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For other places by the name Kissimmee, see article Kissimmee

The Kissimmee River flows down the middle of central Florida into Lake Okeechobee.

The Kissimmee River is a river in south-central Florida, USA. It arises in Osceola County as the outflow from East Lake Tohopekaliga, passing through Lake Tohopekaliga, Lake Cypress, Lake Hatchineha and Lake Kissimmee. Below Lake Kissimmee, the river forms the boundary between Osceola County and Polk County, between Highlands County and Okeechobee County, and between Glades County and Okeechobee County before it flows into Lake Okeechobee. The river was originally 134 miles in length, 103 miles of which was between Lake Kissimmee and Lake Okeechobee. It drains a watershed of 3,000 square miles and forms the headwaters of the Kissimmee River-Lake Okeechobee-Everglades ecosystem.

The floodplain of the river supports a diverse community of waterfowl, wading birds, fish, and other wildlife.

The 1947 Atlantic hurricane season, which included the 1947 Fort Lauderdale Hurricane and the 1947 October Hurricane, produced very heavy rainfall and flooding over most of central and southern Florida. Florida requested federal assistant in controlling future floods, and in 1954 the United States Congress authorized the canalization of the Kissimee River. From 1962 to 1970 the United States Army Corps of Engineers dredged the C-38 Canal down the Kissimmee valley, shortening the 103 mile distance from Lake Kissimmee to Lake Okeechobee to just 56 miles. It has since been realized that this project damaged the river, with the faster water flow leading to major environmental problems in the Kissimmee Valley and Lake Okeechobee. Efforts are currently underway to reverse the process and re-introduce the many oxbows in the river that slowed the water.^[1]

After the river channel was straightened, 40,000 acres of floodplain below Lake Kissimmee dried out, reducing the quality of waterfowl habitat by ninety percent, and the number of herons, egrets and wood storks by two-thirds. Catches of largemouth bass in the river were consistently worse after the channelization. While the Kissimmee was not a significant source of pollution for Lake Okeechobee before channelization, in the 1970s and later the river contributed about 25% of the nitrogen and 20% of the phosphorus flowing into the lake.^[1]

1. ^ ^{a b} Hinnant, Lee. 1990. Kissimmee River. in Marth, Del and Marty Marth, eds. The Rivers of Florida. Sarasota, Florida: Pineapple Press. ISBN 0-910923-70-1.

• South Florida Water Management District

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