Weeks Bay Watershed Project Management Plan - Mobile Bay ...

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D. Flooding
of their tributaries as well as Weeks Bay. The reduction of water
quality reduces an area’s ability to support plant and wildlife
populations.
New residential construction penetrating throughout the Watershed
poses the greatest threat to fish and wildlife habitats. Where and how
construction occurs has direct implications to water and habitat.
quality and quantity. Waterfront development and bulkhead
placement along shoreline areas reduce riparian vegetation, which
plays an important role in reducing turbidity by trapping sediment,
providing thermal cover to prevent water temperature extremes, and
taking up excess nutrients that may be present in runoff. Shoreline
vegetation absorbs wave energy and reduces erosion. Flood plain
vegetation reduces the height and velocity of floodwaters.
Ultimately, decreases in overall water quality renders areas unfit for
use by plant, fish and wildlife species as habitat.
Reduced light penetration, caused by increased turbidity in the water
column, may limit submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) growth in
Weeks Bay. In 1981, Stout and Lelong located only two small
patches of SAV, less than an acre each, in Weeks Bay. These SAV
patches are located near the mouth of the bay at Muddy Bayou to the
west and near a small unnamed creek just inside Weeks Bay to the
east. The SAV species present were mostly freshwater aquatics
(Vallisneria americana, Myriophyllum spicatum and Potamogeton pectinatus),
except for the brackish widgeon grass (Ruppia maritima). These SAV
patches were not observed in a 1995 survey (L.G. Adams, personal
communication). Although SAV habitats are ephemeral, the lack of
recovery or establishment of new grassbeds in Weeks Bay is of major
concern.
1. Loss of natural filtration system and floodwater
retention provided by wetlands and forests.
Wetlands play an important role in reducing flood potential in a
Watershed. Wetlands and riparian buffers are capable of soaking up
vast quantities of water and gradually releasing it as the water table
lowers.
According to the 1988 National Wetlands Inventory maps, the Weeks
Bay Watershed contains 12,170 acres of aquatic bed, marsh,
bottomland forest, and freshwater wetlands, comprising
approximately 10 percent of the Watershed. It is estimated that
within the Watershed approximately 5,000 acres of wetlands have
been lost or altered due to residential development and agricultural
uses (habitat loss estimates provided by SARPC and NRCS in 1997).
Weeks Bay Watershed Management Plan