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IRL UPDATE INDEX

Summer 2008
Volume XVI
No. 3, Page 2

Inside this issue

Money well spent
Tourism in the lagoon area is strong.

Land preservation
South Florida District buys land to provide natural water storage, water quality improvements.

First anniversary
Coastal program coordinator reflects on first year in lagoon region.

Dredging project
Work continues to remove muck from St. Sebastian River.

Birds of a feather
Learn about the threatened Florida scrub jay.

Lagoon funding
Grant will help fund work in lagoon region.

Park site
Purchase at Floridana Beach enhances public properties in the area.

Lagoon program
Partnership steers lagoon program.

Indian River Lagoon
Web Sites

Guest column

New coastal program coordinator
marks one year in south Florida

It was this time last year that I was loading all of my belongings into a moving truck and hoping that the housing market would hold out long enough for me to sell my house in Galveston, Texas, in time for my move to the sunshine state.

Fortunately, everything worked out and I’m approaching my one-year anniversary as the coastal program coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service South Florida Ecological Services Office in Vero Beach.

I have been with the Coastal Program for six years, spending my first five years working with various partners to restore habitat along the Texas Gulf Coast. I used to agree with the phrase, “Everything’s bigger in Texas.” That is, until I moved here. I have been humbled by the complexity of environmental issues we face in south Florida. With invasive exotic species, more than 65 threatened or endangered species, and predicted climate change effects, habitat conservation is certainly an uphill battle. However, I am impressed and encouraged by the passion of conservationists, including federal, state and local governments and nonprofit organizations, to maintain, improve or restore the diverse array of coastal habitats in Florida.

As the south Florida coordinator, I oversee the Service’s coastal program for 19 counties, including Indian River, Osceola, Polk and Sarasota counties, and south through the Florida Keys in Monroe County. Our program’s mission focuses on voluntary, cooperative conservation and habitat restoration by providing financial and technical assistance. I work with a wide variety of partners to identify habitat conservation and restoration priorities and to help partners draw resources and funding to collectively accomplish those priorities.

After being here nearly a year, I am filled with ideas and possibilities for coastal program involvement in south Florida. I look forward to continuing work with the established partnerships and to developing new partnerships for habitat restoration throughout south Florida.

If you would like to know more about the coastal program or the South Florida Ecological Services Office, please contact me at (772) 562-3909 or Debbie_DeVore@fws.gov. You may also be interested in these Internet sites: http://ecos.fws.gov/coastal/ and www.fws.gov/verobeach/.

Third season of dredging under way

For the third consecutive year, a familiar sound has returned to the St. Sebastian River.

That diesel-fueled drone is the sound of the river being cleaned up.

Subaqueous Services Inc., of Orlando, has begun the third phase of an $18 million dredging project in the muck-choked waterway.

Muck — a gooey brown mix of silt, clay, sand, shell and organic material — consumes oxygen and affects bottom-dwelling organisms. It can also decrease water clarity, blocking sunlight necessary for seagrass growth.

Two seasons of dredging have already removed about 800,000 cubic yards of muck from the river, much of it several feet thick before it was drawn from the river’s bottom.

Muck is piped to a 100-acre containment area, where it is permanently stored. The mixture flowing through the pipe must be about 70 percent water to prevent solids from clogging the pipe. Solids in the water settle out at the bottom of the containment area, and the remaining clear water is discharged to a clarifying pond before it is pumped back to the river.

“We’re hearing positive responses from people who boat and fish the St. Sebastian River,” says Ralph Brown, project manager for the St. Johns River Water Management District. “We are hoping to have a major impact on fish and wildlife in the river basin.”

All told, the endeavor is expected to remove nearly 2 million cubic yards of muck from the river and is expected to wrap up in 2009. This year, work will continue through Nov. 30, when it will be suspended due to manatee restrictions. The dredge, currently located east of the Florida East Coast Railway bridge, will work its way west toward the bridge as dredging progresses.

“It is expected that the dredging of the St. Sebastian River will be complete in November with the exception of the river’s south prong,” Brown says.“Subaqueous will begin dredging the south prong this season but will have to return for a fourth dredging season in April 2009 to complete the work.”

Tim Glover, president of the Friends of the St. Sebastian River, says some area residents have seen a noticeable change in the depth of the river along the shoreline. Dolphins have also begun appearing in the waterway, he added.

“We appreciate the efforts of St. Johns and the city of Sebastian to address stormwater drainage issues in our area,” Glover says. “Those efforts not only protect the river but will hopefully lessen the need for future maintenance dredging of the river.”

The protection of manatees and water quality are at the forefront of dredging operations. A manatee spotter halts work when the creatures are too close to the dredge, and inspectors monitor water quality at the dredge and at the point of discharge at the return pipe. In addition, dredging is halted between Dec. 1 and March 30 of each year so as not to disturb manatees.

For scrub jays it’s location, location, location

Found nowhere else in the world, the threatened Florida scrub jay, Aphelocoma coerulescens, is finicky about its habitat preferences: It’s scrub or it’s nothing. These remarkably tame birds can only survive in oak scrub and scrubby pine flatwoods communities of central Florida, actively avoiding all other habitat types.

The scrub jay’s plight is a familiar tale: Between 70 and 85 percent of natural scrub has been lost to agricultural, commercial and residential development, with much of the remaining scrub left fragmented, degraded or overgrown due to suppression of natural fire cycles. The scrub jay’s requirement for such habitat has caused population declines of 25 to 50 percent since the 1980s. Recent studies from southern Brevard County showed that since 1993, the number of breeding pairs of scrub jays has decreased by more than 33 percent. Scrub jays have been listed as threatened in Florida since 1975, with a federal listing following in 1987.

Scrub jays resemble the common blue jay but lack its characteristic crest, ring of black feathers on the neck, and black barring on the wings and tail. The head, wings and tail are blue, except for a patch of brownish-gray plumage on the back. The eyebrow line and throat are white, with a ring of blue feathers separating the throat from the grayish breast. Sexes are similar and cannot be distinguished based on plumage.

Florida scrub jays are year-round occupants in territories averaging 22 acres in size. They mate for life and are one of the few birds in the United States that utilize a cooperative breeding strategy in which the young from one year remain with their parents to help raise the next year’s brood. Group size generally ranges from two to eight birds and consists of the breeding pair and their helpers. Helpers assist in detecting predators, defending the territory and the nest, and in feeding nestlings and fledglings.

Nesting occurs from March through June, with nests located 3 to 10 feet above the ground in shrubby oaks. Three to four eggs are typically laid. These are incubated 17 to 18 days before hatching. Fledging occurs 16 to 19 days after hatching, with fledglings remaining dependent on parents and helpers for food for up to two months.

Scrub jays are proverbial homebodies. Where appropriate habitat exists, they live their entire lives within two to five miles of where they hatched. Males don’t generally disperse more than two or three territories from their birthplaces, but females tend to wander greater distances before pairing with males and establishing home territories.

Scrub jay dispersal is strongly influenced by the physical characteristics of the surrounding landscape. Jays will readily disperse to new territories when they can utilize brushy pastures, scrubby railway lines, and frequently burned pine flatwoods as dispersal corridors. However, they avoid large bodies of water, dense forests, highways, highly developed areas and treeless, open pastures.

Despite declining populations and habitat losses, there is some good news for these friendly birds. Ongoing land acquisition by public, conservation and nonprofit agencies has protected more than 270,000 acres of Florida scrub. Land management practices on public lands include regular prescribed burning of scrub to improve habitat quality. The existing distribution and abundance of scrub jays appears to be sufficient to allow for the recovery of this unique species as long as other threats are minimized.

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