Episode 25: In the Zone: How Buffer Zones Are Helping to Prevent Pollution in the Lagoon

Heather Stapleton:

Picture this… a sunny weekend morning in Florida. The air is still fresh from last night’s rain. Volunteers are elbow-deep in sandy shoreline soils, planting seedlings that will be working hard to keep pollution out of one of Florida’s most fragile waterways, the Indian River Lagoon.

We’re in the zone today, the buffer zone that is, on this episode of One Lagoon, One Voice.

Duane DeFreese:

Hi, I am Duane De Freese, executive director of the IRL Council and the Indian River Lagoon National Estuary Program. Welcome to our One Lagoon, One Voice Podcast.

Each week, myself or one of my staff members will host leaders in the community, scientists along the lagoon, people who know a lot about the system to talk about some of the problems.
And most importantly, some of the solutions to solve the Indian River Lagoon’s health and make sure it’s great for future generations.

So let’s get the show started and let’s talk a little lagoon.

Heather:

Welcome to the One Lagoon, One Voice Podcast. I’m Heather Stapleton, one of three community engagement coordinators for the Indian River Lagoon National Estuary Program.

Today we’re getting our hands dirty in the best possible way, with two passionate environmental champions working to protect and restore the Indian River Lagoon and surrounding ecosystems, specifically through the use of buffer zones. From bioswales to shoreline gardens, in this episode we’re talking about how native plants and community grit are taking on nutrient pollution and stormwater runoff.

Joining us today are Bill DeLuccia, who leads the Ocean Friendly Gardens Initiative of the Space Coast chapter of Surfrider Foundation, helping transform Ballard Park and Indialantic streetscapes into resilient green infrastructure.

And we’ll also be joined by Tori Wilcock, the conservation restoration coordinator with Brevard Zoo’s Restore Our Shores program, whose work across Brevard is proving that some of the best defenses for our waterways might just start at the shoreline.

Welcome to both of you. Thank you so much for being here.

Tori Wilcock:

Thank you so much for having us.

Bill DeLuccia:

Yeah, thank you so much.

Heather:

I have loved working with both of you, and getting to know both of you and the various projects that you’ve been working on. I think all of those projects are very exciting, and I can’t wait for the folks to hear about them.

So, buffer zones are considered a best management practice to slow down that stormwater runoff, and increase infiltration on the land adjacent to bodies of water to help reduce pollutants and nutrient runoff.

Tori, these buffer zones can take many forms, of course. But at its most basic, what even is a buffer zone, you know, and kind of what are the desired outcomes in general from these buffer zones?

Tori:

Basically a buffer zone is an area of land, either beside, an area of water and it’s planted with what we have here, Florida native plants. And it helps mitigate stormwater runoff.

So say for example, it pours down with rain, it’s flushing off the road sides, bringing oils, fertilizer, pesticides, grass clippings, all sorts, and it can be flowing straight directly into the lagoon or ditches or swales.

So basically the buffer zone is that area full of native plants that help reduce that stormwater runoff, whether it’s catching the clippings, whether it’s soaking up any of the nutrients. And that’s basically what a buffer zone is.

Heather:

Got it. Yeah, I think our listeners will be glad to hear that definition.

Tori:

There’s just an array of plants that you can put there to help with this. And it’s usually along the Indian River Lagoon, but also we try and tell the community, it’s not just there too. It could be along swales, it could be along roadside edges or medians.

You don’t have to live along the the lagoon in order to help, you can be planting a buffer zone to help, you know, grass clippings, for example, flowing down into the stormwater drains, which is, where is it gonna end up? In the lagoon.

There’s an array of benefits, as well as shelter, habitat and food for the local wildlife.

Heather:

Yeah. You know, a lot of times when we do use the word buffer zone, we do think of literally, you know, on the shoreline. But I love how you said, even at home people can plant buffer zones in their own landscapes. And municipalities can be putting in buffer zones in various places even in a median. I think we’re finding that they’re really essential to help preserve water quality and support biodiversity and protect the shoreline.

Tori:

So a great point you made there about erosion control, so it helps keep the shoreline, you know, held together and strong when there are like, things like hurricanes and big storms.

Heather:

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Tori:

And the reason is when we start getting… it’s not just litter. When you think, when we go into schools or even adult education type things and workshops and outreach, you know, you ask about, “What is the pollution in the lagoon?” And the classics, things like, you know, plastics, things like that in waterways. But actually people don’t realize how… even though, say, grass clippings they think, well, it’s natural. What does it matter about it going into the lagoon? They don’t realize how even though the nitrogen, the phosphorus, things like that are natural things that can go in the lagoon, if there’s too much of it, it then increases things like algae blooms.

