Lake and Preserve Management in Sarasota, FL

What a Sarasota community actually owes on its lakes and preserves

The first question is always who owns the tract. Some sit on common area the association holds. Some fall inside individual lot lines and land on the homeowner instead. Either way somebody carries the obligation, and that obligation is generally to keep invasive and exotic species from taking over so the native community can hold its ground. We read your plan and your plat and tell you which category each area falls into before anybody argues about it at a meeting.

On the lake side it is the same principle applied to water. Selective treatment rather than a blanket spray, so the beneficial native plants that hold the bank and keep the water clear stay where they are. These ponds are the front end of a public system, so what grows in them and what washes off their banks does not stay a community problem for very long. For the communities north of Clark Road that system is the Phillippi Creek basin, and it ends up in Roberts Bay.

• Monthly inspection and treatment of lakes and retention ponds
• Quarterly preserve and wetland inspection, treated as the inspection calls for
• Brazilian pepper, Australian pine and melaleuca control in preserve buffers
• Selective applications by a State Licensed Aquatic Herbicide Applicator
• Water testing plus hand and mechanical removal where herbicide is not the answer
• Permit and resource management plan review so a board knows what it owes
• Adam attends HOA and committee meetings in person

What Monthly Lake Service Looks Like

Every visit starts with walking the bank. We look at what is growing in the water, what is growing on the slope, and what has changed since last month. Then we treat what needs treating. Problems caught monthly are usually easier to deal with.

Treatment is selective, not a blanket spray of the whole pond. The point is to knock back invasive and exotic growth and leave the beneficial native plants that hold the bank and keep the water healthy.

• Inspection of open water, shoreline and littoral shelf
• Selective aquatic herbicide application on invasive and exotic growth
• Water testing when conditions or resident complaints call for it
• Hand and mechanical removal where a herbicide is the wrong tool
• A report back to the board or the manager after the visit

Preserves, Wetlands and Buffers

Preserve and wetland areas run on a quarterly cycle. They don't need the same attention as an open lake, but they fail quietly. Exotic plants move in along the edges first, then work inward until the area no longer looks or functions like the permit says it should.

Wetland buffer maintenance is part of the same job. A clean buffer keeps clippings and turf chemicals out of the water and stops the edge from creeping in year after year.

The Compliance Side Boards Often Miss

Neighborhood stormwater systems are permitted through Florida's water management districts and the state. Once construction is done and the developer hands the community over, responsibility for operating and maintaining that system usually goes to the HOA or the district, along with the permit and its maintenance conditions.

Wetland mitigation areas are the ones that catch people off guard. If a preserve was created to offset a wetland impact, it carries monitoring and maintenance requirements that somebody has to meet. We meet communities whose current lake provider had no idea those conditions existed. Finding out late is expensive, because remediation usually costs more than maintenance does.

• We ask for your permit and maintenance documents up front
• We tell you what your permit documents call for
• We flag conditions a previous provider missed
• Written records of what was treated and when

Enhancement, Planting and New Mitigation Areas

Not every job is maintenance. We build newly created mitigation systems, and we take on enhancement projects for preserves that are too far gone to fix with a spray schedule alone. That usually means clearing the exotics out first, then installing native plants so the area can hold its own.

On golf course and HOA lakes we take an integrated approach. Vegetation control, water testing, bank condition and the trees around the edge all get looked at together, because they are the same system.