[0:02] I guess, well, well,
[0:06] well, yeah.
[0:12] Get it together now
[0:20] and get your love
[0:22] Come and get your love
[0:42] get your love now
[0:46] love
[0:49] Com love
[0:57] G let your love
[1:01] Come and get your love
[1:10] But To baby
[1:18] Oh yeah it the same man
[1:42] Come and get your love
[1:46] Come and get your love,
[1:53] my bags last night, briefly.
[2:00] Zero out, 9 a.m.
[2:07] And I'm gonna be high.
[2:12] As a kind by then.
[2:20] I miss the earth so much.
[2:23] I miss my wife.
[2:29] It's lonely out of space
[2:35] On such a time, that's white.
[2:49] And I think it's gonna be a long, long time
[2:52] touchdown brings me round get too fine
[2:56] I'm not the man that think I am at home
[2:59] I No, no no
[3:01] I'm running mad.
[3:06] Rocket man Burning out
[3:17] And I think it's gonna be a long, long time
[3:20] To drop down, brings me round and get too fine.
[3:25] I am down
[3:29] I'm a rocket man.
[3:32] Rocket man,
[3:35] burnin' attitude of hair belong.
[3:45] Mars ain't the kind of place to raise your kids.
[3:53] In fact, as cold as hell
[3:59] And there's no one there to raise them.
[4:05] If you did
[4:12] And all the science I don't understand.
[4:20] It's just my job five days a week
[4:26] A rocket.
[4:32] Rocket man.
[4:40] And I think it's gonna be a
[4:43] long, long time till tuck it down brings me
[4:46] round and get too fine.
[4:48] About the man that think I am at home.
[4:52] Oh, no, no, no.
[4:54] I'm a rocket
[4:59] man, burnin' out of fuse out here
[5:02] alone.
[5:09] And I think it's gonna be a long, long time.
[5:30] Madam Chair, you have a live mic.
[5:33] I'd like to call the August 28th, 2026,
[5:36] uh, big Cypresspace and board meeting to order.
[5:39] If you all stand, and I'd ask Michelle McLeod
[5:42] to lead us in the pledge of allegiance.
[5:47] I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States
[5:50] of America, to the Republic, for which
[5:53] it stands, one nation, under God,
[5:57] indivisible, with liberty and justice, for all.
[6:05] Good morning, board members.
[6:06] It's nice to see everyone this morning.
[6:08] I hope everyone has been enjoying a wonderful summer, and
[6:11] as we transition from the height of summer toward
[6:14] the fall, I look forward to continuing our
[6:17] work together and building on the tremendous
[6:21] progress that we have made.
[6:23] Thank you for being here and for your continued commitment to our shared goals.
[6:28] A couple of housekeeping items first.
[6:30] Board members, please make sure your microphone is on,
[6:33] and you speak into the mic, so online attendees can hear you.
[6:37] If you turn your head while you're speaking to talk to
[6:40] another board member, please drag the mic with
[6:43] you so that we can make sure your comments are captured.
[6:47] Please try to get as close to the microphone as you can.
[6:49] And to be recognized, please use the buttons on the dais.
[6:54] For those joining remotely, thank you for your continued
[6:57] interest and support.
[6:58] And as a reminder, today's proceedings, are accessible
[7:02] via Zoom, as well as call your TV in the district's website.
[7:06] For those here in person, if you would like to comment
[7:09] on an agenda item, please complete a speaker form
[7:12] that's in the lobby and bring
[7:15] it to the front where Troy Miller is seated to my right here.
[7:19] If you're joining by Zoom, use the raise the hand feature and
[7:22] Troy will call on you.
[7:23] And if you're participating via phone, Star
[7:27] 9 raises your hand and Star 6 mutes and unmute.
[7:30] That brings us to agenda revisions.
[7:33] Lisa Keeler, are there any changes to the agenda?
[7:37] No, Madam Chair, there are not.
[7:39] Our 1st item of business today is to
[7:42] transition to a new vice chair for the period of August 2026
[7:46] to July 2027.
[7:49] Last year, at the August 22nd board meeting.
