Jim, welcome and thank you for joining me today.

Thank you for having me. I'm happy to be here.

I understand you've got a couple of projects going right now. One of them is the Mural Lake project. Can you talk about that a little bit?

Yeah, let me, frame the setting there. We've been working at Mural Lake on a multiple, uh, direction there for the past couple years.

We started in September of 22 with simple, , cleanups for debris floating in the lake and adjacent to the lake. But, over the last couple of years, we've earned a couple of grants from the estuary, Tampa Bay Estuary Program, and have been implementing a shoreline restoration project and pollinator garden, , at, the lake since then, using, , our volunteers on a approximately monthly basis.

And so that work includes, a large, , Area of native species, native plant species installed near the overlook at the northwest corner of the lake. But also we've, uh, renovated the north shoreline to install, native species that are pollinator friendly as well as new wetland plants. And we are now working on the west shoreline where we've done a lot of clearing of the vegetation out there.

If you go out there you might see that. And the idea there is that we are, um, basically positioning that site for, uh, A low maintenance, uh, very high diversity, high functioning, uh, natural. habitat on the west side. And, uh, to do that, as I mentioned, we've got, uh, monthly volunteers helping us out a monthly cleanup day on the second Saturday of every month.

But we also have a smaller group of very dedicated local individuals who are focused on moving the project forward. And, uh, uh, they are kind of leading the charge there at this point. So that's Mirror Lake there. We also include, uh, in our monthly cleanups, we're out there on Canoes or kayaks, um, whatever we have to help get debris out of the lake.

It helps to have people that are local keeping an eye on it when you can only be out there once a month.

Exactly. And, and really if I could take a moment to hear That is the premise of our organization, is that there are people in communities around lakes that are very passionately focused on their lakes.

And in fact, they've become almost advocates for their lake, the health of the lake and the care of the lake. And even though these are city parks that we're working in with the permission of the city, um, it helps to have somebody else there, uh, from the public. With, uh, a skill set with the necessary equipment to go around and kind of keep up the site, um, keep up the lake in between these routine cleanups here.

And, uh, and those people we call our, our lake champions. They're the ones that really stand for the lake and And, uh, work in its best interest in the long run because we think that is basically beneficial to the whole community to have that. So, those people, uh, supplemented by their helpers from the community are the ones we look to to kind of keep the project moving and, and, uh, work towards our goal.

So, I understand you also have, uh, a project going at, at Crescent Lake that's been going on for a while. What can you tell us about that?

Well, Crescent Lake is what we call our flagship. project. We've been working on Crescent Lake since 2007, and it started off as a local initiative by a city planner, an art instructor, and an ecologist, all gathered around the lake from the community, focused on the, around centrally around the idea that the lake at that time was not very ecologically diverse.

That is, it was a well manicured lawn right down to the water edge, and it looked great in that way, but There was many opportunities people saw at the time for improving, uh, making habitat, keeping the lake clean from debris, uh, and it was also afflicted at that time by several types of invasive species, invasive plant species, infestations.

So they initiated this restoration project in 2007 with a small grant from the estuary program. And, uh, we've been continuing on that. Uh, that work was originally initiated by, uh, as I mentioned, this, self, initiated group. , friends of Crescent Lake, but we, incorporated as a 501c3 nonprofit in 2021 as stewards of urban lakes, SOLE is our acronym.

And the idea there is that the lessons we've taken from Crescent Lake can be applied to other lakes and the good relationships we've built with the city can be extended to other lakes and the educational features of working on the lake can be extrapolated to other lakes as well. So

it sounds like Crescent Lake was the beginning of all of this.

It was. And, . We've used it as both a, , a proof that there's a vital interest in the community for this kind of work. as well as a proving ground for certain techniques that we use. And that involves also how to care for and feed and, nurture our volunteer mix. , we couldn't do anything, frankly, without volunteers from the community.

