(1) Continue to monitor waterbird breeding colonies and extend surveys to additional islands to document losses or movement of colonies. Take special note of damaged structure and how waterbirds use the structures for nesting. Note nest losses caused by storm overwash in areas where tree or shrub nesting waterbirds nested on the ground. Publish recovery results related to storm and renesting in state or regional journal.

(2) Develop an ecological indicator for monitoring mangrove habitat recovery using the Mangrove Cuckoo and Black-whiskered Vireo. Use survey methods that account for detection probabilities (distance sampling or double-observer) on transects or point counts.

(3) Continue to monitor endangered species (e.g., eastern indigo snake, manatee, and Bald Eagle). Publish results of Bald Eagle renesting if it occurs in local or state bird journal.

(4) Continue to monitor sea grass beds for damage (losses after storm in previously damaged area, e.g., propeller damaged areas) and recovery.

(5) Continue cooperative manatee surveys with other agencies and provide information for regional approach to potential impact of major storms on manatee survival within three years post-storm.

(6) Develop a regional approach to monitoring effects of hurricanes on refuges using a species presence-absence method (Nichols and Conroy 1996; Boulinier and others, 1998, Nichols and others, 1998a, 1998b) (e.g., presence-absence, would be beneficial for long-term management and may also provide information on hurricane effects for management on other refuges in areas affected/unaffected during 2004-2005).

Vegetation and Hydrology

(1) Develop an understanding of what the pre-development watershed was like. What was connected where and how did the surface water flow? This is necessary so that managers can accurately judge what has changed. Some of this information is, or will soon be, available based on historic nautical charts (see Fig. 31). Other parts will need to be developed based on new data (see below).

(2) An accurate topographic map of the JNDDNWR should be developed and entered in to the refuges GIS database. The “standard” USGS 7.5 minute Digital Ortho-photo Quarter Quadrangles (DOQQ) do not have the necessary vertical detail. A survey using small footprint airborne LIDAR (LIght Detection And Ranging) could yield the necessary information. This information would be valuable for more than just hydrology, it could aid in vegetation and wildlife work.

(3) All water control structures and culverts on refuge roads should be located, mapped, measured for their size and elevation above mean sea level, and checked to see if they are functional. The data can be spatially referenced and put in GIS.

(4) Three permanent stations should be established to monitor surface water level and conductivity on the refuge. One station should be placed in each impoundment and one in the bay, possibly near the junction of the dike that separates the two. Hypsometric curves need to be developed so that stage levels can be converted to flooding frequencies in the wetlands in the impoundments. Enough data need to be gathered to enable refuge staff to be certain, that when a water control board is set to a given height, they know how much of an impoundment is flooded. The impoundments are more than the open water area, they are wetlands also.

(5) Water levels should also be monitored in the interior freshwater wetlands of the refuge. This could be accomplished with staff gauges (and regular visits by staff) or by carefully choosing one or two sites for more permanent stations.

(6) Continue to monitor and eradicate exotic plants, especially in hurricane damaged areas.

Acknowledgements: We thank Sara McDonald and FWRI for data and graphics on manatee distributions, Judd Kenworthy of NOAA's Center for Coastal Fisheries and Habitat Research and Brad Robbins from Mote Marine Laboratory for reprints and information on seagrasses, and Dennis Krohn for information on the physical attributes of Hurricane Charley. Comments and suggestions from James Wiley, Graham Smith, and an anonymous reviewer improved the manuscript. We especially thank the staff of J. N. “Ding” Darling NWR Complex for excellent assistance in the field and for providing Figures 1-5.