Volunteers from The Shores of Long Bayou Home Owners’ Association (HOA) have aggressively restored the natural habitat on their 77-acre campus. This includes ten stormwater ponds, two lakes, a nature reserve and one-mile of bayou shoreline. Our speaker Ernie Franke, will recount the factors needed to form a successful Wetlands Committee and reviews some of the recent accomplishments fighting invasive trees and aquatic plants. He shows some of the transformations using Florida-native plants.
Ernie Franke has a Master’s Degree in Electrical Engineering and worked in that field for 37 years. His current interest is in restoring stormwater ponds (of which he has eight in progress), where he is the chairman of the Wetlands Committee at The Shores of Long Bayou Condominiums. The efforts of the volunteers have been recognized by:
The Shores volunteers also won a Florida Exotic Pest Plant Council (FLEPPC) conservation grant in 2016 and the FLEPPC Kathy Craddock Burks Education grant in 2017 and 2018.