Tuesday, 15 December 2020

Working with Miami to Improve the Circular Economy

The following guest blog was authored by the Jambeck Research Group at the University of Georgia, including Dr. Jenna Jambeck (Lead, Center for Circular Materials Management), Amy Brooks (New Materials Institute), Jennifer Mathis (New Materials Institute), Kathryn Youngblood (Citizen Science Director, University of Georgia) and Taylor Maddalene (CAP Coordinator). Read more about the five authors at the bottom of this blog.

Have you recently been out for a walk in your neighborhood and seen a piece of litter on the ground—maybe a food wrapper, a to-go utensil, or a cigarette butt—and wondered “where did this come from?” or “how many of these actually end up on the ground?” Have your questions then wandered a bit deeper, maybe toward why we’re using these items in the first place, why they’re made of this material, or even how or why it wasn’t captured by the waste management system? If so, you are not alone, and the team in the Jambeck Research Group at the University of Georgia has developed a protocol for answering those questions and investigating a step further towards tangible, local interventions.

In 2021, the Jambeck Research Group is excited to partner with Ocean Conservancy and the City of Miami to conduct a Circularity Assessment Protocol (CAP) in the area surrounding the Miami River. This is the first time ever that the protocol has been fully deployed in a metropolitan U.S. city.

ShoresForward

Building on Ocean Conservancy’s Shores Forward partnership with the City of Miami and recent progress made on a fertilizer ordinance, the Jambeck Research Group aims to collaborate on the collection of data that can empower the city in decision-making and answering important questions such as how plastic is used and disposed of in Miami, what actions can change the way it is used, how circularity can be increased, and how this impacts what materials and items end up on the ground.

The material of focus in this case is consumer plastics, primarily single-use plastics, with the goal of reducing any plastics that reach waterways and our ocean. The original motivation for the CAP was to respond to community needs and provide them with data that would be helpful for decision-making in their own context to move toward circularity. Since its development in 2019, the CAP has been initiated in 10 countries and 26 cities around the world, including in India, Bangladesh, Vietnam, the Philippines, Panama and Mexico. Ocean Conservancy is proud to partner with the New Materials Institute on several projects and programs in which the CAP plays a vital role. One of those programs is Urban Ocean, an initiative to engage cities in the fight for clean, healthy seas by improving municipal waste collection and management systems, which is taking place in five cities in Southeast Asia and Latin America. Another example is CAP implementation and training in several cities throughout Chile and Mexico.

When it comes to the CAP, there are seven key components. Here are the important details on each of those components, along with what community members may expect to see while the team is on the ground in Miami:

  1. Input: The team conducts product assessments of local stores and food vendors to understand the most common plastic packaging used in the city and where it comes from.
  2. Community: The team conducts social media analyses, key informant interviews and policy research to understand the conversation around plastic pollution locally.
  3. Product Design: Through interviews and surveys, the team investigates alternative material types and designs of packaging used in stores and by food vendors.
  4. Use: Through interviews and desktop research, the team studies access to alternative delivery systems and reuse options.
  5. Collection: The team characterizes collection systems in the local area to understand the quantity and type of waste generated and how it’s collected.
  6. End of Cycle: The team investigates waste management and treatment infrastructure to understand the fate of waste once it is collected.
  7. Leakage: Piece by piece, the team uses the Marine Debris Tracker app to record litter along transects in the area to understand which items are ending up on the ground. Anyone can download the app for free and contribute to our growing database of litter items.
The research team may be seen taking pictures of litter items or waste management infrastructure, as photographic documentation is a key part of data collection for CAP.
The research team may be seen taking pictures of litter items or waste management infrastructure, as photographic documentation is a key part of data collection for CAP. © Dorothy Kozlowski/UGA

“Community engagement is an important part of the CAP, but this is more than that, the CAP is truly a collaborative effort. We look forward to collaborating with the Ocean Conservancy, the City of Miami and the local communities that want to protect and preserve Florida’s Shores.”

The CAP results are co-owned by the city and will provide science-backed data to inform decision-making at the city level to improve the region’s water quality and reduce the amount of plastic pollution in the Miami River. Community groups will have the opportunity to discuss CAP results with Ocean Conservancy and the Jambeck Research Group to understand the findings and co-develop interventions. Alongside outreach and education efforts, Ocean Conservancy is partnering with Sachamama, an ecological sustainability education organization, to launch a digital campaign to reach Spanish-speaking residents in Miami. By collaborating with local organizations,he public results can be used by residents to advocate for change they want to see in both the Miami River and the city at-large. For example, these data can help show what the top litter items are in a community and where they are coming from. The data can also show where gaps exist in waste collection and management infrastructure, opportunities for innovation or reuse and refill schemes, community sentiment towards certain items or policies and other areas where interventions can be developed to reduce mismanaged waste at the local level.