Why not have those buffer zones there first? It’s like a sort of a first approach to stop it.

Heather:

And I think the hard thing is, you know, in nutrition classes we learn that nutrients are a good thing. And so it is a challenge to try and educate people that excess nutrients are not a good thing.

Tori:

Yeah. It’s all about balance, definitely.

Heather:

Hey, Bill, even though, you know, officially, your program is called Ocean Friendly Gardens your chapter of Surfrider, the Space Coast chapter, recently completed two gardens. Basically, two buffer zones along the lagoon there at Ballard Park. This was a project funded in part with a small grant from the Indian River Lagoon Council. One’s a little bit closer to the lagoon itself, and I think one’s more on the Eau Gallie River.

Can you tell us about those two gardens, and what’s the aim of those two gardens?

Bill:

Yeah, absolutely.

So, the garden that’s furthest to the east… which really is more exposed to the open Indian River Lagoon, is situated right next to a large parking lot where people are launching boats. There’s a lot of trucks, there’s a lot of activity around this boat ramp area.

I think that particular garden’s doing a very good job of capturing some of the nutrients that Tori had spoken of, right, some of the oil, some of the runoff there.

Also interestingly, Ballard Park sits below a bluff. I think you had asked a question a little while ago where you had talked about, you know, what’s running off into the lagoon? Well, from what I’ve heard over the years, pretty much almost everything east of I-95 and everything on the Barrier Islands is running into the lagoon. It’s like a bowl and it just fills up with everything that flows down into our water drainages, into the lagoon, whether you’re on the mainland or on the island.

So that being the case since these gardens both sit below the bluff … they’re in Melbourne, a lot of those nutrients, a lot of those oils and pesticides and different pollutants are running downhill until they hit that parking lot. And in a lot of cases, that parking lot has some cuts to open up and go towards the garden. So that being the case, what we’re hoping to do and accomplish with that one eastern garden is to capture a lot of those nutrients that are flowing over the pavement.

Heather:

Mm-hmm.

Bill:

Then you had also spoken about the other garden that we had done there as a buffer. And it was interesting ’cause the two gardens were quite different. The one on the east is much higher in elevation.

Heather:

Mm-hmm.

Bill:

It’s about three, four feet above the river. We had to use some different native plant species there that were a little more dry tolerant. But then when we went over to the western side underneath a little cabbage palm hammock area, right behind some mangroves, we were only sitting literally a few inches above the water table and above the river level. We used some more wetland-based native plants there to establish basically the same type of, um… or to do the same type of work, to uptake those nutrients as they flowed down the Eau Gallie River towards the mouth of the Eau Gallie River and into the lagoon.

Heather:

Mm-hmm. Indian River Lagoon Council didn’t fund your other project, but I do know that the Space Coast chapter of Surfrider also just finished a massive bioswale project on Earth Day. Congratulations-

Bill:

Yeah.

Heather:

…how appropriate.

Bill:

Thank you.

Heather:

Can you tell us a little bit about what a swale is and what does it do, and what does it even mean to have turned a swale into a bioswale?

Bill:

That’s an interesting question, ’cause a lot of people just think of a swale as a hole in the ground that they put grass into, right? So-

Heather:

Oh, yeah.

Bill:

And that’s unfortunately what we see a lot in Florida are just kind of biodiversity-devoid holes with St. Augustine grass thrown in the bottom with the intent of capturing rainwater. The irony behind that is, many of these swales that municipalities are digging and throwing grass into the bottom of, do not drain nearly as well as they would if you had opened up the bottom of those swales, cut away that nutrient-rich sod, which they shouldn’t be putting in a swale anyways and replace that with native plants.

Heather:

Mm-hmm.

Bill:

Not only are you opening the bottom of the swale, the lower, lowest level of that hole … more percolation and more water flow down into the soils. But you’re also able to put those native plants that feed on the nitrogen and phosphorus, and uptake those pollutants in the base.

Instead of adding to the problem, you’re fixing the problem by converting a swale that’s sod-laden into a biodiverse, nutrient-capturing native plant garden that can provide pollinator habitat, pollinator benefit, native wildlife habitat, as well as migratory bird habitat as well.

And that’s what we’ve done in Indialantic. The town had received a large… I think it was a Florida Department of Transportation. It was some kind of money years ago, and they dug these swales that took up about four blocks next to our pedway.

Heather:

Wow.

