June 2026

If the question is how you save a stretch of coastline, the answer at Rutherford Park in Boca Raton turns out to be simple: put leftover oyster shells on a string. The vertical oyster garden hanging beneath the pier is a joint effort between the City of Boca Raton's Office of Sustainability and the Gumbo Limbo Nature Center, built from shells donated by local restaurants that would otherwise have gone in the bin.

The target is runoff - the sediment and nutrient-heavy fresh water that flows off the land and clouds the ocean, feeding algal blooms along the way. Living oysters growing on the strands filter up to 50 gallons of water a day each, clearing the water and giving the local sea turtle population a helping hand. It's the kind of project that makes an evening out for oysters feel almost virtuous.

Fertiliser that keeps a lawn looking immaculate is rarely doing our lakes any favours. Runoff carrying nitrogen and phosphorus has long been a headache for freshwater ecosystems in Florida, and East Lake Tohopekaliga in Osceola County is the latest to fight back, with 250,000 native eelgrass plants now bedded into its shoreline.

Eelgrass earns its 'super cleaner' reputation honestly - a single acre can pump out 50,000 litres of oxygen a day, and once established, the meadow becomes prime habitat for manatees, birds, fish and turtles. For now, steel frames and wire mesh are protecting the young plants while their root systems take hold; after that, nature takes over the job.

Two stories from Florida Trib landed in the same week, and together they make an uncomfortable point. The first covers an area of the Everglades south of Lake Okeechobee that is on track to miss its water pollution targets, raising the prospect of algae blooms further down the line that could hit both wildlife and tourism. The second concerns the Fenholloway River, once the most polluted waterway in the state thanks to decades of mill pulp being dumped into it, causing mutated fish, dead seagrass and blackened water.

The Fenholloway cleaned up its act six years ago. Now, a company is seeking permission to start dumping wastewater into it again, against the wishes of local residents. Between the two stories, the message is the same: cleaning up Florida's water is never a one-and-done job. It has to be defended, over and over, against the next threat in line.

Florida's irrigation needs and its water conservation goals often feel like they're pulling in opposite directions, but they don't have to. In our latest blog, we look at why irrigation done well doesn't mean sacrificing a beautiful landscape - it means pairing the right technology with a genuinely proactive attitude toward water use.

From responsive controllers and flow sensors to soil sensors and drip irrigation, the tools that help conserve water are more accessible than ever. But technology alone isn't the answer - it has to be backed by ongoing training, support, and maintenance. That's the approach we take with every system we design and install, and it's one every property owner in Florida can put into practice.

Protecting Florida's sea turtles rarely makes headlines outside of hatching season, but a quiet, dedicated effort keeps them safe the rest of the year too. In Navarre Beach, 26 volunteers certified by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission take turns patrolling the fishing pier, watching for turtles in trouble during the mornings and evenings when they're most active.

Scott and Cheri Dexter were on duty when they spotted a 172 pound male loggerhead snagged on a fishing hook. Working with anglers and bystanders, they hauled the turtle 35 feet up over the railings using a specialised hoist Scott built himself. It was the pier's 26th rescue of 2026, following 59 in 2025 - proof that a handful of committed volunteers can rack up a genuinely significant tally.

It sounds like science fiction: drones dropping a billion baby 'super clams' into the Indian River Lagoon. In reality, it's one of the more inventive entries in Florida's ongoing fight to clean up its waterways. The clams are a tough, pollution-resistant strain bred to survive the algal blooms that have plagued the Lagoon, and they're being seeded as natural filter feeders.

Nine years into the project, around 100 million clams have gone in - a tenth of the eventual billion-clam target. Early results in the smaller test areas have been encouraging, with hopes that scaling up across the whole lagoon could be transformational for water clarity and seagrass growth. Call them 'super-clam buster bombs' if you like; either way, it's a lot of tiny filters doing a very big job.