Field Trip #2 - Twelve Mile Swam (Journal Entry #5)

For the second field trip assignment, I visited Twelve Mile Swamp Recreation Area. It is located in St. Johns County, Florida, approximately eight miles north of St. Augustine. This was a miserable experience. I was scheduled to have my foot surgery on Friday, May 21st. I received approval from the instructor that she would accept Twelve Mile Swamp for this field trip assignment on Tuesday, May 18th. I was trying to get as many of the field trips accomplished as I could prior to my surgery. So, my husband and I left work early on Tuesday to go visit Twelve Mile Swamp.

We came home from work and changed clothes, got some bottled water to drink and loaded up our two German Shepherd Dogs into our vehicle for the trip. I had read on the internet write up about Twelve Mile Swamp leashed dogs were allowed at the swamp and on the trails. We thought it might be fun to take the dogs walking on the trails. According to the internet write up about the location, there was fishing, hiking and horseback riding allowed at the location.

The Twelve Mile Swamp Recreation Area is a 378-acre recreation area which is part of a 21,898 acre tract that is under a long term timber reservation. The larger tract – Twelve Mile Swamp Wildlife Management Area is managed by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and is open for public hunting season. Together, these swamps form the headwaters for six major tributary systems. Three of these tributaries (Turnbull Creek, Mill Creek and Sampson Creek) discharge into the St. Johns River. Two other tributaries (Moultrie Creek and Red House Branch) discharge into the Matanzas River, while Stokes Creek discharges into the Tolomato River. Preservation of this site serves to protect the water quality and quantity of these creek systems and benefits the groundwater and water supply for St. Johns County, Florida.





It was about a 35 minute drive from our house to the Twelve Mile Swamp. The directions took us down Nine Mile Road at International Golf Parkway. Nine Mile Road is a BEAUTIFUL road with a large canopy of trees the entire length of the road. We have ridden on that road many times with the motorcycle club because it is such a scenic route. The road is wonderful to ride on when you are on the motorcycle because the tree canopy creates wonderful shadows on the road of dark and then light and then dark and then light as you are driving along. Here are some pictures of Nine Mile Road I took while we were driving down the road:





Even though we had been on Nine Mile Road on several occasions, we had never heard of or seen Twelve Mile Swamp. It was very difficult to find (even with the google directions and directions from the website). There are several entrances to the area. Many of the entrances are closed off with locked gates. We drove around about an hour and a half looking for an entrance we could actually access. This was extremely frustrating.





We did stop at one of the gates and walk behind it up to a map box and it was part of the Twelve Mile Swamp Wildlife Management Area. I picked up a copy of the 2009-2010 Hunting Season brochure. I thought it was extremely interesting to learn that animals you could hunt at Twelve Mile Swamp include deer, wild hog, turkey, gray squirrel, quail, rabbits, raccoon, opossum, armadillo, beaver, coyote, skunk, bobcat, otter and some migratory birds. I never knew we had coyotes and otter in that area!






Anyway, we could not access the area there because of the locked gate, so we drove around to another access point.






According to the website, the common wildlife sightings at Twelve Mile Swamp Recreation include white-tailed deer, foxes, songbirds and a variety of snakes. We should have paid more attention to the “snake” part. When we finally found a place we could park and get out with the dogs to walk the trails, we had only gone a little way when we saw snakes all along the trails. Here is a picture of one of the snakes we saw crossing the road right in front of where we were walking:




Well, of course, the dogs wanted to go after the snakes, so we had to take them back to the vehicle, for everyone’s safety. After seeing all the snakes, I was not at all inclined to walk any further on the trails or any deeper into the swamp area. We could see the swamp and the water in the distance but had no desire to venture further. Plus, by now, since we had driven around about two hours trying to find an access point, it was starting to get dusky dark and this was no time of day to be wandering out in the swamp.







Anyway, it was a miserable experience – because my husband was mad and annoyed because of all of the driving around to find the access point; the two dogs were frustrated in the car because they could not get out and walk and we wouldn’t let them chase the snakes. I was upset because I did not get to see or explore the swamp area as much as I would liked to have done – because I am afraid of the snakes and it was getting dark. I knew we would not be able to come back any other time, because of the distance to get there and because of my foot surgery, I will not be able to drive myself and would have to ask my husband to go back and I knew he would not want to do that because of the events of this day. The swamp area was really like you would expect a swamp to be. It seemed like a very “wild” area with all the animals I read about that were in the area. The grass and the trees were very green.
Seeing the swamp reminded me that Florida’s swamps remain threatened by human activities which include draining, pollution, logging, mining, flood plain alterations and introduced invasive plants. Human impact on swamp lands also threatens associated rivers and lakes and directly affects the plant and animal species that depend on them. I am glad that the St. Johns River Water Management District is working to protect the Twelve Mile Swamp Recreation Area and the Twelve Mile Swamp Wildlife Management Area.





NOTE: The very first photo at the top of the blog entry (swamp trees at sunset) was taken from the Twelve Mile Swamp website at http://myfwc.com/recreation/WMASites_TwelveMileSwamp_index.htm. All of the rest of the pictures were taken by me and my husband at the time of our visit to the swamp.