Bill:

And it was a very, very lengthy grouping of swales. And what we proposed to the town through Surfrider and the sustainability board, was to convert all those swales into native plant gardens that would uptake the nutrients and allow for better drainage, to prevent stormwater flooding in those low-lying areas on the west side of the island.

Heather:

I really appreciated the day you showed me around, just because you mentioned the pedway, I think it’s amazing that there’s this great sidewalk there. All kinds of people are using this for recreation. And now, thanks to the bioswales, it’s even more beautiful than it already might have been.

Bill:

Absolutely. and people have really taken interest. Um, you know, I’ll go down there once in a while. I had to water some of those plants in, as it was a pretty dry spring-

Heather:

Mm-hmm.

Bill:

…after Earth Day. Fortunately now we’re getting the rains and it’s helped me quite a bit (laughs) with regards-

Heather:

(laughs).

Bill:

…to the hours work down there. People are constantly complimenting on it. And the flowers are blooming on some of the hibiscus, the native hibiscuses we’ve put in. It looks beautiful and people are taking up.

Heather:

Nice.

Bill:

And we have signage that educates them as well, which is extremely important.

Heather:

Yeah, and I like how the QR code takes you back to your website. But I need to get out there, now that we’re getting rain again, and take a look at things now that they’re in bloom.

Bill:

Yeah, absolutely.

Heather:

So selecting the best site for a buffer zone along the lagoon …or really any sensitive coastal ecosystem, obviously involves evaluating the environment, the land use that’s already occurring, as well as lots of logistical factors.

Tori, the Brevard Zoo has been working on a number of sites along the lagoon targeting them for use of buffer zones. Can you tell us about how your process goes to kind of like evaluate these locations?

Tori:

Yeah. So basically how it starts is, we work alongside, FIT so Florida Institute of Technology. And they, we have Dr. Fox and he basically comes out and assesses it with us. Things like soil testing, water testing, seeing, you know, which areas are literally more suitable, to be planting. And obviously chatting with the local areas to find out, you know, where they’re seeing more stormwater runoff as well.

Heather:

I was recently up at the Fisherman’s Landing site. I got to help you with the install on that one. That was massive. can you talk about what the impetus was for kind of spreading all those buffer zone projects across the entirety of Brevard County?

Tori:

So that’s one main point, which I forgot earlier to say and then I was thinking about it, literally about community engagement.

Heather:

Mm-hmm.

Tori:

So we are trying to educate the community and with part of our grant funding, was to engage and inspire at least 7,000 community members to plant their own buffer zones, and even get out with us and help us. And we had so many volunteers. We even had Publix people come out and help us. It was great.

That was, they were the most fun days, when people came out to volunteer. So that’s always a benefit, so it’s beautiful to see.

And like I say, the reason we kind of spread them out we wanted community engagement. And not just the community, like, people that travel here, people … what do we call them? Like, snowbirds that come down and see it-

Heather:

Mm-hmm.

Tori:

…for the winter. We wanna educate them too, because they don’t know about the Florida native plants. They don’t know about the lagoon.

Heather:

Right. Yeah. I loved the day that I was out at Fisherman’s Landing with you, and all of these people were using the boardwalk.

Tori:

Yeah.

Heather:

And there’s a tourist attraction right there with a historic home.

Tori:

Yeah.

Heather:

And everyone was asking, “Whoa, what’s going on?”

Tori:

(laughs).

Heather:

And then once you told them, they were getting excited and people-

Tori:

Yeah.

Heather:

…were like, “Oh, I have to come back and do a photo shoot,” you know, once the-

Tori:

Yeah. Oh, every time … So like Bill was saying, until the plants get fully rooted, we were heading there to water the plants. And every time we were there, there was always somebody new like, “Ooh, what’s this? This is beautiful.” Or there was even fishermen like, “Wow, this is so much better.”

Like, it’s actually … ’cause they said they’d noticed erosion had happened there… they said they’re hoping that this will help with that too. So it’s great that, you know, the whole community and people that visit there, just, they’re all positive about it and they see the benefits, so that’s great.

Heather:

That’s fantastic. And the day we were there, people were already asking, “What plants are being used here, and could I use those in my yard?” So I think, you know, just anecdotally, people are really enjoying and learning from your sites already.

Tori:

Yeah, the good thing as well is, we’ve been doing workshops because people were so interested. We were going out into the community at HOAs, at the zoo, and people were wanting to learn about different types of buffer zones they could create, because they can be a little bit different. If you live closer to the beach side you might want more of the palms and the different types of grasses, like your sea grass and all those things, and your oats. Whereas, if you live closer inland you might have more, uh, different types of ground or different … like sand, more sandy ground, you know?

