Region: Central Palm Beach County
Size: 118 acres
Hours: Daily from sunrise to sunset
Location:
Lake Worth Lagoon shoreline and adjacent small islands on the east side of the Lake Worth Municipal Golf Course, just north of the Lake Worth Bridge (State Road 802).
Public Use Facilities:
None at present; facilities planned for construction in 2011 include a parking area on the north side of Lucerne Avenue with spaces for 20 cars or boat trailers, a floating dock with slips for 8 boats up to 30 feet long and a water taxi, an accessible fishing pier, a floating canoe/kayak launch dock, a boardwalk with a covered observation platform, two bicycle racks, and two kiosks with educational exhibits. Restroom facilities and drinking water are available in Bryant Park, which is located just south of the natural area.
Site Information:
The natural area was created as part of an environmental restoration project that was completed in 2005. The site consists of a restored natural shoreline along 1.2 miles of the western shoreline of the lagoon, 11 acres of mangroves, 2.2 acres of oyster reefs, 3.8 acres of cordgrass, and 50 acres of shallow seagrass habitat. More than 350 volunteers planted 28,000 mangroves along the shoreline and on four small created islands. Additional work in 2011 will include demolition of the old Lake Worth Bridge and use of the concrete rubble to construct a 1/2-acre artificial reef.
Plants:
Species planted on the site include cordgrass and red mangrove. Black and white mangroves are beginning to grow on the site through natural recruitment.
Wildlife:
Animal species observed on the site include common snook, red drum, green sea turtle, black-crowned night-heron, American oystercatcher, royal tern, double-crested cormorant, osprey, West Indian manatee, and crabs such as the Atlantic sand fiddler and Atlantic marsh fiddler.
Links:
Coastal
