Who better to discuss mangrove regulations than the regulators?
Hannah Westervelt, environmental administrator of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s Southwest District, attended a May 20 Longboat Key workshop to discuss mangrove alteration and trimming regulations.
In addition to the Longboat Key town commission, a handful of Anna Maria Island representatives attended the presentation.
They included Anna Maria Commissioners Gary McMullen, Charlie Salem and Mark Short, Anna Maria building department manager Dean Jones, as well as Holmes Beach planning and zoning administrator Chad Minor.
Mangroves provide environmental benefits, such as offering a unique ecosystem for marine life, decreasing land erosion and improving nearshore water quality.
The DEP oversees mangrove enforcement under the 1996 Mangrove Trimming and Preservation Act, which sets standards for removing and trimming mangroves.
However, the removal of more than 100 feet of shoreline mangrove fringe last December at a canal home at 111 Gull Drive, Anna Maria, sparked questions of local governments better-preserving mangroves by seeking delegated authority over the vegetation from the DEP.
Officials from Anna Maria Island’s three municipalities and the town of Longboat Key agreed in April to explore cooperative efforts to enforce mangrove regulations.
Westervelt is a part of the DEP’s environmental resources permitting program, which regulates activities in wetlands, surface waters and mangrove regulations.
Her presentation provided insight into mangrove regulations and what her department does to enforce them.
Westervelt said local governments can apply with the DEP to adopt delegated authority over enforcement of the MTPA and it is up to those agencies to determine if they have the resources to handle that work.
However, even municipalities that receive delegated authority have limitations on regulating and enforcing mangroves — and shoulder liability for unauthorized activities.
Such local governments cannot limit state-established exemptions or impose stricter standards and more demanding procedural requirements for alterations and trimming within riparian mangrove fringe areas.
A riparian mangrove fringe is a shoreline where mangroves extend no more than 50 feet waterward.
Westervelt said that her district — which spans from Manatee County up to Citrus County, and as far east as Polk County — had about 14 team members managing mangrove oversight and permitting activities.
She added the district’s ERP receives and evaluates about 400 complaints about noncompliant mangrove alteration and trimming activities every year.
DEP staff conducts inspections for noncompliance at each reported location, which can sometimes require court-ordered inspection wards.
While town commissioners had questions, they did not open public comment following Westervelt’s presentation.
Short said May 23 that he was disappointed the town did not open for public comment but reached out to Westervelt later that week.
He asked if the city could make a formal request for the DEP to notify the municipality about mangrove alterations and permit requests.
Westervelt said she did not see a reason why the DEP could not honor that but it would require approval from higher up, according to Short.
Short added that he asked Mayor Dan Murphy to work with city attorney Becky Vose to draft such a request to the DEP.
“We’ve got to at least know what’s going on,” he said.