What is Stoney Point and where is it located and why save it?

Stoney point is a natural peninsula that sticks out into the southern section of Kings Bay in Crystal River. It has huge old growth cedar trees still standing that have been stuck by lighting a few times over the years, but are still alive and are an important nesting site for birds and other creatures. 

Also in the cedar trees are rare air plants that only grow in the trees. The natural peninsula had natural white sandy beaches and several small springs bubbling up in its interior lagoon.

In the 1960’s and 70’s deep water canals were dug and dredged along its eastern and western sides to create more waterfront. Many beautiful homes were built on the water with access to Kings Bay. Stoney Point is the remaining 4 acres of undeveloped property at the very end of the development.

I first looked at Stoney Point in 2011 as a place remove Lyngbya algae on the southern end of Kings Bay with my One Rake at a Time project. We needed a place on the south end of the bay to clean up that section of Kings Bay. But, the land was badly eroded and there were fallen trees all over so there really wasn’t any good access. We finally found another place to unload raked up Lyngbya out of Kings Bay and the project went on.

Then, a year later, a dear friend called me and said Stoney Point was going up for action and I should come bid on it. I showed up at the front gate to the property for the live onsite bidding and somehow through a small miracle, I won the bid and bought the property as is in 2012. 

Next, I had FWC come out and look at the land and was advised to save the cedar trees, remove the invasive Brazilian Pepper trees and stabilize the shoreline to stop all the erosion that was putting muck into Kings Bay. 

Being directly on Kings Bay, the shoreline water levels are tidal. The property was right on the frontline of the ocean levels rising. So I knew I had a big job ahead of me. I had to secure permits from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, the Army Core of Engineers, and Citrus County to restore the shoreline and stop the erosion. 

First priority was protecting the shoreline. After consulting some experts who had experience doing shoreline restoration, I decided to use envirolok earth bags as a way to build a seawall on the exterior and interior of the land. 

Envirolok bags are designed to stop erosion and are filled with sand and earth. They are special bags with needle point stitching that allow roots to enter the bags and eventually take over the bags creating a natural seawall that uses plants to clean the water and create a natural environment for living aquatic and terrestrial life.

It was a lot of hard work building a living shoreline to stop the erosion of muck into Kings Bay, but it was something I could personally do on my own and afford to do with one other hired helper. Everything needed to be done by hand so as to minimize construction impacts.

Now, 11 years later all the erosion has been stopped by the living shoreline. The white sand beaches have reappeared and the place is beautiful once again. I have saved Stoney Point from eroding away and Kings Bay never looked so good with all the other cleanups and replanting of eelgrass going on. 

I also brought in all utilities so Stoney Point is now ready for the next person or people to take over. There are so many great things that can happen on that 4 acre parcel. Right now it is like a private wildlife park with manatees swimming into the lagoon at high tide eating the eelgrass. 

In my mind, a manatee rescue and rehabilitation center, with an education center would be a perfect fit for Stoney Point. It is the one thing missing from Kings Bay and would be a great asset to Crystal River, Citrus County and of course the manatees. With a high mortality rate in other parts of Florida there is a need for another facility to care for and nurse injured or sick manatees back to life.

The inland lagoon on Stoney Point is the perfect place to build a rehabilitation center on Kings bay and the manatees could have a soft landing back into the wild with lots of eelgrass to eat as they recover.

For more information visit, https://tinyurl.com/stoneypointproposal.