Priority Topics

Watershed Planning & Water Quality
Water is becoming an increasingly rare resource across our state and nation. The availability of fresh water here in Florida and its quality is affected by many factors. Weather patterns influenced by our changing climate, as well as, urban and rural influences (water usage, and over-development causing loss of natural water-sinks and filtration) are having huge impacts on the presence, quality of, and ability to access fresh water. Influence of and control of water flow by the public and by government agencies (South Florida Water Management District) present a challenging problem of balancing human needs with the needs of our natural ecosystems. Another huge factor is the contamination of fresh water supplies by industry, road systems, businesses, and homes. Pollution of waters that feed into the Reserve is becoming a greater concern as areas around us become increasingly urbanized. As managers of the Reserve we must look with a keen and scrutinizing eye throughout our watershed even beyond the Reserve’s boundary. The Stewardship Team is working with the Coastal Training Program and with local partners (NGO’s, private businesses, volunteers, and neighboring government agencies) to maximize our resource management efforts. We are presently collaborating with a local hydrological engineer who is helping us to address general watershed concerns that we have regarding freshwater pulse pollution that we are experiencing here in the reserve. In addition we are also teaming up to develop a standard of “Best Management” practices for developers and contractors within our community regarding the proper construction of eco-friendly water retention areas. After establishing these eco-friendly standards our CTP program will be able to help us get those standards out to the public.

Mapping and Monitoring
All planning, goal setting, and decision making is done within the confines of a landscape level watershed perspective. Management will be utilizing mapping and monitoring as tools to provide answers dealing with a myriad of management issues throughout the Reserve. These issues include but are not confined to:

• Biological Community Status & Change: Mapping & Monitoring will help managers have a clear and up-to-date view of the abundance of and locations of plant communities and their related species composition. This will aid in best-management-practices of all species within the Reserve including: Sea Turtles, Gopher Tortoises, Sea Grasses, Nesting Shore birds, Manatees, Bird Rookeries, American Crocodiles, and many others. Most importantly this baseline mapping data will give us a benchmark of the present status, size, and location of our various community types. This benchmark will give us a baseline to compare future status data to as our plant communities are impacted by climate change and sea-level rise. Rookery Bay is of prime importance for serving as a “canary in the coalmine” as we are in a sub-tropical climate at one of the lowest elevations compared to the rest of the coastal continental United States.
• Prescribed fire: This tool will aid in determining the extent and location of contemporary and previous prescribed fires. Placed in a GIS system the principal outcome from the data developed with this effort will provide resource managers with a clearer understanding of the efficacy of fire in the restoration of key habitats and keystone species on Reserve-managed lands. Maintenance of the mapping and monitoring program will also aid resource managers in understanding the most ecologically correct timing for the application of prescribed fires to continue enhancing Reserve habitats. In addition, many of the fire-dependent uplands that we manage have a strong urban interface. This closeness to urban areas dictates that all prescriptions for fire that we write are heavily influenced by limiting factors associated with being so close to urban interfaced boundaries.
• Exotic Species Control: Mapping & Monitoring will again allow managers to determine the location and extent of areas infested by exotic plants and animals. This in turn will give managers the ability to specifically target the infested areas and enable them to enhance the affect and efficacy of the other tools and techniques at our disposal.
• Cultural and Historic Resources: Mapping & Monitoring are also very important tools for the protection of the Reserve's cultural Resources. Without these tools we would not be able to map and catalog these resources thus enabling anthropologists and archeologists to properly aid us in their preservation and protection.
• Exotic and Invasive species control: Identification of and eradication of exotic and invasive species is paramount to the overall mission of the Resource Stewardship Team. We as managers cannot attempt to restore natural communities and maintain or increase natural biodiversity within the Reserve if exotics remain present. The presence of non-native species throws off the natural balance that must be present within all natural systems in order for them to be healthy.

Prescribed Fire Management:
This is an on-going activity that is crucial to the health of natural systems as fire is itself part of the natural seasonal regime present within healthy biological communities. Fire enhances the viability of natural plant communities by reducing crowded understory and allowing for new growth. New plant growth provides needed food sources for faunal populations that must be healthy and present within all ecosystems. RBNERRS prescribed fire regime also will be enhanced through the application of a GIS-based systems for tracking and monitoring fire activities and the desired habitat outcomes of using fire as a management tool.

Visitor Use of Reserve & Maintenance of Trails and Signage
The Reserve provides a unique natural outdoor area that is enjoyed by many thousands of people each year. Stewardship Team staff provide needed information, education (pamphlets and face-to-face greeting and engagement), protection and monitoring through the on-the-ground presence of our staff and their maintenance of our trail and signage program. This program will enhance public access to Reserve habitats while at the same time ensuring that sensitive habitats and species are not impacted by incompatible public use.

