Posted on September 28, 2026
Early Native Americans along the Apalachicola River left behind large temple mounds as visible signs of their passing. Unfortunately, our modern legacy along the river for future generations to behold will likely include Sand Mountain, a gargantuan three-story mound of sand just south of Wewahitchka that is easily visible from satellites. The view from the summit is panoramic, but the legacy?
Sand Mountain is one of more than 150 spoil sites created by the Army Corps of Engineers during their decades-long navigational dredging operations. The “mountain” smothered a slough and began sending massive amounts of sand back into the river to be carried downstream. This sand erosion, along with erosion from other spoil sites, plugged several key sloughs along the river and large volumes of sand were washed into Apalachicola Bay.
The Corps was supposed to clean up their mess by removing Sand Mountain and unplugging the sloughs, but they never did. This led to the denial of their dredging permit by the state of Florida in 2005. In a congressional hearing during this time, the Corps admitted that maintaining the Apalachicola River for barge traffic had the worst cost-benefit ratio in the country, amounting to only a 40-cent return to the nation for each federal dollar invested in the river.
Serving as the Apalachicola Riverkeeper for the past several years, I have seen first-hand the incredible damage that navigational dredging by the Army Corps of Engineers has done to the Apalachicola River. And even though dredging was halted by the state of Florida more than 20 years ago, the damage is ongoing. A blocked slough is like a clogged artery in your body. In this case, blocked sloughs have starved the Apalachicola’s wide floodplain of life-giving water, resulting in the loss of millions of tupelo gum trees that are an important component of the floodplain forest and the primary source of world-famous tupelo honey. Normally, the floodplain also feeds Apalachicola Bay with vital nutrients for several months out of the year.
Since the Corps failed to do their job unplugging the sloughs, former Riverkeeper Dan Tonsmeire searched 14 years for funds to begin the job. Finally, in 2020, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation awarded Apalachicola Riverkeeper $4.7 million for a multi-year slough restoration project.
I am pleased to report that we have finished restoring three key sloughs: East River, Douglas Slough, and Spider’s Cut. Fresh water is once again flowing through these waterways from the river and into the floodplain and Apalachicola Bay. There are also efforts to begin restoring the declining tupelo forest in the floodplain along Douglas Slough and Spider’s Cut.
Although similar efforts need to be made with other sloughs, the floodplain in several locations can now begin to heal itself. But last year, we were shocked to learn that the Corps is once again looking to dredge the Apalachicola River channel. Disposing of dredged spoil material along the riverbanks is also being considered. This has the potential of reversing all the good restoration work we have done and causing even more damage to other sloughs, not to mention sending more smothering sand into Apalachicola Bay just as the oyster industry is beginning to recover.
There’s more at stake now than the restoration work already completed. An additional $25 million from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation has been earmarked for a second phase of slough restoration, extending the same restoration seen on East River, Douglas Slough, and Spider’s Cut to other blocked sloughs across the floodplain. But that funding isn’t guaranteed. NFWF has made clear it wants to see what the Corps does with its dredging project first. If the Corps move forward with a project that smothers sloughs and dumps spoil along the riverbanks, it won’t just threaten the restoration we’ve already completed — it would cost us the money to finish the job.
Can we trust the Corps to do the right thing? Experience says we cannot. With $25 million in restoration funding hanging in the balance, the Corps’ next move matters more than ever. We must ensure that our legacy is a clean and free-flowing Apalachicola River and slough system that benefits the entire Apalachicola ecosystem long into the future — not another Sand Mountain.