[7:53] The board appointed Miss Smith and Miss
[7:56] McLeod for successive one-year terms as vice chair
[7:59] of the Big Cypress Basin Board, with
[8:02] Miss Smith serving as vice chair beginning August 2025
[8:05] through July 2026.
[8:08] Followed by Michelle McLeod.
[8:11] Service, which will begin August 2026.
[8:15] through July 2027.
[8:17] It's already been one year.
[8:19] Boy, time is really flying.
[8:21] And I wanted to take a moment to thank PJ for her
[8:24] services vice chair to this board.
[8:25] Thank you so much.
[8:26] I appreciate everything you have done.
[8:30] And as of today, Michelle McLeod will start
[8:33] her term as vice chair.
[8:34] So I wanted to congratulate Michelle on
[8:38] becoming the vice chair and let you know that I look forward to working with
[8:41] you more in the future in your new role.
[8:44] I want to give you the opportunity if either one of you would like to
[8:47] say something, PJ, if you want to say a few words and then Michelle following.
[8:51] Just a few.
[8:52] Thank you, Madam Chair, for the opportunity and
[8:55] to the board as well.
[8:57] And it was a interesting year, and really, I really enjoyed it.
[9:00] Thank you.
[9:01] Thank you.
[9:03] Michelle?
[9:03] Yes, thank you, chair, for this opportunity.
[9:06] Truly, it's an honor to serve under you.
[9:09] You have an amazing reputation here in our community for
[9:12] your leadership skills.
[9:13] So thank you so much for that.
[9:15] And PJ, you did us very well.
[9:19] You served us well, being so well connected in the community as you are.
[9:23] You're such a great spokesperson for us.
[9:25] So great job.
[9:26] Yes, thank you, thank you so much.
[9:28] And we'll go ahead and we'll let them take a couple
[9:32] minutes to change chairs.
[9:34] And then we'll go ahead and move
[9:37] right into our agenda, our next agenda item.
[9:43] All right, that brings us to extension by board members.
[9:48] These are abstensions for anything
[9:51] and disclosures on the agenda.
[9:54] We'll go ahead and go down the line.
[9:55] Mr. Romano.
[9:58] Okay, make sure your mic is on and you're talking into the mic, please.
[10:02] Ms. Lenhard?
[10:03] And for me.
[10:04] Mr. Hill?
[10:06] None.
[10:06] I have none.
[10:08] Vice Chair McLeod, non-privy.
[10:10] Miss Smith?
[10:11] None.
[10:12] Okay, that takes us to the next item, which is consider approval
[10:15] of the minutes of the July 7th meeting.
[10:18] Are there any corrections or additions to the minutes?
[10:22] Hearing none.
[10:23] I take a motion in a 2nd to approve the minutes.
[10:26] Okay, move by Ms. Smith, 2nd
[10:30] by Vice Chair McLeod.
[10:32] All in favor.
[10:33] Please say aye.
[10:34] Aye, oppose.
[10:37] Hearing none, that passes unanimously.
[10:39] That brings us to the basin administrators' report.
[10:45] Good morning, and thank you, Madam Chair.
[10:49] I want to start off with just an announcement.
[10:51] regarding the corkscrew watershed initiative.
[10:55] We are rounding out the end of
[10:58] that 3 year study, and our next and
[11:02] last public meeting is scheduled for September 30th at one p.m.
[11:06] It's going to be held in the basin administrative office.
[11:09] Um, The focus probably of that public
[11:12] meeting is going to be on the modeling results that
[11:16] we've been looking at for the last several months or maybe a year.
[11:19] I'm not sure.
[11:20] Um, and how that how those modeling
[11:23] results relate to the potential projects that could come out of the study.
[11:27] And again, those projects are
[11:30] potentially, or, I think, hopefully, we're all hoping, right?
[11:34] That it's going to help restore the natural or
[11:37] the historic hydration to corkscrew swamp sanctuary.
[11:40] So exciting time for us to be
[11:43] finishing that project and want to let everybody know that that
[11:46] next public meeting is at the end of September.
[11:50] So then one other thing, uh, that one
[11:53] other project that I want to talk about is actually just around
[11:56] the corner from Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, and that is our Bird Rookery
[12:00] Swamp Boardwalk.
