During the month of January Governor Ron DeSantis announced funding for several environmental initiatives. On January 10th the Governor signed Executive Order 23-06 (Even More Now for Florida’s Environment). Key provisions of the order include directing the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to: Secure $3.5 billion over the next four years for Everglades restoration and [...]
The strong popular response to the growing number of microforest projects in communities from Parrish to Venice continues to present more opportunities for the replacement of inefficient turf grass with high-performance microforests to help improve the quality of our local waterways. Microforests absorb much more stormwater and filter more excess nutrients than turf grass. In [...]
Thanks to a very successful pilot pond program funded by a grant from Ed Chiles and Elizabeth Moore that helped enhance over a half mile of pond shoreline in Manatee County communities last year, START has been awarded a three-year $100,000 grant from Charles & Margery Barancik Foundation to create the Healthy Pond Collaborative Manatee. [...]
There are two basic approaches to improving the quality of our coastal waters. One is to focus on reducing the flow of excess nutrients into our waterways. This includes the move to close the polluting Piney Point storage facility, upgrading aging wastewater infrastructure like the Bee Ridge plant in Sarasota and START’s Healthy Pond Collaborative [...]
START is pleased to declare March as Microforest Month in our expanding efforts to improve water quality along the Suncoast. This is a direct result of the popular success of the Microforest at the Celery Fields in Sarasota. As originally announced in last November’s edition of our monthly E-Newsletter, the one third acre site continues [...]
Despite the efforts of governments, organizations and many people, nitrogen, the principal nutrient that feeds Harmful Algal Blooms like red tide, has grown alarmingly in our waterways. Sarasota Bay, in particular, has twice as much nitrogen in it today than it did back in 2000. Recognizing that stormwater is a major contributor to pollutants and [...]
START is launching a Special Sales Promotion on under dock mini reefs for waterside residents on the Sun Coast. The units fit under your dock and provide habitat for sea life that filter excess nutrients from the water and attract a wide variety of fish as shown in the above picture taken at the Mar [...]
