Audubon Meeting Zoom 7/11/2023 with Guest Speaker Dr. Fred Sklar

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TREE ISLANDS OF THE EVERGLADES: A CHRONOLOGY OF DEGRADATION, SCIENCE AND HOPE
Fred Sklar, Ph.d., Director of the Everglades Systems Assessment Section of the South Florida Water Management District
Tree Islands are biodiversity hotspots in the Everglades. Although they represent only 5-7% of the total acreage of the Everglades, they support some 75% of all the species found in the Everglades. They are critical habitats for foraging and/or nesting wood storks, ibis, herons, alligators, amphibians, rare snails and lizards, small mammals (e.g., marsh rabbits), and large mammals such as bobcats, bears and sometimes panther. Each of the Four Stages of Everglades manipulation and degradation, starting in the late nineteenth century, had different impacts on tree islands and the surrounding ridge & slough landscape. As part of Stage 1, it only took four canals and one road to turn the lush vegetation into ash. In this presentation, we will explore the different kinds of tree islands that exist today, we will look at the science that has shed light on their formation and resilience, and we will examine a few of the critical hydrological changes associated with Everglades Restoration that will hopefully enhance tree island recovery.
Fred H. Sklar has a Masters in Oceanography and a Ph.D. in Wetland Ecology. He is currently the Director of the Everglades Systems Assessment Section of the South Florida Water Management District in West Palm Beach. Dr. Sklar has published over 100 articles on the hydrology, soil, plant and animal processes associated with both the degradation and restoration of wetland and coastal ecosystems. He is an Associate Editor for the ESA journal: Frontiers in Ecology; an executive member of the steering committee for the Florida Coastal Ecosystem LTER Program and a RECOVER Executive Committee member for the Restoration of the Everglades. Past memberships include the National Environmental Advisory Board to the Chief of the USACE; the Science and Engineering Advisory Committee for the Louisiana Water Institute of the Gulf; and scientific coordinator for the North Inlet Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) program at USC.