Conservation News
Expert Says Water Conservation Has Helped Lake Wailes
By Bill Bair, [email protected]
LAKE WALES -- Lake Wailes is showing signs of improvement stemming from water conservation measures adopted in the early 1990s, according to a scientist who has studied the lake.
"I think it's coming back, there is no doubt," Mark Hoyer, of the University of Florida's Lake Watch program, said.
The lake level remains several feet below historic norms, but has rebounded from the extreme lows of the 1980s and early 1990s.
Hoyer, who is helping to develop a management plan for the lake, credits the use of low-volume drip irrigation systems in citrus groves and water conservation measures implemented by the phosphate industry for the change.
After a cycle of drier weather that began in the 1960s, the lake reached a low of 98 feet above mean sea level in 1991.
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