Latest / 2MC / 2MC Podcast Eps 86 - Courtney's Calculations
Transcript
- 00:00:05:26 - 00:00:07:03 MAK Hey, everybody, it's MAK 00:00:07:11 - 00:00:10:00 Courtney And I'm Courtney. Welcome back to 2MC. 00:00:10:02 - 00:00:19:08 MAK We are here today. We have a podcast. We have a special guest, and we got a lot of stuff coming your way. Wow. Great. You just boom boom boom. 00:00:19:09 - 00:00:23:28 Courtney I know, and I'm welcome. 00:00:24:01 - 00:00:44:14 Courtney Yeah. We are having a John male on our podcast. He and his team do so many incredible things throughout the community that I think a lot of residents just drive past and don't really know really what that is doing for the environment, for the community and everything else. So let's let's. 00:00:44:14 - 00:00:49:01 MAK Jump to it. Hop in. Hey, John. Hey, welcome. 00:00:49:03 - 00:00:50:26 John Maehl It's good to see you, Martha Ann. 00:00:50:29 - 00:00:52:08 MAK Favorite guest? 00:00:52:11 - 00:00:58:06 Courtney I okay. Okay. She might have said that to other people. You so. 00:00:58:08 - 00:01:00:22 Courtney I can say it, though. I think you're my favorite guest. 00:01:00:23 - 00:01:01:20 MAK Me? 00:01:01:22 - 00:01:02:10 Courtney Yes. 00:01:02:15 - 00:01:02:26 MAK Okay. 00:01:02:27 - 00:01:04:16 Courtney I'm thrilled to have you back. 00:01:04:19 - 00:01:06:09 MAK Yes. 00:01:06:11 - 00:01:07:20 John Maehl You've been demoted again. 00:01:07:22 - 00:01:08:14 MAK Podcast. 00:01:08:21 - 00:01:10:03 John Maehl Okay. 00:01:10:06 - 00:01:15:21 Courtney Okay. So, John, you are part of the environmental resources. 00:01:15:27 - 00:01:21:19 MAK He does it. Yeah. He leads the team. Kind of important. You're kind of a big deal. Yeah. 00:01:21:22 - 00:01:22:06 John Maehl 00:01:22:08 - 00:01:22:19 MAK Actually. 00:01:22:19 - 00:01:23:05 Courtney Your team. 00:01:23:05 - 00:01:23:22 MAK Is a big deal. 00:01:23:23 - 00:01:24:06 John Maehl There you go. 00:01:24:07 - 00:01:25:04 Courtney You and your team. 00:01:25:06 - 00:01:25:22 John Maehl There you go. 00:01:25:23 - 00:01:27:09 Courtney Do really big things for the county. 00:01:27:14 - 00:01:31:07 John Maehl Yeah. My team lets me speak for them sometimes. 00:01:31:09 - 00:01:42:14 MAK Well, you have some cool stuff going on, and we haven't talked about some of these things in a while. Yeah. Exotic removal. It sounds very. 00:01:42:14 - 00:01:43:28 Courtney Cool. 00:01:44:01 - 00:01:49:17 MAK But it's actually a super important project. It's super like important things that you guys do. 00:01:49:22 - 00:01:58:19 Courtney So what like. Yeah. What is that reasoning for exotic removal? What does that do for our environment here in Martin County? And the benefits. 00:01:58:22 - 00:02:14:25 John Maehl Thanks for bringing it up. It's it's actually a really important function for our division and and for management of Florida Natural Resources. Florida, is a really good place for stuff to grow and lots of things like to grow here. 00:02:14:27 - 00:02:16:09 MAK And everybody brings things. 00:02:16:14 - 00:02:40:08 John Maehl Stuff shows up. Right. And so there's, a suite of non-native species that, that really like to move in and take over our natural areas, and it's not helpful to the floor and fauna. And so for a properly balanced and managed ecosystem, we try to, remove those and make room for the natives to, to do their thing. 00:02:40:08 - 00:03:06:08 John Maehl And sometimes we have to go in and plant natives if, if it's been too long since an area for, for instance, some of the areas we recently have acquired through Martin County forever or or other sources. It's a first time effort to go in and and do a restoration. Sometimes there's so much Brazilian pepper or or your leaf acacia or or whatever that it's totally choked out the natives. 00:03:06:09 - 00:03:08:06 MAK They haven't had regular maintenance. 00:03:08:08 - 00:03:08:20 Courtney Correct. 00:03:08:21 - 00:03:09:10 MAK Okay. 00:03:09:12 - 00:03:29:20 John Maehl So nose cases are usually a bigger effort. Sometimes it looks like we're clearing it because it's all non-native. And once that's out, then we can reassess how much needs to be put back in in native planting. And once we get it into a maintenance condition, then we just do annual small treatments that that maintain the the right balance. 