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The  crown jewel and  best known Florida wetland, the Everglades, the famous "River of Grass" which has garnered worldwide attention, acclaim and funding. It's easy to overlook other lesser know, but vitally important wetlands  in Florida-  here are two  located in  Fort Myers and Sanibel.
 
The J.N. 'Ding' Darling National Wildlife Refuge was established in 1945, occupies one-third of Sanibel Island, and is known for both  its birdwatching and being the largest undeveloped mangrove ecosystem in the United States. 
 
The refugee was named after the Pulitzer Prize winning political cartoonist, J.N. "Ding" Darling
whose cartoons greatly influenced  public opinion about conservation issues.  He was appointed as Director of the U.S. Biological Survey by FDR in 1934, the predecessor to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and during his tenure he  started the Federal Duck Stamp Program and vastly increased the acreage of the National Wildlife Refuge System.
The Refuge is part of the larger  "Ding" Darling National Wildlife Refuge Complex,  at almost 8,000 acres, with over 250 species of birds found in its many habitats - ranging from freshwater marshes, Tidal Flats, Sea Grass Beds, upland Hammock,  and its primary attraction, Mangrove forests and swamps.  
 
The Refuge has three types of mangroves, Red, Black and White.  As with many coastal wetland plants, they can be differentiated not only by their physical attributes - color, height, but also by their proximity to the waterline and salinity tolerance.  The littoral or intertidal zone (roughly the land between open water and uplands between high and low tide) is a punishing place to live. Slight graduations in elevation and distance from open water either favor or suppress certain mangrove species.
 
The Red Mangrove (Rhizophora mangle) is the most easily identifiable and distinguished from other species by its reddish prop roots.  The prop root system can  suspend the tree trunk above the sand upwards of a meter, stabilizing both the tree, and fortifying the shoreline by trapping sand and providing a warren of shelters for small aquatic wildlife.
 
 the Black Mangrove finds its home, slightly inshore and upland  -not in standing water, but in the more saline, oxygen free soil in the tidal zone.  The Black Mangrove, so named for its scaly black bark, spreads its roots horizontally. As with many plants in this unforgiving environment with waterlogged soils and punishing tidal action, the Black Mangrove has adapted by sending pneumatophores, or breathing roots, above the soil surface to exchange oxygen.  The Black mangrove finds its home progressively inland into brackish water, and generally grows less than 50 feet tall.
 
Furthest inland, above the high tide line - is the White Mangrove. Smallest in stature with no reliably visible adaptations for  hydric soil,  however, it can grow either pneumatophores or prop roots roots if needed to cope with flooding.  Most often found as a shrub or small tree, it can approach 50 feet in height in ideal circumstances. 
 
The best part - Its a dirt cheap visit - $5 per car or $1 per pedestrian and is open everyday but Fridays. Start your tour with a free  stop at Visitor and Education center to see what the refuge has to offer. The Refuge Complex headquarters is located at 1 Wildlife Drive, Sanibel, FL 33957.
 
Also worthy of mention, is the Audubon Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, approximately 30 miles from the 'Ding' Darling National Wildlife Refuge. The Sanctuary offers a 2.5-mile boardwalk through multiple wetland types including marsh,  wet prairie and the main attraction, the  largest old growth Bald Cypress forest in North America. 

 

The discovery of the Corkscrew "Super" Ghost Orchid (Dendrophylax lindenii) in 2007 also makes this a worthwhile trip during the summer, when the orchard blooms. In certain years, it has produced as many as 40 flowers annually.  This orchid has drawn attention from around the world as it is the largest ghost orchid discovered so far.  

 

Additional Information:

Bird Checklist - J.N. 'Ding' Darling National Wildlife Refuge

Audubon Ghost Orchard -Visit

Black Mangrove

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Category: Wetlands

It's been a while since ive posted.....too long..

 

 

 

 

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Category: Miscellaneous

Content management systems, Wordpress, Joomla and Drupal offer many features, frequently too many. However I've yet to find an easy way to create footnotes for citations without using either purpose built plugin, or either one with too much additional functionality, as a Latex editor would offer.

The middle ground is to use HTML superscript and anchors. While I wouldn't want to create pages of footnotes content in this fashion, it is useful for the occasional page which requires citations.

This page, Footnotes in HTML describes it better than I can, but the basics are below.

The HTML comprises of the text with a superscript link, and a corresponding anchor with the reference. Easy enough once you get the hang of it, and no plug is needed.

 

The link in the body of the text:

Text with a footnote.<sup><a href="#fn1" id="ref1">1</a></sup>

and the corresponding footnote at the bottom of the page:

<sup id="fn1">1. [Text of footnote 1]<a href="#ref1" title="Jump back to footnote 1 in the text.">↩</a></sup>

Wetlands in the News

21 January 2025