Category: Policy

Several water and coastal bills are being passed and supported, including a seagrass restoration technology development initiative, land acquisition trust fund and EPA grant for Indian River Lagoon field trip.    Update provided by Chris Hodge 

General Permit for Seagrass Restoration  This general permit is intended to streamline seagrass restoration. No draft has been released nor have hearings been scheduled. (This topic was covered in the October/November CCS newsletter).  Generic NPDES Permit to allow discharges associated with experimental technologies to control Red Tide and Blue Green Algae.      This proposed generic permit […]

 2023 Legislative Session   The 2023 legislative session begins in April, but bills worth watching are beginning to be filed and referred to the appropriate committees.     Senate Bill 100 – Mangrove Replanting and Restoration.  This bill amends Section 403.9324, Florida Statutes, Florida’s mangrove protection statute. It requires FDEP to adopt rules for mangrove replanting and restoration […]

In October, Florida Sea Grant convened a small group of scientists, policy specialists, regulators, and stakeholders to discuss opportunities and challenges in the emerging field of restoration aquaculture. Restoration aquaculture is a relatively new area that merges the commodity-based production-oriented practices of aquaculture with an ecosystem services approach to environmental restoration. The goal is to […]

STATE POLICY BRIEF  OYSTER GOVERNANCE IN FLORIDA: A RICH HISTORY WITH LESSONS FOR FUTURE MANAGEMENT  Project Team Chad Palmer, Ph.D. Candidate, School of Natural Resources and the Environment, UF Cole Thomas, J.D. (2022), UF Levin College of Law Meredith Burgess, J.D. Candidate (2023), UF Levin College of Law Jamie Castille, M.S., Wildlife Ecology and Conservation […]

The CCS Coastal Policy Lab focused the Spring semester on the development of science-to-policy tools to advance the development of restoration aquaculture to enhance water quality in Florida and on governance issues associated with Florida’s wild oyster fishery.

Adding Independent Special Districts to the list of entities eligible to participate in the Statewide Flooding and Sea Level Rise Resilience planning and implementation processes should be afforded further consideration given their self-governing authority over critical assets, their ability to operationalize resiliency projects and their capacity to leverage state and other grant funds provided through their own revenue generation.

Coastal policy received a significant amount of attention in the Florida legislature this year, with several bills and budget items making their way to the Governor’s desk and others dying in committees. This update describes bills and projects of particular relevance to the CCS community and provides some context.

By Tom Ankersen, Legal Skills Professor & Legal Program Director, UF Law Students and faculty in the CCS Coastal Policy Lab (CPL) kicked off Spring Break with a field trip to Tampa Bay to get out on the water and meet the stakeholders where they work. The CPL is an experiential learning partnership between the […]

As part of the Fall 2021 Coastal Policy Lab, a partnership between Florida Sea Grant, the University of Florida Conservation Clinic at the Levin College of Law and the CCS in the College of Engineering, faculty and students investigated the potential to mitigate the impacts of repetitive maintenance dredging by using more efficient channel designs.