Because it only happens once about every 7 years …
And I’m not talking about locusts, or in this case the Everglades equivalent – the lubbers (although come to mention it, they are cyclical too.)
No, I’m talking about Shark River Slough going dry.
This marks Shark River Sloughs lowest April in over 15 years – going back to 1991 to be exact -- as measured at Everglades National Park's P33 monitoring station.
It’s the preceding year, however, (1990) that stands out as the contemporary drought of record, going all the way back to the mid 1960s. That’s the year that Shark River Slough went dry in February.
Shark River Slough’s current level is about a foot lower than the 15-year late April average, and a foot lower than late April of last year.
Compare that the spring flood of record – 1995 – when Shark River Slough was brimming in late April almost 2 feet higher that its current level.
That’s a bit of a shocker because as late as this October Shark River Slough levels were climbing high up the wetland ladder. The difference maker of course has been a dry winter, and now a dry spring.
That has me wondering what such a record dry down means for the lubbers?
Could this be their year too?
You never quite know in the Everglades.
13 comments:
I didn't realize it was so dry down there in Florida. I hope you get some rain soon.
Well Bob---I don't think George has been reading your recent blogs, has he????? ha ha (I'll have to scold him for this!!!!)
Keep us posted because this may be the year!!!!
Betsy
I wish you a lot of rain, at least to make the river comfortably full and I also hope that the lubbers stay away. Thanks for sharing and for your visit! Have a great day!
I never knew about lubbers before. The Everglades have so much to contend with and we haven't helped it either. I'm glade we are now doing so much to try and undo the destruction we have caused in the past. Thanks for your wonderful work, Robert...
For a minute there, I thought you were disparaging the land-lubbers (tourists). ;) You know, you should write a science curriculum for the state. Your teaching style is superb!
Bob,
Whoa! What you are talking about is the drained Everglades, not the natural Everglades.
As I recall, the ecological record -- from the peat, trees, etc. -- does not show a dried-out
natural Everglades.
Thanks for your comments.
The last comment raises an excellent point. Prior to modern human settlement, Shark River Slough rarely if ever went dry -- maybe once every hundred years or so, the result of which gradually, over the past 6000 years built the peat substrate that underlies it.
Shark River Slough is still one of the wettest wetland in south Florida, but the fact that it goes dry every 7-10 years is an artifact of nearby canals, loss or diversion of upstream storage, and land subsidence.
I think it's time for you to do a rain dance! (I've been keepingup with your "Twitter.")
Wrong kind of record to be posting. Lets go for the wet kind.
As a kid, my parents gave me a penny for every 10 lubbers I could catch. Think child labor laws were violated.
That's funny Patti. They are the giants of the grasshopper world, and to the uninitiated, probably quite scary to catch.
Interesting that man-made canals are changing the river level so much. Irrigation canals around here change the natural flow, too.
Hope the lubbers don't come to eat the dried out wetlands.
Funny..in the tropics like here in Hawaii, we get rain..but when it's dry or we go into a drought (it could be as little as a couple weeks) yet it's called nearly a "state of emergency". After only a couple days..it's noticable on the ferns because they require lots of rain! Nice informative post!
Great reading. I was out in Shark River Slough yesterday and it is so shallow, the air boats are getting stuck...and there are quite a lot of Lubbers out there, but not anything epidemic! Unfortunately there was over 5 roadkill alligators due to the wandering alligators and increase in traffic from the fire - too bad!
Christy, thenatureteacher.blogspot.com (a blog about nature classes in south Florida)
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