Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge

Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge
IUCN category IV (habitat/species management area)
Observation Platform overlooking the C-7 compartment on the Marsh Trail
Map of Florida
Location	Palm Beach County, Florida, United States
Nearest city	Boynton Beach, Florida
Coordinates	26°30′30″N 80°20′00″W / 26.50833°N 80.33333°W / 26.50833; -80.33333Coordinates: 26°30′30″N 80°20′00″W / 26.50833°N 80.33333°W / 26.50833; -80.33333
Area	147,392 acres (596.47 km²)
Established	1951 (1951)
Governing body	U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Website	Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge

The Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge is a 147,392-acre (596.47 km²) wildlife sanctuary is located west of Boynton Beach, in Palm Beach County, Florida. It includes the most northern remnant of the historic Everglades wetland ecosystem.

Overview

The Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge is located seven miles west of the city of Boynton Beach in Palm Beach County, Florida. The refuge was established in 1951 under the authority of the Migratory Bird Conservation Act and is managed through a license agreement between the South Florida Water Management District and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. In total, the refuge includes 145,800 acres of northern Everglades habitat. The refuge contains one of three water conservation areas (WCAs) in south Florida and is maintained to provide water storage and flood control, as well as habitat for native fish and wildlife populations. Water is regulated by a series of pumps, canals, water control structures, and levees built by the Army Corps of Engineers. These freshwater storage areas and part of the Everglades National Park are all that remain of the original Everglades.^[1]

Controversy

In 2016, the South Florida Water Management District announced that it was providing notice to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that it would cancel the lease of the property to the federal government for failure to control invasive species.^[2] SFWMD is believed to have created the invasive species problem in the first place.^[3] It is believed that this approach is being taken to allow for polluted water in excess of 10 ppb phosphorus to be stored on the land.^[4]

Management Activities

According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the refuge's management activities focus primarily on wetland habitat restoration, particularly through water quality and hydropattern improvement, and exotic plant control. A large portion of refuge management effort is spent controlling exotic and invasive plants and pursuing funding to eliminate these threats. The three most problematic exotic plant species on the refuge are melaleuca, Brazilian pepper, and Old World climbing fern (lygodium). The refuge is working together with many other federal agencies and state agencies regionally in South Florida to address these issues and restore Everglades habitat for the benefit of wildlife.^[5]

Features

Loxahatchee NWR is one of over 500 national wildlife refuges located throughout the United States and administered by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. The refuge not only preserves and protects native wildlife, but also offers compatible public recreational and educational opportunities including walking trails, a canoe trail, bike trail, boat ramps, fishing platform, observation towers, butterfly garden, and a visitor center. It is home to American alligator, the endangered snail kite, coastal plain cooter and Florida softshell turtles, and as many as 257 species of birds. As such, it has been designated a 'gateway site' for the Great Florida Birding Trail.

Not quite all of the 147,392-acre (596.47 km²) refuge is Everglades marsh habitat. A 400-acre (1.6 km²) bald cypress swamp is the largest remaining remnant of a cypress strand that once separated the pine flatwoods in the east from the Everglades marshes. A boardwalk into the swamp gives the visitor a chance for an up-close swamp experience without getting their feet wet. Hurricane Wilma damaged the refuge in October 2005, and the administration building was condemned.

Boardwalk through the Loxahatchee swamp.

Conservation

Despite all of its treasures, the refuge is in serious danger of quickly becoming an exclusive haven for invasive plants, especially the broad-leaved paper bark (Melaleuca quinquenervia) and Old World climbing fern (Lygodium microphyllum), both rapidly growing non-native species, which are quickly overgrowing the native flora and are likely not compatible with the native wildlife.

References

↑ "U.S. Fish and Wildlife -- Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge -- Overview".
↑ "SFWMD Governing Board Adopts Statement of Principles". SWMD. South Florida Water Management District.
↑ Miller, Kimberly. "Water managers ready to keep wildlife refuge open even if feds evicted".
↑ Smart, Gil. "Gil Smart: Loxahatchee battle a dispute over money...and maybe more". TCPalm. TCPalm.
↑ "U.S. Fish and Wildlife -- Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge -- Overview".

This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service.

External links

Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge
Friends of Loxahatchee
The Arthur R. Marshall Foundation
The Everglades Trail
Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge Passes & Permits - official pass / permit purchase site

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge.

Everglades
Geography and ecology Indigenous people Draining and development Restoration Everglades National Park Invasive species
People	Guy Bradley Ernest F. Coe Hamilton Disston Marjory Stoneman Douglas Arthur R. Marshall Garald G. Parker
Protected areas	Big Cypress National Preserve Biscayne National Park Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary Fakahatchee Strand Preserve State Park Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge
Bodies of water	Biscayne Bay Caloosahatchee River Fisheating Creek Florida Bay Indian River Lagoon Kissimmee River Lake Okeechobee Lake Worth Lagoon Shark River St. Lucie River Taylor Slough
See also	Alligator Alley Biscayne Aquifer Burmese pythons in Florida Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan Environmental Impact of the Big Cypress Swamp Jetport Everglades Foundation Friends of the Everglades Homestead Air Force Base South Florida Water Management District Tamiami Trail U.S. Sugar
Book:Everglades Category:Everglades Portal:Florida

