Ecology Honors Students Visit the FAU Kissimmee River Field Lab

Ecology Honors students investigated the water quality, vegetation, fishes, invertebrates, and bird species at the FAU Kissimmee River Field Lab. Students spent the day boating, exploring, and learning about the largest river restoration project in the world. The Kissimmee River and floodplain wetlands once stretched over 100 miles long and 3 miles wide to serve as the headwaters of Lake Okeechobee and the Everglades system, together known as the KOE system. The river was dredged and straightened into a canal and water control structures in the 1960s and 1970s which decimated native plants and wildlife, as well as wetland habitat, water quality, and water flow. The multi-decadal project restored 44 square miles to reestablish the meandering river and wetlands of the Kissimmee River. The students collected data to document the potential return of native terrestrial and aquatic species to the newly restored system.