Oysters
Because they are immobile and will tolerate a fairly wide salinity range, eastern oysters (Crassostrea virginica) are valuable as an indicator of the relative health of aquatic ecosystems in the tidally-influenced portions of coastal creeks. Sarasota County has established an oyster monitoring program to track the location, types, and status of oyster reefs. Data from this monitoring program is shown below.
Learn more about Oysters »
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Most Recent Sarasota County Oyster Monitoring Program Data
| Icon |
Site ID |
Year |
Latitude_DD |
Longitude_DD |
Dead |
Live |
Total |
% Live |
| 1 |
SKC4 |
2025 |
27.1319 |
-82.4383 |
40 |
163 |
203 |
80 |
Impervious Features
Cow Pen Slough is located within the Sarasota Bay Watershed. View details about the Sarasota Bay Watershed »
Rain that falls on land that is in a natural state is absorbed and filtered by soils and vegetation as it makes it way into underground aquifers. However, in developed areas, "impervious surfaces" impede this process and contribute to polluted urban runoff entering surface waters. These surfaces include human infrastructure like roads, sidewalks, driveways and parking lots that are covered by impenetrable materials such as asphalt, concrete, brick and stone, as well as buildings and other permanent structures. Soils that have been disturbed and compacted by urban development are often impervious as well.
The Sarasota County Stormwater Environmental Utility (SEU) mapped impervious surfaces in the County in 2013. A map showing impervious surfaces can be viewed using the Water Atlas Map Viewer tool.
2% of the land area within the Cow Pen Slough Basin is covered by impervious surfaces
Land Use / Land Cover
Cow Pen Slough is located within the Sarasota Bay Watershed. View details about the Sarasota Bay Watershed »
Land use within a creek's watershed has a major effect on its water quality. In general, less development means better water quality.
Land Cover/Land Use classifications categorize land in terms of its observed physical surface characteristics (e.g. upland or wetland),
and also reflect the types of activity that are taking place on it (agriculture, urban/built-up, utilities, etc.). Florida uses as its
standard a set of statewide classifications which were developed by the Florida Department of Transportation.
Acreage and Percentage within each Land Use / Land Cover Category for Cow Pen Slough Basin
| Land Use Classification |
1990 |
1995 |
1999 |
2005 |
2011 |
2014 |
2017 |
2020 |
2023 |
Trend |
| Urban & Built-up |
4,5089.5% |
6,03812.7% |
8,97518.9% |
11,00123.2% |
11,73024.7% |
11,97425.2% |
12,40026.1% |
13,13127.6% |
14,08629.6% |
|
| Agriculture |
13,32028% |
14,16429.8% |
14,11229.7% |
14,34730.2% |
13,51228.4% |
13,22727.8% |
13,18427.7% |
12,67726.7% |
11,85324.9% |
|
| Rangeland |
7,04114.8% |
6,16813% |
4,0568.5% |
2,4485.2% |
2,3074.9% |
2,4885.2% |
2,0504.3% |
1,7573.7% |
1,6823.5% |
|
| Upland Forests |
11,44524.1% |
10,05921.2% |
8,50317.9% |
7,48315.7% |
7,37615.5% |
7,30915.4% |
7,13115% |
6,79114.3% |
6,58813.9% |
|
| Water |
8161.7% |
1,3452.8% |
1,5213.2% |
1,6443.5% |
1,7633.7% |
1,8173.8% |
1,9414.1% |
1,9764.2% |
2,1984.6% |
|
| Wetlands |
10,03521.1% |
9,31019.6% |
9,36719.7% |
9,47119.9% |
9,50720% |
9,39719.8% |
9,44119.9% |
9,82620.7% |
9,71620.4% |
|
| Barren Land |
160% |
50% |
20% |
490.1% |
1100.2% |
770.2% |
820.2% |
180% |
450.1% |
|
| Transportation and Utilities |
3370.7% |
4300.9% |
9822.1% |
1,0752.3% |
1,2132.6% |
1,2302.6% |
1,2882.7% |
1,3422.8% |
1,3552.9% |
|
Data Sources
The data sources listed below provided water quality data used to create the report on this page. Not all data sources provided data for every creek, and not every Creek Conditions Report used data from all listed data sources. While some data sources have no data for the scored year, they provided period-of-record (historical high, mean, low) data. Click on a data source name to review its metadata.
