College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Iowa State University

ForEverglades

Arnold van der Valk has always had a fascination with the Everglades, even with its occupational hazards.
David Oliver, professor and chair of the Department of Botany, figures that Arnold van der Valk is the sole person on campus to have a close encounter with an alligator.

"I imagine he is the only Iowa State faculty member that was bitten by an alligator during the course of his research this year," Oliver says.

van der Valk, professor of botany and director of Iowa Lakeside Laboratory, says Oliver is exaggerating just a little.

"We were doing a survey in the Everglades and there was a hurricane coming," van der Valk remembered. "And we weren't paying as much attention as we should have been."

The next thing van der Valk knows he was tossed head over heels. After he picked himself up, it took him a while to realize what had happened.

"The alligator was staring right at me," he said. "I must have stepped on his head and it snapped at me, hitting me sideways. He stared at me, but he never came after me."
van der Valk said the alligator bit through his jeans but he suffered no real injuries.

Contrary to popular belief, alligator encounters are rare in the Everglades according to van der Valk.

"Alligators aren't a big problem in the Everglades," he said. "They're not aggressive, unless of course you step on their heads. Snakes are another thing all together. It's very easy to be bitten by a snake."

Despite the hazards, wetlands research has always held an attraction for van der Valk. For the past 30 years, he has worked a variety of wetlands research projects in Canada, Australia, Europe, India and South America.

Perhaps the world's most famous wetlands are the Everglades. Eventually van der Valk's research took him to south Florida where he now serves as a consultant to the South Florida Water Management District, an agency that manages all the water and wetlands from Orlando to Key West.

During the 1997-98 academic year, van der Valk spent a faculty improvement leave in South Florida where he says he began two new lines of research. Now his ongoing studies focus on the revegetation of restored wetlands along the Kissimmee River and the restoration of tree islands in the Everglades.

Tree islands are long linear islands that run north and south throughout the Everglades. Their inhabitants include alligators, birds, deer, small mammals, insects and many tree species.

"These islands can support this life because they are a couple of feet above the water," said van der Valk.

All these species need to be in or get out of the water at least for part of their life cycles and tree islands are the only place where they can do this.

Even small changes in water levels can have disastrous consequences for these low islands. Water levels in the Everglades have been manipulated to drain their northern and eastern parts to create agricultural land and to reduce flooding problems.

"Many of the tree islands have disappeared," he continued. "No one knows how extensive they were in the past."

Van der Valk is involved with a project with the South Florida Water Management District to restore and recreate the tree islands. The field phase of this project is scheduled to begin this fall with the construction of eight tree islands.

"It will take a couple of years to get trees growing," he said, "and probably ten years to see if they are truly functioning as tree islands. It's a wonderful opportunity to be involved with and have some impact on what's happening in the Everglades."

Even if you come face-to-face every now and then with an alligator.