SERVICE AREA & PRICING
Stocking Savvy does on-site consultations and restoration projects anywhere in Florida. We also offer photo-based and online consultations anywhere in the southeast United States. Prices and services are subject to change, as each site and its issues are unique and may require different workloads and strategies to tackle. To find out if you are within our area for an on-site consultation or would like to inquiry about the other options available, please visit out contact page or call 941-500-2218. See below for explanations regarding the wide array of services we offer!
Consultation and Plan Basics
Long Term Consultation - For large communities or others which require routine consulting, Stocking Savvy will contract out our licensed biologists for consulting at $119.99 per hour. We also do monthly inspections at this rate for keeping an eye on how plants and animals develop.
Water Testing - $300 per water body or testing site for basic parameters. Specialty testing is dependent on lab fees.
Presentations - Price is dependent upon topic, area, and travel considerations, but starts at $110.00.
Discounts - Stocking Savvy offers a 20% discount for Educational Institutions and 10% for Military and their families.
Consultation and Plan Basics
- 1 Hour Consultation - Call us today and our experienced consultants will come out to your site and provide an informative consultation for $110.00. We'll conduct a site analysis, noting management issues and answering any and all questions you have. When applicable, we will make recommendations on-the-spot, which will be included in an emailed report sent following our consultation for future reference - no memorization needed! This applies to backyards, gardens, lakes and ponds, and similarly sized sites. Consultations over an hour, or those that require extensive travel time or other specialty considerations will be priced individually.
- Management Plan for Ponds, Lakes, or Other Water Bodies
- A management plan is a comprehensive document anywhere from 25-100 pages which includes a site assessment, recommendations, budget of proposed project, aerial map of recommended plantings, digital recreation of site post-planting (using graphic design), plant descriptions, and appendices covering invasive plants, algae control methods, butterfly conservation, and more. These plans are intended to be used as a long-term reference guide.
- Drone Footage and Private Imaging Mapping
- Plans listed here are minimums - for planting oversight and stocking, presentations bundled into the consultation, additional design work, etc. Extensive driving time, special considerations, or any requirements beyond the base plan will be added before work begins and a complete quote will be given.
Long Term Consultation - For large communities or others which require routine consulting, Stocking Savvy will contract out our licensed biologists for consulting at $119.99 per hour. We also do monthly inspections at this rate for keeping an eye on how plants and animals develop.
Water Testing - $300 per water body or testing site for basic parameters. Specialty testing is dependent on lab fees.
Presentations - Price is dependent upon topic, area, and travel considerations, but starts at $110.00.
Discounts - Stocking Savvy offers a 20% discount for Educational Institutions and 10% for Military and their families.
POND PLANTING
Florida's ponds and lakes typically hold heavy nutrient loafs containing runoff from agriculture, lawns, roadways, and upstream bodies. This can cause many aquatic bodies to become hyper-eutrophic (too many nutrients), which can lead to excessive algae blooms and nuisance plant growth that often create unsightly aesthetics of a pond and hurt wildlife (and occasionally, humans). Stocking Savvy recommends an all-native planting of ponds to compete with invasive species and provide habitat for fish and birds. Native plants are generally more resilient, having developed natural mechanisms of weather and disease resistance specifically for Florida ecosystems and forming symbiotic relationships with other native species, plant and animal alike. Additionally, many of the native plants we stock in aquatic ecosystems are phenomenal for not only preventing erosion, but actively rebuilding sediment on already eroded shorelines.
Imagine if your pond had hundreds of beautiful flowers that actively mitigated erosion and excessive algae blooms while attracting valuable pollinators and wildlife! We help pick and plan the perfect plant design for your ponds, lakes, and water mitigation sites and can even help you make a beautiful aquatic butterfly garden. Planting is one of the main aspects of our consultation services and is always specific to the site as far as species and cost, as we choose species not only native to Florida, but native to your county. Many non-native plants which aren't currently listed as such become invasive over the years, and may require large amounts of herbicides or removal to control. Invasive plants can also take over a water body, displacing wildlife, reducing water access, and some of the worst --such as Hydrilla -- have actually drowned swimmers! This is why Stocking Savvy always uses native plants and native fish for a native Florida pond.
