Loxahatchee Impoundment Landscape Assessment (LILA)-February 28th.

Lake Okeechobee

Temperature: 24 degrees, some clouds.

During our third day a visit to lake Okeechobee a guide talked to us about the south FL water management hydrology issues with drainage becoming more of a problem due to increased compartmentalization. A lack of information on previous constructions (plumbing etc.) makes it increasingly difficult to find solutions.

• LILA manages water in the area by pumping it circularly and measuring the depth/velocity of the water.

• LILA provides very important statistical analysis which helps to time the distribution, timing and quantity of the water.

• 2800 data points are managed each day. An example of the experiments undertaken at Loxahatchee is the planting of 7000 trees at different slopes for comparison in order to find the optimum slope for future notice (the elevation gradient between slopes is about four feet). 

• LILA manages water in the area by pumping it circularly and measuring the depth/velocity of the water.

 During our talk there was very informative posters telling us all about LILA

• LILA provides very important statistical analysis which helps to time the distribution, timing and quantity of the water. 2800 data points are managed each day. 

The first time I noticed the southeastern lubbers (Romalea guttata) was here and once I saw them first I always saw them! These lubbers have become a bit of a problem as although the feed on some type of weeds they also cause damage to cultivated crops (most affected is the citrus) and flowers in residential areas. Some of the guides also informed of the problems they are encountering with Cattail (Typha latifolia) because if it left unchecked it can become a major issue. Controlling it can be a problem as Cattail recycles phosphorous and when it's removed it causes nutrients to flow downstream which in turn cause more Cattail. Eventually however the trade-off of removing Cattail is generally worth it. Overall it was a great day and we saw loads of animal and plant species such as a Great horned owl (Bubo virginiansus), an Anhinga (Anhinga Anhinga), an American Kestrel (Falco sparverius) and a south eastern cricket frog (Acris gryllus).



Islands in the everglades are considered to be biodiversity hotspots and play host to an abundance of mangroves and many other plant and animal species. Unfortunately around 90% of these islands have been lost. I was very interested to find out how delicate of a system exists here and how each species relies on each other to survive. For example many parts of the everglades can be become isolated during a drought as many birds leave and stay in certain areas. During this dry season crayfish began to supply birds as they burrowed during the dry season and came out after the season past. One thing that was extremely noticeable was the incredible amount of empty or cracked apple snails found along the river banks. We found out that some of the apple shells were damaged because of all the limpkins (Aranus guarana) nearby would feed on them.