Avid birder, citizen scientist and Audubon supporter Pat Leary from Fernandina Beach submits his nomination for Florida's Special Places. This is our first nominee of one of our state's naturally magnificent and ecologically important aquatic preserves:
For most of Florida’s history its abundant wetlands were considered wastelands – inhospitable terrain requiring obliteration or radical conversion to serve any useful purpose or design. The Everglades is the most evident and familiar example of this destructive mentality, but no region of the state escaped some loss or conversion of their natural wetlands. Salt marshes were assaulted along the Atlantic coast and, misguided efforts to control mosquitoes by draining marshes around Merritt Island, lead to the extinction of the Dusky Seaside Sparrow.
Fortunately, cultural values evolved and the value and function of wetlands is now understood and appreciated by most land managers and agencies. Perceptions of salt marshes witnessed an about face and ultimately, measures were adopted to protect and conserve these remarkably productive ecosystems. In recent decades, vast areas of marsh and their integral watercourses have been designated as regional “aquatic preserves”.
In Florida’s Northeast region, the state’s largest expanse of marshes is managed as the: Nassau River-St. Johns River and Ft. Clinch State Park Aquatic Preserves. Despite the exclusion of some contiguous marsh in Nassau County (due to political objections) these preserves encompass some 66,000 acres of salt marsh, associated waterways and near ocean waters.
The 9000 acre Ft. Clinch Preserve was established as an aesthetic component to enhance the adjoining state park, while the 57,000 acre Nassau/St. Johns River Preserve was established for its outstanding biological significance.
Approaching the NE coast on damp still evenings, visitors first detect the fecund ecosystem through their nostrils as a rich and pungent aroma of decomposing vegetation. This sensory impression offers keen insight into the key function of the marsh as a saline caldron of thriving and decaying flora and fauna. Sometimes described as a “drowned prairie”, the vast salt marsh if a multitasked ecosystem that mimics a cardio vascular system by rhythmically pumping life-bearing fluids through a network of “arterial” watercourses. Semi-diurnal tides provide a pulse and surge that transports and mixes a myriad of life forms between ocean waters and fresh water drainages. Depending on species and life cycle, some components migrate from the ocean into the marsh while others take the opposite route and marsh-dependent life forms range from microscopic plankton to gargantuan whales in the near shore waters. The NE region’s preserves support a host of state and federally listed species including: 1 fish, 7 reptiles, 16 birds, and 3 mammal species.
Due to their vastness, remoteness, radical tidal fluctuations and maze of watercourses, the Preserve’s marshes conceal their richness and bounty from land-bound visitors. Some form of vessel is required to enter this paradoxical landscape that alternates between flooded grassland and exposed bottomlands. Habitats that attract cruising porpoises, finfish and shrimp on flooding tides go absolutely dry six hours later and become a dining area for stalking waders and probing shorebirds.
The marshes are a living stage with endless acts that merge into one another with the subtle change of seasons but with no real beginning or end. American White Pelicans arrive in October to join resident Brown Pelicans and remain until April when Rosette Spoonbills arrive from the lower peninsular to add color to the local scene until the pelicans return again in fall. Resident Clapper Rails remain year round but see their numbers surge with migrant rail populations in fall and winter. Shorebird species from the mid-continent to arctic shores stop-over for a few days or entire seasons before renewing their hemisphere-spanning journeys.
