Florida senator introduces bill to allow seagrass to be removed for development with mitigation

A new bill would allow mitigation to happen not only on land but below the water.

Mitigation refers to the restoration, creation, or enhancement of wetlands to compensate for losses elsewhere. It’s used when a housing development is created on particular lands, and the developer compensates by planting more trees somewhere else.

Now, one lawmaker wants that to happen below the surface as well, with seagrass.

The long strands of underwater grasses are a manatee’s dream buffet. It’s not only a feeding spot for sea creatures, it’s also a hiding place and provides water filtration.

Miami Republican Senator Ana Maria Rodriguez is pushing Senate Bill 198 that would allow people to remove the marine plants.

Sen. Rodriguez said during a public meeting, “This legislation is necessary to allow for the establishment of private mitigation banks … the section three of the bill adds an additional permit exception for certain individual docks that are installed on submerged lands.”

But anyone removing it would have to support a mitigation bank, which means providing compensation for the preservation and restoration of seagrass in a different area.

It sounds fairly simple, right?

Not so fast says J.P. Brooker with ocean conservancy. “So it basically gives an incentive to developers to destroy wild native seagrasses under the pretense that they will be able to plant new seagrasses to compensate for the damage that they’ve done to that wild seagrass. But that’s a problem because that wild seagrass can’t really be grown back.”

Other environmentalists echo his comments.

Lindsay Cross with Florida Conservation Voters said, “seagrass transplanting is notoriously difficult, below 40% worldwide because it requires clear water in optimal conditions. It can take years or even decades for transplanted grass to offer the same habitat value as natural grass.”

And Paul Owens, president of 1,000 Friends of Florida added, “We’ve seen the devastating consequences and the record mortality of manatees last year, mainly due to the loss of seagrass they rely on for food. Amid this environmental calamity, the timing on a bill such as this couldn’t be much worse. It’s an accelerant in a wildfire. It’s a downpour in a flood.”

And right now, its future is in the hands of hands of lawmakers.