The Suncoast continues to suffer from the lingering red tide bloom along our shores. Fish kills continue to mount and beachgoers are fleeing the airborne toxins that cause tearing eyes and coughing. START is working on a number of fronts in the Sarasota Bay Watershed to help reduce the excess nutrients in our waterways that [...]
START is pleased to introduce the following guest article by Charles Reith, President, Florida House Board of Directors and Science Advisor, Southface Institute, about the exciting new Microforest project at Nathan Benderson Park. Following the great public interest in the Microforest that was planted at the Celery Fields last October by the Sarasota Urban ReForesters, [...]
START is very pleased to present the following article about our first completed Pond Enhancement Project in Manatee County thanks to a generous grant from Ed Chiles and Elizabeth Moore. The article was written by Antaeus Balevre, President, Water Oak Homeowners Association. Whisper Bend AKA Water Oak is a small 162 home subdivision adjacent to [...]
For 36 years scientists have monitored the size of the Gulf of Mexico dead zone or hypoxic zone, which forms every spring. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) scientists are forecasting this summer’s hypoxic area or “dead zone” — an area of low to no oxygen that can kill fish and other marine life — [...]
START is pleased to offer the following report about The Meadows community’s exemplary water quality work with their stormwater ponds. The Meadows is a community of 3,560 condominiums, villas and single-family homes built during the period from 1974 to 1995, in the northeast corner of Sarasota County bordered by 17th Street and Honore Avenue. The [...]
After a month of monitoring since the Cover Story in our May edition, experts from the University of South Florida’s College of Marine Science declared at a press conference on May 24th that the release of nutrient-laden wastewater from the Piney Point stack has largely dispersed. Their research shows that the concentration of nutrients in [...]
Since the pandemic oyster farmers have been hit hard. With restaurants that were their customers closing, their sales were way down and the oysters they were holding grew beyond the half-shell market. But growers in seven states now have a market for their overgrown oysters. The Nature Conservancy in partnership with The Pew Charitable Trusts [...]
