The Hydrophyte Volume 21 Issue 2

The South Florida Aquatic Plant Management Society

Fl

tS

th

oci

ety

Sou

The Hydrophyte

i

Aq

en

or

da

u a ti

c Plant M a n a

ge

m

Volume 21 Issue 2

Training Module Inside

Highlights Mitigation and Natural Area Maintenance Training Module Florida Wildlife Corner - Limpkin The Benefits of Fish Stocking to your Community Florida Aquatic Plant Identification Chart

www.sfapms.org

page 3

President’s Message

Board Members - 2017

Team SFAPMS,

Officers 2017 Scott Jackson, President

(561) 402-0682

Each year the “big waterway event” in South

Linda Wolonick, Secretary/

(954) 370-0041

Florida is WATER MATTERS DAY! The event is held at Tree Tops Park in Broward County. It attracts families from the tri-county area, water control district personnel, wildlife agencies and educational institutes. This year the attendance was 4,320 people, the largest attendance ever.

Broward County is the host. Our SFAPMS booth included

literature

about

aquatic

plants,

vegetation for shoreline landscapes, current and prior issues of the Hydrophyte. I thank all that

Treasurer Norma Swann, Immediate Past

(334) 741-9393

President Board Members 2017 Rose Bechard-Butman

(954) 519-0317

James Boggs

(352) 521-3538

Hughie Cucurullo

(305) 224-3562

Andy Fuhrman

(954) 382-9766

Lyn Gettys, PhD

(954) 577-6331

worked our exhibit!

H. Dail Laughinghouse IV, Ph.D. (954) 577-6382 Dharmen Setaram

(407) 670-4094

Scott Jackson / President

Michael Shaner

(813) 267-5650

Steven Weinsier

(954) 382-9766

The Francis E. “Chil” Rossbach Scholarship Fund

Funds from the scholarship are used to help defray costs for students taking classes related to the study of aquatic environmental sciences or related areas. The scholarship is open to anyone, and all are encouraged to apply. Applications will be accepted throughout the year and the scholarship awarded when a suitable candidate is found. Money raised by the Society during the year partially goes to fund this scholarship, the intent of which is to promote the study of aquatics.

For an application, please go to www.sfapms.org.

Cover Photo: Steven Weinsier | Allstate Resource Management Inc.

page 4

www.sfapms.org

2017 Calendar of Events Florida Exotic Pest Plant Council Conference April 12-14, 2017 - Melbourne Beach, FL www.fleppc.org Florida Vegetation Management Conference April 19-21, 2017 - Daytona Beach, FL www.myfvma.org UF/IFAS Acquatic Weed Control Short Course May 8-11, 2017 - Coral Springs, FL conference.ifas.ufl.edu/aw SFAPMS Board of Directors Meeting The Hurricane House Thursday, May 25, 2017 www.sfapms.org Florida Lake Management Society Symposium South Seas Island Resort, Captiva, Florida June 6-9, 2017 www.flms.net SFAPMS - General Meeting Green Cay Wetlands and Nature Center Thursday, June 29, 2017 www.sfapms.org Aquatic Plant Management Society July 16-19, 2017 - Daytona Beach, FL www.apms.org SFAPMS - General Meeting Sunset Lakes Community Center Thursday, September 28, 2017 www.sfapms.org

www.sfapms.org

page 5

Training Module - Mitigation and Natural Area Maintenance No continuing education credits are available for this training module, it is purely for training purposes.

page 6

www.sfapms.org

Training Module - Mitigation and Natural Area Maintenance

www.sfapms.org

page 7

Training Module - Mitigation and Natural Area Maintenance

page 8

www.sfapms.org

Training Module - Mitigation and Natural Area Maintenance

www.sfapms.org

page 9

Training Module - Mitigation and Natural Area Maintenance

page 10

www.sfapms.org

Training Module - Mitigation and Natural Area Maintenance

www.sfapms.org

page 11

Training Module - Mitigation and Natural Area Maintenance

page 12

www.sfapms.org

Training Module - Mitigation and Natural Area Maintenance

www.sfapms.org

page 13

Florida Wildlife Corner Limpkin (Aramus guarauna)

The Hydrophyte featured creature is the limpkin, a bird found in wetlands in warm parts of the Americas stretching from here in Florida to as far south as northern Argentina. Limpkins are typically 25-29 inches long and have a wingspan of 40-42 inches. The limpkin is the only member of its taxonomic family Aramidae, and although it resembles ibises and herons in general form, the bird is more closely related to rails and cranes.

The limpkin seems to limp as it walks, giving the bird its name. Limpkins feed on mollusks (almost exclusively apple snails), foraging in shallow water or on floating aquatic plants, such as water lettuce or water hyacinth. The limpkin effortlessly extracts the snails from their shells using its long, slightly curved bill. One of the most unique features of the limpkin is its unmistakable loud, screaming wail, from which its nickname “crying bird� is derived. Limpkin chicks are precocial, leaving the nest on the day they are born to forage for food themselves.

Credit: Field Guide to the Rare Animals of Florida, Florida Natural Areas Inventory Photo Credits: Steve Montgomery, Allstate Resource Management

www.sfapms.org

page 15

Community Outreach Water Matters Day

page 16

www.sfapms.org

The Benefits of Fish Stocking to your Community South Florida provides some of the best freshwater fishing opportunities in the world. Neighborhood sites are now designed to include recreational areas which contain ponds, lakes, wetland areas and stormwater retention basins. Many homeowners’ associations support angler groups and clubs.

