Living Green

I recently observed the anniversary of the passing of my father, Howard Carraway. Dad was originally a newspaper man of the old school, which is to say that he actually practiced journalism. He was simultaneously a businessman, operating a printing business in his homeland of South Carolina until he moved his young family to Fort Pierce, Florida in early 1959. There, he continued his business, and worked for The News Tribune as an investigative reporter and as a writer of a column called Cracker Barrel. It was something we would think of as a lifestyle column today, in which he reflected on all manner of things, including the natural beauty of Florida’s interior, as you will see below.

Dad was all about personal freedom and personal responsibility, and bridled at intrusive government. It is not ironic at all that he could have that kind of sensibility and still appreciate what many of us love about Florida – its natural places. Sounds like most of the people I know in the Green Industries. It is personally insulting to me (and probably to you too) that there are people who would condemn the urban landscape as anathema to those natural places. Let me just say that’s just crazy talk. And even in 1959, Dad saw the complete compatibility of the two.

I am proud to share this with you, because I believe you will find his writing to be special, and his storytelling to be both charming and inspiring.

Cracker Barrel / By Howard Carraway / October 6, 1959

Florida is a beautiful land, naturally. Although a late comer, a new arrival, I’m no snowbird. It was Florida in the winter that I came to see and visit, but it is Florida in the spring and summer that I have stayed to enjoy and admire equally, and that is to say, excessively.

Such lushness of growth, such cleanness of air, such wetness of water! It is a fine combination of excess and moderation that appeals to me, and the wilder and more “original” it is, the more it appeals.

The prairies are the places I have like the best of all I’ve seen in seven months. Enough of them should be preserved permanently to give a fellow a place to go and lose himself in the vastness and isolation almost like a desert. The coast is delightful, and the water is, of course, fine. The highways are beautiful and efficient, and the city is a joy to live in. Yet there is a magnificence about the back country that defies comparison. It is unique, yet to me it was as familiar the first time I saw it as though I had been there before. There was, in the roughest sense, a communion of spirits, and even the mosquitoes seemed to know me. They flew right up and sat down.

The first trip into the back country, it was to fish in the ditches of an abandoned tomato field. Isn’t that something, now, to drive 40 miles, much of it over rough, swampy country, leaving behind some of the finest fishing waters in the world, to cast a plug in a ditch you could spit across? It may seem dizzy, but after the first cast which brought a scrappy five-pound bass onto the bank, it makes the best kind of good sense.

There was much more than just hungry black bass to appeal to one, too. Two whooping cranes, so rare as to be practically extinct, launched themselves almost awkwardly to the air, and blasted their hoarse, hollow klaxon horns over the savanna. It was one of the most exciting events of my outdoor life. I saw them again foraging in the palmettos.

I saw wild turkeys, an alligator, and huge herds of slick, red beef cattle miles from the nearest barn. I saw quail in great abundance, a hundred varieties of birds, some of which I had never seen before and others that had been so long unseen as to be practically forgotten. I saw great cottonmouths, and turf freshly rooted up by wild pigs. Deer trails, raccoon tracks, and what seemed like thousands of crows.

Many of these things can be seen closer to the centers of civilization than I was on this memorable first journey into the interior. But I don’t believe they will be found in such abundance, nor in such compatible surroundings. A wild turkey trotting through the palmettos at daybreak looks just as natural as an alley cat darting across 26^th street at dusk.

Floridians take them for granted, but the newcomer is quite a while accepting them as natural phenomena, for the hammock is a thing of beauty too, like a landscaper had forced it into that shape. It fits where it is, and you wouldn’t want it moved or changed. Until you finally come to recognize it as a natural occurrence, you think someone is playing tricks on you.

A hammock is an oasis, a natural place for life to gravitate. I feel drawn to one as though my chair and slippers were waiting, and the evening paper opened to the sports page.

In three stories or editorials (May 19^th 29^th and 30^th, 2015) the Bradenton Herald wrote about the tremendous recovery in seagrass beds in Tampa Bay – news all Floridians should be absolutely thrilled about.  A reading of these pieces includes far more than a suggestion that there is a cause-and-effect connection between the seagrass bed recoveries and the fertilizer blackout component of the relevant fertilizer ordinances passed in the region (Pinellas-2010; City of Tampa-2011; Manatee-2011).

Confessing that this blog advocates for the Green Industries (turfgrass, landscape, golf, professional lawn care, etc.), and that I have strong feelings about personal property rights, I’ll defer offering my own assessment of those editorial suggestions. Instead, let me use the information offered by the Tampa Bay Estuary Program (TBEP) itself.

The following comes from an article published on TBO.com on March 22, 2014. In that article, the TBEP was attributed as stating that 34,642 acres of seagrass beds had recovered through 2012, only 3,358 acres shy of the TBEP’s total goal of 38,000 acres. The TBEP went on to say that 1,745 of those recovered acres happened from 2010 – 2012. That means that the balance of the recovery (32,897 acres) occurred in 2009 or before. For starters, that means that 87% of the TBEP goal is indisputably UN-attributable to the fertilizer blackout policies. Stated another way, that means that 95% of the 34,642 recovered acres happened before 2010 when the first blackout was passed. Finally, that means that looking at the implementation years (passage-year plus 1) of the blackouts (Pinellas-2011; City of Tampa-2012; Manatee-2012), it is clear to see that 0% of the recovered acres could be attributable to blackout policies.

