Ranch-area ponds more than just a pretty space

EAST COUNTY — Some Lakewood Ranch residents know the water in their neighborhoods as their community lake, or view their home as lakefront property.

However, these water features serve another, more important purpose: They are responsible for holding and filtering stormwater before it moves downstream. This function makes keeping pollutants out of the water an important job for all residents living nearby.

A group of 11 concerned citizens met Sept. 3 at Lakewood Ranch Town Hall to discuss how best to inform their neighbors and the public on best practices to accomplish this job. The primary offenders? Improper fertilizer application and allowing grass clippings to enter the ponds.

The group is the first step toward implementing recommendations from University of Florida researchers Emily Ott and Paul Monaghan, who visited Lakewood Ranch in July and attended the recent meeting. As part of UF’s Agricultural Education and Communication department, the duo help drive education efforts to improve water quality.

To help educate the community, the task force discussed hosting barbecues and other social events, to which they will invite landscape vendors and residents. At the events, organizers will meet with the vendors to ensure they are following regulations spelled out by the county, such as not using fertilizers containing phosphorous.

The group is centered on awareness — the piece of the overall puzzle of keeping local ponds, wetlands and other environmental areas healthy that Greenbrook Village resident Marcine Pryor believes is missing.

“People don’t have a clue about (the dangers of) grass clippings getting in the water,” Pryor said. “I see people doing their own landscaping. They just don’t know.”

Residents who attended the meeting brainstormed other methods of communication, such as crafting pamphlets and brochures that highlight best practices.

To Greenbrook Village resident Pat Noles, more direct methods of education and enforcement are needed to change homeowners’ minds about altering the way their landscapers maintain lawns and neighborhoods.

“Voluntary compliance doesn’t work,” Noles said. “You can have all the barbecues you want, but when you say, ‘Please don’t do this,’ people will keep doing it until they get caught.”

For Monaghan, the group’s existence shows a community interest in playing a role in the health of the pollution filtration systems.

“It’s encouraging to see this turnout for the first meeting,” Monaghan said.

Ott and Monaghan have been working for more than a year to break the misconception that bodies of water in Ranch neighborhoods are lakes; they are retention ponds and individuals’ daily activities impact them, Ott said.

They, along with Dorian Morgan, director of research and social marketing for Uppercase, the Tampa-based public relations firm hired to educate residents about Manatee County’s fertilizer ordinance, held meetings with residents and shared information about the harms of improper landscaping.

The researchers conducted a survey in October 2013 to gauge how much Lakewood Ranch and other East County residents knew about the topics they covered.

After the researchers presented their findings to a group of more than 50 presentation attendees July 30, the duo invited interested residents to create a community education group.

Ott and Monaghan plan to meet with the task force again at the end of September, but haven’t decided on a date or location, yet.

“The key is keeping the conversation going,” Monaghan said. “My goal is for people to understand that they live in a natural environment. The plants and ponds in their neighborhoods are part of a system. Everyone plays a role (in keeping the system healthy).”

Did you know?
Stormwater retention ponds are designed to help prevent flooding and to remove pollutants from the water before it can drain into a main source.

Wetlands are considered Florida’s original stormwater system. The areas once covered more than half of Florida.

There are two types of stormwater systems — retention and detention.

Retention systems allow water to seep through soil into shallow groundwater, or aquifer. Detention ponds allow materials to settle and be absorbed, and also have aquatic plants around their perimeters.