b"The Lagoon's Lost Habitat.Singer Island These aerial images from the north- Lake Worth Inlet1940ern portion of the Lake Worth Lagoon1947provide a small glimpse of just how much critical estuarine habitat has been impacted since the 1940s.Im-pacts to seagrasses and hard bottom from inlet and channel dredging were occuring well before this period.One example is the natural cuts, oyster bars and seagrass beds that were dredged and filled to create the community we now know as Sugar Sands (pictured in 1940 photo).Remnants of this habitat remain immediately to the north and is connected to John D. MacArthur State Park. Lake Worth Inlet Only a small portion1967of the mangrove lined pondeastofA1Aon Singer Island remains today as well.Sea grass beds that once existed south of Peanut Island (see 1947 image) were replaced by the deepen-ing and expansion of the Port of Palm Beach (see 1967 image).In fact, where Peanut Island sits today, was once seagrass beds.Little PeanutSinger Island/Island, located north of its larger namesake, eroded away decades ago.Peanut Island modern daySince the 1950s bulkheads and dredge and fill projects reduced much of the mangrove fringe and other critical habitats like sea grass and oysters.Over 85% of the lagoons critical estuarine habitat has been eliminated or impacted.Kyle Rossin & Habitat Restoration Opportunities Abound. Tom 'Buzz' BzuraNow that most of the lagoons shoreline has been developed, there are tremendous opportunities to restore and enhance the system to mitigate impacts from the intense development that has occurred.Palm Beach Countys Department of Environmental Resources Management (DERM) has been on the leading edge of developing innovative projects designed to improve water quality, increase habitat for fish and wildlife, and make the shoreline more resilient to erosion.New mangrove islands are being created (see Tarpon Cove article), living shoreline planters are being built, muck filled dredge holes are being capped, and other dredge holes are being used for new artificial reef sites.Projects located upstream of the Lake Worth Lagoon watershed that are currently underway or beingKyle & planned will also yield im- Keith provements.The West PalmRossin of Beach Fishing Club looksMANGforward to continuing its advocacy and active engage-ment in these exciting resto-ration efforts to improve the Lake Worth Lagoon.40 W estP almB eachF ishingc luB"