This week, contractor crews have been planting two wetlands at Fountain City Lake – one of the last steps in the City’s ongoing commitment to improve the lake’s water quality.

Once the plantings are completed, the spring-fed lake will refill and saturate the new beds. The fast-growing plants – including cardinal flower, blue flag iris, button bush, soft rush and wintergreen – should fill out the new wetlands beds by this summer.

For years, thick algae has overwhelmed the lake. The City’s aim has been to repair the lake’s infrastructure so that the ecosystem can regain its long-term balance.

“Restoring Fountain City Lake to better health and beauty has required persistent effort and a lot of patience,” Mayor Madeline Rogero said. “But we knew from the beginning it would take time to correct problems that were decades in the making.”

David McGinley, Stormwater Engineering Manager, said the new wetlands plants will be attractive, but their main purposes will be to enhance the lake’s water quality and discourage algae growth. The wetlands do that two ways:

• There's now better water circulation in the lake, because the most shallow, stagnant areas – conducive to the formation of thick algae – have been converted into the wetlands wildlife habitat; and.

• The wetlands plants absorb nutrients that otherwise would promote the growth of algae.

“These wetlands plantings were selected because they’ll do well and require little maintenance,” McGinley said. “They’ll grow to between 2 and 4 feet tall. These will be controlled wetlands – not jungle, but not manicured.”

The City’s $750,000 lake restoration project started in fall 2014 with the repair of a leak in the lake's earthen berm, allowing the lake to deepen to its proper depth. Workers then repaired the fountain and pump house to aerate the water.

Late last fall, the wetlands contractor, Ronald Franks Construction Co., finished building the gabion baskets, which were then filled with more stones and soil. The contractor also removed more muck (contributed to by the feces of overabundant ducks) from the lake’s bottom. Once the plant material became available, subcontractor Landscape Services Inc. in late February initiated the plantings.