Below are example categories that illustrate what options are available to you at varying price points.
Standard Planting: $ Low Cost Low Maintenance Planting - These plantings consist of a few extremely low maintenance species such as Gulf Spikerush, Golden Canna, Pickerelweed, Bulrush, and Duck Potato. They are common, cheap, grow in quickly and while some have excellent flowers, they are only seasonally attractive. This option is best for large areas of eroding pond bank or where pricing can be an issue, as these are the functional "bread and butter" species.
Florida Beauty Planting: $$ Moderate Cost Moderate Maintenance Plantings - This is for most sites and areas such as golf courses, larger community associations, and involved homeowners who want a great deal of diversity and aesthetic beauty from their plantings. It includes all species from the low cost plan but adds in more flowers (which may be pruned as desired) and larger plants such as shrubs and trees which live on the water's edge. This can often be better for bank erosion but due to the wider diversity, larger installation, and the expensive nature of some plants costs are higher here. Cypress trees, Scarlet Hibiscus, Cordgrass, Climbing Aster, Aquatic Milkweed, and Fragrant Water Lilies all fall into this category.
Habitat Restoration: $$$ High Cost High Maintenance Plantings - This is the most involved and difficult of all the planting options we have but best for the environment and requires knowledgeable crews to maintain it. Depending on your budget, we will often recommend over 20+ different species to be added, including submersed plants such as Lemon Bacopa and Ludwigia, Spatterdocks and Lotuses, Redroot and Cow Lilies, and many more. This option is prime for creating a truly authentic native ecosystem and improving water quality with the best methods available.
For some example plants, check out our gallery below!
Imagine if your pond had hundreds of beautiful flowers that actively mitigated erosion and excessive algae blooms while attracting valuable pollinators and wildlife! We help pick and plan the perfect plant design for your ponds, lakes, and water mitigation sites and can even help you make a beautiful aquatic butterfly garden. Planting is one of the main aspects of our consultation services and is always specific to the site as far as species and cost, as we choose species not only native to Florida, but native to your county. Many non-native plants which aren't currently listed as such become invasive over the years, and may require large amounts of herbicides or removal to control. Invasive plants can also take over a water body, displacing wildlife, reducing water access, and some of the worst --such as Hydrilla -- have actually drowned swimmers! This is why Stocking Savvy always uses native plants and native fish for a native Florida pond.
Below are example categories that illustrate what options are available to you at varying price points.
Standard Planting: $ Low Cost Low Maintenance Planting - These plantings consist of a few extremely low maintenance species such as Gulf Spikerush, Golden Canna, Pickerelweed, Bulrush, and Duck Potato. They are common, cheap, grow in quickly and while some have excellent flowers, they are only seasonally attractive. This option is best for large areas of eroding pond bank or where pricing can be an issue, as these are the functional "bread and butter" species.
Florida Beauty Planting: $$ Moderate Cost Moderate Maintenance Plantings - This is for most sites and areas such as golf courses, larger community associations, and involved homeowners who want a great deal of diversity and aesthetic beauty from their plantings. It includes all species from the low cost plan but adds in more flowers (which may be pruned as desired) and larger plants such as shrubs and trees which live on the water's edge. This can often be better for bank erosion but due to the wider diversity, larger installation, and the expensive nature of some plants costs are higher here. Cypress trees, Scarlet Hibiscus, Cordgrass, Climbing Aster, Aquatic Milkweed, and Fragrant Water Lilies all fall into this category.