Detail photo of Marine Debris Tracker app.
Marine Debris Tracker app - Anyone can download the app for free on their iPhone or Android device and contribute data on the litter that they find in their own neighborhood © Dorothy Kozlowski/UGA

Conducting the CAP in the City of Miami is an opportunity to better understand plastic pollution in a U.S.-based riverine, urban and coastal environment. Miami is proactively working to address plastic pollution and other sustainability issues with this project, adding to that mission. Miami is also a member of the Resilient Cities Network, with an appointed Chief Resilience Officer who oversees the city’s progress and partnership in a cohort of 100 cities around the world. Miami’s tourism industry is also critical to the local economy, and this project provides a chance to protect vital environments that help support that tourism economy. The CAP results can directly tie into design guidelines currently under development to reimagine a healthier and more accessible Miami River and Biscayne Bay. Increasing circularity for a city not only can help keep plastic out of the environment, but can save city costs, increase community engagement and protect the environment and oceans for everyone.

Meet the authors

  • Jenna Jambeck is the Georgia Athletic Association Distinguished Professor in Environmental Engineering at the University of Georgia, Lead of the Center for Circular Materials Management in the New Materials Institute and a National Geographic Fellow. She has over 24 years of experience in Solid waste Management and 19 years of experience working directly in Marine Litter.
  • Amy Brooks is a doctoral candidate in Engineering at the University of Georgia New Materials Institute. Her research broadly focuses on international solid waste issues related to plastic leakage into the environment.
  • Jennifer Mathis is a doctoral student in Engineering at the University of Georgia New Materials Institute and was a Fulbright Scholar in Vietnam in 2018-2019. Her research involves managing the CAP work in Vietnam and investigating circular materials and waste management.
  • Kathryn Youngblood is a Research Engineer and Citizen Science Director at the University of Georgia. She has extensive experience collecting quantitative and qualitative data for analysis, oversees the Marine Debris Tracker citizen science app, and is currently helping to manage CAP assessments in Chile, Mexico and the Philippines.
  • Taylor Maddalene is the CAP Coordinator with the Jambeck Research Group and a PhD Student in Engineering at the University of Georgia. She has extensive experience in program management and strategy development with conservation organizations worldwide and her current research focuses on impacts of plastic waste leakage on the marine environment.

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Monday, 14 December 2020

Celebrating Five Years of the Paris Agreement—and Looking Ahead

My whole life I’ve wanted to protect the wildlife and wonder of our planet. Climate change was always on the edge of that personal mission until about five years ago when I started working at an Earth and planetary science magazine. My immersion in our Earth systems pushed climate change to the front of my mind. I realized everything that’s happening on the surface of our planet, including within the ocean, was related to climate change. Coincidentally, at the same time as I was paying more and more attention to the climate crisis, countries around the world also announced their intent to tackle the crisis together by creating the Paris Agreement. This past weekend, on December 12th, was the fifth anniversary of the Paris Agreement.

The Paris Agreement is a groundbreaking international pact to address the climate crisis. Under the Agreement, countries submit national emissions reductions goals—which are supposed to be increasingly ambitious—every five years. Under President Obama’s administration, the U.S. was a major champion of the Paris Agreement and played a central role in its creation.

Although the U.S. withdrew from the Paris Agreement under the Trump administration, we’re now poised to start rebuilding U.S. international climate leadership. The incoming Biden-Harris administration has stated that rejoining the Agreement is a “Day 1” priority.

When it was created in 2015, the Paris Agreement didn’t include ocean issues in a meaningful way. Ocean people focused on the ocean; climate people focused on the climate. This was to the detriment of both movements, because the ocean and climate are inextricably linked: Our ocean moderates our climate, and climate change, particularly carbon pollution, drastically affects marine life and ocean functions. The ocean is also a major source of climate solutions—from offshore wind energy to coastal ecosystems that store carbon—and has a large role to play in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Thankfully, recognition of how intertwined the ocean and our climate are has come a long way since the beginning of the Paris Agreement. Last year, we saw countries officially include ocean issues in the outcome of the U.N. climate summit, and we continue to see progress in the context of the Paris Agreement and across international forums.

