ANOTHER TOUGH YEAR

August 2023 brought Hurricane Idalia to our doorstep. In 2024 Hurricane Debbie followed several weeks later by Hurricane Helene once again bringing flood waters and heavy salt water intrusion to the Homosassa River.  In both years many of the grass units that had been planted in the spring were to young to survive the increase in salinity. Storms, coupled with severe algae blooms, have combined to make an already difficult project even more of a challenge. Forcing an entire ecosystem to change from algae dominate to grass dominate was always going to be difficult. Curve balls from Mother Nature has not made the restoration efforts any easier.

2024 ACHIEVEMENTS

While the 2024 season was extremely challenging progress was made. Although there was some initial success the establishment of new and expansive grass beds has not progressed as quickly has originally planned. HRRP has, however, been successful in improving water quality in other areas. An additional 9.8 acres (Phase 2) have been vacuumed. Maintenance (re-cleaning) of the Blue Water Loop canal in Phase 1 was completed in August as well as 557 cages and 28,935 units of grass installed. To date thousands of pounds of nitrates and detrital material have been removed from the river improving water quality and clarity.

But the change that should make the largest difference moving forward occurred in late December. After 3 years HRRP finally obtained the necessary changes in our DEP, Army Corp and FWC permits to allow for full time winter work. Being unable to work from November 15th through April 1 of each year has severely impacted our ability to push the project forward.

GOALS FOR 2025

Restoring a river degraded over decades was always going to be a challenge. The best plans and ideas are often found to be ineffective, unattainable, or just plain wrong. Giving up is unacceptable but in order for success to be achieved HRRP has had to adapt. While growing grass upstream of the Fishbowl Drive bridge may still be feasible in some areas, the hundreds of people who insist on walking and standing on the river bottom during most days of the summer growing months will almost certainly doom our efforts.  Exclusion cages used to protect young grasses were moved, stolen or severely damaged by the large number of boats anchored near the park just downstream of the bridge. At this time recreational activities within the upper Blue Waters of the Homosassa River will continue to hamper expanding the grass beds. This has forced HRRP to alter the project and the majority of grass growing efforts have been moved further downstream into Phase 2 and later into Phase 3. An additional 15,000 units of grass will be installed during February and March 2025 within Phase 2 and possibly the Blue Water Loop canal in Phase 1.

The 2025 Legislative year has begun and representatives from HRRP will be in Tallahassee in March to lobby and fight for the funding needed to continue the restoration efforts. We will hopefully meet with our new Florida House Representative J.J. Grow as well as our district Senator Blaise Ingoglia and DEP Deputy Secretary Adam Blalock to advocate the importance of a clean and healthy Homosassa River for both the citizens and economy of Citrus County.

YOU CAN HELP

  • Please boat responsibility.
  • Pay attention to where and how you anchor.
  • Float don’t stand.

float don't stand, protect aquatic grass