So Crescent Lake has been that proof. And by being proof, I would like to add one more thing in that, , you can look at the lake now, and tangibly, you can see a substantially greater mix of natural habitats around the lake. And that has given us benefits in terms of, , enhanced populations of birds that live there.

And birds, of course, are attractive to people because they're, we're bird watchers, are all around the lake and keeping track of it. But also it gives people a sense of the, , aesthetic and ecological balance of a lake if you can see these animals safely using the lake. So what we looked at Crescent Lake as sort of a living proof that this approach makes sense and is of value to the community.

I also, heard that you're working in Walter Fuller Park. , what's the lake over there?

The lake over there in Walter Fuller Park, which is a, uh, um, a 10 acre lake called Jungle Lake on the west side of town here. And it's actually an old, uh, stormwater pond that got converted into, well, an old borrow pit, if you will, that got converted into a stormwater pond years ago.

And was enhanced about 30 years ago by some work with, from, uh, funded by the Water Management District. But, uh, that work, uh, has,, essentially become, that site essentially has become, a mix of species, plant species and infestations. There are some native species there that still persist from the planting done 30 years ago.

And there's some that have been, , overrun by, , non native species. And so working with the city, we're restoring. , parts of that lake now with the native, natural shoreline community, as well as initiating a couple of interesting, , floating wetland island projects, where one of them is a passive system that is, it's just anchored there and growing plants.

And this is a commercially available, , system called a biohaven. And we've been, testing that. And another one is a more actively managed system called a BEMAT. And the BEMAT is a Oh, about 800 square feet of floating, , mat that is implanted with, , different species, all native species. And the process there is to go in and every four months, , scrape it off, basically take off the plants that are growing on the surface.

And then take that accumulated organic matter and analyze that for the phosphorus and nitrogen, the key plant nutrients here that are important to our lake water quality, uh, take that and then analyze for those numbers, , and then show that we are actually exporting, removing them, from the lake itself, thereby reducing the internal cycling and the load of these, pollutants on the lake itself.

, this is a, a natural system. It's been supported by the local Jungle Terrace Civic Association for the last, uh, couple of years, and it shows, significant and consistent results, , with each harvest. So anyway, I'm saying all that because that's a lake that, uh, as I said earlier, it's just basically a pond, but by innovating on these, um, ideas, approaching the site with some novel and, newly informed ideas on how to manage the lakes, we can, uh, we can increase the functionality of the lake and these also provide new habitats as well.

And, uh, we have, , Periodic cleanups out there at the lake. We have one coming up, on the Saturday, , tomorrow, actually, on the 22nd. And we have them a few, every few months out there. People can participate.

So you mentioned the Civic Association. What other, , community involvement do you usually have?

Well, all these lakes, uh, have, , are, well, typically surrounded by a neighborhood association of interested people. Everybody wants to, everybody wants the waterfront if they can. It's certainly a valuable, uh, addition to their, their needs. But then they also care for it as a, as a significant part of their lives.

And so at Crescent Lake, the Crescent Lake Neighborhood Association has been, uh, very involved. And, we've recently conducted a, a, um, provided a summary of conditions out in the lake to them. I give them sort of an annual report card, , and this year the lake passed very well. Uh, the water quality's improved.

The bird diversity and numbers are up. The, , water, uh, the, , volunteer numbers are up. The amount of debris we've removed from the lake has, uh, has, , been increased even. So we're seeing great improvements there.

So what kind of birds can people expect to see at Crescent Lake?

There's a a kind of a typical mix of water birds there.

If you are familiar with birds, you're looking at, uh, cormorants, double crested, double crested cormorants. , anhingas, ospreys, , a wide range of duck species. Uh, they all have, , their different, , attractions to the lake in different seasons. But lately, we've been really impressed and happy to see That there's one species of, , duck like wading bird called a grebe, a pied billed grebe, G R E B E, that has decided to nest in there.

And so now we are in our second year of producing, pied billed grebe chicks. And, , we've been very happy with that. It's unusual. After 20 years almost of living by the lake, it's the first time we've seen that. So it, it speaks to the quality of the habitat and the fact that We're getting there.