In a year full of so many unforeseen, disastrous and frankly sometimes ridiculous challenges, countries still prioritized the ocean at the international level and that managed to bring me a glimmer of hope. Here are some of Ocean Conservancy’s ocean and climate change 2020 highlights to celebrate on this fifth anniversary of the Paris Agreement:

  • Following last year’s U.N. climate conference, COP 25, this year the U.N. climate framework held its first ever dialogue on the ocean. Ocean Conservancy organized the preparatory meeting for countries and participated in the dialogue itself. The dialogue provided an opportunity for representatives from countries all over the world to discuss opportunities for ocean-based climate solutions and to lay out their priorities for next year’s U.N. climate conference, COP 26, in order to continue incorporating ocean issues within the Paris Agreement and countries’ national climate plans.
  • One of Ocean Conservancy’s Roger Arliner Young fellows, Olivia Lopez, is scouring the numerous climate plans countries submitted to the U.N. to see which ones include the ocean and how. If you’re interested in diving in and reading about them yourselves, you can find the analysis of the first submissions here, which we will continue to update as further climate plans are submitted. It’s heartening to see countries including ocean-based solutions, from building climate-ready fisheries to protecting coastal ecosystems that store carbon.
  • To highlight and build on this progress, we at Ocean Conservancy are also organizing an Ocean-Climate Ambition Summit to kick off the new year in January. Hosted by countries and co-organized by a range of non-governmental organizations (NGO) partners, the summit will celebrate success—but it will also focus on the way forward. This Ocean-Climate Ambition Summit is a chance for countries and nonprofit partners to build on past success and plan for how to achieve even more at next year’s COP 26.

As with everything, there are also some roadblocks and obstacles in our path. This year, one major obstacle to ocean-climate progress arose in the International Maritime Organization (IMO). The international shipping industry—which currently emits roughly the same amount of greenhouse gas pollution as the sixth largest country emitter—does not explicitly fall under the Paris Agreement. Instead, the IMO is tasked with oversight of international shipping emissions, and this year it let us down by actually backtracking on commitments that member countries made and allowing the shipping industry to continue polluting like it does today. In the new year, countries must ensure that climate ambition is a cornerstone across international forums, including the IMO.

As we look ahead towards the new year, it’s still bright with opportunity. We will continue demanding that the IMO take stronger action on greenhouse gas pollution from international shipping. And we will continue to push ahead in the context of the Paris Agreement to make sure that countries adequately incorporate the ocean into the international climate conversation and into their individual climate plans.

As the U.S. and other countries around the world recover and rebuild from the Covid-19 pandemic, there will be many more points of opportunity to create a sustainable blue-green recovery. And we will be there bringing the blue. So much has changed in the past five years because of climate change but the world of climate change policy has changed too. I remain hopeful that at the Paris Agreement’s 10-year anniversary we will only see more successes for our ocean, planet and all of us who call it home.

The post Celebrating Five Years of the Paris Agreement—and Looking Ahead appeared first on Ocean Conservancy.



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Friday, 11 December 2020

Tackling Plastic Pollution with Trivia

Ocean plastic pollution is a big issue. Each day more than a dump truck full of plastic waste enters our ocean, and more than 24 million metric tons of plastic pollution enters our rivers, lakes and ocean each year. However, the solution to this issue can start small. It can start in the grocery store by saying no to a plastic bag or a check box on a food delivery site asking them to not include a plastic fork.

Ponder this: if every person in the United States said no to a straw, plastic grocery bag or some other unnecessary single-use plastic each day, we’d avoid nearly 120 BILLION items of plastic every year!

But you can also help the ocean by answering a simple trivia question. That’s right, testing your knowledge about the wonders of the ocean can also make a difference. At Free the Ocean, you can take 30 seconds of your time to answer a trivia question and in the process remove one piece of plastic from the ocean. Each visit to the site generates ad revenue that helps fund local organizations’ work to clean shorelines and inspire the next generation to create a world free of plastic pollution.

Gabriel Ortiz
© Gabriel Ortiz

The brain behind this incredible website is Mimi Ausland. She created her first website for good when she was just 11 years old. That website, Freekibble.com, has donated 24 million meals to dogs and cats in shelters across the United States. It also showed Mimi that there were people around the world looking for ways to make an impact and something as simple as visiting a website could deliver a big impact.

I had the pleasure of meeting Mimi on the beach in Santa Monica, California during the 2019 International Coastal Cleanup. After chatting about our mutual goals of reducing plastic pollution, it seemed a no-brainer to leverage our respective platforms for increased, collective impact. My work to reduce ocean plastics has been fueled by my love for the ocean, an ever-changing environment that we’re still only beginning to understand.

