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"Salt Death" of a Wetland
While perception may constitute an internal reality, facts are the basis for rational solutions. Too often issues are postulated rather than proven. In this instance, it had been postulated and presented to an agency that "salt" from a percolation pond had "killed" a wetland. Cause-effect distinctions are important as are communication skills in dealing with such issues. Personalities should be treated to minimize personal or emotional involvement of parties and the facts should be presented to allow them full possible weight.
In this case, wetlands above and below the "salt death" wetland had no vegetation deaths while water quality was essentially the same as that of the wetland with dead trees. Dead vegetation included pine trees, saw palmetto and bay trees which will tolerate saturation but not anoxic inundation. The deaths were clearly due to a water control structure set too high and only that.
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