Updated on 4-22-2024

Lake Apopka is the headwaters of the Ocklawaha Chain of Lakes. The District and partners have worked since the 1980s to improve the lake’s water quality and habitat, achieving significant improvements.

For example, in 1994 there was no submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) in the lake. As a result of the District’s restoration efforts, a 2023 survey found visible native SAV around 95% the lake’s perimeter and District staff have observed much of the SAV flowering. The increase in native SAV is critical as it was both a predicted outcome as water quality improvements and provides critical habitat for fish and wildlife. Flowering is important for two reasons: first it is an indicator of good plant health, and second the seeds produced provide for further natural expansion of these important plants. The return and continuing expansion of SAV indicates water quality and clarity are improving. In May 2018, Field and Stream Magazine recognized the area, highlighting impressive catches of bass and a resurgence of fishing tournaments in the area.

Lake Apopka’s water quality restoration has been based on a multipronged approach of diet and exercise. “Diet” has focused on reducing the amount of phosphorus entering the lake. The largest “diet” improvement occurred following the Legislature’s 1996 direction to the district to buy out the farms on the lake’s north shore. This area, formerly a floodplain marsh, was diked, drained and put into agricultural production in the 1940s. Phosphorus from these farms fueled the continuous algal bloom which shaded the lake’s SAV and as the SAV disappeared the bass population collapsed.

Key to reducing phosphorus loading from the North Shore was restoring the area’s wetlands to reduce the volume of nutrient laden water pumped to the lake. Now discharges can be treated to inactivate phosphorus and in 2003 the passage of the Lake Apopka Stormwater Rule enhanced the lake’s diet to the entire watershed.

“Exercise” is removal of phosphorus already in the lake, which has included harvest of rough fish (largely gizzard shad) from the lake and operating the Marsh Flow-Way, a filter marsh that continuously filters algae, suspended solids and associated nutrients from the lake’s water. The combined effect of the diet and exercise has been a dramatic improvement in water quality. Since the late 1980s, phosphorus concentrations have declined 69% and water clarity increased 93%, as of the end of 2023. In 2022, the annual average phosphorus concentration was below the target concentration for the first time. This doesn’t mean the district’s work is done but it is an important milestone in the lake’s recovery. The return of clearer water and return of sunlight to the lake’s bottom caused the regrowth of SAV, which had been missing for 50 years, and the critical bass habitat needed for recovering sportfish populations.

New District projects:

The Lake Apopka – West Marsh (Lake County) is a wetland restoration project providing habitat for wetland species of various plants and animals at the Lake Apopka North Shore. Additional opportunities include enhancing tree islands, parking improvements to natural areas and improvements to degraded levees for public use and recreational opportunities.

The District is working to accelerate the recovery of aquatic plants in Lake Apopka with a $1.5 million restoration effort that includes:

• Planting 28,382 native floating-leaved plants like lilies and lotus to provide submerged habitat on more than 10 acres of the lake. This project is in partnership with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).
• A collaboration with the University of Florida to improve underwater planting techniques and identify potential planting locations. This project planted 10 acres of SAV throughout the lake.
• Planting native SAV like eelgrass and Illinois pondweed. This project is in partnership with DEP and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. These efforts have planted 63 acres (315,000 plants) of SAV in Lake Apopka since 2021. Additional funding for 2023–2024 will account for planting another 46 acres (approximately 230,000 plants) of eelgrass and Illinois pondweed in Lake Apopka.

Ongoing projects:

North Shore Water and Phosphorus Management includes:

• In late 2021, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) concurred with the District’s site-wide biological assessment to cease monitoring of pesticide concentrations on the Lake Apopka North Shore. In 2018, FWS concurred that pesticide exposure had been reduced enough to enable the District to begin implementing a broader management of water levels and wetland vegetation. The broader management flexibility will provide additional benefits to Lake Apopka by allowing more water to be stored on the North Shore, thus reducing the phosphorus pumped back to the lake and improving the condition of the North Shore’s mosaic of wetland types.
• Harvesting of gizzard shad has been an important factor in the water quality improvements, with more than one million pounds of shad removed annually. Since 1993, the shad removal equates to more than 250,000 pounds of phosphorus removed.
• Operation of the Lake Apopka Marsh Flow-Way since 2003 has resulted in 30% of the lake’s water volume having been filtered annually, to remove suspended solids, algae and associated nutrients. Since operation began in 2003, more than 70,000 tons of total suspended solids, and 36 tons of total phosphorus have been removed from the lake. In summer 2024, the District will contract out work to slip line several pipes within the Marsh Flow-Way to extend the functional capacity and structural integrity of the system.
• In response to the recovering wetlands on the North Shore, wildlife, especially birds, has responded dramatically in numbers and diversity. The North Shore is now one of Florida’s top birding hot spots on eBird.
• As part of annual operations and maintenance, the District is implementing a series of projects to improve and maintain Lake Apopka. These projects, which will be completed by fall 2024, include;
  • Repairing Lake Apopka Wildlife Drive levees
  • Regrading several miles of the Loop Trail
  • Paving the northernmost segment of Wildlife Drive
  • Refurbishing the Duda pump station
  • Stabilizing the Apopka-Beauclair Canal west levee
  • Raising 2.2 miles of levees and roadways along Conrad and Hooper Farm roads
• The District is implementing a series of infrastructure improvements on the Lake Apopka North Shore that will allow more water storage, increase water management flexibility and reduce nutrient inputs to Lake Apopka.
• The District is designing a dredging project on the south side of Lake Apopka near the Newton Park Boat Ramp. The design will reestablish a canal connecting the boat ramp to deeper parts of the lake and provide habitat improvements outside the channel footprint.