Free the Ocean offers a lot of ocean facts that inspire and underscore our need to make a difference. Each question gives insight into the incredible marine life that depend on a healthy ocean to thrive, and the many challenges that threaten them and the ecosystems they call home. Do you know why sea ice is important for the planet? Have you ever wondered how long sea jellies have been around for? These are just some of the great mysteries Free the Ocean unravels each day through their trivia questions.

Mimi Ausland, Free the Ocean
© Mimi Ausland / Free the Ocean

Many times, change starts small. A single trivia question can remind someone of their role in protecting our ocean and inspire them to take bigger steps to make a positive impact on the health of our planet. Each day we can do something to work toward a healthier future for our ocean. We can skip unnecessary single-use plastics, reduce waste at home, advocate for policies that prevent plastics from entering our ocean, clean up our communities and/or educate others about the importance of ocean health.

Taken collectively, our seemingly insignificant, individual efforts come together to make a huge impact for the ocean and the communities and wildlife that depend on it.

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Wednesday, 9 December 2020

Do Sharks Sneeze?

Every once in a while, I get a text out of the blue from a friend with a question about the ocean. When you work in ocean conservation, you get used to it. Sometimes I have the answer, but the best questions leave me stumped and send me down a research rabbit hole full of fascinating facts about our ocean’s coolest creatures.

My friend Biz posed one of those questions. She was watching a presentation by a shark scientist and a kid asked “do sharks sneeze?” It stumped everyone there and I admit it also stumped me. It was time to get out my magnifying glass and deerstalker cap and get to the bottom of it.

First, we need to define sneezing. A sneeze is a sudden burst of air up from your lungs into and out of your nose and mouth. In humans, we have something called a trigeminal nerve in our nose that is linked to the “sneeze center” of the brain. If something nasty irritates it, it tells the brain to sneeze. Our eyes shut, our face muscles brace themselves and ACHOO! That gust of wind comes flying out, attempting to clear whatever was bothering our poor little snoot.

Other animals sneeze similar to us, just watch this compilation of videos on YouTube. Seriously, this will add so much joy to your day. You’ll see that birds do it, bears do it, tigers do it, elephants do it through their big trunks, you’ve probably even seen your pets do it at home.

There are even some ocean animals who expel unwanted substances from their nose. Take the marine iguana who blows out salty snot rockets that you should definitely read about. Whales pushing water out of their blowholes could be a considered a kind of controlled sneeze that expels water, air, snot and, in the right light, rainbows.

So, what about sharks? Are they part of the lucky few who get to sneeze? Well in order to sneeze you need 1) a nose and 2) air to expel out of it. Sharks do have nostrils, but unlike humans, they don’t serve the dual purpose of smelling and breathing—instead sharks breathe through their gills. Their noses don’t connect to their throat like ours do nor do they have lungs. This means while they have noses, they can’t use air to force unwanted stuff out of them. Sorry folks, sharks can’t sneeze.

Now I know what you’re going to say, “Robyn! I saw a shark sneezing on YouTube. It must be true! The internet doesn’t lie.” And if you said that, you would be correct there are videos of sharks “sneezing,” but in reality, they only look like they’re sneezing. What they are actually doing is even more fascinating.

Videos like this most likely depict sharks trying to clear their throats or reset their jaws. These behaviors could also be a process called gastric eversion. Sharks eat a lot, including items that their stomachs can’t break down like bones, feathers and shells. This unfortunately also sometimes include man-made objects like fishing gear or plastic. To get rid of these items, sharks will cleanse their stomachs by literally vomiting their guts our to rinse out their stomach. Their stomachs are actually outside of their mouths for a moment before they suck it back in free of its contents.

Just because a shark doesn’t sneeze doesn’t mean its snout is useless. A shark’s nostrils, called nares, are powerful tools for sniffing out prey or their mate. Their nares contain the olfactory epithelium, sensitive cells that can detect tiny amounts of certain chemicals in the water. The myth that sharks can smell blood from millions of miles away is not true, but a lemon shark might be able to sniff out a bit of tuna oil in a backyard swimming pool. Unfortunately, ocean acidification might make it harder for sharks to sniff out food. It’s vital we protect our ocean to protect a shark’s powerful snoot.

