SUB-REGION 1. UPPER CHAIN OF LAKES AND KISSIMMEE RIVER
ECOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS:
o Extensive (2400 square mile) drainage basin with significant warm-water fishery (bass, bluegill, black crappie).
o Important over-wintering waterfowl habitat for the Atlantic and Mississippi Flyways (North American Waterfowl Management Plan (USFWS 1986)).
o Habitat for several threatened and endangered species: bald eagle, snail kite, Audubon's crested caracara, woodstork, and others.
o Sub-region consists of various wetland and upland landscape forms. The landscape mosaic provided detention storage and clean waters. Habitat types included (AH 296, USDA, 1981):
Wetlands: willow and buttonbush wetland shrub, cypress and wetland hardwood forests, broadleaf marsh, maidencane and mixed species wet prairie, and switchgrass
Upland: woody shrubs, pine and oak "sand hill" and "flatwood" forested ecosystems, scrub.
o Wetlands provide habitat for significant wading bird (herons and egrets) populations; uplands provide habitat for deer, feral hogs, bobcat, black bear, turkey, and others.
o Kissimmee wetlands provide water quality improvement for water entering Lake Okeechobee.
ECOLOGICAL RESTORATION OBJECTIVES:
o Restore drained and degraded wetland habitats and preserve adjacent upland habitats to reestablish the integrity of the ecosystem and the historic landscape mosaic and biodiversity.
o Encourage use of native range, wet prairie, and seasonal use of marshlands for dry season pasturage as an alternative to habitat conversion to improved pasture, to reduce rangeland nutrient and biocide loadings, link economic activity to natural system services, and maintain endangered species habitat (Carroll and Banner, 1991).
o Restore and preserve sufficient habitat to support and recover populations of threatened and endangered species.
o Reestablish the Kissimmee River basin as an important potential component of the Atlantic and Mississippi Flyways by restoring carrying capacity for populations of over-wintering waterfowl.
o Restore warm-water fish communities by restoring long-hydroperiod floodplain wetlands and corresponding forage fish and invertebrate secondary production, and river channel spawning and feeding habitats.
o Reestablish wading bird communities by restoring seasonally inundated wetlands and associated forage fish populations and food web.
HYDROLOGICAL RESTORATION OBJECTIVES:
o Reestablish a full, free-flowing drainage basin which delivers water to the ecosystem in a rain-driven manner incorporating the natural dynamic storage of the system as well as seasonal and inter-annual variation.
o Modify the regulation schedule and operating rules of the Upper Chain of lakes (Lakes Cypress, Hatchineha and Kissimmee) to allow lake stages to reach 54 feet NGVD on a seasonal basis to re-flood 18,500 (USFWS 1993) to 23,500 (Carroll and Banner 1991) acres of Upper Chain wetlands.
o Manage these lakes by conducting periodic drawdowns to rejuvenate littoral zone vegetation and to maintain fish spawning habitat, using results of natural system models and historic patterns as a regulation guideline.
o Add 100,000 acre-feet of seasonal water storage in these lakes to reestablish historic flows to the Kissimmee River basin (USACE 1991).
o Ensure minimum discharge at S-65E of 250 cfs (minimum plan, Carroll and Banner 1991); full restoration would guarantee historical flows and variance (Loftin et al. 1990) (about 400 cfs minimum flow), all as measured at structure S-65E.
o For minimum Kissimmee River Valley Ecosystem restoration, execute the currently authorized Plan (USACE 1991): Backfill 22 miles of C-38 and restore meandering riverine character to spread water over the historic floodplain. (N.B.: The spatial extent of this "minimum" plan is based on the area required to encompass some representation of all historical landscape elements (Loftin et al. 1990). It is not at all certain this spatial extent fully qualifies as a minimal ecosystem restoration in the broader context of the Kissimmee Valley as a physiographic element of the South Florida Ecosystem.)
o Increment 1: Include Paradise Run in the plan to restore 11 to 12 additional miles of riverine and floodplain habitat, reflooding 4,100 to 5,000 additional areas of floodplain (Carroll and Banner 1991) and at least partially restoring the historic wetland interface between Lake Okeechobee and the Kissimmee River.
o Increment 2: Include Pools D (6,700 wetland acres) and E (2,721 wetland acres) in the restoration plan to enhance and reestablish wetland ecosystems in Pools D and E with impoundments, flow-through marshes and pool manipulation.
o Increment 3: Add flow-through marshes and pool stage manipulation in Pool A (3,214 acre wetland restoration, not including the 565 acre Rattlesnake Hammock area) to maximize hydrologic restoration of the floodplain (Carroll and Banner 1991).
o Full restoration would restore the critical ecological properties of the natural system mosaic, including the upland detention storage capacity of the historical system throughout the entire Upper Chain of Lakes/Kissimmee River Valley Ecosystem.
o For all restoration plans, it is necessary to simultaneously restore the complex of hydrologic characteristics of the riverine floodplain (Loftin, Toth and Obeysekera 1990:25-27):
(a) Continuous flow with duration and variability characteristics comparable to pre-channelization records
(b) Average flow velocities between 0.8--1.8 ft/sec when flows are contained within channel banks
(c) A stage-discharge relationship that results in overbank flow along most of the floodplain when discharges exceed 1,400--2,000 cfs
(d) Stage recession rates on the floodplain that typically do not exceed 1 foot per month
(e) Stage hydrographs that result in floodplain inundation, frequencies, timing, and duration comparable to pre-channelization hydroperiods, including seasonal and long-term variability characteristics.
o Restore and maintain Class III water quality of drainage from urban and agricultural areas; restore and maintain fishable and swimmable (Class III) waters throughout the Upper Chain and Lower Kissimmee basin.
CRITICAL LINKAGES:
o Re-establish a broad wetland/riverine connection between the Kissimmee River and Lake Okeechobee to integrate these water bodies.
SUCCESS CRITERIA:
o Reflood and fully restore modern historic hydroperiods and landscape mosaic on all areas of the historic Kissimmee River floodplain selected for ecosystem restoration.
o Creation of habitat with carrying capacity for seasonal waterfowl populations 12-fold (12,500 individuals) and wading bird populations 6-fold (18,000 individuals) (USFWS 1993).
o Creation of habitat with carrying capacity to support an increase in recreational fishing-days of 4-fold (91,000 fishing-days) through restoration of historic largemouth bass fishery (USFWS 1993).
o Substantially increase the number of bald eagle nests, which now number 3 (Carroll and Banner 1991); possibly establish a wood stork colony in the cypress forest in the basin; possibly establish a nesting snail kite population in the floodplain (USFWS 1993).
o Restore historic age structure, condition, and density of largemouth bass populations.
o Fishable and swimmable (Class III) waters restored and maintained throughout the Upper Chain of Lakes and the Lower Kissimmee River valley.
o Maximum restoration would rebuild the upland habitat mosaic and biodiversity and restore historic hydrology throughout the Upper Chain and River Valley Ecosystem.