[12:01] That is one of our capital projects this year in the basin.
[12:05] And while you're going to hear from Brad,
[12:08] how our rainfall is below schedule, and we
[12:12] all know that our natural areas are a little bit drier.
[12:14] I saw a crew post on their website last night that they
[12:17] were canceling their last wet walk of the season because of dry conditions.
[12:22] So while, you know, dry conditions
[12:25] can be bad for natural areas, it is really good for construction.
[12:30] So our contractor is ahead of
[12:33] schedule on this boardwalk.
[12:35] They've been going like gangbusters replacing
[12:38] that and we are still on schedule to have a ribbon
[12:41] cutting before the end of the year.
[12:42] Uh, which will be perfect timing for all of
[12:45] our local hikers to get back out and enjoy bird rookery swamp.
[12:48] So with that, Madam Chair, unless you have any questions, I'll turn the meeting back to you.
[12:51] Are there any questions for the basin administrator?
[12:57] Go ahead, Miss Smith.
[12:59] Just a basic housekeeping.
[13:01] Can you do an invite to us for the September 30th meeting?
[13:04] Okay.
[13:04] Absolutely.
[13:07] Anything else?
[13:08] Okay, thank you, Lisa.
[13:10] Appreciate it.
[13:12] All right, that brings us to general public comment.
[13:15] We're ready to hear from the public.
[13:16] And these comments are for items
[13:19] that are not on the agenda.
[13:21] There are two opportunities during the meeting,
[13:24] if you want to address anything that's not on the agenda, and
[13:27] we'll start with anyone who is here in person first, Troy,
[13:30] and then go to our virtual participant.
[13:33] Madam, sure, we have one comment card here in the room, Richard Eckstein.
[13:38] You'll approach the podium.
[13:39] You'll have 3 minutes, sir.
[13:47] Good morning, my name is Richard next time.
[13:48] I'm a resident of Collier County.
[13:50] Golden Gate Estates for 20 years.
[13:53] I have some technical assessment.
[13:55] Hurricane season flood vulnerabilities to
[13:58] discuss with the board.
[14:01] And I gave you a packet right here.
[14:05] So you could read over these issues that I've discovered
[14:08] in the water management distribution of the canals
[14:11] and gates and basically the infrastructure.
[14:16] And, um, one of the biggest problems is,
[14:19] is Golden Gate Estates is a vulnerable flood,
[14:23] um, mass flood potential.
[14:27] Because of the villages of Eastern Collier County
[14:30] and the tomato fields are being developed.
[14:32] All that water has nowhere to go.
[14:35] With 47 houses, proposed to be built there.
[14:39] And if you have a major storm surge coming from the west.
[14:44] And there's no gates to block the storm surge.
[14:46] It'll fill up the canals.
[14:48] Philip Golden Gate Estates and 40,000 houses will flood,
[14:52] catastrophically, in the next 5 years.
[14:56] And I thought I'd bring this to your attention so you can address the mechanical
[15:00] issues with this problem.
[15:03] The hydrology is this.
[15:05] The system you have now is over 40, 50 years old,
[15:08] it's not engineered for the watershed component right now.
[15:12] It's in the estates and the surrounding area with
[15:15] all the new developments.
[15:17] And if we don't address this problem in the next 5 years, it
[15:20] will flood, and it will be catastrophic.
[15:24] And if there's any way that your board could put
[15:27] in some type of, um,
[15:32] Flood pumping stations, and certain areas
[15:35] of the estates to address this problem.
[15:39] Uh, when the catastrophic storms hit that,
[15:43] um, this gravity flow system you have now is antiquated
[15:47] and it will not move the water fast enough, so
[15:50] that these states won't flood.
[15:52] And if you have any questions, I like to answer them.
[15:55] Okay.
[15:56] Thank you very much.
[15:57] We did receive your handout.
[15:59] Okay.
[15:59] I had a copy of it at my place, and I think each
[16:02] of the board members received a copy as well.
[16:04] So we'll have to take a moment to digest
[16:08] some of your comments from that.
