Slough Restoration Project

The Slough Restoration Project, funded in 2020 by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation’s Gulf Environmental Benefit Fund, will restore the connection of three slough systems in the Apalachicola River watershed during times of low flow by removing sediment plugs and reestablishing hydrologic connectivity. The excess sediment is the result of past dredging practices by the Army Corps of Engineers. The multi-year project area includes Douglas Slough (Apalachicola River to the Chipola River), Spiders Cut (Chipola River to the Brothers River), and East River (Apalachicola River to East Bay). Apalachicola Bay depends on the river and its flooded floodplain and floodplain sloughs because they support the bay ecosystem with freshwater, nutrients and detritus.

The project will enhance the hydrologic connectivity of the river to the floodplain and estuary; improve water quality; restore flowing water habitat and lower salinity in East Bay

Ken Jones is the Project Manager and the core project team includes Susan Anderson, Cameron Baxley, Michael Gangloff, Love Kumar, John Tracy, Andrew Gannon, Melissa Samet, Ajay Sharma, Matt Kondolf, Dan Tonsmeire, Scott Walls, and local subcontractors.

Gulf Corps team clearing an access path along Spider’s Cut. Photo by Scott Walls.

Video of detailed project update by project manager Ken Jones (August 2021)

Apalachicola Slough Restoration: Getting More Water to Swamps, Bay, WFSU Ecology Blog (May 18, 2021)

Video overview by project manager Ken Jones (Dec. 2020)

Dr. Michael Gangloff presentation on Freshwater mussels of the lower Apalachicola and Chipola Rivers – a diverse and imperiled fauna (March 2021). 


Slough Restoration Project Blogs

Forest, Floodplain, Fisherman Benefit from Slough Restoration, July 2024

How Water Moves

Notes from the Field, Spring 2022

Notes from the Field, November 2021

Slough Restoration Project Advances

Spring Fish Survey Concludes

Notes from the Field: Tupelo, Transects and Poison Ivy

Core Sampling at Spiders Cut

Surveying Fish in Douglas Slough

Notes from the Field

Mussels and Core Samples

Slough Recon Trip

Collecting Sonar Data for the Slough Restoration Project

Of Downed Trees, Vines and Rising Waters: Report from the Slough Team

Apalachicola Ecosystem Distress Signals (background on anthropogenic changes to the Apalachicola river system)

 

This sand at the entrance of Spider’s Cut blocks flow during low to medium water levels
Clearing fallen trees from Spider’s Cut
The team is doing bathymetry or underwater contours along the sloughs to make a bathymetric map to calculate how much sediment to remove. Photo by Scott Walls.
The fish survey team retrieves fish from a seine net in Douglas Slough, by Doug Alderson
Vegetative survey transect, by John Tracy
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