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Comprehensive Plan Conservation Element <br />Wet prairies, isolated marshes and ponds usually have concentric bands of vegetation, marking zones <br />of different hydroperiods (amount of time underwater). From one isolated wetland to another, <br />however, the character of the plant community can vary widely. While the outermost band is often <br />composed of grasses and St. John's wort, the innermost bands are typically dominated by taller <br />grasses and flags, notably pickerelweed and arrowhead. Sometimes, cow lilies and bladderworts <br />grow in a central pond. Generally, the central portion of these wetlands has a longer hydroperiod and <br />a greater organic content to its soil than do the outer portions. Soils characteristic of freshwater <br />marshes and ponds in Indian River County include Canova, Delray, Floridan, Holopaw, Manatee, <br />Myakka depressional, Oldsmar depressional, Pineda depressional, and Riviera depressional. <br />Freshwater marshes and ponds provide excellent habitats for many wildlife species. Among these <br />species are numerous birds and waterfowl which use this community for wintering or on year-round <br />basis. While animals that commonly occur in the freshwater marshes and ponds community include <br />otter, mink, raccoon, white-tailed deer, and marsh -rabbit, birds frequenting the community are <br />herons, egrets, bitterns, ibis, sandhill cranes, rails, limpkins, gallinules, snipe, killdeer, Florida duck, <br />red -winged blackbirds, caracara, marsh hawk, red -shouldered hawk, and swallowed -tailed kite. <br />Community Development Department Indian River County 52 <br />