00:03:29:24 - 00:03:37:26 MAK So folks, sometimes driving by an area might say, oh my gosh, they're clearing the land. 00:03:37:28 - 00:03:39:04 Courtney Clearing the bad. 00:03:39:06 - 00:03:45:10 MAK Right plants. The Brazilian peppers, they're not good. 00:03:45:17 - 00:04:10:24 John Maehl They're not. And you know, they they they don't have natural control mechanisms like the natives do. And so they tend to just take over and choke out anything else. And, and to your point about like the drive by effect, it's oftentimes when we're doing the most dramatic non-native removal projects, it's on new properties. And so it's not a piece that the public is used to, to seeing as a publicly managed piece. 00:04:10:25 - 00:04:38:22 John Maehl And so it, it does tend to to raise eyebrows. And we try to, to work with our, you guys and our public outreach folks to, to communicate to the neighbors and folks that this coming and what it's for. Sometimes we'll put out signs and high profile areas to indicate this is what you're seeing here. Right. Yeah. I ideally, you know, we've messaged that that well enough that we're not surprising people, but we still catch some people off guard. 00:04:38:23 - 00:04:38:28 Courtney Yeah. 00:04:38:29 - 00:04:40:18 MAK You have some. Oh, good. 00:04:40:19 - 00:04:42:06 Courtney No, that's what I was going to say. 00:04:42:08 - 00:04:45:24 MAK Basically some big areas that you're working on right now or. 00:04:45:28 - 00:05:10:28 John Maehl Yeah. There's a couple areas that have gotten some attention for our restoration efforts. One of the additions that that was gifted to us generously on the north side of East Fork Creek, where we built a stormwater treatment area a few years ago. That needed a pretty significant non-native removal project. And that's happening right now. So so people may see that on us. 00:05:10:28 - 00:05:29:19 John Maehl One just north of Hobe sound. A lot of it is on the east side of that property. And so you don't see it really well from us one, because the portion that's immediately adjacent to you as one is some really good scrub habitat that we're not going to have to do much to restore. It's already in really good condition. 00:05:29:21 - 00:05:50:00 John Maehl So the most of the impact will be on the the eastern wetland area on the back half of that. So that's happening right now. And then we are getting ready to start an exotic removal project on an island in the South Fork near Palm City that we acquired from Audubon a couple of years ago. That's been a challenging one because it's on an island. 00:05:50:02 - 00:05:50:10 MAK Right. 00:05:50:11 - 00:06:11:02 John Maehl So how do you get equipment out there? What's the right way to treat it? And how do you deal with the the the, the dead vegetation afterwards? So we're, we're kind of working through that with contractors, and we should start to see some progress out there soon. In another area we recently took on was, removing some exotics at what we call the Southwest Prong of Manatee Pocket. 00:06:11:05 - 00:06:32:29 John Maehl So that's one of the last tributaries to Manatee Pocket to receive some water quality treatment. And this project has been in the works for years and years and years. It's a small footprint. It kind of meanders, through through a couple neighborhoods. And so it was really tricky to design this project. We're finally now getting started, and it's starting with the removal of exotics. 00:06:32:29 - 00:06:47:08 John Maehl That really kind of clears out when you get all the non-natives out, you can see what you have to work with. You see where we need to plant new natives. We can we can really kind of start to, to, to see how the, the water quality features are going to fit into that. 00:06:47:11 - 00:06:55:15 MAK And so that, project is there adding a high performance of flow filter system. Yeah. 00:06:55:21 - 00:06:56:28 John Maehl Oh, that sounds cool. 00:06:57:03 - 00:07:09:09 MAK I know all about this and I would love to speak on it, but I'm going gonna let John talk about it. Yeah. I'm sorry, what was it called again? The high performance up flow filter system. I see that written there. Yes. Thank you. 00:07:09:11 - 00:07:35:26 John Maehl So we now have available, some water treatment, best management practices that fit into a smaller footprint. So a lot of times we're working in confined spaces, and we don't have, like, acres and acres to build large wetlands. And and we can, we can take like, what really people probably would see more like as a baffle box where it's just attenuates, flows and captures water and lets it trickle out. 00:07:35:28 - 00:08:00:01 John Maehl And, and tries to address some of the flashiness. Well, now companies have started to put in filtration systems in those. So as the water kind of rises up through the structure to it, to its outfall, it goes through a media that's specifically engineered to, to deal with nitrogen and phosphorus. So we would we get a lot more performance in the nutrient removal in a small footprint. 