154


type in each county are shown in Appendix Tables A-5, A-6,

and A-7.

 The total capacity for surface water storage in Hendry

 County was approximately 18.3% of the estimated total

 average annual rainfall for the county. The capacity for

 surface water storage in Collier County was much higher:

 30.10% of total annual rainfall over the inland county

 area. Only 14.3% of the rain that falls annually (average)

 over inland Lee County could be stored as surface water in

 inland areas. In the entire southwest Florida region, 24%

 of the average annual rainfall over inland areas could be

 contained in ponds, marshes (including sloughs), cypress

 strands, swamp hammocks, and wet prairies.



 New Regulation Schedule for Lake Okeechobee -..

 Under the stage regulation regime maintained in recent

years, approximately 94,000 acres (38,000 ha) of marsh on

the northwestern and western shores of Lake Okeechobee and

on islands dried to concentrate fish in isolated pools in

dry years, which were the years of successful Wood Storks

nesting. In Figure 34 is a depth-area curve of Lake

Okeechobee by the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers (Meyer,

1971), with brackets added to delineate the area of

seasonally-drying marsh under the lake regulation schedule

of the past few years, the area of seasonally-drying marsh

if water fluctuation were 2 ft (60 cm) higher, and the