Fast-forward to the TBEP’s most recent inventory of 40,295 acres of recovered seagrass beds. That is an additional 5,653 acres from the 2012 count (i.e. in 2013 and 2014). Looking again at the implementation dates, at the acknowledged fact that the blackouts are largely unenforced, at the enormous scale of the endeavor, at the relatively slow seagrass growth rates (studies of compensatory seagrass replacement suggest average density recoveries ranging from 3 to 17 years), and given the beneficial impact of the significant “side populations” of already-recovered beds, no reasonable person could say that these recoveries have any significant connection whatsoever to the blackout element of the fertilizer ordinances noted. In addition, you must logically say that the blackouts have not added anything material to the improvement of the bay – what was working before 2012 (pre-blackout) is simply still working.

OK, so what happened then? I feel like I can express an educated opinion on this, completely apart from my involvement with the Green Industries. Having spent two terms on the SWFWMD’s Manasota Basin Board, and having been a consistent supporter in that role of the TBEP and its efforts connected with Tampa Bay, the answer is, in a way, easier than you might think. Further, the TBO.com article really makes my case. Namely that subsequent to the passage of the Clean Water Act in 1972, local governments and industry got seriously busy doing the right things. They quit dumping effluents in the bay, they adopted strict management techniques for stormwater and nutrient management, and they partnered with the FDEP, SWFWMD and TBEP on huge reclamation and treatment projects. And in the ensuing decades, like a battleship on a new bearing, those efforts continued, the bay started to respond, and it has picked up the glorious head of steam it now enjoys. Once again, the efforts and forces at work, worked! Kudos of the highest order to all involved.

Given this information, is it simply OK now to say of the blackouts “OK, no harm, no foul”? No, no, no. There is a flagrant foul in the form of the punitive impacts on an industry that was in fact a partner in the solution. Then there is a foul in the blackout legacy that is adversely impacting other communities (e.g. the Indian River Lagoon / IRL area). Having attended numerous public hearings in that region, I heard blackout enablers say over and over and over again “Look at Tampa Bay’s recovery that happened because of their blackout ordinances – you need to do that here too”. Sadly, in spite of the Green Industry’s extensive efforts to provide the local media and local elected officials the crystal-clear facts above, some of those local governments opted to include the blackout element in their ordinances, and, in my opinion, their citizens were sold a bill of goods that the IRL was going to miraculously recover because of it. Spoiler alert – it hasn’t. The reality is that until those local governments take the hard (and expensive) steps that were taken in southwest Florida to address the real root causes, including septic reform, reclaimed water redirection, and aggressive stormwater management and treatment, the IRL is going to remain impaired. Low-hanging fruit in this issue is a myth. I lay the legacy of false hope squarely at the feet of the leadership of the blackout enablers who perpetrated a real fiction on those east coast elected officials and residents looking for answers.

To those who say the blackouts are a means of educating the public on responsible fertilizer use, I would suggest that we try a radical approach that the SWFWMD has used very successfully in natural resource protection matters (in lieu of a punitive regulatory-first mentality). Wait for it – it’s called… education! I think people want to do the right things and should be given the benefit of the doubt – not a 2 x 4.

Based on the TBEP data then, the informed outcome would be to repeal the blackouts. Short of that, they should be revisited with meaningful stakeholder workshops to get a thorough and balanced look at the science and the facts. Then having done some actual due diligence, we can come up with something a little more sophisticated than the blackouts. Isn’t that what good government is supposed to do?

Over the life of EREF, we have all seen a lot of environmental “activism” taking place. It covers a broad range of opinion, attitude and accuracy (or lack thereof!).

Part of the evolution of EREF has been in how to best serve the Green Industries in order to deal with that broad range of activities, particularly when it starts to impact policy making at all levels of regulation and government – including water management districts, local/regional water authorities and city / county / state governments. We have seen efforts in each of these arenas aimed at changing what we do and how we do it. More often than not, if left unchecked, these changes hurt us and our business unfairly, unnecessarily or disproportionately.

Having spent over twenty years dealing with water-management issues, I can attest to the complexity of the subject and how overwhelming it can seem when in the midst of a rulemaking, regulatory or legislative process that imposes negative consequences on the industry. But as importantly, I have been involved in enough of these processes to say that in many cases, there is a core of people from the relevant stakeholder groups who really want to find a workable solution for everyone. I think it is in our nature to be problem solvers and so this is the “sweet spot” where we really need to try to be.

That said, there are going to be exceptions too – extremists who will never be happy with anything less than the eradication of man’s footprint from the State of Florida. I won’t name any names but you can picture some of these folks from past dust-ups who would portray you and what you do as monstrous, and who will say incredibly scary and untrue things about the impacts of improved lawns and landscapes in order to move public opinion toward bad policies.