Heather:

Mm-hmm.

Tori:

Or you might want more of a butterfly or a moth garden, so you even have a nighttime one. There’s different ways you could do it, and different plants you could use, all Florida native. And once they’re grounded and rooted, they live here. They don’t need as much watering.

Heather:

Yeah. And Bill, how about for Surfrider? I’m assuming some of the same reasons. why did Surfrider select Ballard Park for its buffer zone site?

Bill:

Well, one of the main reasons for Ballard Park Surfrider does many programs and campaigns. And one of our programs is called Blue Water Task Force. So we do testing of water quality flowing into the Indian River Lagoon.

Like, Horse Creek, Crane Creek and Eau Gallie River are just a few examples. So it was nice to be able to pick Ballard Park being at the outflow of Eau Gallie River from the standpoint of unfortunately one of the freshwater outflows that shows some of the highest nutrient levels, some of the fecal counts that are at the highest.

Heather:

Mm-hmm.

Bill:

But it’s also one of the most publicly exposed, where people are launching boats and there’s a high population of people that are constantly passing through there. So we thought, if we could combine the Blue Water Task Force efforts and also put two buffer gardens along the shorelines there, it would be a good complement to each other. So that was probably the main catalyst there for the Ballard Park site.

Heather:

Tori, can you talk a little bit about just the process of designing your gardens? You talked earlier how sometimes they might look totally different from one another depending on what the site conditions are.

Tori:

Yeah. So basically this was the thing, we wanted to make sure our four buffer zones were as similar as possible, so that when we do the nutrient study, it’s as fair as possible with that.

Heather:

Got it.

Tori:

Then you come across, you know, your natural things. So it’s usually a 10 by 100-foot buffer zone. But then you’re gonna get maybe a tree in the middle of it, and it’s like, well, that’s a native tree, we don’t wanna cut that down. That’s, you know, it’s doing its job already, so let’s leave that one there.

But then you might have a nice bench for people to sit at, so you think, well, somebody needs to be able to walk around that, so.

And then even we considered the thing at Fisherman’s Landing … like, I was on a course recently and somebody made a point that they wanted to be able to get into the lagoon, but there’s some oyster reefs in the way for them. So the one at Fisherman’s Landing, we actually did the buffer zones in half so that people could still enter the lagoon and kayak and enjoy the lagoon still, you know?

And then also it’s other things like, again, with the engagement thing, we actually had a lot of help from schools. So again, part of the grant, we went into schools and we engaged with at least … I’m saying at least, because it was way more, 80 students, from four underserved schools. And part of that grant was for them to actually grow the plants for us. So we wanted to make sure that the plants all came from the same place and that, you know, they were looked after. So we went into the schools. We educated them about buffer zones, why we’re putting them in, how they can help as well. And again, they planted seeds, they propagated some of the plants for us. And they even kept a bunch of the plants to do their own buffer zones at the school, and keep educating-

Heather:

Oh, fantastic.

Tori:

Which, that just reminds me, we did a little competition for them as well.

Heather:

Oh. (laughs).

Tori:

Yeah, it was super fun, they had to design …and it wasn’t just for the schools, it was for like, homeschooled kids. It was for like scouts, anybody that wanted to get involved in Brevard County.

And they had to design either a poster, a short story, a poem or a letter to the community about why buffer zones are beneficial to the lagoon and why we need them. And there were some really emotional, like intense thought-out like, poems and things there. And the winning-

Heather:

Oh.

Tori:

…Yeah, the winners of each category actually got their work put on the signs at the buffer zone. So we’re just waiting for them to be installed-

Heather:

That’s cool.

Tori:

…so we can let everybody know that they’re there.

So there’s like a poster at one of them, there’s a poem at another, so it’s really cool. And we also have photos from all the community members that volunteered with us. They are also gonna be on the signs as well, like, pictures of them in action.

Heather:

Yeah. I think recognition, that’s amazing.

Tori:

Yeah.

Heather:

You were talking about how the kids were even helping sow the seeds and propagating some of the plants. And Bill, you are so knowledgeable about native plants. I mean, you and your son have the biggest personal collection of Florida native plants I’ve ever seen.

What makes the native plants just really ideal for these buffer zones? I mean you can do native plants and you can do Florida friendly. I think in both of your cases you’ve chosen to go with strictly natives.

So what makes those plants ideal for buffer zones?

Bill:

Well, the easiest answer is that was what was here before we were here, right? So we’re only restoring what should be in these areas.

And essentially what we’re doing is, we’re putting plants that are native and endemic or a part of the natural type of ecosystem that we’re trying to restore, back. So we know they’re gonna thrive. We know they’re gonna be receptive to the conditions we’re putting them into.

