COLLIER COUNTY — Fabien Cousteau did not need a scuba tank and a pair of flippers to tour a mangrove restoration site Tuesday near Marco Island.
Looking across the 225 acres of dead and dying mangroves, the grandson of pioneering oceans champion Jacques Cousteau did have some optimism.
"If we invest in nature, nature will invest in us," said Cousteau, 44, an ocean explorer, activist and documentary filmmaker in Southwest Florida speaking to the annual meeting of the Conservancy of Southwest Florida.
The Conservancy and Rookery Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve are working with mangrove restoration expert Robin Lewis to revive the black mangroves along San Marco Road between Marco and Goodland.
Roads and development have changed the way water flows in and out of the forest, which began showing signs of stress after heavy rains in 1992 and began dying in 1995.
Backers of the restoration are trying to raise $750,000 to install new culverts under San Marco Road and dig tidal channels through the forest, but money has been hard to find.
Citizens have chipped in $7,500, the Conservancy and Rookery Bay are donating scientists' time, but the project still is looking to raise $150,000 to match a $450,000 federal grant.
A small piece of the restoration north of San Marco Road is set to break ground Feb. 22, provided state and federal environmental permits are issued in coming weeks.
The entire project, though, will take years, and lay the foundation for Mother Nature to take it from there, Lewis said.
"Mother Nature can do wonderful restoration work on her own," Lewis said.
Cousteau said projects like saving the Marco mangroves offer a chance to harness public frustration with degradation of the planet's life-support system and engage people in saving it.
Mangroves are the engines that drive a coastal ecosystem that serves as a nursery for economically important fisheries, buffer hurricanes and support Southwest Florida's tourism-based economy, restoration backers say.
"It's about saving ourselves," Cousteau said.
Cousteau started the Plant-A-Fish foundation that uses coral reef, oyster and mangroves restoration projects around the world to spread the message of environmental stewardship.
"The solutions need to come from each and every one of us," he said.
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Comments » 18
lswjth2 writes:
Yep, here we go again. Spending monies we don"t have on "restoration" projects so we can "Save" ourselves. Then the state goes ahead and removes 20 miles of mangroves over on the east coast to widen US 1 into Key Largo.....
JunkYardDog_1 writes:
Maybe we should have though about this forty or fifty years ago before the great influx of coastline destruction?
If development would have been built east of the Southwest Florida estuaries for all to benefit, we wouldn't even be having this conversation.
wonderful writes:
Really hate to note this, but this has been happening since cuba was free! (long, long time!), even if we weren't here.
Take it from one who knows.
wentfishn writes:
Here we go again, another scammer comin down the pike, but i guess if he greases the right people it will happen?
greathornedlizard writes:
Well that's just one 'L' short of being brilliant!
theabyss writes:
Man will destroy himself over time.... we are the only DESTRUCTIVE species in nature trying to manipulate nature itself.
artdude writes:
Nice to see Mr Cousteau who has never flown coach in his life, who has become a rich man off of his fathers reputation and hard work likes to spend other peoples money. Lat time I checked the Cousteau Society was a not for profit but my guess is that he gets about 400,000 in salary with jets and condos and other bennies and pretends to run a 501 C 3, Eat the rich, or of course feed them to sharks
swampfox writes:
Maybe thars yanks livin on penshons in them thar perdy nou howses!
swampfox writes:
Yes they do! It's quite similar to citrus.
swampfox writes:
If you are a man hater, then please start a trend by riding yourself of the world first.
paul_vincent_zecchino writes:
Restore mangroves? Restore them to what state? Are people dropping like flies due to a lack of mangroves? Any plagues - bubonic, Spanish Influenza, polio - currently raging due to some supposed shortage of these plants?
If only people would stop and think about the noxious slogans they're being fed by clever socialists, rather than repeating and acting on them against their best interests.
The true aim of this crusade to restore mangroves is to deny property owners, tourists, and all citizens a view of and access to the water, and as well to choke off navigable waterways so as to deny commercial and recreational boaters of their right to access and use the waters.
Mangroves do a lovely job stinking up inhabited areas and as well, leaching tannic acid into surrounding waters which befouls them and turns them brown, again discouraging people from swimming and related activities.
This is part of a coordinated effort to 'noodge' citizens away from waterfront areas and 'noodge' - to use Tsar Sunstein's pet word - them back to 'compact urban areas' where the socialist Elites plan to temporarily contain them.
That old nest of pedophiles, dope peddlers, communist spies, and internationalist gangsters known euphemistically as the UN spells out this and other anti-human pro-eugenicist plans in its foul Agenda 21.
All was going swimmingly for these communist rats, until The Net, Talk Radio, and vigilant citizens who value human life began to expose them.
Cousteau has long trumpeted the many anti-human schemes foisted by the socialist Elites, who've long stated their intent to 'remove ninety five percent of the world's population in order to save the planet'.
Perhaps they should be forced to live in the midst of their beloved tree-god mangroves, surrounded by the walls of a large, open-air locked ward.
Always good to take the lead and practice the toxic eco-socialism that one preaches, right?
Paul Vincent Zecchino
Manasoviet Key, Florida
18 January, 2012
paul_vincent_zecchino writes:
"We invest in nature and nature will invest in us." ??
In a socialist society, people have the right to fight over scraps of rotten meat, sleep in the weeds, and eat bugs but at least they can invest in an abundance of parades, slogans, and propaganda.
Spare us. Please.
Nature invests in no one. Nature is an abstract.
The true face of nature is a hurricane which makes short work of mangroves.
The true face of nature is the wolf who mutilates and kills naive young female tourists who believe the propaganda about 'our loving animal friends in the world of nature'.
The true face of nature is the grizzly who mauls, shreds alive, and devours young couples who make documentaries about the wonderful natural world of grizzlies.
Mangrove clusters expand rapaciously to create 'precious new islands', according to eco-charlatans, but no human has ever been reported to have access to, much less productive use of, these supposed islands, which are simply hazards to navigation.
"Invest in nature and it will invest in us."
Great slogan. Be sure to type it on a business card, laminate it, and carry it in your wallet.
That way, when they check your papers, you'll have the politically correct slogan du jour.
pvz
mk, fl
18 Jan., '12
woods311 writes:
""Mother Nature can do wonderful restoration work on her own," Lewis said."
This whole thing is a crock of crap.
What we have here is a bunch of government employees trying to prove they are earning their paychecks.
Along with a few private people who will get a slice of this scam to get $450,000 of federal, borrowed, funny money.
I noticed they were careful to avoid any local tax dollars.
They want to restore a bunch of mangroves, that were dead and dying, before the great "Marco Island Mangrove rape."
The building of state road 92 might have caused it, but it has been that way a long time.
Adding to the trillions already owed, so that some people can play in the mud and be "Mangrove Experts" is not a good idea.
Find your funding someplace else.
wentfishn writes:
For those of you newcomers, every so often a scam comes along to clean up the Bay or grow oysters or what ever and they prob get some kind of grant. But it never works and nothing is heard about it.Then the next one comes with a " Bright New Plan" and all those involved cheer.$$$$$
DamYankee writes:
Why doesn't he just wave the white French flag?
brama writes:
These post all reflect the incredible greedy nature of the general populous.
Southern_Gal writes:
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. I am a hard core environmentalist in every way one can be. Spent last night trawling the estuaries to collect data with Rookery Bay research group. BUT, I am appalled at some of the comments made here. Shame on you!
lionfishhunter writes:
Welcome to Naples!!!!!!!!
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