Protected areas of Florida

Federal

National Parks	Biscayne Dry Tortugas Everglades
National Memorials	De Soto Fort Caroline
National Monuments	Castillo de San Marcos Fort Matanzas
National Seashores	Canaveral Gulf Islands
National Forests	Apalachicola Choctawhatchee Ocala Osceola
National Wildlife Refuges	Archie Carr Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee Caloosahatchee Cedar Keys Chassahowitzka Crocodile Lake Crystal River Egmont Key Florida Panther Great White Heron Hobe Sound Island Bay J.N. 'Ding' Darling Key West Lake Wales Ridge Lake Woodruff Lower Suwannee Matlacha Pass Merritt Island National Key Deer Okefenokee Passage Key Pelican Island Pine Island Pinellas St. Johns St. Marks St. Vincent Ten Thousand Islands
Other National Protected Areas	Big Cypress National Preserve Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve
National Estuarine Research Reserves and National Marine Sanctuaries	Apalachicola NERR Florida Keys NMS Guana Tolomato Matanzas NERR Rookery Bay NERR

State

Parks	Amelia Island Anastasia Avalon Bahia Honda Bald Point Big Lagoon Big Shoals Big Talbot Island Bill Baggs Cape Florida Bulow Creek Caladesi Island Camp Helen Cayo Costa Collier-Seminole Colt Creek Curry Hammock Delnor-Wiggins Pass Devil's Millhopper Don Pedro Island Eden Gardens Egmont Key Falling Waters Faver-Dykes Florida Caverns Fort Clinch Fort Cooper Fort George Island Fort Pierce Inlet Fred Gannon Rocky Bayou Gasparilla Island George Crady Bridge Fishing Pier Grayton Beach Henderson Beach Highlands Hammock Honeymoon Island Hontoon Island Hugh Taylor Birch John D. MacArthur Beach John Pennekamp Coral Reef John U. Lloyd Beach Jonathan Dickinson Little Talbot Island Long Key Lovers Key Mike Roess Gold Head Branch North Peninsula O'Leno Oscar Scherer Perdido Key Sebastian Inlet Skyway Fishing Pier St. Andrews St. George Island St. Joseph Peninsula Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center Stump Pass Beach Tomoka Torreya Windley Key Fossil Reef
Botanical Garden Parks	Alfred B. Maclay Gardens Dagny Johnson Key Largo Hammock Lignumvitae Key Ravine Gardens Washington Oaks
Lakes, Rivers and Springs Parks	Deer Lake Lake Griffin Lake June in Winter Scrub Lake Kissimmee Lake Louisa Lake Manatee Lake Talquin Alafia River Blackwater River Dunns Creek Econfina River Hillsborough River Little Manatee River Myakka River Ochlockonee River Oleta River Suwannee River Blue Spring De Leon Springs Edward Ball Wakulla Springs Fanning Springs Homosassa Springs Wildlife Ichetucknee Springs Lafayette Blue Springs Madison Blue Spring Manatee Springs Ponce de Leon Springs Rainbow Springs Silver Springs Three Rivers Troy Springs Weeki Wachee Springs Wekiwa Springs Werner-Boyce Salt Springs Wes Skiles Peacock Springs
Recreation Areas	Dead Lakes Gamble Rogers Memorial
Museums, Historic sites, and Archaeological sites	Cedar Key Museum Constitution Convention Museum Forest Capital Museum John Gorrie Museum Ybor City Museum The Barnacle Bulow Plantation Ruins Dade Battlefield DeSoto Site Dudley Farm Fort Foster Fort Mose Fort Zachary Taylor Gamble Plantation Indian Key Koreshan Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Homestead Natural Bridge Battlefield Olustee Battlefield Orman House Paynes Creek San Marcos de Apalache Yellow Bluff Fort Yulee Sugar Mill Ruins Crystal River Lake Jackson Mounds Letchworth-Love Mounds Madira Bickel Mound Mound Key San Pedro Underwater
Preserves and Reserves	Allen David Broussard Catfish Creek Anclote Key Cedar Key Scrub Charlotte Harbor Crystal River Estero Bay Fakahatchee Strand Hal Scott Kissimmee Prairie Lower Wekiva River Paynes Prairie Pumpkin Hill Creek River Rise Rock Springs Run San Felasco Hammock Savannas Seabranch St. Lucie Inlet St. Sebastian River Tarkiln Bayou Topsail Hill Tosohatchee Waccasassa Bay Yellow River Marsh
State Trails	Blackwater Heritage Florida Keys Overseas Heritage Gainesville-Hawthorne General James A. Van Fleet Marjorie Harris Carr Cross Florida Greenway Nature Coast Palatka-Lake Butler Palatka-to-St. Augustine Tallahassee-St. Marks Historic Railroad Withlacoochee
State Forests	Belmore Big Shoals Blackwater River Carl Duval Moore Cary Charles H. Bronson Cottage Hill Deep Creek Etoniah Creek Four Creeks Goethe Holopaw Indian Lake Jennings John M. Bethea Lake George Lake Talquin Lake Wales Ridge Little Big Econ Matanzas Myakka Okaloacoochee Slough Picayune Strand Pine Log Point Washington Ralph E. Simmons Memorial Ross Prairie Seminole Tate's Hell Tiger Bay Twin Rivers Wakulla Watson Island Welaka Withlacoochee

Other

Nature centers	List of nature centers in Florida

Florida Department of Environmental Protection

National Wildlife Refuges of the United States

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