CERP Picayune Strand - Post Restoration Vegetation Monitoring for the Picayune Strand Restoration Project 2016

The PSRP is part of a large development known as the Southern Golden Gate Estates (SGGE). The SGGE area is divided into to two areas by the I-75 (aka, Alligator Alley) interstate with the northern portion a developing residential community and the PSRP on the southside of the interstate. Since the 1940â s the entire area has undergone extensive hydrologic and environmental alterations.

In the 1940s and 50s, raised railroad beds were constructed in the deeper forested wetlands of southwest Florida to facilitate logging of cypress forests. In the 1960â s a network of east-west roads was constructed every quarter mile connecting the north-south roads. These roads and trams impeded the natural sheetflow that created colonization sites for exotic and nuisance vegetation, provided easy access to all parts of the area resulting in widespread impacts from off-road vehicles, poaching of animals and plants, vandalism, and the illegal dumping. This all resulted in the fragmentation of an extensive block of contiguous natural lands that severely compromised the value of the area for a variety of wide-ranging wildlife such as the Florida panther as well as other threatened and endangered species.

Prior to development, the SGGE area was characterized by seasonal flooding and slow-moving overland sheet flow that supported a variety of plant and animal communities in uplands and freshwater wetlands and in its downstream brackish wetlands and estuaries. Channelization of water flows resulted in elimination of sheetflow across SGGE and into the estuaries, severely lowered water tables within SGGE, and created an erratically fluctuating freshwater point discharge to the estuaries. Upland, wetland, and estuarine plant communities have been severely degraded, the abundance of native fish, wildlife, and estuarine shellfish populations declined, recharge of the surficial aquifer reduced, and non-native species greatly increased in abundance. The severely drained conditions resulted in widespread and more intense wildfires than under pre-drainage conditions. These fires accelerated the change in vegetation from wetlands to upland communities dominated by fire tolerant species such as cabbage palm (Sabal palmetto) and exotics such as Brazilian pepper (Schinus terebinthifolius).

The goal of the PSRP is to restore the ecological connections with adjacent public lands. including the reestablishment of historic flow-ways, overland sheetflow, wetland hydroperiods, and wet and dry season water levels within SGGE and its adjacent public lands, as well as natural seasonal salinity patterns in its downstream coastal marshes and estuaries. Restoration targets encompass the short-term reestablishment of a pre-development hydrologic regime and its associated freshwater and estuarine fauna, and the long-term reestablishment of the pre-development plant and animal communities in those portions of SGGE that are downstream of the restoration projectâ s pumps. The primary mechanism for accomplishing these goals will be the removal of most of the roads, logging trams, and canals and leveling of all associated spoil. While significant hydrologic restoration is not expected upstream of the pump stations, the elimination of all above-natural-grade spoil associated with roads, logging trams and canals will significantly facilitate long term fire and nuisance vegetation management in these areas.