Nature is observing us and responding by allowing these birds to participate in the lake itself. What kind

of responses are you getting from like the young folks in the community, maybe at the colleges?

We have interns that help us from Eckerd College. Every semester we Get at least one or two and this time we have three working for us and, , they, , obtain real world experience, , with managing and trying to shepherd the volunteers in a safe and effective way in our cleanups, as well as, , engaging in a more of a, , specific focus, area within environmental studies.

These are all folks that are probably in the environmental studies program and they all have that interest already, but We get them into the real world here and, , they can see for themselves the kind of tangible results of restoration projects over time and participate in them. So, frankly, we really need them.

We also have some other groups that help us out. Shorecrest High School every year, uh, lends us their, their environmental service team in the spring and we, put them to good use. And they, uh, have done a lot of, uh, work, frankly, with our projects at, Mirror and Crescent Lake and others. So, on a, on a collegiate level or, or, , secondary school level, we definitely get participation in young folks.

On the, at the younger ages, what we have had in the past and look to get it re started again in the short term, is what we call our scavenger hunt for young children, basically the less, kids younger than 10. They like, we give them a chart with the figures of, or pictures of birds and plants and, other features.

And Have them go around the lake and tick them off and basically look at the landscape in a different way. And in fact, they seem to really love doing this. They turn it into a really highly competitive, search, you know. So we, they have a lot of fun, but we think that's really important. I mean, obviously we would all want , our younger generation to be more involved and to have a view of the environment in it that, that is positive and appreciative.

And, we think that. This kind of, these kind of initial starts are just part of that project, , part of that long term view.

, if people want to help stewards of our urban lakes, what's your vision for getting the community involved?

The idea here is that, as I mentioned earlier, there's, um, there's a few individuals in each community that say, this lake is important to them and they will do a lot to help sustain that and bring that, move that forward.

But, in the long run, what we envision is that, Enough people, by just being involved, can share that, uh, appreciation of the lake and can share that and learn that they can do things that are on a human scale, that is on an individual scale, that are beneficial, that are tangible, that yield tangible improvements over time.

And, , we started now with our smaller groups around, say, Mirror Lake or Crescent Lake or, , Round Lake, another small group there we're working with. And Jungle Lake. And we think that, and we've seen this on Crescent Lake, is that the more involved we are, , more people start asking questions how they can become involved.

And so it becomes kind of an organic growth at that time, that they can, uh, learn how to participate. For people now to help out, they can see our cleanups, and we're, uh, partnered, very well with Keep Pinellas Beautiful. They, uh, support us by advertising our events on the Eventbrite, platform.

And you can, sign up for these, uh, cleanups well ahead of time, and that's very, uh, that kind of fills your schedule there. We've got a lot of them to work with. Um, but you can also reach out by going to our website and, uh, learning more about what we do.

We're, it's pretty thorough in terms of providing a history and an overview of what we do, and, uh, our website is, uh, www. solinc. org and that also has a widget that take with a calendar that can take you to our events. That is probably your easiest way to learn more about us and , see the schedule coming up.

So you're here because we ran into each other at the community, um, festival a few weeks ago or maybe a week and a half ago. , what other tabling events do you have coming up, , with SOL?

Well, every one that, that is, uh that is advertised locally and held locally, we try to attend because we do want to.

We believe that is a way to reach out to people , and get new, uh, volunteers and bring people into the, into the organization. But, uh, coming up we have Do Good Day, uh, which is, , Week the next weekend actually and so that's coming up fast and we'll have a table there Green thumb, we'll have a table there We typically are jointly Presenting our tabling with keeping us beautiful there, but we'll definitely be there and there's a few other local events coming up later in the year that I that will be advertised on our Also, probably on our Instagram site is another thing.