And that’s why even just subtle changes in elevation, as to how high up your buffer zone is from the water table, make a difference. ‘Cause each one of these native plants may thrive in just a slightly different ecosystem or a different plant community.

We have over 250 species of Florida-native plants in my yard. And now my son has a business of his own, you know, licensed nursery out of our yard.

Heather:

Yeah, it’s remarkable.

Bill:

…it’s pretty cool. And once you catch the native plant bug it’s hard to get rid of that little bug.

Heather:

Speaking of that native plant bug, I know you love plants. So how did you ever like, cull your list down to make sure you’re selecting the right plant? How do you do that?

Bill:

It gets back to, I guess you protect what you love. And in this case, we’re protecting the Indian River Lagoon.

And I love the Indian River Lagoon because I’m, every weekend I’m out fly-fishing on the Indian River Lagoon. So I intimately know what these plant communities look like behind the mangrove zones, you know? Like, so I’ve trudged through the muck every weekend I’m walking through some of these areas to access some fishing areas. I’m just intimately educated on what these quasi-wetland areas of, of where land meets sea look like and what plants grow in those zones.

So when I went to pick the plants that would fit best in these buffer zones, it was just very organic to me to understand what would thrive there. Because I’m constantly walking through those areas, in protected areas of the south beaches of Brevard County especially. So I picked a lot of the species that you would see when you’re maybe at an EELS land, you know-

Heather:

Mm-hmm.

Bill:

…Brevard County Environmentally Endangered Lands where you would naturally see them growing in the wild.

Tori:

Yeah, I was gonna add to that.

Heather:

Yeah.

Tori:

You’ve got to think of things like salt tolerant. ‘Cause if you get the salt spray or if it’s gonna rain, or it does flood over it, you know, things like your dune sunflower flourishes. You see that on the beach itself, so it does, definitely does well with salt, railroad vine does great and it’s strong and it’s hardy, and that’s great for erosion control. And then your different types of grasses we threw a few extra cheeky ones in there just for like, more for the pollinators, you know, and just for-

Bill:

So did we.

Tori:

…some color and variety. Yeah.

Heather:

(laughs).

Tori:

Yeah, just to look beautiful. Things like your tropical sage and your scorpions tail, things like that, they just look beautiful. And then your Coontie palm we actually put in there because the Atala butterfly, which is struggling in Florida and it’s a native, we wanted to make sure that had, you know, some pollination basically the Atala butterfly loves the coontie palm to be able to, you know, have caterpillars go on there.

So it’s literally … like Bill was saying, it’s a combination of, you just get used to seeing the stuff there and you see what thrives in those areas, but then it’s also understanding why they thrive there.

Heather:

And Bill, in your case, the Ballard Park buffer zones versus the bioswale, that’s a completely different environment type. And so I’m assuming that your plants were also very different.

Bill:

Very different. To Tori’s point our biggest considerations in bioswales are inundation. Because not only is it inundation from a storm that you may see along a buffer garden that is very intermittent… maybe once a year with a tropical system like that.

But when you’re talking about bioswales, every time you have a big, thorough rainfall, it’s gonna fill up with rain. So you have to make sure those plants are capable of inundation. So a lot of the plants we put in the bottom of the swales are very tolerant of inundation, and are sitting at such a level that they’re just barely below the groundwater anyways. So it’s much moistier, you know, say three feet in elevation down along the pedway in the bottom of the bioswale, than it is up three feet higher right next to the pedway.

The elevation makes a big difference in Florida as to what you’re gonna be planting, how close to that water table are you? And then when we were talking about Ballard Park, you’re talking about a buffer zone on the east side that is a good three feet above the river. So we had to make sure that we were putting in plants that were a little bit more drought tolerant and thank goodness we did with all that dry weather we had.

Heather:

Yeah. Mm-hmm. I was thinking about a concept that we teach called the Florida inch. Literally one inch change in elevation can completely change the ecosystem that’s happening right there, you know? And you’re, you’re like a couple of feet away and completely different.

Bill:

Right, absolutely.

Heather:

So now, Victoria, now that all of your gardens have been installed … and you said they look very similar, do, what do they all have in common? And is there one in particular that maybe stands out, or labor of love and you love them all equally?

Tori:

Yes.

Heather:

Yeah, I know.

Tori:

Oh, tough one. Tough one.

Heather:

(laughs).

Tori:

Yeah. No, they’re as standard as they could be for what the locations are. They all have the same amount of plants, of species. We’ve tried to lay them out a similar, literally the same pattern design.

