Choctawhatchee Watershed

Choctawhatchee River and Bay Watershed

The Choctawhatchee River and Bay watershed covers approximately 5,349 square miles, of which about 41 percent is within Florida.  The river is generally characterized as alluvial, and it tends to carry a heavy sediment load.  Principal tributaries include the Pea River in Alabama and Holmes, Wrights, Sandy, Pine Log, Seven Run, and Bruce creeks in Florida.  The river system also receives a substantial contribution from springs of the Floridan Aquifer.  Choctawhatchee Bay has a surface area of approximately 129 square miles.  The greatest source of fresh water into the bay is the Choctawhatchee River.  Other tributaries of the bay include Turkey Creek, Rocky Creek, Swift Creek, and Alaqua Creek.  East Pass, located immediately west of Destin, provides the only direct opening to the Gulf of Mexico.  The bay also opens to Santa Rosa Sound in the west and the Intracoastal Waterway in the east.

The river and bay system has a diverse array of natural communities.  The estuary supports seagrass beds, oyster beds, salt marshes, benthic microalgae communities, unvegetated soft bottoms, and planktonic and pelagic communities.  Freshwater aquatic habitats include springs, tributary valley lakes, steepheads, tributary streams, and the Choctawhatchee River.  Terrestrial communities in the watershed include clayhill and sandhill forests, pine flatwoods, ravine and slope forests, and coastal strand.  Wetland communities include bottomland hardwood forests, tupelo-cypress swamps, seepage swamps, cypress domes, and tidal salt and fresh marshes.

Throughout much of the watershed, the primary land cover is forest, and much of this is in silvicultural production (see Choctawhatchee Land Use Map – 2004).  Agriculture is also an important land use, particularly in the northern portions of the watershed.  A significant and growing amount of urban land uses are concentrated primarily around Choctawhatchee Bay.  Substantial military and public conservation and recreation lands are also in the watershed.  Prominent activities in the river and bay include recreational and commercial fisheries, commercial barge transportation, boating, military training and testing, wildlife observation, and other water and natural resource-related activities.

Additional information on this watershed is available in the Choctawhatchee River and Bay Surface SWIM Plan.