Lake Munson is a shallow reservoir on the southeast side of

Tallahassee Tallahassee ( ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the county seat and only incorporated municipality in Leon County. Tallahassee became the capital of Florida, then the Florida Territory, in 1824. In 2020, the population ...

Leon County, Florida Leon County is a county in the Panhandle of the U.S. state of Florida. It was named after the Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León. As of the 2020 census, the population was 292,198. The county seat is Tallahassee, which is also the state cap ...

. Historically known as Munson's Mill Pond as early as the 1840s, in 1950 a permanent dam was constructed. From 1934 to 1984, Lake Munson received outflow from the Tallahassee waste water system, leading in 1982 to the

Florida Department of Environmental Protection The Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) is the Florida government agency responsible for environmental protection. History By the mid-1960s, when the federal government was becoming increasingly involved in initiatives design ...

classifying the lake as

hypereutrophic The Trophic State Index (TSI) is a classification system designed to rate water bodies based on the amount of biological productivity they sustain. Although the term "trophic index" is commonly applied to lakes, any surface water body may be inde ...

and as the seventh most degraded lake in Florida.

Cypress Cypress is a common name for various coniferous trees or shrubs of northern temperate regions that belong to the family Cupressaceae. The word ''cypress'' is derived from Old French ''cipres'', which was imported from Latin ''cypressus'', the ...

and

willow Willows, also called sallows and osiers, from the genus ''Salix'', comprise around 400 speciesMabberley, D.J. 1997. The Plant Book, Cambridge University Press #2: Cambridge. of typically deciduous trees and shrubs, found primarily on moist s ...

trees line the lake, and

egrets Egrets ( ) are herons, generally long-legged wading birds, that have white or buff plumage, developing fine plumes (usually milky white) during the breeding season. Egrets are not a biologically distinct group from herons and have the same build ...

wood stork The wood stork (''Mycteria americana'') is a large American wading bird in the family Ciconiidae (storks), the only member of the family to breed in North America. It was formerly called the "wood ibis", though it is not an ibis. It is found in ...

s, and

limpkin The limpkin (''Aramus guarauna''), also called carrao, courlan, and crying bird, is a large wading bird related to rails and cranes, and the only extant species in the family Aramidae. It is found mostly in wetlands in warm parts of the America ...

are often found foraging along the shoreline, often on invasive apple snails.J. van Dyke, Florida Department of Environmental Protection, personal communication, In: Benson, A. J. 2008. ''Pomacea insularum''.

USGS The United States Geological Survey (USGS), formerly simply known as the Geological Survey, is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, a ...

Nonindigenous Aquatic Species Database, Gainesville, FL. <> Revision Date: 8/14/2007. Bass fishing in the lake can be excellent, and a boat ramp is provided at the Gil A. Waters Lake Munson Preserve Park, with another located at the dam.

References

External links

Lake Munson Restoration Project

Lakes of Leon County, Florida, Munson Geography of Tallahassee, Florida Munson {{LeonCountyFL-geo-stub

See also

References

External links