Florida LAKEWATCH Dedicated to Sharing Information About Water Management and the Florida LAKEWATCH Program Volume XXV 2003 Fred Hartwell This photo of Lake Joiner was one of several images Fred Hartwell sent to LAKEWATCH as evidence of the natural treasures to be found in Washington County. Happy 17th Birthday LAKEWATCH! t’s time to bake a cake and light the An additional 165 “special” samples professional organizations, six citizen candles; this month, the Florida have also been collected and analyzed due groups, ten schools and 114 homeowner ILAKEWATCH (FLW) program will to concerns from volunteers such as drainage associations! We’d like to thank every be 17 years old! The first water sample outfalls, ditches, unusual rain events or single one of these groups/organizations was collected for FLW on August 16, algae blooms. (Note: Due to the tremendous for working with us, but it would take up 1986 and after that....well, the rest is volume of samples analyzed in our labora- the entire newsletter to do so. (We do try history.1 tory, FLW is only able to analyze a small to acknowledge them in the newsletter, The first thing we’d like to do is number of these samples each year.) when possible.) thank our volunteers, including those who Aside from just sheer sampling duties, While we’re in a thanking mode, are still monitoring and others who have the program has matured in other ways: there is one group of dedicated individuals given their time and energy in prior years. we’ve developed active partnerships with a who may not be as visible as our volunteers Because of you, FLW is one of the host of state, federal and private entities to or regional coordinators, but their work is largest, most successful volunteer water better serve Florida’s citizenry and to vital to the success of the program: FLW’s monitoring programs in the country — facilitate a constant flow of information and truly something to celebrate. dialogue concerning water management. In Continued on page 2. Through these 17 years, volunteers 2002 alone, FLW partnered with four have sampled in 56 counties on a total of federal and 15 state agencies, 15 county and 1871 water bodies including 1213 lakes, eight city governments, 18 parks and 280 coastal sites, 204 river sites and nine preserves, 25 UF/IFAS Cooperative springs. Extension offices, ten private business and 1 See Volume XVI for more on how FLW began (i.e., Why LAKEWATCH Can’t Be an Advocate). 1 laboratory technicians and bottle washers are the unsung heroes working behind the scenes LAKEWATCH would also like to acknowledge the agencies, groups, and to make water analysis possible: organizations that serve as collection centers for our water samples. • Senior Chemist Mary Stonecipher Without use of these facilities, we would not be able to store and oversees the lab and keeps things running process thousands of samples across the state each month. Please smoothly. She also calculates the data, enters all the Secchi depth measurements take a few moments to read the list below and remember to thank from your data sheets, and checks water these folks, if you have the chance. If we’ve forgotten anyone, please let chemistry results for any unusual results us know so we can give credit where credit is due! or “red flags” that may pop up. • Tad DeGroat receives and sorts incoming Businesses and Professional Parks and Preserves (continued) water samples and prepares them for Organizations Crystal River Buffer Aquatic Preserve phosphorus and nitrogen analysis. He also Alligator Inn (Osceola)* (Citrus) processes samples for supplemental water Grand Tours (Charlotte) Gold Head Branch State Park (Clay) chemistry (pH, alkalinity, conductivity, International Game Fish Assoc. (Broward) Keystone Civic Association Park chloride, chlorophyll and color). Lake Placid Marine (Highlands) (Hillsborough) • John Douglas runs the tests for total Palm Coast Development (Flagler) Lithia Springs Park (Hillsborough) nitrogen on each and every sample. He also Maclay Gardens State Park (Leon) keeps some of our more complicated Citizen Groups Manatee Springs State Park (Levy) instruments functioning. Choctawhatchee Basin Alliance Moccasin Lake Nature Park (Pinellas) • Kelly Schulz is responsible for analyzing (Walton, Okaloosa) Nye Park (Hillsborough) samples for total phosphorus concentrations St. Andrew Bay Resource Management Sanibel–Captiva Conservation and performing color analysis. Association (Bay) Foundation and Tarpon Bay Lab (Lee) • Wanda Garfield is responsible for Silver River State Park (Marion) processing chlorophyll filters for total City and County Agencies chlorophyll measurements, as well as Casselberry Stormwater Utilities (Seminole) Schools keeping the desiccant supply up to date. Deering Estate at Cutler (Miami-Dade) Okaloosa–Walton Community College She also assists with supplemental samples. Keystone Heights-City Hall (Clay) (Okaloosa, Walton) • Kim Smith, Jonna Weaver, and James Lake County Growth Management (Lake) Walker Memorial Junior Academy Weaver have the thankless job of washing Lake County Water Authority (Lake) (Highlands) every bottle and test tube—thousands per Lake Region Lakes Management District month! (Polk) UF/IFAS Cooperative Extension • Christy Horsburgh, Sr. Biological Loxahatchee River District (Palm Beach) Offices (listed by County) Scientist, verifies the completed data and Melrose Fire Station (Putnam) Brevard, Citrus, Clay, Escambia, Flagler, downloads it from the laboratory computer Ocoee PPTD (Orange) Hamilton, Highlands, Hillsborough, to her computer. She then formats it so Orlando Stormwater Utility Bureau (Orange) Leon, Miami-Dade, Orange, Okeechobee, that it is accessible to everyone including Sacred Heart Rescue (Walton) Osceola, Santa Rosa, Seminole, St. Lucie, volunteers, state agencies, consultants, etc. Seminole County Fire Dept. (Seminole) Sumter, Taylor, Volusia, Wakulla, It’s impressive to say the least. But St. Joseph Bay Aquatic Preserve Apala- Walton, and Washington our work doesn’t end there. Once the data chicola National Estuarine (Gulf) are safely stored in a database, our staff Tropical Park (Miami-Dade) * County Location processes thousands of data requests each year, along with a number of information Federal and State Agencies circulars, scientific publications, graduate Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary student projects, etc. Not bad for a program South Florida Water Management District that began with the simple idea that citizens St. Johns River Water Management District could collect their own water samples and SW Florida Water Management District then work with scientists, politicians, water U.S. Forest Service—Ocala National managers and others to increase our Forest Visitors Center knowledge about Florida’s vast aquatic habitats. To coin a phrase, “it takes a village Parks and Preserves to manage a lake” and we’d like to thank Boyd Hill Nature Park (Pinellas) everyone who has contributed and continues Camp Bayou Nature Preserve to contribute. Your efforts make this program (Hillsborough) a reality, year after year. So, Happy Conservancy of Southwest Florida (Collier) Birthday! We hope you’re enjoying your lake just a little bit more this month. 2 Lake User Survey Results: “A lake cannot be all things to all people.” hile the statement above may not be For example, someone from Iowa who is Wtoo surprising, it’s helpful to have used to lakes with 1-foot visibility and is numbers to back up a hypothesis and now living on a lake with an average 4-foot LAKEWATCH has done just that with its lake Secchi depth may have chosen answer number user survey project from last summer and fall one for question B (beautiful, couldn’t be (FLW VOL XXIV). Surveys were returned by better) and someone from Maine, who is volunteers from 116 lakes and, in recent used to lakes with 20-foot visibility and is months, the results have been processed and now living on a lake with a 3-foot Secchi studied by our staff. depth, might choose answer number four. The project provided plenty of food for Aside from looking for relationships thought as well as fodder for a scientific paper between lake user opinion and actual water that was written by FLW staff and submitted chemistry, the study underscores questions to Lake and Reservoir Management—an that arise when we use the words water international peer-reviewed journal of the quality and water chemistry interchangeably, as if there is no difference between the two. North American Lake Management Society Jim Decker 2 (Hoyer, et. al). As described in the paper, Lake Reedy in Polk County In the paper, lead author Mark Hoyer makes results from the survey show a strong the point that water quality can only be connection between perceptions that lake as high as 100 µg/L. As the authors pointed measured after first defining the desired use users have about the physical properties of out in the paper, people’s ideas about water of the waterbody and also our preconcep- their lake water, the quality of the water and clarity are obviously very different. tions about what constitutes “good” water the actual trophic state of the lake.3 The same was true for the second question quality versus “bad.” In other words, “A lake While the surveys were short and simple, (Question B). Volunteers were asked to choose cannot be all things to all people.” with only two questions, the results are a little one of the following five responses that best Even though the LAKEWATCH study more complex. The first question on the described their opinion of how suitable their was done on a fairly small scale, it confirms survey (Question A) asked volunteers to lake water was for recreation and aesthetic what was learned in earlier lake user surveys describe the physical condition of their lake enjoyment: conducted in Minnesota and Vermont (Smeltzer and Heiskary 1990). It’s also water on the same day they collected samples 1) Beautiful, couldn’t be nicer for LAKEWATCH.