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Tuesday, 8 December 2020

Collaboration as a Key to the Ghost Gear Threat

In June 2019, the Global Ghost Gear Initiative® (GGGI), alongside 11th Hour Racing, the Gulf of Maine Lobster Foundation and local fishers, removed a ten-ton ball of gear from the Gulf of Maine. Roughly the size of a whale shark—the biggest fish in the sea—the gear ball was comprised of nets, ropes, lines and lobster trap fragments that had formed an underwater tumbleweed over the years. It was so heavy that the crane that was originally planned to remove the gear nearly snapped, and the gear instead had to be towed to shore where it was hacked, sawed and deconstructed into pieces that could be recycled and disposed of responsibly.

This removal serves as a stark example of how the problem of abandoned, lost or otherwise discarded fishing gear (ALDFG, or ghost gear) can lurk beneath the ocean surface across the world. It also shows how collaboration is a key part of the solution.

The GGGI works with partners around the world to facilitate gear removals like the one in Maine. In addition to being a critical tool in combatting ghost gear, especially in hotspots where it can destroy sensitive ecosystems or obstruct fishing grounds, removals are a great way to raise awareness of the problem.

While most people know the damage that single-use plastics like bags or straws can cause, ghost gear is a lesser-known, but even more harmful form of plastic pollution: not only is ghost gear among the most prevalent forms of ocean plastic, it is the single most deadly to marine life.

An estimated 5-30% decline in some fish stocks and damage to important marine habitats can be attributed to ghost gear, and with more than three billion people relying on seafood for at least 20% of their protein, ghost gear is a real and present threat to everyone.

Removals are a critical piece of tackling this problem, but the only way we can end ghost gear for good is by working together to prevent and mitigate gear loss in the first place.

The GGGI does just that: it brings together more than 100 stakeholder groups from the private sector, public agencies, academia, intergovernmental organizations and others from across the fishing industry to tackle ghost gear at a global scale. In 2017, the GGGI developed the Best Practice Framework for the Management of Fishing Gear (BPF) which lays out the path to an ocean free of ghost gear by providing guidance to stakeholders at all levels of the fishing gear lifecycle on how to best prevent, temper the effects of and remove gear when possible.

Ghost Gear Solutions Report copy

A new report from the Global Ghost Gear Initiative, Ocean Conservancy and WWF highlights the groups working together on the ground and using the BPF to facilitate this critical work. By understanding how organizations all over the world are working to prevent, remove and recycle lost gear, and what has made each project a success, we can replicate these solutions.

In Vanuatu, for instance, the GGGI worked with the Vanuatu government and local fishers to trial fishing gear tracking technology to prevent future gear loss, while also retrieving fishing gear smothering coral reefs, building capacity on better management of fishing gear and updating fisheries management plans.

In the Gulf of California, the GGGI worked with WWF Mexico, Sea Shepherd, World Animal Protection, the International Committee for the Recovery of the Vaquita (CIRVA), Monterey Bay Diving and a group of local fishers to locate and remove 5,702 square meters—about 80% the size of a soccer field—of illegal gillnets from the critical vaquita porpoise habitat.

In Myanmar, the GGGI works with the Myanmar Ocean Project and National Geographic Society to raise awareness on ghost gear in fishing communities, gather data on the volume and impacts of ALDFG, train local divers and remove discarded nets from the Myeik Archipelago. In 2019, the project removed almost 2,000 kg of harmful ghost nets from 89 sites.

By working together and leading with science and proven best practices, we can stop ghost gear, and ensure cleaner and safer oceans for all.

Read more about the BPF in action.

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Monday, 7 December 2020

Ways to Give Back to Our Ocean This Holiday Season

As we enter the 2020 holiday season, we can’t help but be reminded of the warmth of the season. And by warmth, we’re not talking about the temperature outside: we’re talking about the sense of hope and joy that comes from the extra dose of gratitude and love we tend to show each other during this season. We are reminded of what we’re thankful for, what matters most to us, and what we want to dedicate more of our time and attention to as we inch closer and closer toward the new year.

As we dive into December, don’t forget that our ocean could use that gift of support, too—and every tiny effort counts when it comes to protecting it. Whether you support our ocean by signing a petition to protect the Arctic or donating in honor of a loved one with a passion for the sea, there are so many ways to add the ocean to your holiday list of ways to give back this year. Let’s dive into just a few:

Take action to help us fight for clean and healthy seas

00021489
© Trevor Scouten, Wildscreen Exchange

Visiting our Action Center is one of the easiest, quickest and most direct ways to make a positive impact for our ocean this holiday season. From combatting ocean plastic pollution to keeping the Arctic safe from oil spills to protecting endangered species, we’re always offering a host of ways you can use your voice to stand up for the ocean. There are currently ten actions available for you to take, and you could do them all in one day if you wanted to! The only thing you’ll need to decide: which action will you take first?

