Southwest Florida Water Management District Healthy Land Equals Healthy Water For grades 6–8 Balancing Water Needs … Protecting Water Resources In order to have a safe and adequate supply of water now and in the future, we must teach our children to be responsible users of Florida’s water resources. This booklet is dedicated to habitats and land resources. Protecting land resources is an effective tool in water management because it helps maintain natural patterns of water storage and movement. Natural areas are important for flood protection, high water quality and recharge of our underground aquifers. This Habitats — Healthy Land Equals Healthy Water booklet outlines the relationship between effective stewardship of the land and our natural water resources. If you would like more information about water resources, contact the Communications Section of the Public Affairs Bureau of the Southwest Florida Water Management District at 1-800-423-1476, ext. 4757, or visit our web site at WaterMatters.org. Youth Education Southwest Florida Water Management District How much do you know about habitats? Try the Contents following quiz to test your habitat knowledge. Then Unit 1 continue with the booklet to learn more about protecting our land resources. Page 1 Good luck! Unit 2 Page 2 Directions: Circle True or False for each sentence. Unit 3 True False 1. A habitat is the place where an animal or plant lives. Page 4 True False 2. A threatened species is a plant or animal that is not likely Unit 4 to become extinct. Page 5 True False 3. Estuaries are some of the most productive habitats on earth. True False 4. Lakes are large bodies of salt water that are natural or constructed. Unit 5 Page 8 True False 5. Springs occur where groundwater comes to the surface of the earth. Unit 6 True False 6. Florida has a high level of biodiversity. True False 7. Wetlands help filter out pollutants. Page 10 True False 8. The Southwest Florida Water Management District’s Green Swamp Wilderness Preserve is not open to the public. True False 9. Purchasing lands is one way the Southwest Florida Water Management District protects water resources. True False 10. Controlled burning is used to reduce animal populations. The Southwest Florida Water Management District (District) does not discriminate on the basis of disability. This nondiscrimination policy involves every aspect of the District’s functions, including access to and participation in the District’s programs and activities. Anyone requiring reasonable accommodation as provided for in the Americans with Disabilities Act should contact the District’s Human Resources Bureau Chief, 2379 Broad St., Brooksville, FL 34604-6899; telephone (352) 796-7211 or 1-800-423-1476 (FL only), ext. 4702; TDD 1-800-231-6103 (FL only); or email [email protected]. Unit 1 their environment. For example, fish have fins to move through water and gills to get oxygen from the water. Changes to habitats can be natural or caused by humans. People sometimes change the land to make it usable for their needs. They grow food, build homes and businesses, or take water from the ground, lakes and rivers for ou can probably rattle off your home address in drinking and other purposes. When these five seconds. But do you know the “address” of changes occur, plants and animals may the living things around you? Plants and animals lose their habitats and be unable to survive. also have an address. It’s called their habitat. Florida has a high level of biological A habitat, like your own home, is the specific diversity or biodiversity. This means that place where living organisms find the things our state contains a wide variety of plants they need to survive, such as food, shelter, water and animals. Ten percent of Florida’s plants and space. and animals can only be found in Florida. Your ecosystem is similar to the town or Some of the reasons for Florida’s diversity city where you live. An ecosystem is a living are: community of plants and animals and their • Its location as a peninsula, which allows relationships with the environment around them. both plant and animal species to migrate Just as you depend on farms, groves, grocery here Florida black bear cub stores and other businesses to supply the things • A wet environment you need, plants and animals depend on their • A long geologic past with natural features environment to supply the things they need, ranging from 2,000 to 25 million years such as water and food. One way to meet these needs is to find a Changes to natural habitats are causing home that includes sunlight, food, water and a Florida to lose some plant and animal species. A suitable climate. species is a group of plants or animals that are Some animals may have different homes at genetically similar and reproduce with each other, different times of the year, just like some of us like humans. do when