Hydrology is simply the flow of water on the land, and it's the reason why Allapattah Flats Wildlife Management Area exists. Back in the 1940s and '50s, Canals and ditches were cut tto speed the flow of stormwater out of Allapattah and into the Indian River Lagoon to make the land better suited for ranching and timber harvesting. As a consequence, the lagoon was fouled with excess nutrients like nitrogen and overloaded with fresh water, which reduced its natural salinity. The way to clean up the lagoon was to create Allapattah WMA and restore the natural mosaic of marshes, wet meadows and flatwoods that was here at the time of Ais and Jeaga tribes inhabited the land. These features slow the flow and allow the land to retain more of the water where it seeps into the ground or evaporates into the atmosphere naturally as it has for centuries prior.
NEXT STOP: A MOSAIC OF FLATWOODS AND MARSHES
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NEXT STOP: A MOSAIC OF FLATWOODS AND MARSHES
RETURN TO THE MAIN PAGE