In an ambitious effort to restore critical marine habitat, Indian River County is moving forward with large-scale seagrass restoration projects at two key locations in the Indian River Lagoon, Big Slough and Preacher’s Hole. The work is being funded through the NOAA Transformational Habitat Restoration Grant and coordinated with partners including Sea & Shoreline and the Indian River Lagoon National Estuary Program (IRLNEP).
“NOAA has a Transformational Habitat Restoration Grant that they give funding for, for any type of transformational work that's being done,” said Melissa Meisenberg, senior lagoon environmental specialist for Indian River County’s Natural Resources Department. “And so it could be things like restoring fish habitat, restoring seagrass.”
Meisenberg said the effort comes in response to years of documented seagrass decline in the lagoon. “We've seen declines in seagrass, particularly since 2011, with another big hit in 2016. And we see this seagrass decline and recovery is not a rapid process. It's a slow process. Seagrass grows through fragmentation, it grows through seeding, seed banks, and also through rhizomal growth, just like grass in somebody's yard would. So it's a slow recovery process.”
“So even though we've seen water quality improving, we're seeing clarity improving in the Indian River Lagoon, we are seeing a slow recovery of seagrass, and some areas are seeing it come back very rapidly,” she added.
The first of the two restoration projects, at Big Slough, was recently completed after more than a month of intensive planting. The 12-acre site is located just south of Sebastian Inlet in a shallow, sheltered area along Pelican Island.
“So Big Slough is just south of the Sebastian Inlet, and it's in a shallow, sheltered area along Pelican Island,” Meisenberg said. “We obtained the permits fairly easily for this project. Probably the biggest, you know, surprise that we had when we went back out was we've had some recovery of seagrass in that area. If there was seagrass in a particular area where we expected to plant, we might skip over it and plant adjacent to it. So that was one of the initial challenges—figuring out when we're planting.”
“We got all of our grass in in a little about a month and a half,” she said.
Meisenberg credited the IRLNEP for its role in bringing multiple local restoration projects together under one coordinated grant application. “So the IRLNEP is really the one who brought all this together. And a lot of times, federal grants require large dollar amounts. They’re looking for large transformational projects. And for most of us, we're doing smaller local projects, not something lagoon-wide. And so they really helped bring all the partners together with our variety of different projects to coordinate together and to get a grant put together for us.”
Seagrass, Meisenberg said, is foundational to the lagoon’s ecological health. “Seagrass is an important habitat within the Indian River Lagoon. It's important habitat that does many things. Obviously, it produces oxygen, takes up some nutrients, it stabilizes the sediments. It is habitat for many of our juvenile fisheries within the Indian River Lagoon, and it's habitat for many of the baitfish that they feed upon when they are larger adults. So it's helping to give habitat for fish stocks that are needed in the lagoon, helping to stabilize our sediments and improve water quality.”
The second restoration site, Preacher’s Hole, is larger and more technically challenging due to deeper water levels and a more complex planting environment.
“Preacher's Hole is a little bit more challenging. Water levels are a little bit deeper in that site. It was a historical seagrass area, and that particular site for us is 10 acres, but the entire project will be a little almost 17 acres. I believe it's an actual 16.9, because Sea & Shoreline, our partner and contractor on this work, had funding from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Foundation to plant some acreage within Preacher's Hole,” Meisenberg said.
The project isn’t just about planting; ongoing care is required to give the new seagrass a real chance to thrive.
“These are very large projects that are going to require monitoring and maintenance. So we actually have started maintenance on the herbivore exclusion devices within Big Slough now, which requires cleaning the cages from any debris or epiphytes that have attached to it and begun growing. We have to keep it clean so that the light can penetrate through to that seagrass. And following that, we'll start monitoring.”
Looking ahead, Meisenberg said results from these sites will help guide future restoration work throughout the lagoon. “Once we know how these do and we see how recovery is in the rest of the lagoon, we'll determine if we need any other areas to start doing seagrass enhancement.”
With planting now completed at Big Slough and work ramping up at Preacher’s Hole, local environmental officials and their partners are optimistic that these efforts can serve as a model for future habitat recovery in one of Florida’s most biodiverse estuaries.