CLAY COUNTY, Fla. \u2014 North Florida Land Trust has removed a submerged fence from Smith Lake Preserve in Clay County. <\/p>\n
The project aimed to improve safety for people and restore movement for wildlife.<\/p>\n
Read: <\/b>Registration opens for 2026 DONNA Marathon Weekend<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n The old fence was built in the early 2000s for livestock when the lake was dry. As water levels rose over time, the fence became a hazard to swimmers, boaters, and aquatic species.<\/p>\n The removal was made possible by donations from Faith and Rick Hoffman and the Delores Barr Weaver Legacy Funds.<\/p>\n NFLT says the support helped them complete a project that had been on their to-do list for years.<\/p>\n Crews removed over 1.5 miles of submerged fencing using barges, mini-excavators, and watercraft.<\/p>\n The work was done with no damage to the surrounding environment.<\/p>\n >>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <\/b><\/a><\/p>\n NFLT says the removal will allow fish, turtles, amphibians, and alligators to move freely again. It also helps restore balance to the preserve\u2019s freshwater marsh habitat.<\/p>\n Smith Lake Preserve spans 463 acres and is part of the Ocala to Osceola Wildlife Corridor. It also houses a section of the Florida National Scenic Trail and serves as NFLT\u2019s stewardship headquarters.<\/p>\n [DOWNLOAD: <\/b>Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/b><\/a>]<\/b><\/p>\n [SIGN UP: <\/b>Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/b><\/a>] <\/b><\/p>\n Click here<\/b><\/a> to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, <\/b>click here<\/b><\/a> to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and <\/b>click here<\/b><\/a> to stream Action News Jax live.<\/b><\/p>\n Action News Jax Top Stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CLAY COUNTY, Fla. \u2014 North Florida Land Trust has removed a submerged fence from Smith Lake Preserve in…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":49452,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5136],"tags":[7320,5229,7323,3188,723,7324,7310,7327,7325,7326,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,7322,7321],"class_list":{"0":"post-49451","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-action-news-jax","9":"tag-america","10":"tag-cbs47","11":"tag-fl","12":"tag-florida","13":"tag-fox30","14":"tag-jacksonville","15":"tag-jacksonville-fl","16":"tag-northeast-florida","17":"tag-southeast-georgia","18":"tag-united-states","19":"tag-united-states-of-america","20":"tag-unitedstates","21":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","22":"tag-us","23":"tag-usa","24":"tag-wfox","25":"tag-wjax"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114819213836471356","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49451","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49451"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49451\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}