It’s tough because every time we go out… so we go out every, so we’re going out at two weeks time, a month. And then every month, once a month we’re going out to monitor them, their growth, seeing how they’re progressing. Already like, they’ve literally doubled in height and width. And then also we’re doing the water testing too. And then back to your original question of like, which one’s my favorite?

I always say I think The Fisherman’s Landing, I think I really love that one because it’s just such a beautiful setting. There’s these picnic tables. There’s, like you said, that old Benson historical house. It’s just a beautiful setting in itself. But then, I go to Kelly Park East and it’s right where like, people do boat tours for dolphin tours, and even the fishermen and the people on the boats are like, “This looks beautiful… then when I’m at that side, it’s got lots of herons there and the birds are loving it. So I’m like, oh, now I love this site. And, and then Pineapple Park, just recently we had some great volunteers who continued watering some of the sites ’cause we couldn’t always get to them. And we had like a Melbourne gardening group that came, and they’ve been so good at watering them.

We were worried about the park at first ’cause it was looking like it was struggling with the heat. And then next time we go, the golden rod is already nearly to our height. Like, it’s so tall-

Heather:

Oh, wow.

Tori:

…already. Yeah it’s so good.

Heather:

And how about you, Bill, between the different bioswales… and I know each one is slightly different, and then the two zones that you have at Ballard Park… do you have one that you prefer?

Bill:

Well, starting with Ballard, I’m really excited to see what comes of the westernmost buffer garden at Ballard Park, which is under the, the sable palm hammock there.

There’s a pretty congested grouping of sable palms. And we basically created an understory kind of almost a shade garden there with some really beautiful natives like Walter’s viburnum and marlberry and elderberry and some native grasses. I think that’s gonna be a showstopper when it’s established.

So for Ballard, that’s my favorite. And then for Indialantic, the most recent two swales we did together were part of the Florida Wildflower Foundation… a grant that they had given us along with monies from Surfrider Foundation and from the town of Indialantic. And the last swale we did looks really, really good and it’s got so much biodiversity in it. I think we put over 30 different species of natives in there.

Heather:

Wow. Oh, my gosh.

Bill:

And it’s gonna actually end up being a greenway, that entire length of those four blocks with the four different swales in there.

And why that’s so important here in Indialantic is Orlando Park is considered one of the stops on the Florida Birding Trail. And we get a really good migration of neotropical migrants like the warblers and tanagers and orioles coming through this side of Indialantic, down along the Indian River Lagoon.

And with extending the native trees and shrubs that are gonna be attracting the right insects at the right time of the year in the spring… and into the fall, having the fruits at the right time of the year for the different species that are migrating back down after nesting in the northern United States or in Canada, we’re providing food and habitat at the, specifically the right times of year for these migratory birds that will in some cases fly all the way down to the Amazonian rainforest.

Heather:

It’s amazing to think that your native plants, which are really initially put in for water quality issues, are gonna serve so many more purposes. And I hadn’t even thought about potential birding in the long run, once these plants get bigger and established.

Bill:

Yeah. And I just wanted to add one other pro, to what we’re doing with putting all these plants in. Whether it’s Tori’s gardens that she’s been planning or the Surfrider Gardens at Ballard Park or in Indialantic, the way we were able to get the municipalities on board in some cases is talking to them about water storage.

And just really briefly the city of New York has put in like hundreds of thousands of the trees over the past five years in an effort to store stormwater above ground. And if you think about it, a mature live oak supposedly can store 10,000 gallons of water.

Heather:

Yeah.

Bill:

So it’s critical with sea level rise that, in these coastal communities that we all live, that we’re also trying to provide stormwater solutions to our municipalities. And that’s why I think we’re getting some of these municipalities like Indialantic on board as well.

Heather:

It’s almost like you could read my mind, Bill. And I know I didn’t give you a script or anything in advance.

So you talked about working with your municipalities. So Tori, what was it like for Restore Our Shores to work with the municipalities?

Tori:

Yeah, great.

I mean, we literally reached out, and it was just a case of just kind of having an agreement about where we’re gonna do it, what’s the maintenance kind of side of things…

Which we tried to sell it to them like, “Hey, you know, once they’re established, they pretty much look after themselves.” And, all the locations we picked are places where the community are gonna see them. Which is the whole point, you know, to be able to explain the benefits of these buffer zones as well as them doing their job.

So yeah. And it was just kind of getting that agreement written up. We didn’t need to get a permit, like we do when we’re trying to do oyster gardening and clams and stuff like that. It was just more-

Heather:

Nice.

