A stream in a nature preserve in St. Petersburg is now flowing as it naturally did. The restoration is helping to filter water going into the city's largest lake, which has battled pollution and flooding.
The stream flows through part of the Boyd Hill Nature Preserve. Workers restored the natural hydrology and re-created wetlands to filter nutrients flowing into Lake Maggiore.
The city and the Southwest Florida Water Management District completed the project.
“The other day I was here, there were fish, so the fish have got a nice flow way now and so this is what the stream restoration is all about is laying those banks back, making it a slower and more sinuous path,” said Nancy Norton, the project manager with the water district.
Norton says the project changed the hydrology of much of the preserve, and should reduce both pollution and flooding into Lake Maggiore.
“Instead of shooting straight to the lake it's now holding around that retention time that really does improve the water quality as well as improve the functionalities of the wetlands,” she said.
"And by doing that we're enhancing the functionality of the wetlands and enhancing the the functionality of the streams as well," she said. "When water shoots straight down, you don't have much in terms of habitat for birds or fish or the benthics that might live on the bottom."
The project includes 30 acres in the Boyd Hill Nature Preserve. The stream is about 1,400 feet before it empties into Lake Maggiore.
The total cost of the project is $1,096,800, with the city and the water district splitting the cost event. The Tampa Bay Estuary Program also contributed a grant of $200,000.