So let me say one more thing about that, Karen, is that, , on social media, we have a Facebook page, um, Stewards of Urban Lakes. You can look that up. And, , Instagram, , which is also the same thing. It's, , at Stewards of Urban Lakes. You can look that up. But these are the ones that we tend to use more typically for updating people on what we've done and where we are.

Yeah,

social media is great like that. Yeah,

that's really true. And, , and if it doesn't matter if you're a Facebook person or an Instagram person, we try to keep it both covered. , probably a little more intensive on the Instagram these days, , but there, yeah.

So to wrap this up, can you tell me what kind of support you get from the city?

Oh, yeah, the city has been, , well, first of all, it's important to say that for all these, Almost all the lakes we work on, they are central to a city park. So we have the cooperation and the permission of the, , City of St. Pete and the Parks and Rec Department to, do our projects out there. , so there's that, and they are very, they've always been supportive.

Um, but they also provide, uh, uh, assistance by helping us with, um, mowing and helping us with, uh, basically site maintenance to prepare the site. Uh, for us. And, the, , other, , department that is very, , is functionally, , critical to our performance is the Stormwater Traffic, Pavement, and Operations Department.

We just simply call it the Stormwater Department. , Michael Perry is their Lakes Manager, and he has been very helpful to us throughout all these projects, and they've, uh, provided It's extensive in the parks as well, , but Stormwater and Parks and Rec have provided extensive in kind services that have really helped us grow our, , our organization, , and our reach and the effectiveness of our project.

, we always appreciate that. And, , that doesn't mean that we don't have our arguments sometimes and we don't, uh, and things don't go 100%, but we, for the most part, we, we work together very well. And, uh, And they appreciate the work we've done.

Yeah, well, St. Petersburg is definitely a city that is very proud of the parks and the parks department, and I've always found them fabulous to work with.

Oh, yeah, I think so, too. We, they've, , they, in 23, they gave us their Volunteer Organization of the Year award, which we, , highly appreciate. And, they wouldn't do that for just anybody, right? So we, we appreciate that they recognize that we're trying to do, if, if, if I may say, we're trying to help bridge a gap between what Um, is functionally necessary to operate and have a, , diverse and aesthetic and beautiful park.

Uh, but, and what is additionally possible through focused ecological restoration techniques on the shoreline are, we don't necessarily think we are restoring all the shorelines of all of our lakes, but we start off with, small projects that tend to grow and, uh, and become, uh, become ingrained into that project over time.

And , yeah.

You started as a 501c3 in 2021?

That's when we became officially, , a non profit organization.

And that was as a result of Crescent Lake?

Yeah, that was after all that time when we realized that as part of our, , it's a, it's the truth of it that as a non profit organization or just any organization trying to accomplish something at the community level, funding is required, and that funding can come from various sources.

It can come from grants, which are, are available, with, , typically competitive, but they're available, and also, uh, from donations, which we can solicit from the public and key, key interested parties, such as corporations or, , other organizations. So to do that, though, you need that registration as a nonprofit.

So, that was, uh, our, our, our, that really, if you will, the. The, the genesis, the, start of that, uh, part of our project. And that

gave you the ability to reach out to these other lakes and to start doing some work around the city, not just that Crescent Lake. Am I right about that?

Exactly. And I'd say to expand that even a little further, I'd say, uh, because of these, what we call our starter projects, our flagship projects, we've seen a lot of interest where people simply ask.

How are you guys doing that? And what are you doing? How did you get going on that? And so we meet with them and we initiate a small program on their lakes and that tends to grow. , as a result, then that expands our potential reach to potential donors and potential members to our group. And that also has a, we think, , an economic benefit to us in the long term.

And the more we're ensconced, the more we're established, the more functional and helpful we can be. . That's all these things that work together hand in hand.

Well, thanks for, , thanks for sitting down with me today, Jim. Stewards of our urban lakes, Jim Bays, , joined me today to talk about the mission that they have to restore, our urban lakes, and transform them into the beautiful habitats that they have the potential to be.

Thanks, Jim.

Thank you very much.