00:08:00:04 - 00:08:13:10 MAK So if my if my calculations are correct, that would be about 334 pounds of total nitrogen per year and 234 pounds of total phosphorus per year. 00:08:13:13 - 00:08:14:19 John Maehl Sounds good to me. 00:08:14:21 - 00:08:19:06 MAK That seems. Yeah, I calculated that all while he was talking about it. I was doing the numbers. 00:08:19:07 - 00:08:22:25 John Maehl Courtney, you can design our next storm water treatment. 00:08:22:27 - 00:08:39:21 MAK And the stormwater treatment areas. We've talked about this a little bit that I think sometimes folks like you go past them every day. Yeah. You think it's like just a natural area. You don't know that. It's actually. Yeah. Yeah. It's doing for the residents in our water. 00:08:39:23 - 00:08:50:08 John Maehl It is cool. And I you know, we we designed them primarily with the function of, of nutrient and pollutant reduction. But they also tend to look like. 00:08:50:11 - 00:08:56:16 MAK Very pleasant. Well, they attract a lot of wildlife, which is they do part of part of that whole system. Right. 00:08:56:18 - 00:09:14:00 John Maehl Yeah. I think one of the best examples of that is the the Everglades Restoration project in western Martin County. This the C 44 stormwater treatment area has the same name, but it's 6500 acres of manmade wetland. And the wildlife out there is just kind of mind blowing. 00:09:14:05 - 00:09:27:07 MAK Give us a give us an idea. Six. Would you say 6500 acres. Like, what does that look like? Is that a lot of football fields? Is it like, how big is that? 00:09:27:09 - 00:09:29:10 John Maehl Well, according to Courtney's calculations. 00:09:29:11 - 00:09:33:03 MAK Yeah, yeah. Do it again. Courtney. 00:09:33:06 - 00:09:42:18 John Maehl I think it's about, about six miles tall by, 2 or 3 miles wide. 00:09:42:20 - 00:09:43:23 MAK Oh, okay. 00:09:43:27 - 00:09:44:19 John Maehl It's big. 00:09:44:23 - 00:09:45:26 MAK Yeah, yeah. 00:09:45:28 - 00:09:50:06 John Maehl You you you know, you you can see it. Not from space. You can probably see it from the moon. 00:09:50:10 - 00:09:54:15 MAK Yeah, yeah. That's cool. Yeah. That is really alligators out there, dear. 00:09:54:16 - 00:10:09:15 John Maehl There are so many alligators. It's been a couple of years since I did this, but on a trip out there, maybe two years after it was built, I was going to count alligators as we drove around the levee, and I got over 100 and quit counting. 00:10:09:18 - 00:10:12:29 MAK That's amazing. It's to take us on your next trip. Absolutely. 00:10:13:01 - 00:10:17:13 John Maehl Yeah. Actually, the Audubon of Martin County provides field trips out there. 00:10:17:15 - 00:10:18:12 MAK I didn't know that. 00:10:18:13 - 00:10:26:03 John Maehl They're fantastic. They're just fantastic. And it's not just the alligators. It's all the shorebirds and the wading birds. 00:10:26:03 - 00:10:32:27 MAK And it's not the one. Didn't they have some indigo snakes out there? Was that that one? 00:10:32:28 - 00:10:37:18 John Maehl Absolutely. And that was that was a significant consideration during construction. 00:10:37:22 - 00:10:38:12 MAK I love that their. 00:10:38:13 - 00:10:54:08 John Maehl Truck traffic would have to stop. Yeah. You know, it was they they took that very seriously. That's awesome. I think one of the coolest things I've seen out there was a, a flock of about 50 roseate spoonbills take off, and it was just like a solid wing of this color. 00:10:54:12 - 00:10:54:21 MAK Yeah, yeah. 00:10:54:24 - 00:10:57:00 John Maehl This taking off across the FDA? 00:10:57:04 - 00:11:00:20 MAK Them? Yep. They're so pretty. We do live in a beautiful place. 00:11:00:27 - 00:11:02:25 John Maehl We do? Certainly. 00:11:02:27 - 00:11:17:12 MAK And so along, living in a beautiful place, you want to explore that? And I love to explore that. Yes. And so talk to us about the paddle boarding that you guys are opening up access to. 00:11:17:15 - 00:11:41:01 John Maehl One of our other functions in the environmental Resource division is to provide recreational access to these sites so that not only are they being preserved, restored, maintained, but they're also available to the public to enjoy. So one of our goals is to provide access to the water and and what our we had a project manager, Zach Hughes, who was looking at some maps. 00:11:41:03 - 00:12:15:02 John Maehl On on Hutchinson Island and he was looking at these old mosquito ditches that were, you know, engineered and built a hundred years ago to help with managing the mosquito population. And there was one that was just kind of really overgrown. But the contour or the, the leader maps were showing that that was still very much there. So he kind of dug into that and discovered that it was still very navigable waterways that almost came back to the road at Jensen Beach Beach. 