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The Chipola River Watershed (HUC # 03130012) is located in northwest Florida/southeast Alabama and includes parts of Jackson, Calhoun, Gulf, Washington and Bay Counties in Florida and Geneva and Houston Counties in Alabama. Some of the smaller tributaries that encompass the Chipola River watershed include: Chipola River Dead Lakes, Spring Creek, Muddy Branch and Otter Creek (subunit 020, 050). The Chipola River Watershed traverses over 100 miles through 812,800 acres with 200,000 acres being utilized in crop production, which is vital to the economy of the region and is the primary socio-economic resource. The Chipola River is defined by Northwest Florida Water Management District as a major Florida river. It originates from freshwater springs in the upper watershed and accounts for approximately 20% of the waters to the Apalachicola River, which is the largest river in Florida. High base flow in Chipola River is supported by over 63 known Floridan aquifer springs. The Chipola River is defined by Florida Department of Environmental Protection as an “Outstanding Florida Waterbody”. However, threats have been identified that could degrade water quality, reduce habitat, or negatively impact rare or imperiled species within the Chipola River watershed. In the past three decades, nitrate concentrations in spring waters have increased substantially in northern and central Florida. Jackson Blue, a tributary to the Chipola and first magnitude spring has the second highest concentration of nitrates of any spring in Florida. The Chipola River and its subunits Dead Lakes (WBID 51B), Muddy Branch (WBID 175) and Otter Creek are 303(d) listed due to agricultural non-point source pollution within the watershed area (EPD 305b report). A great diversity of habitats exist within the watershed from xeric upland longleaf pine forests, to bottomland hardwood swamps, freshwater wetlands, numerous natural springs, and meandering creeks with multiple tributaries. These habitats support rich animal communities with several hundred species of fish and wildlife. There are six federally threatened and endangered mussels species that occur within the Chipola River i.e., oval pigtoe, fat three-ridge, Chipola slabshell, Gulf moccasinshell, purple bankclimber, and shinyrayed pocketbook. The Chipola River is also a managed resource for striped bass and the unique shoal bass fishery. Other threatened and endangered species include: Amphibians & reptiles- American alligator, eastern indigo snake and flatwoods salamander; Fish; Gulf sturgeon; Birds; Arctic peregrine falcon, southeastern kestrel, bald eagle, wood stork, red-cockaded woodpecker; Mammals: i.e. Indiana bat and gray bat. Chipola plants listed on the state or federal endangered list include Marianna columbine, sicklepod, and Apalachicola wild indigo. Endangered and threatened species under serious threat from habitat loss, degradation and fragmentation have been documented and a watershed based plan of action should be developed and initiated for their recovery. A Chipola River watershed partnership between the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) and Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) have been initiated since 2006. The purpose was to develop and lead a research-based platform for environmental restoration and conservation. The Service, along with FWC, West Florida RC&D; Council and others developed a Chipola River Watershed Management Plan (CRWMP) to achieve management and conservation of fish and wildlife resources. This proposal is for the next steps toward management activities under the CRWMP.

The Pvt. John Allen National Fish Hatchery, the Baton Rouge Fish and Wildlife Conservation Office and the Gulf Coast Plains/Ozark Landscape Conservation Cooperative (GCPO LCC) are partnering to develop a proactive approach in identifying problem areas and delivering aquatic habitat restoration actions, on the ground, before the problems reach an irresolvable level. This joint effort is already in the full process of data collection and evaluation to develop a spatially explicit model of aquatic habitats found on the St. Catherine Creek National Wildlife Refuge in MS. The full spectrum of biological needs for both of the alligator gar, paddlefish, and other floodplain dependent species are found in this floodplain. The existing project is already developing remote sensing capacity to characterize all aquatic habitats found in this interior floodplain in terms of the biological needs of aquatic species. In addition, data on bathymetry, water quality parameters, flood frequency and duration periods and vegetative types are being collected in order to accurately portray and verify habitat characteristics in the spatial model. Hydro acoustic and side scan imaging will be utilized in order to deliver the highest quality data available to resource managers at the present. Quantitative biological information is necessary to complete the suite of data for the model. Abundance and distribution of selected fish needs to be collected in conjunction with environmental data in order to adequately characterize the importance of various physicochemical conditions to aquatic life. This project will collect those data on St Catherine Creek NMR. This project is currently on-going.

This project consists of a landowner partnership within the Lower Bourbeuse Aquatic Conservation Area (LBACA), Missouri.

Led by The Nature Conservancy, the Pelican Point project created of two 56' oyster reefs at Pelican Point, north of the mouth of Weeks Bay on Mobile Bay to protect the shoreline and restore aquatic habitat.