Brochure on the Choctawhatchee

No field activity to speak of yet, but here's some reading: The Northwest Florida Water Management District (NWFWMD) has an excellent brochure on the Choctawhatchee River watershed here (pdf), which is worth a look.

The mature bottomland forests of the Florida portion of the river are still intact largely because NWFWMD had the foresight to acquire and protect over 57,000 acres, or 85 percent of the Florida portion of the floodplain. No parallel program exists in the Alabama portion of the watershed.

From the NWFWMD Choctawhatchee Page:“The Choctawhatchee River and Bay watershed drains a vast 5,350 square miles, less than half of it in Florida. An alluvial river, it is characterized by a broad floodplain, seasonal flooding and a heavy sediment load. Its old growth bottomland hardwood forests have drawn ornithologists searching for elusive ivory-billed woodpeckers. The fourth longest river in Florida and the third largest in flow, its major tributaries in Florida are Holmes, Wrights, Sandy, Pine Log, Seven Run and Bruce creeks.”