June 2024

Could Beer Bottles Solve Florida's Beach Sand Shortage?

Take a stroll along the South Florida coast and you could be forgiven for thinking that there’s more than enough sand to go round. The truth, however, is that the coastal counties actually spend millions of dollars each year trucking in sand from elsewhere to bolster the eroding beachfront.

Other initiatives in recent years have seen available deposits of sand dredged up from near the shore, but the alternatives are often too fine and are easily washed away, or are too coarse and unpleasant to walk and sunbathe on. A new alternative has now been launched by the company Glass for Life, which takes the fact that glass is made of sand and applies it in reverse – why can’t you take waste glass bottles and turn them back into sand? The company is relatively small to date, using a single glass pulverizing machine the size of an office copy machine, capable of turning around 100 bottles into sand in half an hour or so. Since starting operations in January, the company has recycled more than 23,400 glass bottles, and with only 7% of glass in a place such as Miami-Dade county currently being recycled, a scaled up glass to sand scheme could have a transformative effect.

Key Everglades Restoration Project Hits Major Milestone

One of the difficulties when writing about conservation issues and attempts to deal with the impact of climate change is that the process of dealing with the issues faced by places like Florida tends to be long-term and incremental. That’s why it’s so important to mark the major milestones in on-going large scale projects, such as the Picayune Strand Restoration Project in Southwest Florida.

This project has been going on for many years as part of a wider restoration of the Everglades and June saw the water management district and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers working together to complete the plugging of the Faka Union Canal. This particular action represents one of the final stages in the process of restoring the natural hydrology of more than 55,000 acres of native wetlands and uplands on Florida’s Southwest coast. Further environmental benefits of the wider project include the restoration of wetlands, the enhancement of the natural habitat for fish and wildlife including the Florida Panther, less damaging drainage to adjacent ecosystems and an improved water recharge for the relevant aquifer, protecting the supply of fresh water underground and preventing saltwater intrusions.

Keys Connection Couple Start New Environmental Scholarship

Here at Hoover we’re keenly aware of the need for the battle for sustainability and conservation to be based around education. The more people know about the climate emergency and the steps that can be taken to mitigate the impact and risk it represents, the better placed we’ll be to protect the environment in places like Florida.

That’s why we were delighted to hear about the Earth Conservation and Sustainability scholarship, on offer from the Community Foundation of the Florida Keys in the Upper Keys. The scholarship was made possible by a generous donation from Natalie Stetz Tobias and her husband Bruce, and will pay for exciting opportunities for students at Coral Shores High School. The funds can be used by pupils interested in issues around sustainability, although the nature of the courses it would fund could also include topics such as research, environmental law and lobbying. Having grown up in the Keys and attended Coral Shores High School, Natalie, who now lives in Arizona, was determined to help students tap into the connection which Keys residents tend to naturally feel with the environment. Natalie and Bruce worked with a career counselor at Coral Shores College and the vice president for philanthropy for the Community Foundation of the Florida Keys to create a scholarship fund which, via their estate, is intended to be permanent in nature.

$600,000 Seed Grant For FSU Researchers 

Many of the stories we relate in the H₂O Zone reflect the ingenuity of individuals battling the effects of a changing climate, or the ability of groups of people to come together to protect delicate eco-systems. There’s no avoiding the fact, however, that much of the struggle to develop sustainable solutions for the future will depend upon sufficient levels of funding. Researchers at Florida State University have taken advantage of support from the Office of the President's Sustainability and Climate Solutions seed grant investment – to a total of $600,000 – to fund research projects into environmental health and economic prosperity.

The four projects currently being funded are as follows:

• Creating new materials to transport water 
• Developing autonomous systems to map reefs and coastal habitats vulnerable to climate change
• Investigate how forest wetlands are adapting to climate change 
• Increase electric vehicle usage in rural areas

Each of these projects could make a unique story here in its own right, but what they all have in common is that the seed funding is making it possible to jumpstart new projects and drive work which combines a focus on engineering or scientific solutions with an understanding of social science and the wider ecosystem.

Recent Widescale Flooding Stresses S. Florida's Drainage Systems

We like to focus on positive stories as much as possible as regular readers will know, encouraging an optimistic view that people can come together to deal with some of the most dramatic impacts of the dramatically changing climate.

Every now and again, however, we feel the need to document the nature of those impacts, and an example presented itself in June 2024, in the form of large scale flooding in South Florida. The flooding in question was so severe that parts of the southbound Interstate 95 had to be closed, while hundreds of flights were delayed at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International airport, and Miami International Airport. Videos posted on social media depicted cars floating in the floodwater at Hallandale Beach, caused by 17 inches of rain falling over a period of 24 hours both there and on Hollywood and Aventura. Some relief from the worst impacts of the flooding was offered by the deployment of 12 of the 14 temporary storm water pumps in Miami, working alongside 13 permanent pump stations and a fleet of 10 vactor trucks, travelling to the flooding hot spots to suck excess water from the streets.

Indian River Lagoon - One Billion Clams To The Rescue!

Let’s be honest, there are some stories dealing with the environment and sustainability if Florida which we find impossible to resist. These include those which touch on our specialized area of irrigation and water conservation, but we also have to own up to highlighting this next story almost wholly because it sounds like so much fun.

It’s a story about the Billion Clam Initiative. If you’re as intrigued about the idea of a billion clams as we were then read on. The initiative is actually called the Indian River Lagoon (IRL) Billion Clam Initiative, and it combines the use of high tech drone technology with the large-scale distribution of clams in order to target those clams in areas where they will do the most good and thrive. In the years since 2017, 40 million clams have been planted in the IRL.  Once in place, the fact that the clams are filter feeders means that they remove excess nutrients from the water, making it clearer. Clearer water means more sunlight gets into the ecosystem and this encourages the growth of the sea grasses which are so vital to the continued good health of the waters of the IRL and the wildlife that calls those waters home.

27,229 Acres Of Southwest Florida Purchased In Conservation Drive

Many of the measures taken by individuals and organizations with the intention of protecting the environment in Florida are highly complex and multi-faceted in nature. Sometimes, however, the means of protecting a specific area of land is as simple as purchasing the area in question before property developers are able to purchase and develop it.

With much of the land in Southwest Florida already being snapped up by developers, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection recently purchased 17,229 acres which make up part of the Florida Wildlife Corridor in Hendry County. This particular purchase sees the Devil’s Garden Florida Forever Project hitting 60% completion. The Devil’s Garden stretches from the Caloosahatchee River to Big Cypress National Preserve, and is an important area for the preservation of the Florida panther. The Florida Forever program has been funded to the tune of $1.4 billion by the state of Florida since 2019, and keeping swathes of land like this natural – rather than having them paved over – will also play a role allowing heavy rainfall to drain away, thus reducing the risk of floods.

Spot The Lobster

Here’s a question: how do spotted lobsters (as opposed to the spiny lobsters so many of us in Florida find delicious) protect the coral reefs they live on?

We think it’s fairly safe to assume that you didn’t manage to guess the answer, which is that the spotted lobsters help to preserve the delicate eco-system of the reef system in South Florida by peeing on them. Yes, the secret ingredient is lobster pee.

Ninety per cent of the hard corals around Florida have been lost over the course of the last 40 years, thanks to factors such as higher ocean temperatures, coral-killing diseases and pollution, to name just a few. Research carried out by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) found that the urine of the spotted lobsters, which take up residence permanently on the reefs, acts to repel predators such as coral eating snails. This means that the mere presence of these lobsters – which produce prodigious amounts of urine – could be a better form of protection that taking the time to remove coral predators.