Cultural Resource Protection
As Stewards of all the Reserves different Resources: management is also responsible for identifying locating, mapping and protecting all cultural resources, especially if any sort of construction or other activities occur that might disturb or destroy these resources. Protection of these resources is a year-round concern that must always be considered with everything that we do. Interpretation

Reserve Boundary Protection
 The Reserve Stewardship Management uses many tools to protect the Reserve's boundary. These tools and activities include the establishment of, proper marking of (signage), delineation of, and fencing and gating of our Reserve’s boundary. Other activities include the use of GIS mapping, surveying and monitoring to enhance our abilities to protect all our resources within our Reserve.

Establishment of Vertical Control
The establishment of vertical control within the Reserve is crucial to tying in the National Geodedic Survey first-order elevation markers. In order for data gathered from the Reserve’s SWMP Stations, Tidal Stations, and S.E.T.’s to be comparable to other Estuarine Research Reserves within the National System, everything must be surveyed out from first-order elevation markers. GIS Mapping is here again a critical tool for establishing vertical control. Markers must first be located and mapped and if any old markers are defective or destroyed then that status must be reported. Resource Stewardship staff will be acquiring access to the proper equipment and training staff  enabling us to do the needed surveying to establish vertical control for the Reserve. All this is crucial to enabling the Reserve System to serve as a network of “Sentinel Sites” providing the earliest data possible regarding climate change and sea-level rise.

Habitat Restoration

Habitat restoration is one of the Reserve's most vital responsibilities. Restoration in Rookery Bay Reserve is not a reactionary responsibility undertaken only after obvious ecological impacts become apparent. Restoration is a proactive responsibility to prevent future needs for large-scale restoration efforts through a science-based informed decision-making process, including landscape-level watershed planning and management.

In the past decade the Stewardship Team has restored thousands of acres of impacted wetlands and uplands. Invasive/exotic plants and animals have been some of the most challenging problems and literally thousands of acres of exotics have been removed and many thousands of native plants planted to restore negatively affected areas.
Some restoration projects that we have most recently finished include:

• Tarpon Bay Hydrologic Restoration: The Reserve developed the Tarpon Bay Hydrologic Restoration Project at the request of Isles of Capri residents. The residents approached the Reserve because they believed water quality within Tarpon Bay (about 360 acres of submerged habitat) was degrading and fish populations were declining. Reserve staff determined that degradation of this habitat was likely due to the discontinuance of the natural flushing and tidal transport between Tarpon Bay and Johnson Bay. This occurred when the four islands of Isles of Capri were connected by a road constructed in the 1950’s and 60’s.  The hydrologic restoration of Tarpon Bay, required that water flow be re-established between Tarpon Bay and Johnson Bay where water historically flowed prior to the 1950/60’s. The plan to accomplish this included  dredging out fill in three separate locations between the islands of Isles of Capri, then installing two large box culverts (10’x10’ for manatee passage) and constructing a small bridge. The reestablishment of the natural flushing between the bays will bring the hydrology back, as much as possible, to the natural pre-development conditions. This goal is compatible with the reserve’s primary management plan objective to conserve natural biodiversity in the region. Installation of the first culvert has been completed and significant hydrologic flow has been observed. Monitoring of Tarpon Bay continues through water quality testing and species surveys. Additional funding for the installation of the second culvert is being pursued and we hope to initiate the project for construction of the second culvert in the near future.
• The Shell Island Road Hydrologic Restoration Project: Work Began in April 2009 with a precedent setting cooperative partnership, Rookery Bay Reserve teamed with Collier County and the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service to complete the hydrologic restoration project on Shell Island Road, an unimproved road leading into the Reserve about 2.5 miles south of US 41 off Collier Boulevard. When the road was built in the 1960s the dredge-and-fill construction method disrupted the natural tidal exchange between Henderson Creek and the mangrove forest, degrading surrounding habitat and depriving plant communities of necessary nutrients.  In an effort to restore tidal exchange and freshwater flow to the natural integrity of this wetland environment, the Reserve received grant funds from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service National Coastal Wetlands Conservation Program. Contractors under the supervision of Collier County were hired to install thirteen culverts under the road and fill in the existing roadside ditch to restore tidal exchange and freshwater flow. Contractors also trimmed roadside mangroves in order to complete the restoration work; all of this work is under careful monitoring by Rookery Bay staff and is within the scope of the planned restoration. The anticipated outcomes of this important restoration project include restored water quality on both sides of the road and the reconnection of critical estuarine waters, significantly improving habitat value for all wildlife in the area.
• A Future Planned Restoration Project: A recent project that is now being planned is the restoration of hundreds of acres of dying mangroves. Once again a road that was constructed many years before the Reserve was created is the culprit and has negatively impacted historic tidal flow and exchange thus starting a slow process of death. The Reserve has started talks with a local experienced mangrove restoration scientist, a local NGO the “Mangrove Action Group’, as well as local government officials with the City of Marco Island and Collier County. We are planning to create a Restoration Team made up of university students that will experience true hands-on on-site restoration work while receiving guidance from Reserve staff and other participating advisors. Reserve staff hope through this project to train some experienced restoration scientists who will be ready to tackle future problems in Florida.