Habitat Restoration: $$$ High Cost High Maintenance Plantings - This is the most involved and difficult of all the planting options we have but best for the environment and requires knowledgeable crews to maintain it. Depending on your budget, we will often recommend over 20+ different species to be added, including submersed plants such as Lemon Bacopa and Ludwigia, Spatterdocks and Lotuses, Redroot and Cow Lilies, and many more. This option is prime for creating a truly authentic native ecosystem and improving water quality with the best methods available.
For some example plants, check out our gallery below!
FISH & INVERTEBRATE STOCKING
While many companies stock fish or invertebrates (such as grass shrimp), this almost always revolves around sport fish. With the exception of triploid grass carp, which are a genetically modified fish from the Amur River in Vietnam, no commercial stocking companies actively utilize native herbivores or filter feeders in their stocking plans. This is hard for us to understand, as Florida boasts a number of desirable native fish which consume the very algae and invasive species which create issues for the public and the ecosystem at large! We aim to provide an all-encompassing approach to help build new ecosystems from the ground up, or restore ecosystems which have lost their ability to properly cycle nutrients or provide ample ecological service. By using herbivores, detritivores (scum and decay-eating animals), and filter feeders, we can help prevent problems with aquatic weeds and algae, improve water clarity and quality, and actually improve sportfish and wildlife health. Stocking Savvy only uses native fish or University of Florida approved biocontrols in our waterways, ensuring that your ponds stay as natural as possible while reducing the amount of maintenance and chemicals required. By using fish and invertebrates, this method of controlling algae and nuisance native vegetation is permanent!
Below we offer several different packages that we use to target different issues.
Standard Stocking: $ Low Cost Low Diversity - This includes a basic diversity of fish and invertebrates aimed at primarily improving water quality. This does not include large sport fish such as bass or gar and promotes cleaning fish such as Lake Chubsuckers, Florida Flagfish, and Bullhead Catfish which help improve water quality and consume problematic algae and plants. This can be adjusted for any pond size and controls for algae, poor water quality and clarity, Duckweed, Azolla, Slender Spikerush, Chara, and other native nuisance plants. For invasive plants such as Hydrilla, Water Hyacinth, or Salvinia, Stocking Savvy will help come up with an integrated pest management plan that deals with these issues and stock the appropriate control organisms.
Sportfish Stocking: $$$ High Cost Moderate Diversity – Focusing on sportfish health, growth, and forage, this stocking adds a variety of prey items that have been implicated in improving sportfish health and size while still cleaning and providing lake services. Lake Chubsuckers, for example, clean up midge fly larvae, algae, and submersed vegetation while having been shown to improve bass size and health when added as a portion of their diet. By stocking a wider variety of prey, we can keep your lake clean in an environmentally friendly way while improving your sport fishing success. Stocking Savvy works with a wide variety of native sport fish, such as Largemouth Bass, Bluegill Sunfish, Channel Catfish, Florida Gar, Bowfin Amia, Warmouth, Crappie, and other sport or rough fish for a truly Florida angling experience. Due to the larger size, demand, and sometimes rarity of these fish costs can be higher in this plan.
*Stocking Savvy does not stock non-native species such as Butterfly Peacock, Snakeheads, Tilapia, Cichlids etc. Many of these species out-compete native fish, erode banks, reduce water quality, and can cost millions of dollars in damage to native habitat. Rumors that Tilapia remove aquatic weeds are also unfounded and they have been shown in high densities to reduce bass counts, as they reduce bass recruitment while eroding shoreline with their nests. Should you want to fish these species, we suggest seeing them in their native habitat and home countries or using aquaculture facilities.
New Lake Stocking: $ Low Cost High Diversity – The best time to stock a lake is when it is built, the second best is right now! New pond and lake stocking is the easiest and often cheapest as there are no other fish in the water body yet to compete with the stocked fish. This allows us to stock smaller amounts of a wider variety of species and save you money. This method closely follows the Multimodal Biological Control method that has made Stocking Savvy so savvy. By stocking properly and starting with smaller species working upward, we can prevent many lake problems such as algae, weeds, erosion, and midge flies before they begin. This method often ends with the adding of sport or rough fish and includes a wide variety of species stocked over several months.
