Service Learning/Six Mile Slough

For my service learning hours I volunteered to assist Jeff Key in monitoring water levels throughout Six-Mile Slough in East Fort Myers.  Six-Mile Slough is a shallow body of slowly moving water that expands and contracts seasonally and empties into Estero Bay.  It is a protected preserve that serves as the life source for many native Southwest Florida species.  The slough is actually nine miles long and about a mile wide at its widest point.  The name Six-Mile came from the army base days when convoys of supplies had a hard time crossing the slough…six miles from Fort Myers.  My service learning hours were spent driving to different transects along the slough and marching into the swamp to various wells that were used to measure water depth both above and belowground.  The water was mostly above ground, lucky for me, but I was well prepared from my experiences with the campus “wet walks”.  The purpose of this study is to observe the effects of development around the slough on its water levels, and how that effects the chances of cypress reproduction, however these wells have been in use for various studies for more then two decades.  Measurements are taken every two weeks and Mr. Key has been taking these reading for over four years as part of his masters work, at one transect he pointed out a large retention pond outside a new development.  His readings were normal at the nearby transect one week, two weeks later the same well had no water.  That week they dug and filled the retention pond down the road, by the next week the well was back to its previous levels above ground.  The impact that development can have can be significant if care is not taken.  During the rainy summer months an area like that can replenish itself, but if that same pond were filled during the dry winter the effects could be much more significant and that area of the slough drained dry to early in the dry season displacing and effect wildlife.  This was my first service learning experience and despite trudging through thigh deep cold water all morning I enjoyed it.  I was able to see areas of the slough that the public doesn’t have access to, and even saw hooded mergansers and wood ducks, both of which are very shy of humans.  Things like that are what make these experiences worthwhile, along with the feeling that you’ve helped out in some way.