LAKE OKEECHOBEE: A Synthesis of Information and Recommendations for its Restoration Photo: NASA 2005 444 Brickell Ave, Suite 850 Miami, FL, 33131 305-371-6399 Cover Photo: Satellite Image of Lake Okeechobee Source: NASA To create an environmental ethic in all our citizens and to conserve and restore natural ecosystems, focusing on birds and other wildlife for the benefit of humanity and the earth’s biological diversity. Our special thanks to The Batchelor Foundation and The Everglades Foundation for their generous support of this important project For further information on this report, or for additional information regarding environmental restoration and conservation efforts in Florida, please contact us at: Florida State Office 444 Brickell Ave, Suite 850 Miami, FL, 33131 305-371-6399 305-371-6398 fax www.audubonofflorida.org This document should be cited as: Audubon of Florida. 2005. Lake Okeechobee: A synthesis of information and recommendations for its restoration. P. N. Gray, C. J. Farrell, M. L. Kraus, and A. H. Gromnicki, Eds., Audubon of Florida, Miami. 106 pp. + appendices i ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Documents that cover a broad range of topics require the authors to seek information from a very long list of people and institutions. Acknowledging all the help we received is not possible. Thus we necessarily restrict this list to certain people who contributed in significant ways. The SFWMD can be commended for their expansive research and monitoring programs around Lake Okeechobee. Dr. Karl E. Havens (now at the University of Florida) and Dr. Susan Gray of the SFWMD’s Lake Okeechobee Division have been indispensable in conducting research and disseminating results about the lake and its environment. Donald D. Fox, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, also has been most helpful on Lake Okeechobee issues, far beyond his primary responsibility to the fisheries. Larry Harris and Carroll Head, Friends of Lake Okeechobee, have worked long hours trying to understand the lake and its issues and we thank them for all we have learned from working with them. Similarly, Bill Dwinnell, Friends of Istokpoga Lake Association, Inc., has aided greatly in learning about that lake and its needs. The late Richard Coleman gave help with Kissimmee River and Valley issues. Dr. Thomas E. Lodge, while writing his “Everglades Handbook,” shared information about the lake and helped clarify many issues. And thanks go to Wayne Nelson, longtime Lake Okeechobee advocate, who has deposited much of his extensive document collection in Audubon’s Lake Okeechobee office, and whose knowledge of the nature of the lake’s problems, and the history of our efforts, have been invaluable. Thanks also go to Marvin, Glenn, Roderick, and Noel Chandler, Audubon wardens on Lake Okeechobee for more than 50 years, whose unheralded successes have made Lake Okeechobee’s bird life better today than it would have been without them. Audubon of Florida acknowledges the generous support and encouragement of the Batchelor Foundation and the Everglades Foundation in researching and publishing this report. Funding also came through the Goodhill and Whittell Foundations, who started conservation efforts in the Okeechobee watershed in 1980. ii SYNOPSIS Amidst all the complexity and confusion surrounding Lake Okeechobee’s problems, there are three fundamental goals that must be achieved to put the lake on the path towards restoration. 1) Manage water levels for the ecological health of the lake’s 100,000 acres of wetland habitats. 2) Achieve nutrient levels in the lake and its watershed that support the health of the lake and the downstream Everglades ecosystem. 3) Minimize or eliminate populations of invasive exotic species within the lake. Ideally, Lake Okeechobee should never rise above 15.5 feet and should drop to about 12 feet most dry seasons. Until alternative water storage and water supply projects are completed, water supply concerns will most likely preclude Lake Okeechobee from being managed to reach 12 feet each year. In the interim, management should strive to reach approximately 13 feet at the end of most dry seasons since this level results in minimal risk to water supply. Such a dry- season level would benefit the lake and help protect the estuaries from massive summer releases. Nutrient levels may take some time to correct fully, but there is much that can be done now to prevent the problem from worsening. The most important action that can be taken is to stop the importation of additional phosphorus into the watershed. At the same time that Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP) and the Lake Okeechobee Protection Plan (LOPP) are being designed to reduce phosphorus inflows to Lake Okeechobee by about 400 tons per year, at a cost nearing a billion dollars or more, an additional 5000 tons of phosphorus are imported to the watershed each year. The benefits from restoration programs will not be sustainable with continued nutrient-loading of the watershed. There are several invasive exotic species within the lake that are major concerns. An