New life for Chicopee Lake

GAINESVILLE - It won't be restored to its original size - that would be too expensive - but Chicopee Lake at Elachee Nature Science Center is going to be dredged and given a new life.

Elachee's natural resources manager, Cynthia Taylor, says the lake, which is part of the Chicopee Woods Nature Preserve, is slowly dying.

Taylor says the lake has shrunk from about 28 acres 15 years ago to around five acres today. Once the dredging is complete, it will retain the five-acre size.

Taylor says silt from upstream development is filling the lake and slowly killing it. The $300,000 dredging will be financed from the $700,000 sale of nearby property by the Chicopee Woods Parks Commission to the state Department of Transportation for a new I-985 interchange.

Taylor hopes the work can begin this summer. She says it will take about a year to finish.