The Efforts to Replenish Depleted Mangrove Forests

As Hurricane Ian barreled toward southwest Florida. Harry Kiel, lead captain for the Tarpon Cove Beach and Racket Club shuttle boat, secured the 45ft vessel deep inside a narrow mangrove cove along the cocoa River in North Naples. Layering extra ropes, anchor lines and thick bumpers, he braced the boat against what he knew would be a violent storm surge, and hoped the natural barrier and his precautions would be enough. But they weren't. We're thinking it probably went up 4 or 5, maybe even six feet back there, as opposed to where we're sitting right now, which got the full brunt of 12ft of surge, plus some wave action on top. To the point where it filled up the swimming pool with a couple feet of water up there. Took one of the boats from here and deposited up on the shoreline up in the bocce court. That was an interesting one. When the surge arrived, Kiel says it tore through the 90 slip Marina with relentless force. Dock splintered like matchsticks. Boats tossed in every direction. Some owners managed to haul their vessels to safety before the storm, but 13 boats remained in the water, exposed to Ian's fury, two of which broke through the mangrove line. Ian was a little special monster in a lot of cases. The boats were okay. They're built really well. But, you know, if the mangroves hadn't been here, the boats would have been over in the retention ponds over there, in the swimming pool, on the pool deck that's right above us. Keel says the devastation would have reached far beyond the docks, likely slamming into the club's main building, which sustained light damage. The mangroves at least created some sort of a fence where it stopped any of the debris from getting up there. Kelly Fowler, Coastal watch director at the Sanibel Captiva Conservation Foundation, says mangroves act as a silent shield for coastal communities across southwest Florida. But she says many residents still underestimate just how critical mangroves are to the entire ecosystem. Mangroves are super important, but, they're kind of all connected with other habitats here on our barrier islands as well. That, you know, our barrier islands are literally our first line of defense just as a whole. Restoring all those habitats is going to make us more resilient. As a barrier island and as a community. Recovery for damaged mangroves, however, is measured in decades, not months after hurricanes Melton and Harlene in 2024. Fall says much of the tender mangrove growth that had begun sprouting after Ian was stripped away. Once again, these mangroves, in order to have them be, you know, mature adult mangroves usually takes about 10 to 15 years. So, we're not even four years out from Hurricane Ian. So, they, they really haven't had time to recover. So we're probably looking at another, you know, two decades worth of recovery if we and and that is if we don't have another large storm, come through this area. Melissa Keel, a lifelong Floridian, has weathered storms since the 1960s. She says those experiences fuel a determination to protect what stands between their home and the Gulf. For someone who's lived through them. If we're getting one, it's it's not a good thing. You know, if we could get through one year without them, it would be tremendous, because that means everything can get back to its growth. You know, and people can get back to what they kind of activities that they want to do. Harry Keel approaches rebuilding with a hard earned perspective, valuing resilience over replacement. Every time you build back, any time something gets destroyed. In one of the hurricanes or no named storms. Everything gets built back. But it's better. It's stronger anyway, right? And it's more resilient to the next, next load thing. But rebuilding can be done in a just short period of time. The mangroves take a while for them to develop. Fowles says rebuilding mangrove forests is not just possible. It's participatory. As these volunteers from Florida Gulf Coast University did in January on a southwest Florida beach. There's so much going on in the world that is negative and that we feel that we can't be a part of it or can't change it can't. It's just happening to us. And, we at CCF with our restoration programs are trying to give people an actionable item to do. They can be a part of it. They can help us, either by participating in our adopt a mangrove program, grow a mangrove at their home, or they can come out with us and get their hands dirty at one of our restoration events and put the plants in the ground without community involvement. Foul warns the consequences may not be immediate, but they are inevitable. If mangroves go away at some time, you might be living next to the water. Just they are going to be there to help. You know, protect us as much as we can. If, if the mangroves go away, that sediment is going to sink down and we're going to start to lose shoreline. And, with sea level rise, you know, I don't know what's going to happen in the next few decades of where our, our, shorelines are going to be. So it it might not impact you directly today, but it definitely could in ten years. Both Henry and Melissa Keel believe the future can change, but only if the community recognizes what's at stake and acts before the next storm forms offshore. Well, just on the news, you look at the other coast right now, up to the Outer Banks. You have all these, homes that are literally washing into the ocean. But they put down the pilings, and the water keeps coming up, and, you can't fool Mother Nature. Really? And the best you can do is hope to survive along with her. Reporting in North Naples for GCU news. I'm Samuel Brucker.