Fish stocking programs are offered by many lake management companies. A balanced, healthy fish population can help to absorb nutrients in the water, control noxious weeds, insects and other aquatic pests. They can also provide a recreational asset for residents. Two classes of fish are commonly stocked.

These include sportfish such as largemouth bass, bream and channel fish and biological control agents including mosquito fish (which consume mosquito larvae) and weed-eating triploid grass carp. Sportfish are generally stocked in the spring when a greater variety of fish are available. Biological work fish may be stocked year round.

Advantages of commonly stocked fish species are described as follows: The largemouth bass is the most popular game fish in the United States. The Florida largemouth bass holds many game fish records. Southern bass live an average of seven years longer than their northern brothers. The benefits of bass include their consumption of insects and tadpoles, which help to control frog and toad populations.

Bream grow successfully in small ponds, large lakes and canal systems. They are easily adaptable to almost any climate and are found throughout the United States. They can be supported with commercially available food pellets and often create resident enjoyment at lakeside feeding stations.

Channel catfish eat many types of foods and scavenge lake bottoms. This helps to “clean” the

aquatic ecosystem. Maximum weights attained by channel catfish exceed 25 pounds. Catfish can be caught with baits such as night crawlers and chicken livers.

Triploid grass carp are a sterile, biological weed-eating fish. They must be permitted for stocking by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC). Carp feed on many of the undesirable exotic weeds that have become dominant in many of Florida’s waterways. Hydrilla, an exotic plant rated as the state’s number one nuisance, is on the grass carp’s preferred diet. Stocking rates are determined by the FWC. Mosquitofish have desirable eating habits. They are known to eat their body weight each day in mosquito larvae. Gambusia (mosquitofish) have been introduced throughout the world to aid in the natural control of mosquitoes, especially where malaria and yellow fever are a threat. Gambusia bear their young alive, breeding through the summer.

Healthy fish populations are dependent on a balanced aquatic ecosystem. An important component of the aquatic community is aquatic plants. Native aquatic vegetation provides an essential habitat for fish foods such as insects and invertebrates, and provides shelter for juvenile fish.

South Florida lakes are an often overlooked, valuable resource. Other than providing stormwater retention areas, lakes provide an aesthetic focal point for many communities.

By: Dawn Hill Allstate Resource Management

www.sfapms.org

page 17

Florida Aquatic Plant Identification Overview

Size

Florida has many species of aquatic plants, with some native to the state and others establishing themselves within its boundaries from other places. The recognition of the distinct species of aquatic plants in Florida requires you to observe a number of their characteristics. These include such features as their habitat, leaves and flowers, as well as noting the shapes and sizes of the plants you encounter in and along the state's waters.

Measuring the length and width of the leaves and/or the entire aquatic plant is helpful when trying to identify species. Cattails may grow to be as tall as 9 feet, notes the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Sawgrass (Cladium jamaicense) reaches a similar height, but possesses leaves that can be 4 feet long and ½ inch wide. The feathery leaves of coontail (Ceratophyllum demersum) are only 1 inch long, while the floating American lotus (Nelumbo lutea) leaf may be 3 feet wide.

Habitat Where you find an aquatic plant can aid your identification process. For example, species such as water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) and water lettuce (Pistia stratiotes) will float on the top of ponds, lakes and quiet rivers. Others, such as eelgrass (Vallisneria americana), will be below the surface of the water. A number of aquatic species occur along the shorelines or growing out of the water close to shore. These include cattails (Typha) and arrowhead (Sagittaria latifolia).

Shape The shape of aquatic plants in Florida can help you figure out what they are. This is particularly true of the floating aquatics. Spatterdock (Nuphar advena) features large heart-shaped leaves, while white water lilies (Nymphaea odorata) have a rounded leaf on the surface with what appears to be a large notch taken out. The leaf shape of some emergent aquatic plants also is important to recognizing them. Alligator weed (Alternanthera philoxeroides), for instance, has a long elliptical leaf.

Flowers Many of Florida's aquatic plants produce flowers, some of which are quite distinctive. Such is the case with the water hyacinth, known for its attractive brilliant purple flowers rising on a stalk over the plant.

Water lilies, water lotus and spatterdock all have distinguishing blooms. Knotweeds (Polygonum), an emergent plant, will produce a spike of pink and white flowers that occur on the top of the plant.

Arrangement Observing the leaf arrangement on submerged Florida aquatic plants will give you a good idea of the type of plant growing under the water. Some have a whorled pattern of leaves, growing around the stems, such as southern naiad (Najas guadalupensis) and hydrilla (Hydrilla verticillata).

Others will possess complicated-looking branched stems, such as bladderwort (Utricularia). Still others, including a species known as fanwort (Cabomba), have leaves that grow opposite one another on the plant's stem.

By: GardenGuides.com

page 24

www.sfapms.org

page 26

www.sfapms.org

www.sfapms.org

page 27

page 28

www.sfapms.org

WEBSITES PRINT MARKETING Jodi Miller jodi@interactivedesignandmedia.com www.interactivedesignandmedia.com 561.843.1376

www.sfapms.org

page 29

page 30

www.sfapms.org