First, an alligator wallowed out room for a nest. Then a daring turtle moved in. And a deer even stopped by to nose around the growing Everglades oasis.
This multi-species time share is a tree island cultivated by scientists as part of a 10-year Everglades restoration experiment, not far from neighborhoods west of Boynton Beach.
It's ability to attract these animals — along with wading birds, otter, bobcat, and rabbits — is an indication that the lessons learned there can help guide the multibillion-dollar, taxpayer-funded effort to protect what remains of the Everglades.
"When [animals] start showing up, that's an indication of success," said Eric Cline, the lead scientist overseeing the South Florida Water Management District's restoration testing area. "I feel like we are right on the verge of really making some important discoveries."
Tree islands are shared feeding and breeding grounds that used to be much more common in the Everglades.
Now scientists at the Loxahatchee Impoundment Landscape Assessment area, known as LILA, are creating new tree islands in the hopes of learning how to grow more or at least protect those that remain in the Everglades.
Decades of draining the land to make way for South Florida farming and development shrunk the Everglades to half its size. Pollution along with the strained water supply threatens to finish off what remains of the Everglades' tree islands, sawgrass marshes and other habitat.
Restoration work — slowed by funding delays, design changes and political fights — involves building stormwater storage and treatment areas and other ongoing pollution controls. The goal is to protect the Everglades' fading wildlife habitat that also serves as South Florida's supplemental water supply.
Help for that restoration work is coming from the Loxahatchee Impoundment Landscape Assessment area. That tree islands testing ground is located on 80 acres next to the Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge that stretches across western Palm Beach County.
The Loxahatchee Impoundment Landscape Assessment area, launched in 2003, is a self-contained model of the Everglades. There, South Florida Water Management District scientists as well as researchers from universities and other agencies are recreating Everglades tree islands and sloughs and testing the effects of differing water levels and flow rates.
The idea is to figure out how to best restore the hydrology of a region where water once naturally overlapped Lake Okeechobee's southern shores and flowed in shallow sheets all the way to Florida Bay.
At the experimental area, scientists can test the effects of differing volumes of water on the tree islands, fish and wading birds. Tests show how far and how fast water and the sediment and pollutants it can carry spread through testing area.
The findings are expected to help guide water management decisions as levees are removed and other restoration advancements are made to get more water flowing south to the Everglades.
We "do experiments to try and understand what is going to happen in the Everglades," said Terrie Bates, the South Florida Water Management District's director of water resources.
Water levels and flow rates in the testing area are controlled by pumps in a recirculating water system that creates different conditions on typical Everglades wildlife habitat.
Scientists are studying how differing water levels and flow rates affect the growth and survival of tree islands, as well as studying the effects on fish and crayfish movements. They also monitor how different water conditions affect wading bird foraging.
Wading birds have long been drawn to the experimental area's tree islands. Apple snails lay their eggs on the vegetation rising out of the water, delivering the next generation of slimy delicacy that is the staple diet of the endangered Everglades snail kites.
"You can see how the water flows around the island and how the islands form over time," said Melissa Martin, ecologist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service who works in the Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge. "It's a really special project. … There is some great science come out of them."
Constructing and operating the area has cost the public about $6 million since 2004, according to the water management district. Florida has already spent more than $2 billion on Everglades restoration, with decades of work still to go.
While the restoration efforts continue, some parts of the Everglades have already lost 90 percent of their tree islands, robbing animals of high-ground needed to survive floods as well as the territory many need to feed and reproduce.
Recreating the old Everglades water flows are key to protecting the tree islands that remain and, potentially, creating new ones. Cline said more of the answers about how to make that happen are coming from their experiments.
The animals photographed by hidden research cameras at the recreated tree islands west of Boynton Beach are seen as signs of hope for Everglades restoration.
"Almost every species of animal you would find in the Everglades has part of its life cycle tied to tree islands," Cline said. "If we have healthy [animal] populations that are sustaining themselves, we know that we are doing something right."
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