00:12:15:02 - 00:12:45:11 John Maehl And so, Zach got approval and designed a project to build a boardwalk and a kayak or paddleboard launch. Awesome. There'll be a small, cheeky hut there that, you know, we would hope could have some educational programing, but also just a place to relax and, you know, it could work for people that are out on their kayaks or paddle boards coming in and going across to the beach and, you know, getting lunch or enjoying the beach or, or the other way around. 00:12:45:12 - 00:12:48:02 John Maehl You know, people can go out to the beach and launch from there and, and, and. 00:12:48:07 - 00:12:50:25 MAK Explore and design that project and design. 00:12:50:25 - 00:12:58:27 John Maehl Now it is shovel ready. We're kind of finishing up some of the last little details, and then it'll go out for bid here this fall. 00:12:59:01 - 00:13:03:27 MAK Nice. Did you hear what he said? There is that kind of dug into that project. 00:13:03:28 - 00:13:04:26 John Maehl I did say that. 00:13:04:27 - 00:13:05:19 MAK Yeah. 00:13:05:21 - 00:13:09:09 John Maehl With no intent. 00:13:09:11 - 00:13:32:21 MAK And then I always think this is such an interesting project that comes up. Yes. And I, I love the history of our inlet. I do too, and I think people don't understand. Necessarily. Understand? I mean, you wouldn't if you didn't kind of get into it. So the saint. Oh, gosh, the Saint Lucie Inlet. They made that by residents here. 00:13:32:21 - 00:13:57:01 MAK Made that by hand in 1892. Like they were out there shoveling. Yes. And taking up an inlet here. And it's, and it's one of the whitest in Florida which is such a crazy like to think about. Right. And we have to maintain that. Yeah. And it's actually mandated by the state. Right. That we. Yeah that we continue to maintain that. 00:13:57:03 - 00:14:01:08 MAK Yep. So tell us a little bit about that. Projects coming up. Right. 00:14:01:12 - 00:14:32:00 John Maehl Yeah. So we have a very good inlet management plan that we've worked out with the state. And we partner with the Corps of Engineers. And the county has a great history of managing that well to, to for the people. And it we have another project coming up. It's been a few years. And the inlet, you know, kind of naturally fills in and the project will remove the stuff that's filled into the inlet and it'll put it, repurpose it and put it back onto Bathtub Beach. 00:14:32:06 - 00:14:36:25 John Maehl A lot of that, you know, comes from to, from erosion over the years and those long, long. 00:14:36:25 - 00:14:39:19 MAK Term troubles south right. 00:14:39:25 - 00:14:55:24 John Maehl Along the east coast of Florida, that's the typical, the function. And then with bathtub, it's got some interesting dynamics where, you know, the water can kind of come in over the reef but not get out like it would naturally would. And so it kind of pumps to the south. 00:14:55:26 - 00:14:56:15 MAK Oh, great. 00:14:56:19 - 00:15:16:22 John Maehl Absolutely. And that whole system is kind of set up to collect that sand, then right on the north end of the inlet and, and be repurposed. And so it's, it's very efficient. It's way more efficient than purchasing sand, from, from a mine or going offshore to mine it. And so, you know, we we're back in that cycle. 00:15:16:22 - 00:15:24:13 John Maehl So we hope that by January will, will restart a project there that, we'll, we'll open the inlet back up some more. 00:15:24:14 - 00:15:47:29 MAK And I know we've talked to Jessica about this before, but I think it's a good reminder for our folks that get anxious about putting sand on the beaches or put sand in that area. We have a very unique, worm rock. Reef. Reef. Thank you. Right out in front of that. And you guys do regular monitoring. 00:15:47:29 - 00:16:12:09 John Maehl That we have. I think it's like 28 years of, of more than what's required monitoring the, the the scope and the frequency. You know, the county just an acknowledgment of how valuable that is to us. Has voluntarily gone above and beyond to make sure that that we keep that healthy and that our actions don't impact it. 00:16:12:12 - 00:16:24:02 MAK Yeah. And the goal, the the goal of the, the inlet management is to keep that navigable rate for voters and commercial fishermen. 