Thomas E. Lodge at the Anhinga Trail, Everglades National Park
Presentation Outline
- What is the Everglades? -- its boundaries and the abuses of its name.
- The flow pattern that defined the Everglades plant communities.
- How did the flow pattern evolve and why is it disappearing?
- The new science of the Everglades water flow and how to use it in ecosystem restoration.
- Everglades tree islands -- what are they all about and the role of Native Americans.
- Dangers of restoring the Everglades without solving water quality -- phosphorus and the problem of sulfate and mercury.
- Conclusions.
Short Biography
THOMAS E. LODGE, PH.D., CEP
Consulting Ecologist
Thomas E. Lodge Ecological Advisors, Inc.
With over 40 years of environmental consulting experience, Dr. Lodge has been a self-employed ecologist since 2004. He graduated with Departmental Honors in Zoology from Ohio Wesleyan University (1966), and completed his Ph.D. in Biology at the University of Miami (1974) where his dissertation involved the physiological ecology of Everglades’ freshwater fishes. Chemistry, limnology, ecology, and ichthyology were the key areas of his formal education.
Dr. Lodge specializes in wetlands and their restoration. He has conducted projects pertaining to terrestrial, wetland, aquatic, and shallow-marine environments, including considerations for rare, threatened, and endangered species, water quality, and conditions such as noise and toxic contaminants. His experience includes developing and applying wetland assessment methodologies for determining appropriate mitigation for wetland impacts. In the early 1990s he authored a widely copied methodology, the Wetland Quality Index (WQI), which he developed to give a consistent, defensible equivalency between impacts and compensatory mitigation in southern Florida freshwater wetlands where small fishes and wading birds are key food-chain indicators. He regularly uses Florida’s Uniform Mitigation Wetland Method (UMAM) as well as other methodologies where required. The applications of his work have been in federal, state, and local wetland permitting as well as conservation projects. He has considerable experience as an expert witness and is a Certified Environmental Professional (CEP) under the National Association of Environmental Professionals.
He is author of The Everglades Handbook: Understanding the Ecosystem, and is currently preparing it 4th edition. The book has been widely used as an advanced high school and college text, and as well as a guide for lay people to understand the Everglades and its restoration. With a strong interest in wildlife photography, he is a regular speaker on the Everglades.
Consulting Ecologist
Thomas E. Lodge Ecological Advisors, Inc.
With over 40 years of environmental consulting experience, Dr. Lodge has been a self-employed ecologist since 2004. He graduated with Departmental Honors in Zoology from Ohio Wesleyan University (1966), and completed his Ph.D. in Biology at the University of Miami (1974) where his dissertation involved the physiological ecology of Everglades’ freshwater fishes. Chemistry, limnology, ecology, and ichthyology were the key areas of his formal education.
Dr. Lodge specializes in wetlands and their restoration. He has conducted projects pertaining to terrestrial, wetland, aquatic, and shallow-marine environments, including considerations for rare, threatened, and endangered species, water quality, and conditions such as noise and toxic contaminants. His experience includes developing and applying wetland assessment methodologies for determining appropriate mitigation for wetland impacts. In the early 1990s he authored a widely copied methodology, the Wetland Quality Index (WQI), which he developed to give a consistent, defensible equivalency between impacts and compensatory mitigation in southern Florida freshwater wetlands where small fishes and wading birds are key food-chain indicators. He regularly uses Florida’s Uniform Mitigation Wetland Method (UMAM) as well as other methodologies where required. The applications of his work have been in federal, state, and local wetland permitting as well as conservation projects. He has considerable experience as an expert witness and is a Certified Environmental Professional (CEP) under the National Association of Environmental Professionals.
He is author of The Everglades Handbook: Understanding the Ecosystem, and is currently preparing it 4th edition. The book has been widely used as an advanced high school and college text, and as well as a guide for lay people to understand the Everglades and its restoration. With a strong interest in wildlife photography, he is a regular speaker on the Everglades.
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