Sawgrass Lake Park

Thursday October 15, 2015

Temperature 85. partly cloudy 

breezy, humidity 62%

Sawgrass Lake Park

photo taken from inside the John Anderson Environmental Education Center

Sawgrass Lake Park began as a flood protection area for the city of Pinellas Park, Florida in 1972. These 400 acres nestled in Pinellas County are one of the largest Red Maple (Acer rubrum) Swamps in Florida. Board walks inside the Park are over a mile long with several trails where many species of birds can be seen like Herons, Ibis, Hawks, Anhinga's, Wood Storks, Common Coots and many others. The drainage lake that make up this park is a great habitat for many reptiles including a wide variety of turtles, snakes and alligators. 

newly hatched tortise

gopher tortise

bromeliads growing in the red maple

This wetland also has a wide variety of plants including emergent, submerged, epiphytes and various species of trees. The red maple dominates this flowing water swamp. The floor of this ecosystem stays mostly moist and verification is the large trees that have fallen over with their root balls exposed. Cypress trees have been planted along the boardwalk and should do quite well. The forest area's of this swamp do not have much of a emergent layer but the canopy layer, under stories, shrub layer and forest floor are thriving. The design of this swamp is in such a way that a visitor really could not tell it is a drainage area to protect the City of Pinellas Park directly to it's west.

soft shell turtle swimming in the canal

The lake and drainage canals seem to be eutrophic due to the cloudiness of the water or they just might be filled with phytoplankton. We did not test the water. Many aquatic plants can be seen in the water and near the edges of the boardwalk. Rushes, Duckweed, Water Hyacinths, Water Lettuce, Poke weed are just to name a few.
Some of the threats to this park would be pollution from the runoff water that flows into the lakes and canals from the west. This area has already under gone a giant clean up because of the shooting range to the west. The run off from the gun range contains lead and other carcinogens running into the lake.

 For me, the most overlooked feature of this park is the bat house. It is not clearly seen from the entrance into the park because it is hidden from the tree line. However on the way out it is clear to see. I do not know how may houses like this are in the park but it was nice to see this habitat standing off the main road.