Conservation News

Restoring habitat on the St. Johns

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission's restoration of native grasses is boosting bass fishing habitat in the St. Johns River.

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Photography by
Craig Lamb
Photography by
Andy Crawford
This is a before and after gallery of a habitat restoration project underway on the St. Johns River. What you are seeing here is an example of the intended goal, which is to reestablish grasses throughout the river system.
On April 16, 2024, 16 volunteers consisting of bass anglers and members of St. Johns River Keepers joined biologists from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission (FWC) to establish this protected growing site.
The volunteers would build a three-acre site enclosed by 1,300 feet of fence. They completed the job in 90 minutes.
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The purpose of the project is to restablish native grasses that are vital to fish and wildlife, an namely largemouth bass. Back-to-back hurricanes with Matthew in 2016 and Irma in 2017 caused extensive damage to the grassbeds through uprooting of the vegetation, along with the high, dark water conditions that shaded out the vegetation and prevented it from growing or dying off. 
The limited coverage of vegetation is also caused by grazing from tilapia, turtle, manatee and more, and thus the reason for the fencing.
The fencing will allow grasses to germinate and grow before it gets grazed down.
Step one is to the in the fencing to the shoreline.
PVC pipes will be fitted over metal T Posts that are first driven into the river bottom on a low tide.
Fencing is tie-fastened to the PVC posts.
And the process continues for 1,300 feet to the opposite side of the site.

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