FWC completes Peace River restoration project with USFWS

Its completion comes after nine months of working to restore two severely eroding riverbanks in southwest Florida.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has completed a nine-month project to restore two severely eroding riverbanks along the Peace River in southwest Florida.

Biologists from the FWC joined the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to complete the project.

The project started when the FWC completed an assessment of the Peace River, which included an evaluation of more than 300 miles of stream.

Through that assessment, the FWC identified locations for several critical projects that showed streambank erosion, including a 450-foot bank just south of Zolfo Springs and a 1,000-foot stretch of riverbank south of Arcadia.

Such erosion and associated channel sedimentation are the leading causes of habitat degradation and biodiversity decline in Florida rivers and streams, making them a priority for the FWC. Erosion and sedimentation are accelerated by changes to flow rates and patterns, often caused by development within the river’s watershed, and loss of shoreline vegetation.