Volunteers keep Seminole waters clear
A small army of volunteers plan to wade into the kneehigh muddy waters of a Seminole County pond Saturday, where they will pull out invasive weeds and plant native vegetation along the shoreline.
As the plants — including pickerelweed, duck potato and canna — grow, they will act as filters and prevent fertilizers and other noxious nutrients from flowing into the pond to feed algae blooms that can turn a water body into a thick green soup.
The effort in the Sweetwater Oaks neighborhood is part of Seminole’s annual lake and pond management and restoration program held every spring and fall since 2008 as a way of keeping the county’s water bodies clean and clear for homeowners and visitors. Volunteers as young as 10 will join county biologists in simi-
lar plantings at other lakes and ponds in Seminole in the coming weeks.
“By putting in some nice native plants, we are helping the waterfronts,” said Marie Lackey, Seminole’s watershed management coordinator.
Orange County has a similar program in which volunteers plant vegetation, remove invasive plants and do watershed cleanups. Those efforts are done by request.
In Seminole, the plantings have become so popular that volunteer slots fill up fast, Lackey said.
Daniel Barber, 21, a Valencia College student, took part in his first planting with his father as a middle schooler years ago. He’s been hooked ever since and is now a site captain at the plantings.
“Over time, I could see how it’s definitely affected the health of the lake,” he said. In some cases, “the water was terrible, and this definitely has made the water cleaner.”
In 2013, for example, Seminole took over the management of Lake Howell, a 391-acre water body near Casselberry, that for years was filled with hydrilla and other invasive plants.
Its water quality was long classified as “impaired” according to the state Department of Environmental Protection’s lake vegetation index.
Today, the lake is classified as “healthy,” after the county planted native vegetation along the shorelines and removed most of the hydrilla.
“By introducing the natives [vegetation] along the shoreline, it has brought up the score and improved the water quality,” said Thomas Calhoun, a senior environmental scientist with Seminole County.
Besides acting as filters by consuming the nutrients and fertilizers that flow into a water body, the plants also help protect the shorelines from erosion, said Bill Carlie, an environmental scientist and compliance coordinator with the St. Johns River Water Management District.
“When you have folks running Jet Skis or motorboats, they [the plants] will break up the action of the waves on the shoreline and prevent erosion. Which is a good thing,” he said.
The plants also provide habitats for wading birds, amphibians and other animals.
For example, “snails lay eggs on the plants’ stems,” Carlie said. “Juvenile fish use the plants to hide from larger predators.”
Native plants also are good for shorelines because they don’t grow out of control like other plants, leading the use of herbicides, he said.
“And it makes the lake shores more attractive,” Carlie said.
Most of the lakes, ponds and other water bodies selected for the restoration plantings are covered under the county’s municipal service benefit unit, a special taxing district that assesses property owners around the water body to raise money for restoration.
Of Seminole’s 199 named lakes, 18 are covered under the special taxing districts. Plantings are also done at other lakes and water bodies that are not part of the special taxing districts but where nearby residents have joined together to improve the lake.
“The whole idea is to get everyone involved,” Lackey said.
Saturday’s planting involving about 40 volunteers will be at Buttonwood Pond on Smokerise Boulevard because it’s a small water body. Larger lakes can draw up to 100 volunteers.
Other plantings are set for April 7 at 1427 Oxford Road; April 14 at 1000 Twin Lakes Road; April 21 at Riverbend Park, 830 Cove Park Place; May 19 at an unscheduled site along Lake Howell; and June 2 at Black Hammock Adventures, 2356 Black Hammock Fish Camp Road.
“It’s nice to give back to the earth, which we take so much from,” said Lindsey Mears, a Longwood resident who has taken part in the Seminole lake restoration events for years. “Until you’re part of the restoration, you don’t know the amount of damage we cause on our lakes.”
“Until you’re part of the restoration, you don’t know the amount of damage we cause on our lakes.” Volunteer Lindsey Mears, of Longwood