[16:09] And I appreciate you coming today and bringing this concern to our attention.
[16:13] Thank you very much.
[16:14] Thank you.
[16:15] I have just one more concern about these floodgates.
[16:17] They're all exposed to hurricane force wind.
[16:21] They are, um, the water level's too high, and
[16:25] you have mosquito problems and algae problems that
[16:29] are building up in the canals, and all the canals in
[16:32] the estates are overfilling and overtopping.
[16:34] And because the system is,
[16:37] they're holding too much water back.
[16:39] If they could push the water out periodically
[16:42] to flush the system out, then fill back
[16:45] in again, get rid of all the mosquito larvae, mosquito control
[16:48] won't have to use so much chemicals and spray the area.
[16:51] Thank you.
[16:53] Thank you very much.
[16:53] And I would encourage you to meet with separately
[16:56] with our water manager at the basin, to
[16:59] go into it in detail.
[17:00] All right, thank you for your time.
[17:02] Thank you very much.
[17:03] Have a nice weekend.
[17:04] Madam, sure, that's our only comment here in the room and there are no
[17:07] hands raised on Zoom at this time.
[17:08] Okay, great.
[17:09] Then we'll move on to board comment.
[17:12] We'll go ahead and start with Mr. Romano.
[17:15] And for me.
[17:16] Okay, Ms. Lenard?
[17:18] None for me.
[17:18] Mr. Hill?
[17:19] Uh, n none.
[17:21] Uh, Ms. Smith?
[17:23] Um, are any of my colleagues joining me to do
[17:26] the, the, um, trash pickup, the
[17:29] beautified, what is it called, Lisa?
[17:31] Keep calling.
[17:32] Keep calling.
[17:32] Beautiful?
[17:36] It's a question to all of you.
[17:38] What day was it?
[17:40] Do you have it on...?
[17:42] Spurious days, or...?
[17:43] It's one day.
[17:44] I sorry.
[17:44] Towards the end of September.
[17:46] Yeah.
[17:46] It is.
[17:46] I don't have the date off hand, but I know it was an email that was sent out a
[17:50] couple weeks ago, I think.
[17:51] We can resend it to you all and refresh your emails.
[17:54] I just like to encourage them to join me.
[17:57] Okay, great.
[17:58] Michelle?
[17:59] Yeah, I believe I have a conflict.
[18:01] That's why I didn't respond.
[18:02] We've got, I want to say that it's
[18:06] conflicting with the resiliency conference that's coming
[18:09] up for both Southwest Florida and the
[18:12] Florida State resiliency conference, but I'm
[18:15] not sure if that's the conflict, but there was one on my calendar.
[18:19] And I'll be out of that country during that time frame.
[18:22] So I would do it for sure.
[18:24] Okay.
[18:25] Okay, you may maybe they're holding up the flag there for us.
[18:29] So.
[18:31] I'll get the other Michelle to come.
[18:35] So the other Michelle has, I'm also committed
[18:38] kind of through Barefoot Beach.
[18:40] So I always say that, to be honest with
[18:44] you, when I walk the beach, I do trash pickup every time.
[18:47] I don't, but I will look at my calendar for you.
[18:49] How's that?
[18:50] Fantastic.
[18:51] I'm not opposed to coming if I'm available.
[18:53] Can I make a comment?
[18:55] I walked with Michelle on the beach before and I can attest.
[18:59] She's right.
[18:59] She'll pick up any kind of trash she sees.
[19:01] Yeah, I'm like ridiculous.
[19:03] That's wonderful.
[19:04] That's wonderful.
[19:05] That's all I have.
[19:06] Okay, thank you.
[19:07] I have one thing.
[19:09] I had an opportunity to go out in the field, um, to
[19:13] greenheart of the Everglades.
[19:15] And as you know, I mentioned
[19:18] before, I believe, that, that we are,
[19:22] we took over this one area off of 41, that, that
[19:26] was kind of dilapidated, had a failing
[19:29] seawall, had some dead trees that were
[19:32] kind of leaning into the water.
