1. Lake Seminole Park - Pinellas County ($6,200)

Lake Seminole Park is a 255 acre park located in central Pinellas County. The park offers boating, fishing, and 2 miles of passive recreational trails. Annual attendance at the park exceeds 1.2 million visitors. The shoreline restoration work supported by FLMS will focus on a 3.7 acre pond and include littoral shelf enhancement, the creation of a wildlife island, the installation of an aeration system, and the planting of native vegetation along the shoreline. Interpretive signage describing ecosystem/habitat management also will be installed. Signs will describe the functions of lakes and ponds including their importance to wildlife and the benefits they provide for flood protection, storm water management and watershed recharge.


2. Saratoga Lake - Cape Coral ($4,300)

Cape Coral 's Environmental Resource Division (ERD) is responsible for monitoring 300 miles of the city's fresh water canals. With declines in water quality, ERD is developing project demonstration sites to display what citizens can do to improve water quality in their back yards. The demonstration site project being supported by FLMS is located along the shoreline at Saratoga Lake Park . The littoral site will be planted with native submersed and emergent vegetation which will be identified by signage explaining the benefits of the enhanced shoreline. The project site also is scheduled to become a Florida Yards and Neighborhoods demonstration area.

3. Cape Coral High School ($4,000)

The Cape Coral High School campus includes a fenced half acre pond site. Students and teachers have spent hundreds of volunteer hours enhancing the site. Debris has been removed, eroded banks have been repaired, exotic vegetation has been removed and a walkway and picnic tables have been installed near the pond. The pond is utilized by migratory and resident birds, small mammals, amphibians, fish and other animals. Science teachers now plan to use the pond as an outdoor classroom and are joining the city sponsored Canalwatch and county sponsored Pondwatch programs. Students will learn to collect and analyze water quality data and track trends for this pond and other water bodies in the area. Students also will use the pond to learn about native/non-native flora, invertebrates, soils, fish and other ecosystem based curriculum. The final phase of the pond beautification project is being supported by FLMS and includes the installation of additional shoreline vegetation and informative educational signs.

4. Lake Alto Shoreline Restoration - Gainesville ($3,000) Lake Alto is located in northeast Alachua County and is connected to Lake Santa Fe. Approximately 500 feet of shoreline near the county boat ramp will be enhanced. Exotic vegetation will be removed, and replaced with native vegetation. Shoreline trees and educational signs also will be installed.

5. Lake Condel - Orange County ($3,000) Lake Condel is a small lake (< 4 acres) located in Orange County. Recently, several hundred feet of invasive cattail was removed from the western shoreline. The lake is again visible but the littoral landscape is bare. The shoreline restoration project supported by FLMS includes replanting the impacted area with native aquatic vegetation and installing informative educational signs. The project will be completed by lakefront home owners and will enhance the lake shoreline by providing wildlife habitat, erosion control and sediments consolidation.