MELBOURNE, Fla. – The Brevard Zoo is a draw for visitors from across Central Florida.
The park features lush landscaping and animals from around the world.
But one of the zoo’s core missions is to make a difference closer to home.
A portion of every ticket sold goes toward the Restore Our Shores program.
On any given day, zoo staff and volunteers can be found building and maintaining projects and experiments to help restore lost habitat in the Indian River Lagoon (IRL).
Olivia Escandell, conservation manager at The Brevard Zoo, is overseeing a project to help better understand the best conditions for seagrass growth.
Escandell and about a dozen volunteers were waist-deep in the river along US-1 in the town of Grant-Valkaria. The team was planting a pilot seagrass bed several yards from the shore.
“It’s a beautiful seagrass,” Escadell said, holding a sample of Shoal Grass between her fingers. “It has long, bright green blades.”
The shoots came from a nursery in Stuart where they were grown for projects like this.
More volunteers on shore gathered around a folding table. The fronds on a nearby palm tree moved in the breeze and cast a shadow on their work area. The group took turns pulling loose seagrass shoots out of five-gallon buckets filled with water.
The volunteers bundled them together with wire and landscape staples preparing them to be planted.
“The hope is that those materials will help stabilize the grass from being swept out if there’s some heavy winds before the grass has time to root,” Escandell said. “We know that the grass grows really well in about one and a half to two feet of depth. So that’s where we’re trying to plant right now.”
The planting project in Grant-Valkaria is only one of 17 pilot locations up and down the river.
The 156-mile-long Indian River Lagoon (IRL) is part of the longest barrier island complex in North America, occupying more than 40% of Florida’s East Coast. The system extends from Ponce de Leon Inlet in Volusia County down to the Jupiter Inlet in Palm Beach County.
The river has been threatened by rapid development, habitat destruction, over-harvesting and pollution. A massive algae bloom in 2011 resulted in dying seagrass, falling oxygen levels and dead fish along the Space Coast.
“Habitat restoration is extremely important, but it doesn’t work until we fix the water quality problems that led to that habitat’s demise,” Escandell said. “Thankfully, there is a lot of work going on to improve that water quality.”
Another goal of the pilot seagrass planting programs is to increase environmental awareness and show residents how citizens can work together to restore the health of the lagoon.
“This is the fun stuff. Planting seagrass and restoring oyster populations and clam populations are really fun, and we’ve seen some amazing success,” Escandell said. “But I think something that’s really special is the ability for the zoo to connect with the community through projects like this that are fun and exciting, and show people that habitat restoration can work and why improving water quality in the lagoon, you know, all those things that are not so exciting but are important.”
The zoo’s biggest contribution has been volunteers. More than 70,000 volunteers have helped with projects as diverse as adding filter-feeding oysters and oyster beds to the lagoon, growing protective mangroves, seeding restorative clam beds and creating buffer zones to stem pollution and algae blooms.
“We really can’t do any of this without our volunteers. Some of them show up almost every day that we’re out here,” Escandell said. “Imagine all that power and labor that’s going into restoring the lagoon through different projects.”
Conservation projects like this are also part of the accreditation criteria with the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. The AZA sets standards for zoos nationwide.
“It’s a badge of honor to be accredited with the AZA,” said Jody Cassell, director of conservation, in an interview. “It’s really the highest standard for our industry.”
Part of that accreditation includes field conservation. AZA members spent $356.7 million on more than 3,000 projects worldwide last year.
“We recognize the importance of doing the work right here in our backyard,” Cassell said. “We like to say that we answer the call for Florida wildlife.”
Cassell said the zoo relies on volunteers to make their projects a success.
“We could go out and we could put millions of oysters in the lagoon, which we have, but if we’re not taking the community on that journey with us, working with them to change their behavior so that the nutrients aren’t going in the lagoon in the first place then it’s all for naught.”
The zoo coordinates with the Brevard County Natural Resource Department on those projects.
There are 432 projects operated under the Save Our Indian River Lagoon Program.
Brandon Smith, Environmental Specialist with the department agrees with Cassell saying much of the pollution starts in people’s homes and businesses.
“There’s also ways that people can reduce their own personal pollution and keep it out of the water to begin with,” Smith said. ”So it doesn’t have to be cleaned up afterwards.”
“The Brevard Zoo has been a great partner. They have done the majority of oyster work. They’re also doing a lot of work with clams,” Smith said. “The more people we have working on projects the more we can get to a healthy lagoon.”
Many, but not all, of the Zoo’s restoration projects are also funded through the “Save Our Indian River Lagoon” half-cent sales tax voted on by Brevard County residents in 2016.
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