Everyone:
Thank you for your continued outreach to friends, family, neighbors, and colleagues. Your promotion efforts have made a huge difference. We have hit our goal of 2,500 signatures!
Already, our petition is having an effect. The concerns of everyone here have caught the concern of our elected officials. Today, I read the mayor's letter on the commission's new efforts on infrastructure. The growing list of commitments and accelerated timelines and scope I think our in no small part owing to your engagement, advocacy, and demands. Awesome!
Next step is formally present to the mayor. Time to fix our infrastructure and protect our waters!
And, for another next steps, there is something each of you can do today.
As a first-step to restoring our waterways to health, Mike Lambrechts, VP Florida Coastal Commission Association (CCA) and President of Broward County Chapter is spearheading a pilot project to bring oysters back to our canals. Each oyster filters 50 gallons of water a day. Mike is looking for neighbors with dockage to volunteer to be part of this pilot project, which ultimately Mike seeks to gain sponsorship by our commission to scale.
For anyone interested, please contact Mike at his email address here:
mikelambrechts0@gmail.com
You can learn more about the pending project from the details provided below:
1. Determine approximate time of year that oyster spat begins (likely March-April and around September) via conversation with scientist from UM
2. Order oyster catching products to hang off docks in areas that oysters currently live or areas that oysters have been seen in the past. These have been used by our organization with a lot of success. No permit required to hang these - we checked with DEP.
3. Conduct salinity and temperature testing in areas that these materials are placed to ensure proper metrics
4. Record progress of oyster growth & determine type of oyster growing (Eastern or Mangrove Oyster - this matters for relocating)
5. Collect successful oyster catchers and relocate to areas of need where they will live (permit will be applied for) - if we feel this is best path
6. Rinse & repeat/scale project
By undertaking this project we will learn a lot of things - including what the true condition of our waterways is and its ability to sustain oyster growth in certain areas. We will be able to identify live and dead zones by casting a wide net with these oyster catchers.