The SAME PAGE  Mark Clark and Mitch Flinchum, Co-Editors

A periodic newsletter to foster communication among team members of the UF/IFAS Lake Okeechobee Protection Program and selected allies in an effort to keep us all on “The Same Page.”

Number 8                                    March 30, 2004            In This Issue                                   

Weather, etc.   Same Page Team Player Award    LOPP Legislative Tour & Luncheon    Laboratory Amendment Study Completed            March 8th – 12th a Busy Week in the Field

WEATHER, etc:  Weather over the past few weeks has been variable.  We have experienced sunny, hot days and rainy cold days.  During this time of the year, it’s always good to be prepared for both hot and cool days in the field.

The old timers say that it won’t get warm in Florida until after Easter, no matter what the date.  With Easter being so late this year, their prediction appears to be holding true.

TEAM PLAYER AWARD for this issue of The Same Page goes to O. Patrick Miller, County Extension Director, UF/Okeechobee County Extension Service.   Pat, unselfishly and without regard for his own safety, conducted a nighttime search and rescue mission that resulted in 3 tired and cold people getting to sleep in motel rooms instead of an open pasture. 

The 3-person, paired-wetland crew decided to work until dark to make up for time lost on their trip down.  A few minutes before dark, when they decided it was time to leave the site, the vehicle battery was dead. 

You the man, Pat! 

They called Mitch, who was already 57 miles toward his home, informing him about the battery and the fact that they didn’t have jumper cables.  Mitch called Pat Miller, who was getting ready to grill his families’ dinner.  Without hesitation, Pat and his wife grabbed jumper cables and went to the team’s assistance. 

 THANKS PAT ! 

Many of you in Gainesville don’t realize how common such “emergencies” are down here.  This isn’t the first time that Pat Miller has come to “our rescue” with a last minute request.  Next time you see Pat tell him how much we appreciate his efforts! 

 

THE LOPP LEGISLATIVE TOUR AND LUNCHEON, hosted by Mary Ann Gosa of the local Farm Bureau on February 24, 2004 was considered a very successful event.  Over 200 community leaders, ranchers, dairymen and politicians were present for the lunch. 

Other notables attending the function included Henry Dean, Director of the South Florida Water Management District, several Florida legislative aids, and Sarah Lynch of the World Wildlife Fund in Washington, DC.  

Seven legislators pose with Commission Bronson while on tour.

 

Joe Joyce, Larry Arrington, Martha Roberts and Cindy Littlejohn represented UF/IFAS administration at the tour and luncheon.  They were able to come down a day early to have a special tour of the UF/IFAS Lake Okeechobee study sites.

Mitch explains the study design and objectives of the BMP sites at Pelaez Ranch. 

LABORATORY AMENDMENT STUDY COMPLETED.  The results of this study were presented the LOPP Interagency Committee in Okeechobee on February 25th.   As usual, Dr. George O’Connor’s presentation was excellent.  

He and his Soil Chemist, Scot Brinton, evaluated 10 materials at various rates to determine which was most effective at controlling P solubility/mobility.   They concluded that Manatee County and Okeechobee County Aluminum Water Treatment Residuals were both effective P sorbers, but were ineffective at controlling P leaching when soluble P is below the zone of amendment incorporation.  They were, however, the best in runoff simulations.

The Manatee County material is recommended for field testing because of abundance and ease of handling.  They also recommended that it should be tested as both surface-applied and soil incorporated at the 2.5% (25 T/A) rate.  A research brief of this study posted on the department website: http://soils.ifas.ufl.edu/research/briefs.html  under the title of “Using Soil Amendments to Reduce Edge-of-Field P Losses.” 

MARCH 8TH THROUGH 12TH – A VERY BUSY WEEK!  Drs. Jim Jawitz, Mike Annable and several graduate students showed up at the Larson-Dixie paired wetland study site to work hard on Monday, March 8th.  The final leveling and setting of the flume on the eastern-most wetland was completed, the weather station was installed, additional wells were constructed and marked, and data was downloaded from wells previously installed. In addition, the enclosure for the second and final flume in the waterway leaving western wetland was constructed.  

Graduate students download subsurface water data to laptop computer.

The graduate students and Dr. Jawitz continued similar activities on the Beaty paired-wetland site on Tuesday, the 9th while Drs. Annable and Shukla located the well sites for the BMP studies at the Pelaez Ranch.  Tuesday evening about 5:00 pm, this crew headed back to Gainesville.

 Environmental Engineer, Dr. Mike Annable, installs well at paired-wetland site.

 

Mark Clark’s paired-wetlands crew, Mr. and Mrs. Charles Campbell and Jeff Smith arrived around 5:30 pm following the departure of the first crew.  They decided to use the remaining light of the day to begin final stages of bathymetric sampling on the wetlands.

Sampling included taking 99 or more sample points per wetland with each point including a soil core, a vegetation sample, identification of dominant vegetation and map coordinates using global positioning.  That was a lot of hard and time-consuming work!  

Concurrent with this sampling, Jeff and Mitch collected bahia grass and floralda for Jeff’s study on water tolerances of selected forage species. 

This crew finished at the Beaty paired-wetland sites on Thursday, March 11th in time to head back to Gainesville before dark.

Friday, March 12th was another industrious day.  Ken Campbell and Sanjay Shukla brought graduate students, technicians and heavy equipment to install wells and other instrumentation at the 3 flumes near the outflow of the BMP study sites on Pelaez and Sons’ Ranch.

Jeff Smith digs bahia sod for forage water tolerance study.  

Agricultural and Biological Engineers install well at the Pelaez BMP site.

 

With the help of the technicians and graduate students, 10 wells were installed on Friday, March 12th.  Also, the three automated flume sites were instrumented to begin taking the first data.  Many of this same crew returned to the Pelaez site on Friday, March  19th to continue installing wells at this and the two other flume sites.

 

Graduate students, Christy Sackfield and Lei Yang get hands-on experience at fabricating wells for sub-surface monitoring.  Few graduate students spend their spring break in such a productive manner.

 Landowners wanted wells marked clearly to prevent damage to cattle, farm machinery and the instrumentation.  Below is a photo of one of the marked wells on the Beaty Ranch.

Well team, that’s all for now.  We’ll keep you informed periodically as things continue to develop. 

 Regards,

 Mark and Mitch