Give the gift of our ocean to your loved ones this year

public domain
© Public Domain

If someone in your life loves the ocean more than anything, what better gift to give them than the gift of a donation in their honor? Whether you’re looking for the perfect gift for the holidays or birthday or another special occasion, making a gift in someone’s name for a cause close to their heart is the perfect way to honor them. You can also give gifts in memory of friends, family and other loved ones who have passed on, too.

Keep sustainability in mind this holiday season

Marcello Rabazzi
© Marcello Rabozzi

Ocean Conservancy has many partners that support our work for a healthy, thriving ocean and the wildlife and communities that depend on it. Just a few of these companies dedicated to our cause include:

  • rockflowerpaper’s blu collection is comprised of reusable shopping bags, reusable sponges, water bottles, and recycled cotton clothing.
  • Namely Earth has developed a jewelry concept in line with the UN Sustainable Development Goals, with a bead representing each goal, including one for the ocean.
  • Olivela is the luxury retail concept with purpose, donating 20% of net proceeds from every purchase to their cause partners, including Ocean Conservancy. 20% of net proceeds constitute at least 8% of the price from each purchase.
  • Bearaby creates high-quality weighted blankets using plastic-free materials that are made from GOTS-certified organic cotton and sustainably sourced eucalyptus fiber.
  • Outerknown, founded by professional surfer Kelly Slater, makes men’s and women’s apparel using planet-friendly materials and a sustainable supply network. Outerknown’s goal is to choose the most responsible path for people and planet.
  • byta makes insulated stainless steel beverage tumblers and bottles, saving more than 14.5 million disposable cups and bottles that could have entered our environment to date.

Start your own fundraiser on Facebook and Instagram

Jonathan Pendleton
© Jonathan Pendleton

Did you know you can start your own fundraiser for Ocean Conservancy on Facebook and Instagram? By setting up your own campaign on Facebook or using the donate button to raise funds on Instagram stories, you have a world of opportunity to make a difference for marine life and the conservation work needed to protect them right at your fingertips. If just fifty of your friends donated just five dollars or less, imagine the impact you could make in just one campaign!

Give back to our conservation initiatives with AmazonSmile

Christian Wiediger
© Christian Wiediger

There are little ways you can give back to our ocean that add up to big results, and making sure to use AmazonSmile whenever you shop on Amazon is one of them! This charitable program created by Amazon costs you nothing at all; simply shop using this link, and Amazon will donate a portion of the proceeds to Ocean Conservancy at no cost to you.

Download the Clean Swell app

CleanSwell
© Ben Hicks

Our Clean Swell app makes it easy for you to upload information about any trash that you pick up while in nature. The data is automatically added to our global ocean trash database, providing insights to everyone from researchers to policy-makers as we work to prevent ocean trash from reaching our natural environment in the first place. The app is available for both iPhone and Android devices, so be sure to download it so you’re ready to log any trash you come across while outdoors.

Don’t forget that our ocean could use a gift this season, too

ERIK LUKAS: CORAL REEF IMAGE BANK
© ERIK LUKAS/ CORAL REEF IMAGE BANK

There’s nothing that unifies our world quite like our ocean. Here at Ocean Conservancy, we’re on the frontlines of ocean protection, investing in research, leadership and advocacy to advance science-based solutions for our blue planet. Whether you’re able to give $5 or $50, every dollar makes an impact in the fight to preserve and protect the sea. By giving today, you’ll be making a difference by helping fund the work we do to secure a positive future for our ocean.

At the end of the day, we all give back to our ocean in different ways. The most important thing is that we never forget how much it gives to us without ceasing, how often it ensures we maintain a sense of hope and resilience simply by being inspired by it. No matter what you do for the ocean this year, what matters most is that we all do what we can, even if that’s with the tiniest gift or quickest online action. Because at the end of the day, the greatest gift the ocean can receive is a returned gesture of love and appreciation from all of us. And all of us isn’t all of us without you, friend.

How will you give back this year? We can’t wait to find out!

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Friday, 4 December 2020

Upholding the Foundations of Our Shores

Embraced by the ocean on almost all sides, Florida is a unique, rich and fertile state containing some of the nation’s most well-visited organic treasures: its coasts and beaches.