Tori:

…of like, yeah, this is what the plan is. They’re like, yeah, good to go. We have an agreement and then good, that’s it.

So, yeah. And I think what we’d love to do, it sounds a little bit like what Bill’s doing already, is looking to do more, you know, medians and roadsides and things. ‘Cause you do definitely see down, say US-1, that road is very close to the lagoon and when there’s-

Heather:

Yeah.

Tori:

…big stormwater runoffs, it can flow there. So we’d like to reach out to some people and see would you like us to do some buffer zones for you? It might benefit, people love to see them, you know? They do their job, so…

Heather:

Bill, you’ve definitely got to get Tori out to see the bioswale project. It’s amazing.

Bill:

Yeah, and I really wanna see Fisherman’s Landing. I haven’t had an opportunity to get down there. But that’s a beautiful area down there.

Heather:

So Tori, I know that having installed most of these buffer zones right before our drought started… But other than that, did you face any other challenges or were there any other big surprises that occurred during your projects?

Tori:

No. I mean, well, yes and no.

It’s kind of within our job. We do a lot of things in conservation where we’re out in the lagoon… like say, with reef building, all these different things that we kind of have a plan, and then it never really goes to plan.

Heather:

(laughs).

Tori:

We usually discuss what’s gonna go wrong, so we can think of ways to get around that.

Heather:

Right.

Tori:

And I think we’ve all got to a point where we’re like, we just kind of laugh and be like, right, what do we do, you know? It’s like every site was different.

Heather:

And Bill, same question for you.

What were some of your challenges or surprises that you faced during your projects?

Bill:

Um, yeah. So like Tori, it’s interesting, I guess along the lagoon in certain areas they’ve used netting and meshing, plastic meshing in the past.

And in Ballard Park when we started to try… like for instance, we partnered with the city of Melbourne, so they would prep the area. And prepping is part of the biggest part to having a successful buffer garden.

Heather:

Sure.

Bill:

And unfortunately, they didn’t get down below the netting. And so when we arrived, it was almost as if they just skimmed the top… and there were still rhizomes and some other plants growing through the netting.

And we had to have shears and had a bunch of people for that planting that day, so fortunately we were able to cut through most of that netting and get disposed of most of that. Um, but yeah, there’s always surprises and hurdles that you’re not expecting.

I would say the biggest challenges with the town of Indialantic were just the logistics. You know, the approvals, the making sure you got public works out there digging the bottoms of the swales to an appropriate depth.

Because the one thing I would say is that from all the gardens that I’ve done, and including some buffer gardens along the Indian River Lagoon prior, is, if you don’t get all the rhizomes and all the grassroots out, you’re destined to see that grass again and this time it’s gonna be climbing all over your beautiful native plants if it comes back.

Heather:

Yeah. That’s hard.

Bill:

Preparations is really a big part of it.

Heather:

So Tori, you’ve talked a lot about engaging the volunteers and the stakeholders.

And Bill, I mean, obviously you had help from the town as well but your projects were also mostly volunteers, right?

Bill:

Yes, absolutely. Fortunately with Surfrider we have a good contingency, like, an established volunteer base. ‘Cause we’ve been doing beach cleanups and co-plantings and all sorts of different activities here in the Space Coast for so long, we have a very, very active group of volunteers with Surfrider, so it has worked out well.

Running the Ocean Friendly Garden program, it’s been pretty easy at times to get those volunteers out there.

And then, when you can double down on it and get some people from the town or Florida Native Plant Society… you know, we’re all trying to do the same good work out here, right? And then-

Heather:

Yeah.

Bill:

…if you can reach out to your friends with other nonprofits, sometimes that helps too.

Heather:

That’s awesome.

I mean, I think both of your organizations do a fantastic job of keeping the local community really engaged and I love hearing about the educational components to the project as well, for sure.

Bill, do you have any advice for someone who might wanna try to start something similar in their neighborhood?

Like, you know, that’s a pretty big green infrastructure project, that bioswale. That’s not something that you’re gonna do in your own yard per se, but what if I wanted to work in my neighborhood to do something similar?

Bill:

That’s a great question and I’m so glad you asked it.

Because I was just listening to Tori speak about HOAs, right? She’s brought that up a couple of times. And it’s really interesting that there was a lady who recently won a board position up with the Suntree Master’s Homeowners Association, and she’s in charge of their entire stormwater project now, for all 4,500 homes in-

Heather:

Wow.

Bill:

…in Suntree Master’s Homeowners Association.

So she reached out to myself and my son Dylan to be on her board, her subcommittee for stormwater to come up with nature-based solutions based off the work she saw that Surfrider was doing.

