START is very pleased to announce the formation of an important new three-year water quality partnership known as the Healthy Pond Collaborative. Funded by a major grant from Charles & Margery Barancik Foundation, the Healthy Pond Collaborative includes START, the Sarasota County Neighborhood Environmental Stewardship Team (NEST) Program, University of Florida IFAS Extension Sarasota County, [...]
START presents another community pond enhancement success story in Sarasota County. This month’s selection is from Pinebrook South as written by resident, Don Thomas. The community of Pinebrook South is located across from Wellfield Park on Pinebrook Road near Venice Avenue, minutes away from the downtown area and Gulf beaches. It was the second PUD [...]
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, [...]
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 — [...]
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 [...]
START is pleased to report the story of Rivendell, an environmentally responsible community, that has embarked on a comprehensive pond maintenance program to help reduce the erosion of their pond’s banks and to decrease the release of excess nutrients into the waterways downstream. Rivendell was established in the late 1990s in Osprey with 498 homes [...]
