January 2026

One of the best things about living in Florida - particularly South Florida - is being surrounded by year-round-greenery. But all that vegetation creates an ongoing challenge when it comes to dealing with dead trees and yard waste.

Traditionally, much of this material ended up in landfills, which is far from environmentally friendly. Miami-Dade County and Coral Gables are pioneering a climate-friendly alternative by converting yard waste into biochar, a charcoal-like material sometimes called 'black carbon.' The process involves investing millions in large-scale, highly advanced 'ovens' that bake organic waste into biochar while producing lower emissions than traditional burning. The resulting biochar can then be used to fertilize golf courses, purify water, and even strengthen roads and sidewalks.

Our changing climate throws so many challenges at us that it's easy to feel overwhelmed and under-informed. The answer, at least in part, lies in taking small, practical steps toward climate-smart living.

If you live in Florida, you can access free virtual sessions via Zoom that explain the concrete actions we can all take to make a difference. Climate Smart Floridians is a lunch-and-learn initiative run by the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences alongside other experts. The program covers everything from climate science basics to improving home energy efficiency, water-wise landscaping, and understanding how food choices and household waste impact emissions. It's an accessible way to arm yourself with knowledge and feel like you're genuinely contributing to Florida's environmental future.

We've covered the plight of Florida's coastal corals many times in the H2O Zone, but this story deserves attention for what it reveals about both resilience and risk. Beneath the surface of Port Everglades - one of South Florida's busiest maritime hubs - 10 million corals have flourished over the past decade, even as other reefs around Florida have collapsed. Now these thriving colonies face a significant threat from a proposed federal dredging project designed to widen shipping channels. Many of these corals are staghorn varieties, fast-growing reef builders that create vital habitats for marine life while offering protection from storm surges. The question now is whether the Port Everglades Navigation Improvements Project can be halted or modified to protect these precious coral communities while still maintaining critical shipping infrastructure.

Communities often rely on complex water sources like lined lakes or reclaimed water, which makes them dependent on replenishment or puts them in competition with other users of the same source.

The Seminole Improvement District (SID), located in West Lake, Florida, outside Palm Beach Gardens, is a sprawling 7,000-acre master-planned community - effectively a 'mini-city' expected to house 10,000 residents at completion. Before Hoover's involvement, SID relied on a system centered around an approximately 1 million-gallon tank primarily fed by reclaimed water from West Palm Utility.

An Integrated Irrigation Infrastructure Solution

The challenge? Inconsistent reclaimed water supply. SID was often competing for water with another West Palm Utility customer, FPL, which frequently took precedence in water allocation, leaving SID short. To meet the irrigation demands of this rapidly developing community, the existing infrastructure needed significant expansion to guarantee reliable water volume.

The Seminole Improvement District now benefits from a highly reliable and consistent water supply for irrigation, effectively independent of reclaimed water availability and FPL's demands. Here's how we did it.

Water conservation is probably our favorite topic here in the H2O Zone, and whenever we find an example of cutting-edge technology being used to preserve Florida's precious drinking water, we're keen to share it. Cherry Lake Nursery, an ornamental tree grower in Groveland covering over a thousand acres and home to a million trees and plants, is part of the wider Central Florida Water Initiative - a 20-year plan for managing the region's water resources. By purchasing new pumps to draw water from lakes and ponds and installing more efficient irrigation emitters, the nursery slashed water usage by 40% while simultaneously increasing production by 15%. The conversion process took over a year with three people working six days a week, but the results prove that water conservation isn't just good for the Upper Floridan aquifer - it's excellent for business too.

The next time massive amounts of seaweed ruin your beach day, consider the bigger economic picture revealed by a new study from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution: Sargassum seaweed costs Florida billions of dollars every year. Palm Beach, Broward, Miami-Dade, and Monroe counties alone face economic impacts as high as $10.2 billion. Highlighting these staggering financial consequences is crucial because it provides a compelling, dollars-and-cents argument for tackling the root causes of Sargassum blooms - namely changing climate and weather patterns, and nutrient pollution in our seas. Unfortunately, the forecast for 2026 predicts another major Sargassum year, which means continued severe impacts on vital industries like fishing and tourism. The economic argument may finally drive the coordinated action needed to address this growing environmental crisis.