West Meadows contains a system of interconnected lakes and ponds all interdependent upon one another.Even if the lakes and ponds are not directly connected, they are intentionally engineered by elevation to spill into one another.It is a very complex system. The water system in West Meadows operates on a permit from the Southwest Florida Water Management Department.It is a complicated permit that requires specific numbers of certain species of biological and botanical growth to be present in the lakes and ponds.Operating under this permit is not easy.There are inspections from time to time and when there is an imbalance SWFWMD requires remediation (which is the re-planting of whatever species is deficient).Remediation is a very expensive item to your Association.
Understand that lakes have "good plants" and "bad plants". There are plants that are undesirable weeds and then there are other plants that are necessary for the biological balance of West Meadows and the maintenance of our permit.We don’t have a choice in keeping the "good plants".Our permit dictates that we must keep them.The Association requests that when a homeowner wishes to do pond maintenance, that you give a Lakes Committee Member a call and let him/her know of your intentions.Your Committee Member can help you identify the plants that you can remove and those that must remain to maintain bio-balance. You can also contact a Lakes Committee member by email at: wmbod@west-meadows.org
The Lakes Committee is currently made up of 6 members. It is chaired by Jerry Kautz, with the following members: Bill Ternansky, Bruce McCrary, Doug Martin, Dominic Commiso and Hussein Mourtada. The 60+ lakes and ponds in WM are divided among the 6 members who monitor and report any issues to the group and to the service provider for resolution. There is a standing monthly meeting where the committee reviews and discusses any issues or ideas that the team members have, or any problems that are reported by residents.
To also provide a better service to the community, the committee joined the Florida Lakewatch program. This group includes experienced biologists who share their expertise and assist the committee in monitoring the lakes and ponds. In WM there are 2 lakes that "qualify" for the monitoring program. For a body of water to qualify for the monitoring program, it has to be over 5 acres in size. In West Meadows, one of the lakes is located between Hawthorne and Strathmoor Estates and the other in Doves Landing. The committee tries to collect samples from the 2 lakes on a monthly basis and sends them to the Lakewatch group at the University of Florida for analysis and feedback. The committee members were trained by Eric Schulz, who is a biologist with Lakewatch.
The Lakes Committee invites the residents of the community to report any problems or issues that they have to our Property Manager, Lloyd Rials of Greenacre Properties at 263-5905.
Below is a brief description of the Florida Lakewatch program (taken from their web-site): Florida LAKEWATCH is a volunteer citizen lake monitoring program that facilitates "hands-on" citizen participation in the management of Florida lakes through monthly monitoring activities.
Coordinated through the University of Florida's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences/Department of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, the program has been in existence since 1986. In 1991 the Florida Legislature recognized the importance of the program and established Florida LAKEWATCH in the state statutes (Florida Statute 1004.49.) LAKEWATCH is now one of the largest lake monitoring programs in the nation with over 1800 trained citizens monitoring 600+ lakes, in more than 40 counties.