00:16:24:03 - 00:16:49:06 John Maehl That's the primary objective is navigation, but it does other things. Having an open inlet helps with flushing. And so we get better health in the estuary with with good flushing from the ocean. You know, the, what makes the east coast of South Florida special is its proximity to the Gulf Stream. But if you don't have that transmission or that interchange of water, you don't get as much of that benefit. 00:16:49:06 - 00:17:02:03 John Maehl So the more we have that, that dynamic taking place, the healthier our seagrass beds are going to be. We're going to have more nursery activity going back and forth between the reef and. 00:17:02:04 - 00:17:17:06 MAK Fascinating. Yeah. It's all connected. Yeah. Yeah. And then, the Indian Riverside Park living shoreline, we did do an update with just, like, a couple of weeks ago. That is almost finished. Correct. 00:17:17:07 - 00:17:41:29 John Maehl Very close. I think they're they're supposed to finish up in mid-October. I believe they're finishing up the last of three of the breakwaters, and. And then we'll have a planting project that I think we just got bids back for and have awarded a contract to plant mangroves along that shoreline. So I think some of that can't take place until they demobilize their equipment from some of those sites, but that should be done by the end of the year. 00:17:41:29 - 00:18:02:25 John Maehl And that was a big project. It took a long time, and a lot of careful consideration goes into a project in a sense area that's sensitive. And we we expect and have already seen some sand accretion in those areas that will help with seagrass, that'll help with the shoreline and be good fish habitat. And those breakwaters will help preserve that. 00:18:02:25 - 00:18:04:06 John Maehl So we don't have to do this again. 00:18:04:07 - 00:18:22:14 MAK Right. And those breakwaters are just one part of the stabilization. Those main groves will act as a second kind of wall for that stabilization. Right. You bet. Yeah. And then all the animals that live and feed in that area. It's cool to see just providing habitat. 00:18:22:16 - 00:18:23:28 John Maehl That's that's the name of the game. 00:18:24:01 - 00:18:34:15 MAK Yeah. What a cool job you guys have. I know you guys do so many cool things in the county that I feel like people drive past and they don't realize, like, there's so many things that each of these projects do. 00:18:34:18 - 00:18:54:13 John Maehl We have a lot of fun, and we we're able to do it because the community supports it. It's such a priority for Martin County, and our board reflects that and the support that they give us. And I mean, we couldn't do any of it without it being a priority for the community. So we feel like we're just a manifestation of the value of and the ethic of our of our residents. 00:18:54:18 - 00:19:03:07 MAK Well, we appreciate it. Right? We appreciate you guys. Yes. All right. Well, thank you so much for joining us today. Thank you. 00:19:03:09 - 00:19:04:21 MAK How fantastic was that? 00:19:04:22 - 00:19:16:06 MAK I know, just like I said at the beginning, they do so many things. I know that people just drive past and don't realize really, truly the positive impact that that is having on the community. 00:19:16:09 - 00:19:24:13 MAK Yeah, the stats are one of my favorite ones, the stormwater treatment areas. And like years ago, they used to just do stormwater treatment. 00:19:24:13 - 00:19:24:28 MAK Area. 00:19:25:00 - 00:19:33:05 MAK And now they've not now for quite a while, they've been working to make it more a place where people can. 00:19:33:05 - 00:19:49:02 MAK Recreate too. Right. It's so beautiful. It looks like a park. Looks like a park. Look like parks. There's you know, they're they honestly are so pretty. But inside, they're like cleaning all the nastiness out of the water. Yeah, they're getting rid of the nitrogen. Getting rid of the phosphorus. Well, you did all the calculations I did in your head. 00:19:49:03 - 00:19:58:11 MAK I know, or on the computer before we walked in. I don't even think I could do them that way either. Oh, you just found them? 00:19:58:13 - 00:20:20:19 MAK Yes. Anyway, that was a lot of great stuff today. Yes. And then, of course, like always, we'll have events down in the show notes for you guys. And, don't forget to like, follow, subscribe, comment, share our notifications for every time we have a new one come up that you can just click on that and then it just pops it right into your day in the know. 00:20:20:21 - 00:20:52:25 MAK Yeah, yeah. Puts it in your listening feed or whatever. I love that. So yeah, you can listen or watch and we'll see you guys next time. Bye bye. 00:20:52:27 - 00:20:57:04 MAK Okay. Three. Two. One. Go!