Habitat Restoration Stocking: $$ Moderate Cost High Diversity – Do you just want a healthy pond that focuses on restoring habitat and feeding birds, otters and gators? We can help you build a functional lake and wetland ecosystem that focuses primarily on restoring plants and using a wide variety of invertebrates and small fishes to support wading birds, otters, and other animals while de-emphasizing sportfish. Choose this option for heavily polluted ponds or recently disturbed ponds by heavy maintenance or generally low water quality.
Lake Additions – Do you have a small pond or lake but just feel like something is missing? Want something cool to watch? Need that wild Florida feeling? This category has just that, animals that might not be part of the ordinary stocking or that add a little extra to that wild Florida look.
Turtles – There are 18 species of freshwater turtle in Florida and we stock a wide variety. These turtles eat vegetation or nuisance insects and can be a fun interactive part of any lake. Prices will vary call or email for a quote. Popular species include:
Below we offer several different packages that we use to target different issues.
Standard Stocking: $ Low Cost Low Diversity - This includes a basic diversity of fish and invertebrates aimed at primarily improving water quality. This does not include large sport fish such as bass or gar and promotes cleaning fish such as Lake Chubsuckers, Florida Flagfish, and Bullhead Catfish which help improve water quality and consume problematic algae and plants. This can be adjusted for any pond size and controls for algae, poor water quality and clarity, Duckweed, Azolla, Slender Spikerush, Chara, and other native nuisance plants. For invasive plants such as Hydrilla, Water Hyacinth, or Salvinia, Stocking Savvy will help come up with an integrated pest management plan that deals with these issues and stock the appropriate control organisms.
Sportfish Stocking: $$$ High Cost Moderate Diversity – Focusing on sportfish health, growth, and forage, this stocking adds a variety of prey items that have been implicated in improving sportfish health and size while still cleaning and providing lake services. Lake Chubsuckers, for example, clean up midge fly larvae, algae, and submersed vegetation while having been shown to improve bass size and health when added as a portion of their diet. By stocking a wider variety of prey, we can keep your lake clean in an environmentally friendly way while improving your sport fishing success. Stocking Savvy works with a wide variety of native sport fish, such as Largemouth Bass, Bluegill Sunfish, Channel Catfish, Florida Gar, Bowfin Amia, Warmouth, Crappie, and other sport or rough fish for a truly Florida angling experience. Due to the larger size, demand, and sometimes rarity of these fish costs can be higher in this plan.
*Stocking Savvy does not stock non-native species such as Butterfly Peacock, Snakeheads, Tilapia, Cichlids etc. Many of these species out-compete native fish, erode banks, reduce water quality, and can cost millions of dollars in damage to native habitat. Rumors that Tilapia remove aquatic weeds are also unfounded and they have been shown in high densities to reduce bass counts, as they reduce bass recruitment while eroding shoreline with their nests. Should you want to fish these species, we suggest seeing them in their native habitat and home countries or using aquaculture facilities.
New Lake Stocking: $ Low Cost High Diversity – The best time to stock a lake is when it is built, the second best is right now! New pond and lake stocking is the easiest and often cheapest as there are no other fish in the water body yet to compete with the stocked fish. This allows us to stock smaller amounts of a wider variety of species and save you money. This method closely follows the Multimodal Biological Control method that has made Stocking Savvy so savvy. By stocking properly and starting with smaller species working upward, we can prevent many lake problems such as algae, weeds, erosion, and midge flies before they begin. This method often ends with the adding of sport or rough fish and includes a wide variety of species stocked over several months.
Habitat Restoration Stocking: $$ Moderate Cost High Diversity – Do you just want a healthy pond that focuses on restoring habitat and feeding birds, otters and gators? We can help you build a functional lake and wetland ecosystem that focuses primarily on restoring plants and using a wide variety of invertebrates and small fishes to support wading birds, otters, and other animals while de-emphasizing sportfish. Choose this option for heavily polluted ponds or recently disturbed ponds by heavy maintenance or generally low water quality.
