Kissimmee River Research Paper

Kissimmee River, is one of the most beautiful rivers in the world. The Kissimmee River is often compared to the Nile and the Amazon River. Surrounded with wetlands, marshes, plant vegetation, bald eagles, deer, alligators, fish, and birds. Florida was struck with hurricanes in 1926 and 1928 disturbing Florida 's ecosystem. The Hurricane in 1928 was the second deadliest hurricane in US history, causing massive flooding from the storm surge of Lake Okeechobee with over 2,400 deaths. They did not want this to happen again so congress authorized the US Army Corps of Engineers to build the Herbert Hoover Dike. In 1947 another set of Hurricane’s came through and flooded Florida sparking Congress to act. Congress made the central and southern Florida

Can man fix the damage or will they create a new problem? Some conservationists think bringing back the water ways to its original state all the natural vegetation, aquatic macrophytes, submersed plants that grow mostly under the water surface and root to the bottom sediment will come back quickly. Some of these plants are tape grass, hydrilla, Coontail, bladderwort, sago pondweed, Fanwort, Water milfoils, immersed plants they are rooted to the soils on the bottom. Some of these plants are Cattail, bulrush, water spinach, lake hygrophila, marigold, giant foxtail. Can the reconstruction bring back the natural vegetation in the wetlands that the C38 project destroyed of the water ways? The restoration methodology used is backfilling the C-38 canal to restore the flow and function to the historic river that became stagnant and lifeless due to low oxygen conditions. The river is being restored in 4 construction phases. The Core of Engineers (COE) and the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) work closely using adaptive management strategies to ensure the restoration meets its goals. The SFWMD scientists set up a Performance Evaluation Program that consist of 25 performance measures that evaluate every component of the restoration including – hydrology, water quality, geomorphology, vegetation, and bird, fish, amphibian, reptile and invertebrate communities. Scientists have found that the flora and fauna that disappeared when the river was a canal have returned and are thriving in the newly restored system. Scientific data indicates that restoration is meeting or exceeding the expectations set up at the beginning of the