Southwest Florida’s Watersheds

The importance of Southwest Florida’s local watersheds and the

effect they have on the oceans.

Pollution

Pollution

Oil spills, trashed cars, a variety of plastic products, cans, and other pollution make it into our watershed everyday. These not only hurt our environment as a whole, but hurt the organisms that mistake these items for food or shelter.

Eventually, all this pollution ends up in the

oceans.

FarmingFarmers use pesticides in huge amounts on their crops. These pesticides work their way down stream and end up in Florida’s watersheds. From the watersheds, the pesticides flow into the oceans, killing organisms on the way. All these coastal farmers using pesticides are polluting the oceans and watersheds.

If farmers stopped using pesticides then our watersheds

would be a lot less polluted, which would lessen the pollution

getting into the oceans.

Lake Okeechobee

•Decreasing water quality due to pesticides and other pollutions.

•The water contains phosphorus, which is a by-product of pesticides used by farmers.

•The Department of Environmental Protections created limits to how high the phosphorus level can be in each lake. The limit still allows up to 25 tons of phosphorus to end up in our watersheds.

•Florida’s Wildlife Federations and a couple other environmental groups sued the DEP to change these limits.

Caloosahatchee

Six Mile Cypress SloughField Trip

Trees in the Six Mile Cypress Slough take nutrients out of the water as the it flows downstream into the oceans. If the trees were not there to use up a lot of the nutrients then the nutrients would build up and cause an algae bloom down the river and eventually in the ocean.

Conclusion: The effect on the oceans

Florida’s watersheds play an important role in what water moves into the oceans. If our watersheds are polluted then the oceans will get polluted. Six Mile Cypress Slough is one of the main watersheds in Lee County and it is important to keep it clean. The trees are the main users of all the nutrients in the water, preventing algae blooms from occurring in the oceans. With research and restoration projects, our watersheds can be protected.