we go on vacation or visit relatives. But Both natural and human changes to habitats animals don’t change addresses for fun. They have created problems for some species. They move, or migrate, at different times of the year may not have enough space or food to survive. to ensure their needs are always met. No matter These species are labeled “endangered,” where they live, animals must adapt to their “threatened” or “species of special concern.” environments. An endangered species is a plant or animal You may have adapted to where you live. that is in danger of becoming extinct without Most of the clothes in your closet are probably human protection. A threatened species is designed for warm weather, and the things you likely to become endangered in the foreseeable like to do may center around warm weather future unless conservation actions are taken. or the outdoors. Other living things also adapt A species of special concern is a species to the environment in which they live. How? that does not clearly fit into the endangered Plants and animals have certain features that or threatened categories, yet warrants special help them get the food and energy they need, attention. One of the primary causes of extinction protect themselves, and adapt to changes in is habitat loss, or a loss of “homes.” 1. An ecosystem is a living community of plants and animals and their relationships with the environment surrounding them. Find examples of things in newspapers, magazines and on the Internet that you and your family need to exist in your community. For example, you might include articles about agriculture and food production, water resources or housing. 2. Factors that determine where organisms live include sunlight, temperature, food supply and weather. Search newspapers, magazines and the Internet for articles, photos or advertisements that influence your own environment. 3. Florida’s water habitats include oceans, lakes, wetlands, rivers, springs and estuaries. Find habitat-related articles in newspapers, magazines and on the Internet and begin a notebook. List the different impacts to habitats and water resources. 1 Unit 2 rivers and streams flows into and mixes with salt water from the ocean. In estuaries, the fresh river water is blocked from streaming into the open ocean by either Species: Florida surrounding mainland, sandhill crane lorida has five regional agencies responsible peninsulas, barrier Description: Long legged, long necked for protecting water resources. These agencies islands or surrounding salt marshes. This gray-brown bird with are called water management districts. The red on the top of its mixing of fresh and Southwest Florida Water Management District head. (SWFWMD) is responsible for an area that salt water creates a Habitat: Open lands, includes part or all of the following counties: special habitat (or marshy lake margins. Charlotte, Citrus, DeSoto, Hardee, home) that brims with Usually nests in the shallow water of lakes, Hernando, Highlands, Hillsborough, Lake, life of all kinds. The estuary gathers and ponds and open Levy, Manatee, Marion, Pasco, Pinellas, marshes. holds an abundance Polk, Sarasota and Sumter. Status: Threatened, There are 14 major rivers, 1,800 of life-giving nutrients but improving lakes that are 10 acres or larger and from the land and the Problems: Loss of over a million acres of wetlands ocean, making it one habitat within the SWFWMD. Southwest of the most productive Florida is shaped, defined and, in habitats on earth. An many ways, dependent on water. estuary produces more The water habitats or “addresses” in food per acre than the richest farmland. southwest Florida include estuaries, Estuaries come in all shapes and sizes and lakes, wetlands, rivers and springs. go by many different names, often known as Undeveloped and agricultural land areas bays, lagoons, harbors, inlets or sounds. (Not provide groundwater recharge by absorbing all water bodies by those names are estuaries. rainwater, allowing it to seep underground and What makes an estuary is the mixing of fresh replenish the aquifers. These are spongelike and salt water.) Some familiar examples of underground layers of limestone or rock that estuaries include San Francisco Bay, Puget can hold and release water. One of the most Sound, Chesapeake Bay, Boston Harbor and effective ways to protect water resources is to Tampa Bay. The largest estuary within the protect and properly manage these types of SWFWMD is Tampa Bay, with a watershed that lands. These lands store excess rainwater and covers 2,200 square miles. filter out pollutants. An important factor for a healthy estuary The following are water habitats that exist is the amount of fresh water that flows into within the SWFWMD: it. This fresh water determines the salinity, Estuaries are bodies of water along our or amount of salt, in the estuary’s water.