SHORELINE VEGETATION

Probably the most beneficial thing we as homeowners can do for our lake is to maintain a healthy, naturally vegetated shoreline. This means maintaining the natural emergent vegetation, shrubs and tree canopy. The trees and shrubs provide wildlife habitat as well as buffering wildlife from human activities. The emergent vegetation (mostly maidencane grass) provide fish and wildlife habitat and help to filter the runoff from our property. In Lake Santa Fe & Little Lake Santa Fe submerged aquatic vegetation (plants that grow completely underwater) are not very prolific. However, emergent aquatic vegetation (plants that grow in the water but generally have there leaves in the air) is quite prevalent along the shoreline of our lakes. While the dominant emergent plant on our lakes is maidencane we also find pickerelweed, lillies, spikerush as well as others. Because submergent plants are so sparse on our lakes, the emergent plants are the most important vegetation component of the aquatic habitat of our lake. They provide the basis of the food chain, which supports aquatic life on our lake. These plants provide food and critical habitat for fish and wildlife on our lakes. Therefore, if you enjoy fishing or viewing wildlife on our lakes, you must appreciate the vital role that this shoreline vegetation provides in supporting fish and wildlife.

On our lakes a typical healthy natural shoreline would consist of a thickly wooded area with trees such as dahoon holly and mixed bays farthest landward. As we progressed towards the lake we might encounter black gum trees and cypress with button bush and other shrubs in the understory. Closest to the open water we would encounter dense maidencane grass with scattered clumps of sawgrass, rushes or lillies in some areas. While we all know areas where this vegetation remains, it is unrealistic to expect everyone to attempt to return their shorelines to this condition. But we can work to make our shorelines closer to this condition. Maintaining emergent vegetation is likely the most important thing to do, but providing a good tree canopy also greatly benefits birds and the other wildlife we enjoy seeing on our lake. We have to balance our needs for a view, lake access and swimming areas with the need to protect the lake. If trees have been cleared in the past, please replant as many appropriate native trees as you can. For understory and emergent vegetation a good guideline would be to keep no more than 25 feet width of shoreline clear of vegetation for lake access. Of course the less clearing the better.

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection requires you to obtain a permit to maintain or alter shoreline vegetation from their Bureau of Invasive Plant Management. More info on these permits can be found at: http://www.dep.state.fl.us/stland/bapm

If you currently have a cleared or partially cleared shoreline, you can improve our lakes by allowing and helping native plants to re-establish on your shoreline. Unfortunately, there are many exotic pest plants that can also take over your shoreline if you are not careful when you allow your shoreline to grow back. While there are many non-native plants in Florida, a few of them have become major pests due to their ability to take over natural areas. Everyone probably knows of water hyacinths and the problems they cause. Other exotic pest plants present on our lakes include Chinese tallow trees, paragrass and torpedo grass. Chinese tallow is a serious threat and has been outlawed for sale in Florida nurseries. If you have one on your property you should definitely cut it down (they make good firewood) and pull up all the seedlings. If you mow your shoreline, you might already have exotic grasses on your shoreline as they do better under disturbed conditions than do native plant species. However, if you keep your shoreline undisturbed, the native plants have a much better chance of surviving. Unfortunately, it does take knowledge of native plants in order to grow back your shoreline properly (all the more reason not to clear it in the first place). More info on Florida exotic pest plants can be found at: http://www.fleppc.org More info on Florida native plants can be found at: http://www.fnps.org