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Section 2 Existing Conditions/Affected Environment

EAA Storage Reservoirs Revised Draft PIR and EIS February 2006

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2.11.1 Lake Okeechobee

Even with habitat fragmentation and degraded ecological communities, Lake

Okeechobee provides habitat for a diversity of wildlife including federally and

state listed plants and wildlife. Species covered in this sub-section include only

those species occurring within or using the lake’s open water habitat, SAV, or

fringing littoral marshes, rather than the entire watershed.

The lake and its associated wetlands provide habitat for federally protected

species including the bald eagle, wood stork, snail kite, West Indian manatee,

American alligator, and the Okeechobee gourd. Bald eagle nests are found along

or near Lake Okeechobee. The wood stork uses a variety of wetlands to forage

for small invertebrates that are found concentrated in receding water levels.

Snail kites prey exclusively on apple snails that have been historically abundant

in and around the Lake Okeechobee and its marshes. Portions of the lake and

surrounding areas are designated as critical habitat. The West Indian manatee

can access the lake from either the east or west through either the

Caloosahatchee River or the St. Lucie Canal. The Okeechobee gourd occurs in

shrubby locations along the southern shore of the lake.

2.11.2 Northern Estuaries

Many of the protected species known from the EAA or Lake Okeechobee also

occur in the northern estuaries. These include various wading birds (including

the federally endangered wood stork), American alligator, West Indian manatee,

and bald eagle. Manatees are an opportunistic herbivore that feed on a wide

variety of plants including vallisneria, an important food resource in the

Caloosahatchee Estuary. They are also known from the St. Lucie Estuary and

venture up river through the locks of the St. Lucie Canal.

Species that occur occasionally in both estuaries include five species of sea

turtles, two species of fish, and Johnson’s seagrass. The turtle species are

protected under both state and federal law and include the Atlantic loggerhead,

Atlantic green turtle, leatherback turtle, Atlantic hawksbill, and Kemp’s ridley

turtle. The two protected fish species that occur are the opossum pipefish and

smalltooth sawfish.

2.11.3 Everglades Agricultural Area

Although the EAA is predominantly agricultural land, with remnant pockets of

natural wetlands and a network of canals, it provides habitat for the following

federally-listed species: Florida panther, West Indian manatee, wood stork, bald

eagle, American alligator, and Eastern indigo snake. Although Audubon’s

crested caracaras have not been documented within the EAA Project footprint,

individuals may pass through, forage, or even nest in the area periodically.

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