Record $3.3 Million Mangrove Restoration Complete

Florida’s largest ever mangrove restoration project, located on the east end of San Marco Road, is now complete. And according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) the fact that tidal flow is not occurring in the huge die-off area is not a cause for worry. At least not for now.

"That’s a part of it that we’re going to keep an eye on,” said Corey Anderson, project manager and restoration biologist for the 209-acre Fruit Farm Creek Mangrove Project. “We’ve designed it so water will now flow under the road to the existing channel and through the channel that has been enhanced so it will carry more water. The intent is that it will carry more water into that large die-off area. We designed it with some engineers and some modeling so that area would get wet. And as far as I know, it should still get wet."

According to Anderson there are a lot of factors at play in the $3 million restoration project that is actually coming in at right around $3.3 million. The high profile Fruit Farm Creek Mangrove Project is supported by funds from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) and the State of Florida for a fisheries disaster related to hurricane Irma. 

"It has taken some creative partnerships and some piecemealing along the way,” Anderson said. "We were lucky enough to get some relief for essential fish habitats after Hurricane Irma through a grant from the NOAA. This was a high priority for us to do. So we put it together with the help of DEP, Rookery Bay and the City of Marco Island.”

Marco Island pays nothing for the mangrove restoration project. The City of Marco Island was responsible for contracting the moving of utilities and the installation of four five-foot diameter culverts under San Marco Road. The culverts are designed to allow the tidal flow to reach the large die-off area to the south of San Marco Road.

"The regulatory requirements from the permits,” Anderson said, “are that the vegetation comes back within five years and demonstrating that the tides inside the area look like the tides outside the area. That’s part of it, to make sure we’re getting the tidal flow underneath the road, back into the area. Those are the two things that they’re monitoring, and that we can adapt if we need to if it’s not reaching our targets.”

"The culvert that we put in closer to Stevens Landing, when it flows south underneath the road, it has a couple of paths to take after that,” Anderson continued. “If you’re looking south, there’s a channel that goes off to the left. And that was a natural channel. It seems to be flowing pretty well. Then there’s the channel that we enhanced that goes off to the right. That one branches off in a couple of places. That’s the one we’re looking at getting more water down. That’s the one that should flow - especially at really good high tides." 

Anderson said that FWC can adaptably manage their design. 

"If we see that it’s not doing as we intended,” Anderson said, "the state and federal permits and the partners on the project allow us to do a little bit of adaptive management maintenance. If for some reason there’s a little hillock of sediment there that’s keeping the flow from going as we want it, I think we can go and make a path for the water to go. Make sure it functions right.”

Anderson feels that as we move into the rainy season, things should start to pick up.

"In the winter time our tides tend to be lower in general,” Anderson said. “As we move into the spring, we tend to get some of those king tides in April or May. Those should wet it pretty good. What I’m expecting, as we get closer to the summer it will get wetter."

Anderson said that monitoring is a big part of the project’s success.  

"It's a science,” Anderson said, "but it’s also a little bit of an art. Habitat is one of those things where we can always get in and tweak it and improve it. Part of it is making sure we have good monitoring in place. The Rookery Bay folks are doing the monitoring. They have a person they hired to help with the regulatory requirements.”

Anderson said he has a perfect record when it comes to restoring mangroves.  He plans to keep it that way.

"It is very exciting that we are able to get this accomplished,” Anderson said. "This was an area that was identified as being in dire need well over a decade ago. I haven’t had a project that hasn’t gone well or has flat out failed,” Anderson said. “And I’m not about to. We’re going to make sure Florida’s largest mangrove project, to date, goes well.”