Six Mile Cypress Slough

Gator Lake

The Six Mile Cypress Slough is a conservation land that has man made lakes. The picture to the left shows the largest man made lake within the conservation grounds. The water seen in the picture is rainwater that has collected into the lake. At one point all of the land in this area were woods, though within the last twenty or so years there has been a major build up of the areas around the slough. With the build up many people do not remember what it was like in the area and some of the younger generations have never seen it as anything other than an area with pavement, stop lights, or stores. This knowledge extinction greatly affects how we all treat the wetlands, and without teaching the youngest and future generations there could be more development on wetlands destroying the ecosystems that do so much to help us. 

Yellow Rat Snake inside of a hole in a tree

Six Mile Cypress is home to many species and the biodiversity of the area itself is amazing without including the animals that live in it. However, the animals that live in it also work to control the population of other species that live there as well. Yellow rat snakes help to control the population of other animals within the cypress slough. They’ll eat rats, mice, some birds, but also bird eggs. When they eat birds and bird eggs they are helping to control the bird population but also help to keep the fish population growing as some of the eggs they may eat could be those of water birds. The slough has luckily not been a victim of habitat fragmentation. Coming up to Six Mile Cypress Parkway there is a bridge that allows water, animals and foliage to pass under. This allows the water to continue on its way out to the rivers and ocean, while also allowing animals to breed in different gene pools so that they do not breed with their relatives, much like the panther population once Alligator Alley was built and cut off the Everglades from the rest of Florida.