MANASOTA & PEACE RIVER BBDs Meeting Notebook 10-21-09.docx

W555
Evaluating the Effects of Restoration on Estuarine Fishes
Project Type SWIM
AOR(s)
Natural Systems
Basin(s) Peace River
Cooperator(s)
Mote Marine Laboratory
Project Manager POWERS, STEPHANIE
Task Manager(s)
Status Ongoing
Description
This project is in response to a cooperative funding request from Mote Marine Laboratory to examine the effects of
SWIM habitat restoration activities, specifically the Alligator Creek Wetlands Restoration Project (W511) in Charlotte
Harbor, on economically-important estuarine fishes such as juvenile snook, red drum, and tarpon. The Alligator Creek
Project is a major District restoration effort. This project provides the District with an opportunity to help determine the
effectiveness of the Alligator Creek Wetland Restoration Project. Mote Marine Laboratory will take advantage of three
years of pre-restoration monitoring from four tidal creeks representing a range of anthropogenic degradation. Sampling
will continue through restoration and post-restoration monitoring of fish assemblages and seeks to address the effects
of wetland restoration projects on mangrove creek fishes. Restoration is seen as an effective means to repair
anthropogenic ecological damage, but quality data on the extent that restoration projects improve estuarine ecology is
rare. Likewise, there is little data on the extent that restoration of natural freshwater flows reverses these negative
impacts. Quantitatively understanding how habitat restoration projects impact fishes is critical so that appropriate
conservation and management measures can be enacted. The results of this project will be used as part of the
monitoring and evaluation effort of the Alligator Creek Wetlands Restoration Project. This project will help validate the
results of existing SWIM habitat restoration projects and the habitat restoration goals for the District's SWIM Plan for
Charlotte Harbor, and will also help guide future restoration efforts in the Harbor and around the state. Phase I
monitoring was completed December 31, 2006. Phase II of this project, with budget approval, will commence on
October 1, 2008.
Benefits
This project will document and quantify how the restoration of historic freshwater inflow patterns improve estuarine
ecology for economically-important fishes as specifically applied to an existing SWIM project, i.e., the Alligator Creek
Wetlands Restoration Project (W511). Results from this project will be used as part of the monitoring effort for the
Alligator Creek project. This project will also result in guidance on how future conservation and management measures
should be appropriately enacted.
Costs
The total project cost is estimated to be $612,500. The District's FY2009 portion of the total cost is requested to be
$75,000. Of this amount, 50 percent ($32,500) will come from State SWIM funds and 50 percent ($32,500) will come
from the Peace River Basin Board. Mote Marine Laboratory, through grants from the Florida Sea Grant Program,
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, and the Charlotte Harbor National Estuary Program, will provide
$75,000 in this fiscal year. The District provided project funding in FY2007, matching Mote's $400,000. District funds
shown in the table include staff salaries.
Additional Information
Florida's southwest coastline has been drastically altered for development, water management, agriculture, mining,
and mosquito control purposes, which has modified freshwater flows into estuaries and caused changes to estuarine
ecology. Freshwater inflow is a major ecological structuring factor in estuaries which influences the abundance and
distributions of vegetation, vertebrates and invertebrates that use estuaries for some or all of their life cycles. Further,
it has been shown (in Charlotte Harbor and in other estuaries) that freshwater flow alterations negatively impact
estuarine fishes, especially the economically-important species. This project will document and quantify how the
restoration of historic freshwater inflow patterns improves estuarine ecology.
020 - Peace River Basin 59