Reply #4: But the restoration of the Kissimmee has been very successful [View All]

[csziggy]

I think you are confusing the original channelization of the Kissimmee and the restoration: At your second link, there is discussion of how about 40% of the river that was straightened has been restored and the improvements in wildlife that have resulted:

* Wading bird populations in the restored river and floodplain region have more than tripled.
* Duck species including fulvous whistling duck, northern pintail, northern shoveler, American wigeon and ring-necked duck have returned to the floodplain after being absent during the 40-plus years that the system was channelized.
* Similarly, several shorebird species including American avocet, black-necked stilt, dowitcher, greater yellowlegs, semipalmated plover, least sandpiper, spotted sandpiper and western sandpiper have also returned to the river and floodplain.
* The number of wading birds, including white ibis, great egret, snowy egret and little blue heron, has increased significantly, in some years more than double the restoration target.
* Dissolved oxygen levels have doubled, which is critical for the long-term survival of fish and other aquatic organisms.
* Largemouth bass and sunfish now comprise 63 percent of the fish community, up from 38 percent.

I grew up to the west of the Kissimmee river basin and we never saw the kinds of birds that have returned to the area since they have changed the river back. Even away from the river, species are returning. I had never seen a fulvous whistling duck, even though I spent many hours horseback riding along waterways in Central Florida. This past winter, I visited a park where I used to trail ride and there were hundreds of those ducks, spoonbills, bald eagles, osprey, brown and white pelicans, and more. I just hope the populations that have adapted back to the freshwater areas will stay healthy to re-population the coastlines when they are clean enough.

One of the reasons the Mississippi delta is not longer growing is the alteration of the river flow to allow ships that need a deep channel to reach New Orleans, but it is much more complicated than just that. Overall, the entire Louisiana coast has had the amount of fresh water reaching the coast decrease due to human use and drought conditions. We cannot do much about the droughts that have been affecting the Southeast in non-hurricane years, but we can try to restore the water flow that has been disrupted. It is the same pattern that has affected the Everglades - people did not understand how ditching and draining marginal swamplands and re-routing the flow of water through them and into the true wetlands would disrupt the entire system.

If the plan for the Mississippi is as effective as the restoration of the Kissimmee, it would be wonderful. But if we lose the plants and ecosystem that hold the ground in place because of the oil, there will be no way to preserve the coasts.