Lake Jackson Native Plant Pilot Restoration Project

This is a cooperatively funded project between the City of Sebring, Highlands County and the Southwest Florida Water Management District to restore vegetation in an isolated location on the shore of Lake Jackson.  Shoreline vegetation is highly beneficial and necessary for the health of all lakes - the plants provide habitat for fish, birds and other wildlife while removing nutrients from the water.  By removing nutrients from the water, which is very difficult for humans to do through chemical or other means, plants reduce the amount of algae growth in a lake, which can be unsightly, causes cloudiness in the water, reduces water clarity, and algae can deplete the lake of oxygen if large quantities of algae die suddenly.   These beneficial plants in Lake Jackson have been eaten by triploid grass carp added to the lake in the early 1990's to eat the hydrilla that then infested the lake.  (Hydrilla is an exotic aquatic plant that grows rapidly in Florida waters, rendering water bodies unusable for boating and fishing and many other uses.)  Grass carp live for 10-20 years, though they were through with their work on the hydrilla within a year or two, and they have been feeding on beneficial shoreline plants (and in some cases homeowner lawns) since the hydrilla problem was taken care of.

The Native Plant Restoration Pilot Project is being conducted in a fenced off area surrounding the flagpole in Lake Jackson on US 27.  Muck and dense vegetation were removed in July of 2000 (see pictures below).  Native aquatic plants, including giant bulrush, spatterdock, softrush, arrowleaf, pickerelweed, cordgrass and cypress trees, were replanted in the newly scraped area.  The purpose of the fence is to keep the grass carp away from the beneficial plants that have been established there.  The spatterdock died during the drought in early 2001, but the rest of the plants survived.  Workers with the Sheriff's department assisted in removal of dog fennel overgrowth that occurred during the drought and was threatening to crowd out the native aquatic plants.  Dog fennel died back naturally in the summer of 2001, once the rains began and the lake level rose to a more typical level.  The pictures below show the site before scraping and during replanting. After 3 years deterioration of the fish fence around the site became a problem and frequently needed to be repaired. Unfortunately, grass carp were able to breach the fence and eat all of the plants. 

Before (June 2000):                                            After (August 2000):