Project name: #3004 - Clam Bayou Restoration Project
Project status: Complete
Grant Administrator: Gulf of Mexico Foundation (for NOAA)
Grantee: City of Sanibel
Project location: Sanibel, Florida
Grant period: Jan 1, 2004 - Aug 31, 2004 (extended to Aug 31, 2005)
       June 28, 2005 - requested another extension to August 31, 2006
Grant amount: $50,000
Project leader: Dr. Robert Loflin
                        City of Sanibel
                        800 Dunlop Rd.
                         Sanibel, FL 33957
                        (239) 472-3700 phone

Project Description:
This project will return Clam Bayou to a healthy estuarine system that supports productive marine fisheries and wildlife habitat by restoring an historic tidal connection between Clam Bayou and Pine Island Sound. The project will prevent the repeated artificial impoundment of freshwater which has caused the die-off of 116 acres of mangrove forest, fish kills, and the death of all oyster bars in Clam Bayou. The anticipated result of the project is the complete restoration of the mangrove forest, oyster bars, tidal mudflats, grass beds and fisheries in the bayou. An important component of community driven project is a volunteer mangrove planting effort and an environmental education outreach program.

Project Goals:

• Open a permanent tidal connection between an impounded 470-acre estuary known as Clam Bayou and Pine Island Sound with a culvert and channel under Sanibel-Captiva Road
• Prevent fish kills, mangrove forest, seagrass and oyster bar die-offs in Clam Bayou
• Invite the public to join in the restoration effort by sponsoring volunteer plantings of mangrove seedlings where mangrove forest has been destroyed by impoundment
• Establish long term transects to measure the pre- and post-restoration distribution and density of mangroves, seagrasses, fish communities and oyster reefs