Can we grow back our beloved lagoon? The feds hope so and just took a $9.4 million leap of faith that planting back seagrass, oysters and other vital habitats will transform the Indian River Lagoon back to health.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced the lagoon grant funding this month among almost $220 million for 32 "transformational habitat restoration and coastal resilience projects" this year, as well as an additional $66 million in funding in future years. The lagoon grant will pay for 15 projects to restore seagrass, oysters, mangroves and salt marshes. The money represents a major milestone and windfall in the 34-year history of the Indian River Lagoon National Estuary Program .
"We're priming the pump," said Duane De Freese, executive director of the program. "It's an experiment, there's no question. There are no guarantees." But he's sure what the outcome of inaction would be: "If we do nothing, the system goes down," De Freese said. "This system isn't going to fix itself."
The estuary program brought together 10 restoration organizations as partners to complete the 15 projects over three years throughout the lagoon. The projects aim to restore fish habitat, ecosystem functions, and the estuary's ability to bounce back from toxic algal blooms and other environmental stress. The projects are expected to help recover or restore eight "essential habitats" including seagrasses, oysters, salt marshes and "living shorelines," by experimental ways of planting them back to see just how green a thumb we might be able to have in the lagoon. The projects intend to prove what works and what doesn't and hopefully give the lagoon a kickstart.
Instead of concrete, metal and rock walls, "living shorelines" use a mix of mangroves, seagrass, oysters, and concrete wave breaks when needed, for a more environmentally friendly ways of preventing erosion.
A decade of harmful algal blooms have reduced the lagoon's seagrass coverage by more than 89% from 2011 to 2020 and harmed other habitats and species of concern throughout the 156-mile-long estuary. The lagoon generates an estimated $7.6 billion annually, according to estimates from eight years ago.
According to the estuary program, the project targets are as follows:
- Restore 47.3 acres of seagrass
- Restore 7 acres of oyster reefs
- Restore 2,125 acres of wetlands
- Restore 8,450 linear feet of shoreline
- 2,928 plantings units of mangroves
- 6,985 planting units of salt marsh
Primary partners on the project include Brevard Zoo; Bethune-Cookman University; Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission; Florida Oceanographic Society; Indian River County; Indian River Land Trust; Indian River State College; Riverside Conservancy; St. Johns River Water Management District; and the University of Central Florida.
Contractor services will be provided by IDEAS Inc., Tetra Tech and the Balmoral Group. Lead restoration partners will be supported by Lagoon Solutions LLC, Young Bear Environmental Consultants, Sea and Shoreline LLC, Spartan Reef Structures and others.
"The success of this proposal highlights the national significance of the Indian River Lagoon system and demonstrates the vision that the U.S. Congress had for National Estuary Programs to convene multiple public and private sector partners to restore and protect the ecological integrity, economic value, and natural resilience of our coastal estuaries,” De Freese said. “This project represents the first step in assembling an ecosystem-wide community of restoration practitioners for the Indian River Lagoon, Florida.”
De Freese only wishes the region had started getting more serious about lagoon water quality decades ago.
"We are now paying the price for having not paid attention," he said. "This is what happens when you neglect a healthy ecosystem."
Contact Waymer at (321) 261-5903 or jwaymer@floridatoday.com. Follow him on X/Twitter at @JWayEnviro.
This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Indian River Lagoon wins $9.4 million to 'prime' the ecological pump with plants, oysters
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