Wetland Restoration on State Forests

Wetlands play many key hydrologic roles in the health and livelihood of our environment. These roles include groundwater recharge, attenuation of floodwaters, and filtration of nutrients and pesticides in surface runoff. They also provide food and shelter for many wildlife species, including most of Florida’s current threatened and endangered species, which depend on wetlands for at least part of their life cycle. Additionally, many endangered plant species grow exclusively in Florida’s wetlands.

PHOTO: The Observation Station over a dwarf cypress stand on Tate’s Hell State Forest. The footprint of an old forest road that was removed to restore hydrology to the site can still be seen in the picture.

Much of the land now managed by the Division of Forestry has been impacted by human activities during previous ownerships to some degree. While many of Florida’s wetlands were drained for various purposes, others were impounded to retain water or filled. Altering wetland hydrology in this way not only significantly impacted the wetlands themselves, but other water resources downstream as well.

Healthy, intact wetlands hold rainwater and slowly release it downstream over an extended period of time (hydro period), while wetlands that have been channelized quickly release the accumulated rain waters, drying out much more quickly than they naturally would. Alteration of freshwater levels in wetlands adjacent to saltwater ecosystems can cause problems in these systems by rapidly changing salinity levels, which can disrupt fish and invertebrate breeding and reduce the productivity of these areas. Drained wetlands are also more prone to wildfires that burn the deep organic soils found there, causing lingering smoke problems for nearby developments and traffic corridors.

Since 2000 wetland restoration has become an integral part of the Division of Forestry’s total resource management on many of Florida's State Forests. Through partnerships established with the state’s five Water Management Districts, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), and the US Natural Resources Conservation Service, over 70,000 wetland acres have been enhanced or restored. Many of these projects were made possible by cooperative funding arrangements between the Division of Forestry and local, state or federal government agencies.

For example, several wetland restoration projects have been funded through Water Management Districts and the Florida Department of Transportation’s wetland mitigation program to offset adverse impacts on wetlands due to road and highway expansion projects. Also, DEP has worked with the Division of Forestry and the Collier County Soil and Water Conservation District to establish a Regional Off-Site Mitigation Area (ROMA) on Picayune Strand State Forest to provide funding from single family home developments to control invasive non-native species such as Melaleuca and Brazilian pepper.

PHOTO: A Pitcher-Plant Bog on Blackwater River State Forest, one of many distinct wetland types found on State Forests.

In 2007 the Division of Forestry began conducting a Wetland Restoration Needs Assessment on all state forests. The assessment will take more than three years to complete but will provide important information about wetland conditions and restoration opportunities for state forest managers. This information will also be made available to the public through postings on the Department of Environmental Protection’s Florida Ecological Restoration Database (FERI).

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Additional Information

• Florida's Imperiled Species (Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission)
• Florida's Federally Listed Plant Species List (Division of Forestry)

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