Florida’s coasts are far from transient—a diverse set of people and animals dwell on these shores. The coasts connect our ocean and our cities, bringing together residents, tourists, fishermen and wildlife alike. No matter where you are in the state, be it the highway, a park or your home, you can feel the presence of the coast brimming with energy and life. This is what makes Florida unique, and this is what I love about it.

Shores Forward is an Ocean Conservancy initiative creating partnerships with local governments to protect Florida’s ocean and coasts. The initiative established its first partnership with the City of Miami a year ago, taking action together on five key areas of ocean health: water quality, marine wildlife, education and outreach, ocean trash and carbon pollution. Most recently, Ocean Conservancy launched its brand-new partnership with the City of Miami Beach. By working together, we can protect and improve Miami Beach’s water quality, preparedness for sea level rise and marine wildlife.

ShoresForward

As I learned from a recent webinar hosted by Shores Forward, these stunning shores are upheld by another group of Florida’s less recognized treasures: Florida’s native plants.

On Wednesday, December 2, Ocean Conservancy and the American Society of Landscape Architects Florida Chapter hosted a virtual roundtable: Native Plantings & Sustainable Landscape Design. Joined by J.P. Brooker, Director of Ocean Conservancy’s Florida Conservation program, six panelists met for a robust hour-long conversation on the importance of native plant species selection and sustainable design in Florida landscape applications. The flow of the hour followed a nested scale approach, moving from large projects to smaller ones.

Given their giant footprint and high dollar value, highways were the first topic of the roundtable. Aurora Alcaide, Landscape Designer at Curtis & Rogers, explained the idea behind the naturalization of the Palmetto Expressway, incorporating systems of ecological patches along the highway interchange. With native plant species in the patches, the goal was to create habitats for birds and pollinators, and to claim water before it goes into the aquifer or to other areas. To date, the project has not been irrigated nor groomed, and is surpassing all expectations. Kirsten Hines, Wildlife Photographer and Conservationist, expanded on the impact highways have on Florida, explaining how roadways changed the hydrology of South Florida. Hines made note of features such as underpasses and wildlife walls being helpful to reconnect animal habitats and reduce road casualties for wildlife and drivers alike.

Harper Martinez, Forestry Field Specialist at City of Miami Beach, made the connection to cities by bringing up urban tree canopy coverage. Miami Beach is managing their canopy coverage by creating an urban forestry master plan and using a matrix to assess the suitability of specific native plants to the city’s hot and salty conditions. Through a General Obligation Bond, the city will be planting 5,000 trees in the coming years. Martinez looks forward to building on the progress made thus far, enthusiastically sharing that the city has managed to attract a native butterfly community behind the city convention center.

The next topic of the hour covered seawalls and the role of native plants, such as mangroves, in stabilizing shores. Alcaide shared details on the concepts that Curtis & Rogers shared with the City of Miami to reimagine what storm surge protection could look like in the area if grey and green infrastructure was considered. Ana Zangroniz, Florida Sea Grant Extension Agent at Miami-Dade County, went over the concept of living shorelines: hybrid approaches with native vegetation on coasts. Living shorelines are fitting for the City of Miami Beach since it was historically a mangrove swamp. However, Zangroniz maintained a pragmatic approach, reminding the audience that South Florida’s shoreline is built up, making it necessary to work with a mixed approach of using grey infrastructure side by side with green and blue alternatives.

Roberto Rovira, Principal at Studio Roberto Rovira, as well as Professor and Chair of Landscape Architecture and Environmental and Urban Design at the CARTA in Florida International University (FIU), agreed with Zangroniz.

FIU has partnered with ECOncrete, a company that makes biophilic concrete, to test mixing grey and green technology to attract and foster natural life. In addition to seawalls incorporating native plants and providing solutions that are ecological and biological, it is also a cultural process involving people, since the population in South Florida is naturally drawn to its water. Barry Miller, Principal at Savino & Miller, shared how the firm’s latest project incorporates many of the approaches discussed: the Baywalk and Riverwalk Guidelines for the City of Miami. Miller explained how the Guidelines try to balance the need to protect the city’s valuable real estate while working to connect people to water, protect the environment and incorporate hybrid grey-green infrastructure.

Aurora_Alcaide

“Sustainable landscapes are self-renewing and don’t require much maintenance.”

