January 2025

Here at the H2O Zone we like to keep track of the efforts being made to restore or maintain the environment surrounding us in Florida, and that often involves detailing facts, figures and statistics. Sometimes, however, nature steps in to show us that we’re moving in the right direction in a manner which has way more impact than numbers on a page or screen.

 This story involves the St. Johns River Water Management District and the discovery of a small patch of eelgrass at Orange Creek Restoration Area. Eelgrass, a plant native to Florida, provides food and shelter for fish and other wildlife and helps to stabilize sediment and prevent erosion. It also improves the quality of water by absorbing nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus, which makes algal blooms less likely. The Orange Creek Restoration Area is a 3,500-acre marsh in Alachua and Marion counties and the District has been working hard on restoration since purchasing it in 1998 which is why it's causing so much excitement.

The appearance of eelgrass is symbolic of the work that’s been done and is a positive sign of the ability of nature to bounce back from years of neglect, as well as promising positive outcomes for the restoration work which is still being undertaken.     

Anyone keen to protect the local environment of Florida could do much worse than working closely with Indigenous communities who have a rich history of interacting directly with nature.

In Florida, for example, the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida have made their home on the Everglades for centuries. This story looks at a recent report into the progress of ongoing Everglades restoration work which found that there was a lack of meaningful and consistent engagement with the Miccosukee tribe. The report also called for the knowledge held by the tribe to be incorporated into restoration efforts and a working partnership to be developed. Already, the Miccosukee are working to stop oil exploration in the Everglades, and successfully fought off a ‘wilderness’ designation which would have cut off their access to important ancestral lands.

The words of tribal elder Michael John Frank set out the scale of the challenge facing the Everglades in stark terms: “The Everglades is beautiful, but it’s just a skeleton of the way it used to be.” These problems date back to the 1940s, when the area was drained to build and plant crops, though even more recent efforts to restore the area have sometimes flooded lands which are important to members of the tribe. A closer working partnership could see the Everglades restored and the Miccosukee able to continue their traditional way of life. 

Seawalls have been a part of coastal defense in places like Florida since people first decided they quite liked the idea of living near the ocean.

The seawalls of today have to be able to cope with more extreme conditions than those constructed in the past, however, while having a more positive environmental impact than the standard poured concrete model.

A seawall currently under construction in Miami Beach – dubbed a ‘living seawall’ – demonstrates an approach which seems to tick both of these boxes. The seawall is being produced in sections by what is claimed to be ‘the fastest 3D concrete printer in the world’, and includes areas which are inspired by mangrove roots. These areas simultaneously provide nooks and crannies for aquatic wildlife to shelter, at the same time as being better able to absorb the impact of waves and storm surges. The living seawall also uses less than half of the boulder rocks usually required, whilst offering the same strength as the traditional models. Once in place, the living seawall will be monitored for a year by a team from Florida International University, to track the life which attaches to it in the form of coral, crustaceans and snails.

If the living seawall proves to be successful, the developers promise that the construction can be scaled and duplicated across the globe.   

Here in the H2O Zone we’ve covered the problems caused by red tide algal blooms before and, more pertinently, the efforts being made to deal with them.

This month saw the release of the third consensus document published by the Florida Harmful Algal Bloom (HAB) Task Force, the first update of its kind since 2021. The report set out advancements that have been made in research, monitoring and communication of the dangers of red tide.

Caused by the algae Karenia brevis, red tide blooms along the coast of Florida pose a very real threat to the environment, public health and the Florida economy. Achievements listed in the report included enhanced detection of red tide, using tools like satellite sensors and Imaging FlowCytobots, as well as the public awareness campaigns launched and more than 25 research projects funded through the Center for Red Tide Research and HAB Grant Program.

Plans for the future which were outlined in the report included the development of new diagnostic tools for humans and animals impacted by red tide and a State of the Science symposium.

Here at Hoover we specialize in designing and installing irrigation systems which are advanced enough to keep our customers’ landscaping and plantings remain healthy and green - while conserving as much water as possible. We understand that water is a precious resource which needs to be treated and used with care, and this story serves to underline that fact. 

It looks at the thousands of freshwater springs in Florida – a higher concentration than almost anywhere else in the world – and the pressure that is being placed on this natural resource. The crystal clear waters of springs such as Rock Springs, north of Orlando, attract wildlife of all sorts and people keen to swim or paddle in water which stays at a constant 72 degrees. The popularity of Florida as a place to live and work is driving a boom in housing construction and with it more permits being issued to allow the pumping of groundwater.

The amount of water being taken from the aquifer means that the flows from springs like Rock and nearby Wekiwa have dropped significantly, while in other parts of Florida freshwater springs have dried up completely or become choked by algae encouraged by the low flow rates. There are now calls for greater protections to be put in place to halt the damage being done, and for more care to be taken over the use of water once development has taken place.