Listen, I know you and the heart of this industry, and better yet, you know it yourselves. Some of the most inspirational messages I have heard in these discussions around the state about water quality and water use come from those of you who live and work in the business every day, and who would never endanger the beauty and special nature of Florida’s water resources for any reason.

We say it over and over because we need to – the Green Industries have been developing, improving and implementing highly-effective practices for decades, which have been integral to virtually every clean-water and water conservation outcome out there – Tampa Bay being an excellent example (more about that soon).

When we get down to it, EREF and its industry partners and friends, have to take their positive message to others to let them know what we do and how we do it. We have to win the hearts and minds of the public and ultimately those who are responsible for policy making that impacts us. We intend to accomplish that with research, education, good science and collaboration – but we’ll certainly fight if we need to!

Keep Living Green Florida!

If you have spent more than a few minutes with a food farmer, dairyman or rancher, he or she might very well smile big and say something like “Food doesn’t come from the grocery store!” This is a polite way of saying that what shows up at the grocery store is the product of a boatload of experience, history, trials, research, technology, risk, heartbreak, joy, and of course, lots and lots of hard work. It is also a polite way of saying that these things are taken for granted by most people to a large extent.

Something very similar can be said about the grass that’s in just about every yard, landscape, sports field, golf course and common area in the known universe. While saying “Grass doesn’t come from the landscaper!” doesn’t have quite the same ring to it, the message is crystal clear – there is a lot more to grass than green.

So let’s talk about grass – more specifically the improved turfgrass varieties that find their way to your lawn, your local park, your sports field or your golf course. Improved turfgrasses are complex organisms with many attributes and personalities. Besides their aesthetic characteristics (color, texture, blade size, growth habit, etc.), turfgrasses also are judged by their drought hardiness and recovery, their disease and insect resistance, their nutrient requirements and their climate tolerances (like temperature and water quality). But news alert! – ¬the continuous improvements in these various attributes have not arrived in today’s turf varieties by accident! In other words, you can’t just go dig this stuff up in the woods. Rather, each of today’s major cultivars in six major varieties of warm-season grasses (St. Augustine, Zoysia, Bermuda, Centipede and Paspalum (including Bahia) are the product of a boatload of experience, history, trials, research, technology, risk, heartbreak, joy and of course, lots and lots of hard work. (See what just happened there?)

Yes, Virginia, there are turfgrass scientists – and many of the greatest ones in the world are right here in Florida. Working with them and supporting them with major financial support and field trials are a relative handful of turfgrass growers (representing most of the improved turfgrass grown in the State) who are themselves represented by the Turfgrass Producers of Florida (TPF), their statewide trade association. And make no mistake about it, TPF is not your granddaddy’s trade association – it is a force of agriculture, dedicated to the beautiful and sustainable greenspaces beloved by old and new Floridians alike, to science and education, and to the responsible use of water and fertilizer. These scientists and growers have, over the last two decades especially, been responsible for the development of new growing and management techniques, as well as amazing new varieties of improved turfgrasses which may look like their predecessors in many ways, but which have internal workings that require less supplemental irrigation and nutrition, and which fend off pests and diseases much more robustly, thus dramatically reducing the use of crop protection chemicals.

Like their food-crop brothers and sisters, growers of improved turfgrasses love what they do and work hard at it – most have invested their lives in it. They believe in the value and sustainability of their products, and they continue to invest in leading-edge research efforts and cultivar development in order to further build this legacy of stewardship for the benefit of all of Florida and its natural systems. Even as we speak, new and ever-better improved turfgrasses are on the way to a lawn or landscape near you.

So every now and then, as you play in the grass and breath the clean air it generates, think about the incredible backstory – it’s a good one.

The Environmental Research & Education Foundation (EREF) was created on the belief that science is the basis for action – and it continues to follow that belief. In this era of emotionalism, false choices and errant conventional wisdoms, EREF is committed to following the lead of science, driven by rigorous state-of-the-art research. This mentality is the only legitimate pathway to real environmental collaboration and effective policy development.

Believing in science means accepting the facts as they are — whether you like them or not! This is exactly what the Green Industries have been doing for decades, to the benefit of Florida’s environment and its citizens. The development and widespread implementation of high-level Green Industry and Agricultural Best Management Practices (BMP’s) has meant accepting change in the name of science, and in the name of simply doing the right thing — and it has changed the face of Florida for the better, forever.

We said it. We believe it. The things that you read on this website and in the content we connect you to are all about the crystal clear benefits of lawns and landscapes. This is not marketing – it is fact. This is not wishful thinking – it is the outcome of science, responsible actions and decades of best practices. It is about the demonstrable successes of good landscape and irrigation design, with a clear focus on water use, water quality, and nutrient management.

The men and women of the green industries are Floridians. They are real people – your friends and neighbors – who have the same concerns about sustainability as any other Floridian, and maybe more. More, because their lives and livelihoods depend on what is said in these pages being fact. Any attempt to perpetuate a status quo that is not in the best interests of all Floridians would be contrary to the lifetimes they have invested in what they do.

What you will see on these pages in the months and years to come will give you insights into the incredible nature of greenspaces in Florida – Florida Friendly greenspaces. You can believe it!