Heather:

Oh.

Bill:

So, it is truly contagious and I do think we’re gonna make an impact up there.

In Tori’s backyard, not too far from Brevard Zoo in the Suntree area, I think we’ve got some projects already planned for hopefully this fall.

Heather:

Oh, that is fantastic, and I love how you said, “It’s truly contagious.”

Yeah. People walk by and they just start talking to the folks doing the work, and they start talking to one another and really interested on how we can do these projects elsewhere.

You know, and sometimes it might not be a huge green infrastructure project like your bioswales project, but like we’ve already talked about, just even in your own yards-

Bill:

Right.

Heather:

…providing that buffer between your yard and the sidewalk or your yard and the street. I think these are all really great things that folks walking by all of your projects and your buffer zones, they can get inspired and get some ideas of what they can do in their own neighborhoods.

Tori:

Yeah.

Heather:

Yeah. You know, one final question.

You guys are just so much fun to talk to, ’cause you’re so excited about all of this. I was thinking about the Restore Our Shores buffer zones in particular, and the Ballard Park buffer zones as well, a lot of people don’t like to have their view of the water blocked. And, and I mean, I get that.

And what I appreciate about the projects that you’ve chosen, you’ve specifically done plant selection, that those aren’t gonna grow crazy high, and block the water views. Was that intentional? Were you thinking about how people do like the water views, or were you just trying to do something different, Tori?

Tori:

No, 100% it was that. It was, you know, people, we thought about the whole thing with the gap in between for them to access the water. We wanted so that people are not gonna complain.

They still wanna see the beauty of the water and see the dolphins come up and even the manatees swim by. We just wanted to make sure we had the right plants in the right place and that it wasn’t gonna obstruct view, it was gonna be beneficial for the nature. We tried to think of every possible thing and like, the type of plant, everything.

Heather:

Mm-hmm. I think that is important also when establishing a project is, gives the people something nice to look at right away.

Especially when you know it’s, you know, they’re native plants. They’re not necessarily as showy as things that you might get at a big box store, but eventually it’s gonna be really beautiful.

Tori:

Yeah. And we want… when our signs are going in, which will be soon hopefully, we’re gonna have hopefully that QR code and some pictures of the plants to educate people about the plants. And then that QR code to take you to the website, to educate them more about the choice of plants and things like that.

Heather:

Well guys, thank you so much for having joined us today.

Bill, I just wanted to know, do you have any final thoughts on the Space Coast Surfrider projects or, you know, how would somebody get involved and find out more about the Space Coast chapter of Surfrider?

Bill:

They can go right out to our website, the Spacecoast Surfrider, and check us out. We have literally all our programs listed out there, including the Ocean Friendly Gardens Program. Learn a little bit about what we’re doing on the Space Coast.

I think collaboration is key as well, and I’m looking forward to talking to Tori at some point as well and collaborating potentially on some things in the future.

Heather:

Yeah.

And Tori, how about you? Any final thoughts on your work with the Restore Our Shores buffer zones?

What’s the best way for folks to get involved with Restore Our Shores?

Tori:

Yeah, so same kind of thing. That is one of the main questions I get, you know, “How can we help?” …if they don’t live by the lagoon?

They can come out with us, they just go on our website. You can either go to the Brevard Zoo and find Restore Our Shores, or just go straight to restoreourshores.org, and there’ll be volunteer opportunities there. Whether it’s with buffer zones, whether it’s coming, in the actual lagoon building oyster reefs, there’s so many opportunities. There’s ways you can help even if you can’t plant a buffer zone, so…

Heather:

Yeah, I’m always impressed with how much really is going on. And we frequently say, there’s probably more going on than you realize, and there are probably more ways you as the listeners can be involved than you might realize as well. I love the idea of growing plants and then giving them to someone who has more space in their yard. I love that.

Tori:

Like Bill says… I love the fact that, like Bill says, we have all these different not for profits… you know, Surfrider, the Brevard Zoo with Restore Our Shores, and all the different people that fund, like Indian River Lagoon National Estuary Program.

We all collaborate. We all look out for each other. We all try and help each other, and then that all brings us together.

Heather:

Yeah.

Thank you so much for joining me today. Thank you so much for all the hard work because those projects are particularly challenging. It’s not like you get to go into the water and cool off.

Bill:

(laughs).

Heather:

It was very hot, hard work. So I appreciate all your efforts and the lagoon does too.

Bill:

Thank you so much, Heather.

Tori:

Yeah, thank you. It was great speaking with you guys.

Heather:

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