A little over two years ago hurricane Ian swept through Southwest Florida covering the island of Sanibel with storm surge. Not only causing damage but turning freshwater ecosystems into saltwater ones.
Just a couple of months ago, we had Helene and Milton doing the same thing. But what does that mean for the long term of Sanibel. Fox 4 Meteorologist Andrew Shipley spoke to Sanibel Captiva Conservation Foundation (SCCF) about just that.
The last real storm surge event, which was even as bad as Ian, was in 1947,” said Chris Lechowicz, SCCF’s Wildlife and Habitat Management Program Director.
And now the island of Sanibel has been covered in salty storm surge not once, but four times in the last 2 years (Ian, Debbie, Helene, and Milton). And that is changing not only what lives on Sanibel, but the ecosystem itself.
“And a lot these trees that have grown up over the last few decades are just not salt tolerant,” said Lechowicz. “So, we had a lot of tree death.”
The surge didn’t just cause tree mortality, but also changes to freshwater ecosystems like Sanibel Slough. After Ian, it took nearly two years of rainfall for the slough to return to a freshwater state.