Lake Additions – Do you have a small pond or lake but just feel like something is missing? Want something cool to watch? Need that wild Florida feeling? This category has just that, animals that might not be part of the ordinary stocking or that add a little extra to that wild Florida look.
Turtles – There are 18 species of freshwater turtle in Florida and we stock a wide variety. These turtles eat vegetation or nuisance insects and can be a fun interactive part of any lake. Prices will vary call or email for a quote. Popular species include:
- Florida Softshell (Apalone ferox)
- Eastern Musk Turtle (Sternotherus odoratus)
- River Cooter (Pseudemys concinna)
- Florida Cooter (Pseudemys nelson)
- Common Snapping Turtle (Chelydra serpentine)
CONSULTATION SERVICES
At Stocking Savvy, we provide customized management plans based upon your sites specific problems. Whether it is massive algae blooms, poor fish stocks, invasive plants, midge flies, or just wanting to make a beautiful Florida habitat Stocking Savvy has the answers for you. Chemical controls are used as a last resort and we emphasize biological and physical controls as well as using social and cultural controls to prevent problems in the first place with a truly integrated pest management plan. Stocking Savvy only uses Florida native plants and fishes unless they are tested tried and true biological controls approved by the University of Florida. Stocking Savvy has partnered with numerous local businesses for our services for plantings, maintaining sites, building gardens, and stocking fish, we are made in Florida for Floridians. So if you need the ultimate plan to solve your issues not just push them off, and you want native plants, and native fish, for a native Florida, you need Stocking Savvy.
Consultation prices vary per client with specialty consulting starting at $119.99 and discounts for non-profit organizations.
Consultation prices vary per client with specialty consulting starting at $119.99 and discounts for non-profit organizations.
WATER TESTING
Water is the lifeblood of every aquatic environment and ensuring that your water is clean and healthy is paramount. Stocking Savvy will conduct a series of water quality analysis including Phosphorus, Nitrogens, Turbidity, Heavy Metals, Salinity, Calcium, Magnesium, and Hardness. This is an addition to management plans and can be included in individual management packages. Call or email for water testing today as well as special services including dissolved oxygen and copper polluted soil testing.
GRANT WRITING & FUNDING ASSISTANCE
We at Stocking Savvy know how difficult it can be to fund many projects and as such offer grant writing services starting at $59.99 an hour. We can write the grants, offer support letters, or project planning and management on a wide array of habitat restoration projects. If you or someone else have a project you would like help with please visit our contact page and talk with us further. Grants often include money for grant writers, administrative overhead, or the hiring of professional consultants like Stocking Savvy. To find out if your project is eligible contact your grant writer or contact us anytime!
PRESENTATION OPTIONS
Stocking Savvy firmly believes in educating the public about the latest methods, tried and true practices, and combining them into innovative new ideas. For large events and speakings we will cover a wide variety of topics and how Stocking Savvy's habitat restoration and urban ecology practices will help. Whether it is reducing nutrients and controlling harmful algal blooms in backyard ponds or helping plant Florida friendly yards we will happily give a speech relating to your specific event. We also host a monthly Environmental Q&A where you can come and ask questions about Stocking Savvy and the environment. For more on that check out our events page! Below we have a list of the popular topics we present on and have presentations ready to go. We are also capable of covering several topics in less depth for shorter presentations or panels.
-Algae and Red Tide
-Invasive Species
-Midge Flies and Mosquitos
-Erosion and Living on the Water
-Florida Friendly Landscapes
-Climate Change
-Public Action and Education
-Algae and Red Tide
-Invasive Species
-Midge Flies and Mosquitos
-Erosion and Living on the Water
-Florida Friendly Landscapes
-Climate Change
-Public Action and Education
Sean Patton speaking on Multimodal Biological Control at the 2018 Environmental Summit.