Water bodies, watersheds and storm water

Orange Creek

The 600-square-mile Orange Creek Basin, primarily in Alachua County, is part of the lower Ocklawaha River watershed. Limestone beneath much of the surface of the basin has resulted in the formation of sinkholes, large shallow lakes and broad wet prairies. These shallow water bodies fluctuate over a broad range due to droughts or heavy rains, natural processes essential for healthy shallow lakes and marshes.

The Orange Creek Basin contains Paynes Prairie, an extensive shallow marsh within a state park. The largest lakes in the basin — totaling 29,000 acres — are Newnans, Lochloosa and Orange. The water flowing from Newnans Lake into Paynes Prairie was reserved from other uses in order to maintain wetlands in Paynes Prairie. The reservation was accomplished through a 1994 St. Johns River Water Management District rule. The rule was adopted because Orange Lake fish camp owners wanted all of Newnans Lake’s water to continue to be artificially diverted south through a canal toward Orange Lake. Historically, all of Newnans Lake flowed into Paynes Prairie. The District compromised by reserving about half of the flow from Newnans Lake for Paynes Prairie and allowing the remainder of the flow to continue being diverted to Orange Lake. Lake Lochloosa flows into Orange Lake through Cross Creek, the home of The Yearling author Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings. Finally, Orange Lake drains into Orange Creek, which flows into Rodman Reservoir — an impounded segment of the lower Ocklawaha River.

Exceptional wildlife

The lakes and wetlands in the Orange Creek Basin provide habitat for a diversity of wildlife. There are 85 bald eagle nests around Newnans, Orange, and Lochloosa lakes, more than most other areas in Florida. Thousands of migratory sandhill cranes winter in Paynes Prairie, mingling with resident Florida sandhill cranes. Wood storks and various other wading birds are commonly seen along lake shorelines and in marshes, along with occasional whooping cranes, white pelicans, and roseate spoonbills. A wood stork colony breeds in a cypress swamp north of Orange Lake.

Large flocks of migratory waterfowl attract hunters to the basin’s lakes in winter. Orange Lake’s natural floating islands, a tourist attraction in the 1940s, have an unusually high diversity and number of amphibians such as sirens and newts. Alligators can often be seen in large numbers from LaChua trail in Paynes Prairie. Black bear sometimes follow the edges of streams and lakes into the Orange Creek Basin from Ocala National Forest.

Hatchet Creek is a scenic area in the Newnans Lake Conservation Area.

Special recognition

Orange Lake, Lake Lochloosa, Paynes Prairie, River Styx, Cross Creek, and Lochloosa Creek are “Outstanding Florida Waters,” a state designation that provides a high level of protection because of the exceptional richness of aquatic and wetland habitats. Paynes Prairie is also a recognized National Natural Landmark.

The District’s Governing Board added the Orange Creek Basin to the Surface Water Improvement and Management (SWIM) program priority list in 2003. The goal of the Orange Creek Basin SWIM program is to restore and maintain healthy aquatic and wetland habitats in the three large lakes and Paynes Prairie. This is necessary because water quality and aquatic and wetland habitats in these lakes have declined over the past century due to development in the basin.

District conservation lands

The District has acquired more than 38,700 acres of conservation lands in the Orange Creek Basin, either as full-fee purchases or as conservation easements, with costs sometimes shared by partners. These conservation lands are managed by the District or its partners. Most are open to the public, including Newnans Lake Conservation Area, Lochloosa Wildlife Management Area, and Longleaf Flatwoods Reserve. The Recreation Guide to District Lands provides information on public access to these areas for recreational activities.

Lake and wetland restoration

The Orange Creek Basin Advisory Council and the District’s Governing Board in 1996 approved the Orange Creek Basin Surface Water Management Plan, a comprehensive plan to restore and maintain Newnans, Orange and Lochloosa lakes. The Council represented state agencies, local governments, lake residents, the recreational fishing industry, and environmental organizations. In 2011, the District prepared and the agency’s Governing Board approved an Orange Creek Basin Surface Water Improvement and Management (SWIM) Plan to guide restoration of water quality and wetland and aquatic habitats, primarily in Newnans, Lochloosa and Orange lakes. This plan is an update to the 1996 Surface Water Management Plan and serves as the first official SWIM plan for the Orange Creek Basin, meeting SWIM Act requirements.

The District has restored thousands of acres of shallow marsh at the 3,500-acre Orange Creek Restoration Area. These wetlands along Orange Creek were drained and farmed in the early 1900s. In 1998, the District bought the farm with funding provided by the Natural Resources Conservation Service, then filled ditches and removed dikes to restore the wetlands.

The Orange Creek Basin SWIM program is focusing on reducing pollutants in Newnans, Lochloosa, and Orange lakes, initially through scientific development of estimates of pollutant reduction needed to restore the lakes to state water quality standards. Major activities include monitoring water quality and plankton communities, modeling pollutant loading, quantifying sources of nutrient pollutants and coordinating with state and local governments. The District is providing matching funds and technical assistance to the city of Gainesville to reduce pollutants in Sweetwater Branch before it flows into Paynes Prairie.

Updated on 5-14-2010