integrated strategy of physical and chemical management along with the development of biological controls is necessary to minimize the extent and impact of invasive exotic species. Significant progress has been made on several species, including melaleuca, but a comprehensive program is required to maintain populations at low levels and prevent new species from becoming widespread problems. Torpedo grass is the largest single management concern today, forming thick stands over thousands of acres of wetland habitat. Techniques have been developed to control it, funding is needed to complete that control. A long-term combination of aggressive and wide-ranging programs is necessary to achieve the restoration of Lake Okeechobee. Restoring Lake Okeechobee is a necessary component of restoration and protection for the estuaries and the greater Everglades ecosystem. Current state and federal programs, including the CERP and the LOPP, are important components of these efforts. Additionally, the Governor recently announced a suite of strategies that is renewing and strengthening efforts to restore the lake. Though it is a daunting task, growing public support and additional government commitments are bringing the dream of a restored Lake Okeechobee closer to reality. iii EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Lake Okeechobee is Florida’s premier lake. It is the largest lake in the southeastern United States, an incredible 730 square miles with more than 100,000 acres of wetland habitats. The lake is located in the center of the Everglades ecosystem, a critical link between lakes and rivers to the north and wetlands and bays to the south. The environmental health of the lake has been degraded from decades of management that has placed the wants of some humans above the needs of wildlife and the environment. Drainage and development in South Florida have not only harmed natural environments, but have also wreaked havoc on a lake that could generate tourism revenue in perpetuity, and made clean water a scarce commodity. The long-term fate of Lake Okeechobee may be sealed within the next few years as options for meaningful restoration are either planned and implemented, or permanently foreclosed by ongoing development and pollution within the region. The problems caused by the competing demands placed on the lake cannot be corrected through improved management protocols alone. Additional infrastructure is required to store floodwaters, clean up pollution, and supply water to cities, agriculture, and the environment. The demands of society must be moved away from the lake and towards solutions designed specifically to meet those demands; only then can the lake’s health be restored and its role in a healthy Everglades ecosystem be reestablished. The History of Lake Okeechobee In its pristine condition, Lake Okeechobee was deeper and larger than it is today. Water levels in the lake commonly reached 18 to 21 ft above mean sea level. The area surrounding Lake Okeechobee was a mosaic of habitats including cypress forests, sawgrass prairies, expansive marshes, and custard apple swamps. To the north were dry prairie and pine flatwood uplands, to the south, wetlands of the Everglades. Lake Okeechobee was a part of a diverse landscape that supported Florida’s phenomenal array of wildlife, including the millions of wading birds in South Florida during the late 1800s. The lake’s water levels were forever lowered by a series of major drainage projects started in the 1880s that reduced the lake’s average high level from around 20 feet to a current average in the 16 to 18 foot range. Habitats were cleared for agriculture and cities and a simple muck dike was built along the southern rim of the lake. Many people died during major hurricanes in the 1920s when the muck dike failed. Widespread flooding in the 1940s caused further human suffering. These catastrophes spurred numerous large-scale water management projects that facilitated human settlement, but had severe impacts to the greater Everglades ecosystem. Water management projects included the construction of the Hoover Dike around Lake Okeechobee, the channelization of the Kissimmee River, and the dredging of numerous drainage canals as part of the Central and Southern Florida Project for Flood Control and Other Purposes. This infrastructure, in turn, significantly drained areas north and south of the lake by diverting the lake’s beneficial outflows to the Everglades to the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee Estuaries, where they have caused considerable harm. The water management projects greatly changed Lake Okeechobee itself. The Hoover Dike reduced the lake to a fraction of its original size. A new marsh zone formed inside the boundaries of the Hoover Dike though it was much smaller and less diverse than the original wetland habitats bordering the lake. Water quality in the lake started changing rapidly during the 1950s and 1960s. Nutrient levels in the lake have continually increased creating a eutrophic (nutrient rich) system that is now nitrogen limited rather than phosphorus limited.