BY DAN HILDEBRAN
Save Our Lakes Organization board members told the Keystone Heights City Council that the cost of removing trees and underbrush from the dry lakebed of Lake Geneva would be offset by revenue from timber sales.
The nonprofit has said that removing timber and underbrush before the lake’s water level rises due to the Black Creek Water Resource Development Project is now its top priority.
Keystone Heights City Councilman Dan Lewandowski warned his colleagues during an earlier meeting that without the tree and underbrush removal, the health and lives of recreational lake users would be in danger.
Save Our Lakes board members Vivian Katz James and Scott Slater said they met with a timber harvester who surveyed three areas on the lake, which are now above the waterline.
One area, in the western third of the lake, is owned by private individuals. The second dry area in the middle of the lake is off Nelson’s Point. The third dry area is near the Fifth Street boat ramp on the east side of the water body.
Slater added that the Nelson’s Point section has the largest area of harvestable timber and that his contact is associated with one of the few timber harvesters that dispose of both timber and underbrush. He said the company sells the underbrush to the GRU biomass generator in Gainesville.
“And so, it’s a win-win situation to use a company like that because they are doing what we need done for the lakebed, and that’s removing all of the organic material that will die when the lake comes back,” Slater said.
The SOLO board member added that the Nelson’s Point section has around 50 acres of harvestable timber, while the west section, owned by individuals, contains nearly 20 acres. Slater said the eastern section near the Fifth Street Boat Ramp contains no marketable timber.
Slater said the only barrier to the plan is state agency approval. He added that Katz James would approach the St. Johns River Water Management District and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection to get their response to the plan.
