Mangrove Lecture at Rookery Bay A Sold-Out Event

Rookery Bay’s popular Science Nite Series Two was a sold-out event. According to Rookery Bay’s Jessica McIntosh, “I don’t think we’ve ever had a sold-out event that focused on plants.”

Mangroves are tough plants, usually a tree or a shrub that grows around the shoreline. It is uniquely adapted to a very harsh environment of salt, coastal waters, wind, waves, low and high tides.

Marco Island is the largest of the Ten Thousand Islands and is part of the Rookery Bay’s 46,000 acres mangrove forests! It is proven science that mangroves are vital to shoreline communities as natural buffers against storm surges. Imagine what Marco Island would be like without mangroves in its encounter with Hurricane Irma in 2017.

Laura Flynn, President of Coastal Resources Group was the Series Two speaker and she has been working with Rookery Bay for 20 years on mangrove projects throughout Florida/Caribbean.

Most of Flynn’s work is looking for mangrove sites that are dead or dying and trying to figure out a way to get them back to life. According to Flynn, “we are looking at the damage from Hurricane Irma and how the mangroves are recovering and the need to better understand this process so that we can know how to help heal or protect the mangroves in the Ten Thousand Islands.”

Interesting Fact: There are 34 million acres of mangroves worldwide and half of them are in Southeast Asia. According to FDEP, there are 470,000 acres of mangroves in Florida, mostly in the Cedar Keys and Ponce de Leon Inlet. At Rookery Bay’s Ten Thousand Island habitat (110,000), 46,000 acres are mangroves.

Why are mangroves so important? Mangrove roots are essential habitat for crabs, snails and fish like juvenile Snook, Red Fish, Groupers and Tarpons.

According to a recent study, each acre of mangroves generates $7,100 per year in economic value from the catchable fish and watchable wildlife. The property protection mangroves provided to southwest Florida during Hurricane Irma was worth $1.2 billion in damages avoided. Mangroves can help keep people safe!

“Mangroves also provide research and employment opportunities at Rookery Bay. From scientific research, we get two very important benefits from mangroves – climate regulation and coastal protection,” according to Flynn.

Causes of Mangrove Loss in Florida:

Development

Poorly planned road construction

Hydrological Impoundments 

The Fruit Farm Creek Mangrove Die-Offs on San Marco Road

According to Keith Laakkonen, Director of FDEP at Rookery Bay, this is one of the largest mangrove restoration projects ever in Florida. Once completed, it will restore 64 acres of dead mangroves and restore the health, vitality, resilience and productivity of 159 acres of existing impaired mangrove forest. It will serve as a model for similar efforts in south Florida, the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Islands. 

The project includes installation of several new culverts under San Marco Road, and the clearing of dead mangrove, debris and sediments from two historic tidal channels. 

Mangrove Restoration Fundamentals: Mangroves do best when the forest is flooded ~30% of the time and “dry” ~70% of the time on an annual basis. 

Brief History

During the summer of 1992, Southwest Florida received record rainfall. Under normal conditions, rainfall drains from mangrove forest systems through natural tidal creeks causing no harm to the mangroves. 

However, in the mangrove die-off areas, due to State Road 92, a clogged culvert and filled in tidal creeks, the rainwater pooled, which caused water levels to be abnormally high and remain high for an extended period. The high-water level covered the black mangrove pneumatophores, suffocating the mangroves resulting in their death. 

While the habitat declines at Fruit Farm Creek predate Hurricane Irma, the storm had a direct and visible impact on the site making the die-off worse due to the storm winds and flooding that occurred. 

One study shows that an acre of mangrove forest stores about 1,450 pounds of carbon dioxide per year. 

Save the date and register early: April 21, 2022 is the Last Science Nite Series Dig into Mangroves: what lies beneath the surface, featuring Zoe Shribman.

Come celebrate Earth Day among the mangroves!