and surface water), vegetation (native and exotic), water quality, biological integrity, soils, fish and wildlife. Monitoring these parameters will allow a real time assessment of the condition of ecological resources and functional capacity of the natural and man-made systems within the study area.
It is anticipated that information such as that gathered from a LTEMP will assist environmental managers and decision-makers in understanding ecological function within SMCS in relation to human influence. Additionally, we expect that LTEM data can be used to develop biological measures or indicators for ecological health and, if measured over time, could be incorporated into large-scale trend assessments elsewhere to determine the changing conditions of southwest Florida’s environment.
For additional information on Six Mile Cypress Slough Preserve:
History of Six Mile Cypress Slough Preserve
Friends of Six Mile Cypress Slough Preserve
Tags: Ecological Monitoring, Watershed Management, Wetlands
Posted Friday, December 1st, 2006 at 7:13 pm and filed under Projects, Watershed Management, Wetlands. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
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