Aurora Alcaide
Landscape Designer, Curtis & Rogers

Like residents of cities across the globe, communities in South Florida value their green spaces. Parks are the universal public realm, providing refuge for birds, amphibians, mammals and even our marine wildlife friends. Many South Florida parks contain water bodies, including ponds, lakes, canals and ocean bays, and while they allow residents and visitors to get close to the water, they are also potential sources for high levels of nutrient buildup and pollution. Hines shared her experience studying dolphin populations in Biscayne Bay, noting the individuals found in the urbanized northern bay had higher levels of contaminants than those found in the south within the boundaries of Biscayne National Park. Urban parks in higher elevations are vital habitats to migratory birds, and Hines highlighted the need to protect and reintroduce more upland green spaces in urbanized areas. As a professional wildlife photographer, Hines elaborated on animals congregating in parks because of the limited habit availability and being accustomed to people strolling through and staying in parks en masse.

Miller discussed the process of designing a new park in collaboration with Martinez in Miami Beach. The new 20-acre park sits in the middle of Miami Beach and is designed to create a green infrastructural water reservoir. Parallel to a big capital improvement project of raising roads in Miami Beach to adapt to rising sea levels, the park will have a lake to capture street-water runoff and to reduce the amount of pollutants entering Biscayne Bay—essentially becoming a living, hybrid body of stormwater infrastructure. Martinez delineated two common visions for parks: on the one hand, a preserve, uninviting to humans; on the other, a public park with amenities and children’s areas. The park Miller talked about marks a blending of the two, simultaneously providing habitable areas for urban wildlife and plenty of spaces for recreation. Rovira shared FIU’s strategy of integrating landscape architecture with more holistic and comprehensive approaches to see parks as connected spaces for human enjoyment and biodiversity enrichment.

Last but not least, the panelists discussed native plant species selection on a scale close to home: private residences. Zangroniz kickstarted the conversation by highlighting the impact all types of residences (apartment buildings, multi-family and single-family homes) can have on the improvement of the regional water quality. The University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Studies offers a program called Florida Yards and Neighborhoods that assists residents in improving water quality, including choosing the right plant species for the right locations.

Three ducks standing on a tree branch.
© www.KirstenHines.com
A small, green frog resting on a large leaf.
© www.KirstenHines.com
For Alcaide, parks in dense residential neighborhoods provide exciting opportunities to improve water quality and employ a systems-based approach. In the redesign of Jose Marti Park in Miami, the team at Curtis & Rogers had to consider drought, wind and salt tolerances. The selected plant species in Jose Marti Park will provide sustainable habitats for urban wildlife and provide sustenance for residents through the growth of edible plants. Among the considerations for the park, the team designed a compost area for residents and included an underground cistern to collect rainwater and provide energy-efficient irrigation during periods of drought.

Hines made a point to say that you don’t need a large garden or park to help provide connectivity for wildlife and improve water quality; people can have potted native plants on their balconies that will specifically attract birds and require little maintenance. A published book authored by Hines provides readers with strategies to make an impact from home, and a resource from the Institute for Regional Conservation (IRC) provides native plant species by zip code!

Rovira worked on the EcoAtlas, which visualizes much of the information provided by the IRC and supports residents looking to make decisions on plant species based on flowering schedules and seasonality as well. For residents planting within their property lines, Rovira suggests coordinating with neighbors to multiply their impact. In the case of living in an apartment building or a multi-family unit, Rovira recommends residents get in touch with their management or Homeowner’s Associations (HOAs) to hire landscaping maintenance companies that employ sustainable practices. Miller explains that for the landscape architect, the residential process is unique because there’s a client that lives day and night in this place, coming in with their own ideas of what they want. Collaboration is key in order to get clients to start thinking about the bigger picture of their homes as grounded extensions of the environment around them, and ultimately to incorporate more sustainable practices at home.

The event wrapped up with a live Q&A portion from the audience. Our panelists weaved in the hour’s important lessons: partnerships and holistic approaches. Sustainable landscape design is about working with and enhancing what’s already there to fit the conditions of the space, as is evident in the case of South Florida. Rovira affirmed the value of using projects like the Palmetto Expressway and South Pointe Park as living proofs of concept that sustainable design with native plantings successfully exists in South Florida. All six panelists nodded to the collaboration between local agencies, architects, residents, students and organizations working together to make it all happen. With all hands on deck, our shores are as solid as the foundations of our partnerships, so that we can enjoy Florida’s coasts for generations to come.

For the full recording of our Native Plantings & Sustainable Landscape Design webinar, please see below. Find which native plants are home to your zip code.

The post Upholding the Foundations of Our Shores appeared first on Ocean Conservancy.



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