Lake Toho Muck Removal Project Complete
The largest whole lake enhancement project ever attempted in Florida has been completed on Lake Tohopekaliga near Kissimmee. Now we wait for rain to refill the lake to judge its success. “Lake enhancement” here means “enhancement of fish and wildlife habitat,” according to the Florida Fish and Wildife Conservation Commission’s Kissimmee office.
Lake Toho, considered a premiere bass fishing lake, had been suffering from static water levels and excessive plant growth which led to thick deposits of bottom muck. The muck buildup had filled areas needed for feeding by wading birds and spawning by fish.
The plan has been to dewater (draw down) part of the lake, expose 40% of the lake bottom for three months, scrape up and remove more than 9 million cubic yards of muck from more than 3,700 bottom acres, and allow the lake to refill with summer rains. The last truckload of muck was removed and re-filling began on June 15, 2004.
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3,700 acres |
truckloads of muck |
used for islands |
will be monitored |
See color pictures of the Lake Toho project here.
Bulldozers scraped more than 3,700 acres of the exposed bottom of Lake Toho. Here, rows of muck await removal. Over time, it is expected that the natural plant seed bank will give rise to healthy stands of knotgrasses, bullrushes, eelgrass and other desirable plants. Workers will manage for the desirable plant species and against the problematic plant species.
This lake enhancement work has pushed back the process of eutrophication on Lake Toho. One expected response to the work is the maintenance of a high level of fish productivity for years to come.
V.R.
Photo captions:
Bulldozers scraped more than 3,700 acres of the exposed bottom of Lake Toho. Here, rows of muck await removal.
About half of the muck was used to construct in-lake wildlife islands.
In another part of the project, University of Florida researchers, under the direction of Mark Hoyer, will measure the plant and animal utilization of the man-made islands over time.
Thousands of truckloads of muck were removed. About half the muck was trucked to upland pastures and other disposal sites.
Photos by Chris Michael, FWC.
Lake Toho enhancement is a project of the FWC in cooperation with the South Florida Water Management District, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the Florida Department of Environmental Regulation, along with researchers of the University of Florida and others. For further information, contact Mike Hulon or Marty Mann of the FWC Aquatic Resources Enhancement Section, 1601 Scottys Road, Kissimmee, FL 34744, 407-846-5300.
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