By Nelson Ball, article for the Tallahassee Democrat
Native wildflowers along the path on the West side of Lake Elberta. (Photo: Nelson Ball)
For more than a decade, Lake Elberta Park has been enjoyed by walkers, joggers, cyclists, birdwatchers, dog walkers and more. Many years of teamwork between the city of Tallahassee, local organizations and individual volunteers transformed what began as just another ordinary stormwater retention pond into the beautiful park that exists today.
Recently, the Apalachee Audubon Society entered an agreement with the city to allow us to continue to enhance wildlife habitat around the lake. Our collective goal is to, not only provide a great place for wildlife, but to inspire and encourage more people to come and enjoy the park.
In order to make the park more inviting to wildlife that calls this region home, our first focus was establishing as many native plant species as we could. Native plants, such as some species of hibiscus, coneflower and tickseed (the state wildflower of Florida), are those plants that would have been found in this area long before humans arrived.
Native wildflowers along the path on the West side of Lake Elberta. (Photo: Nelson Ball)
Animals in this region have co-evolved with these plant species, so they know which ones produce food for them to eat, which ones provide food for their prey, which make good homes, and so on. Apalachee Audubon Society knew that we had to provide these resources in order to convince native wildlife, such as great crested flycatchers, hooded mergansers and Florida softshell turtles to frequent the park.
Over the last year, our project has been fortunate to receive hours and hours of help from employees of the city of Tallahassee. Dozens of dedicated volunteers from the communities surrounding Lake Elberta Park, both major universities, the Apalachee Audubon Society membership, and other local organizations have also helped us realize our goals.
With their hard work and dedication — and thanks to funding through grants from National Audubon Society and Florida Power & Light, as well as generous donations from Chuck and Vicky McClure, Amelia Fusaro and Bill Everitt — huge strides have been made in beautifying the park and making it a suitable place for wildlife.
Apalachee Audubon Society was able to hire interns for a second consecutive year, one each from Florida A&M University and Florida State University, to take the lead with coordinating events and volunteer work days at the park. The volunteers have planted hundreds of native plants, maintained our existing native wildflower beds and removed countless invasive plants.
They have also removed mountains of garbage from the park and provided cozy nesting boxes for several bird species, such as eastern bluebirds, wood ducks and purple martins. Recently, two wood duck nesting boxes were installed around the edge of the lake, thanks to a donation of materials from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
Both wood duck boxes successfully fledged ducklings only a few weeks after they were installed!
Photo: Native wildflowers along the path on the West side of Lake Elberta. (Photo: Nelson Ball)
With the assistance of a group of enthusiastic kids from the after school program at Walker Ford Community Center, the purple martin nesting gourds were prepared in hopes that the birds would return for this year’s nesting season.
After a few weeks, we invited our helpers to come back out and go birdwatching with us. They were so excited to see that their hard work was paying off: the martins were back!
While we were out with our binoculars, some otters decided to put on a show. Every few minutes one would dive down and return to the surface with a small catfish to snack on. I’m not sure who was having more fun, the otters or the audience.
It’s been incredible to witness and enjoy all the changes that have taken place at Lake Elberta since I moved here in 2005. The once boring stormwater pond has been transformed into one of the most beautiful parks and best wildlife viewing destinations in the county.
I am thrilled with the progress at Lake Elberta and believe things will only get better. If you haven’t been, go visit Lake Elberta Park on Lake Bradford Road as soon as you can. During this time of year, many of the wildflowers are blooming and young birds can be seen around the park. My visits there never disappoint.
Nelson Ball is currently pursuing an undergraduate degree in biological science at Florida State University. He is a former intern for the Apalachee Audubon Society and now serves on the Board of Directors.
