PROJECT AREA DESCRIPTION

Location

The IWG project area includes the Florida jurisdiction of the greater Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint (ACF) watershed (Figure 1). Florida counties in the ACF include Calhoun, Franklin, Gadsden, Gulf, Jackson, and Liberty (Figure 2). Although Bay and Washington Counties are included within figure 2, neither has public or private conservation lands within the watershed boundary and are thus not included within the IWG project area. The lands managed by several of the partner agencies, such as Apalachicola National Forest, Tate’s Hell State Forest, and Apalachicola National Estuarine Research Reserve (ANERR), extend outside of the watershed boundary, however, they are included in this document because they are managed as a whole by one agency.

Figure 1. Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint Watershed (larger view)

Biogeophraphical History of Project Area

The Apalachicola River watershed invasive non-native species management plan was produced to help protect the watershed and associated natural communities of Florida’s largest river, the Apalachicola. The confluence of the Chattahoochee and Flint Rivers, north of Jim Woodruff Dam in the City of Chattahoochee, forms the Apalachicola, which then flows uninhibited through the Florida panhandle for 106 miles before emptying into the Gulf of Mexico. Periodic inundation of the surrounding floodplain wetlands is essential for maintaining the largest forest floodplain in Florida, which covers over 112,000 acres (Light et al. 1998). This alluvial river pours freshwater and nutrients into the Apalachicola Bay, one of the most productive bays in the country.

The Apalachicola River region is home to a variety of endemic and rare species, making the region one of the five “biological hotspots” in the continental United States (Stein et al. 2000). For example, the greatest density of reptiles and amphibians of any North American region north of Mexico is found in this watershed (Abell et al. 2000).

Figure 2. Apalachicola Watershed Invasive Species Working Group project area (larger view)

The biodiversity of the watershed is a result of a unique geological history. Clay, sand, silt, and gravel sediments brought down from the lower Appalachian Mountains and Piedmont Plateau were deposited in the region by the Apalachicola River via the Chattahoochee and Flint rivers, resulting in varied soil types throughout the region (Whitney et al. 2004). Periodic rise and fall of ocean levels over millions of years also left deposits of sand and limestone, creating rare geological features. These factors, along with a temperate climate, have fostered a variety of natural communities, including coastal uplands, estuarine, floodplain wetlands, mesic uplands, mesic/wet flatlands, riverine, and xeric uplands (Florida Natural Areas Inventory and Florida Department of Natural Resources 1990).

Existing public and private conservation lands in the watershed help to protect the natural communities and biodiversity of the region. The Apalachicola National Forest, for example, encompasses over 500,000 acres (this total includes lands in the Ocklockonee River drainage), and contains rare natural communities such as wet prairies and pine flatwoods. The acreage of the entire watershed totals over 12 million acres (Bass and Cox 1985), with a total acreage of public and private conservation lands intersecting or surrounded by the watershed boundary amounting to over 1.1 million acres (Florida Natural Areas Inventory 2007).

In order to maintain the natural integrity of the Apalachicola River watershed, the threats posed to the region must be identified, assessed, and managed. One of the greatest and most insidious threats to the watershed is invasive non-native species. The monitoring and management of invasive non-natives will help sustain the natural communities found in the watershed and protect the myriad species that make the Apalachicola region one of the most biologically diverse areas in the United States.