[19:34] And our folks, have
[19:37] begun cleaning it up, and our field station guys,
[19:41] talked to Rory Feeney, and thought
[19:45] that they could do some of the work in house, and save some money, because you
[19:48] know that it's not in the budget right now,
[19:51] because it came upon us outside of the cycle.
[19:54] And so they've been working very, very hard to
[19:57] clean up the area and get it ready so that we can put some
[20:00] surfacing on that area that's
[20:04] already asphalt and concrete and put a
[20:07] canoe launch there or a kayak launch and get it in use
[20:10] for our public to go out there.
[20:11] So that's exciting and that should be coming towards
[20:15] the end of the year as well.
[20:16] So just in time for perfect weather, and I
[20:19] want to thank everyone who's involved with
[20:22] working together in order to make this possible, and
[20:26] doing such good work with it.
[20:28] So thank you.
[20:29] And Lisa, thank you for hurting all the cats and dogs and
[20:32] and keeping this on track.
[20:35] But Greenheart of the Everglades is extra special to our community
[20:38] and to the greater South Florida water management district,
[20:41] and I just want to say thank you to the folks for doing that.
[20:46] All right, and that, uh, if there's no further, uh,
[20:50] board comment.
[20:52] I'm going to call on Rory Feeney to provide us with an
[20:55] update on the crew marsh restoration project.
[21:00] That was a good opening for you and all the great work you're doing.
[21:03] Yeah, thank you.
[21:04] The fuel station's doing phenomenal job.
[21:06] Actually, I have Madam Chair and
[21:09] board members have the privilege of handing this presentation over
[21:13] to Rick Bauer.
[21:14] He is our regional land manager for the crew area.
[21:18] I began working at the district for about a
[21:21] year ago, came to the district, from Lee
[21:24] County, Parks and Recreation as a land manager there.
[21:27] So I'm pleased to present Rick formally to the
[21:30] board, and he'll be discussing the crew marsh restoration.
[21:34] I'd also like to take this opportunity to recognize
[21:37] Marshall Ward.
[21:38] She's our new section, land stewardship section administrator.
[21:42] She comes to the district from FWC
[21:45] after 20 plus years with FWC, as a biologist,
[21:48] and as a regional administrator over 10
[21:52] wildlife management areas, I believe, Marcia.
[21:54] And she's been with the district for about 6 months now.
[21:56] Right.
[21:57] Two great people today.
[21:58] Welcome, Bern.
[21:59] Right.
[22:00] Thank you.
[22:00] Here you go, Rick.
[22:05] Thank you, Rory.
[22:06] And good morning, Madam Chair and board members.
[22:08] Thank you for giving me the opportunity to present on our corkscrew
[22:11] marsh restoration update.
[22:13] So Corkscrew Marsh is a 7300 acre
[22:16] parcel of the Corkscrew regional ecosystem watershed.
[22:19] It's primarily a basin marsh surrounded by music,
[22:22] flatwoods, and hammocks.
[22:24] And the marsh system provides critical habitat for a lot of our protected
[22:27] species, such as the Everglades snail kite and woodstork photo to hear.
[22:32] And the marsh itself was primarily an herbaceous
[22:35] sawgrass marsh historically.
[22:38] However, over the past few decades, it's suffered from a
[22:41] recruitment of undesirable woody species such as
[22:44] Carolina Willow.
[22:45] Those woody species create woody monocultures that
[22:48] shade out our herbaceous vegetation and can lead to a loss
[22:51] of biodiversity, not just in our plant systems, but with
[22:55] our wildlife species as well.
[22:56] So the district has been implementing pest
[23:00] management strategy in order to combat those effects.
[23:04] And the main tool of our plant management, a
[23:07] pest management strategy is mechanical vegetation reduction.
[23:10] And as you can see here, we are targeting not only
[23:13] Carolina Willow, but some other undesirable woody species,
[23:16] such as button, button bush, and red maple.
[23:19] And most of the work that the district has been performing
[23:22] is up at our corkscrew marsh trail system.
[23:24] However, we have done some test plots and some other
[23:27] areas, such as the Corsgrew marsh camping site and
[23:31] the Cypress Dome hiking trails.
[23:33] And the district has been performing this work since 2021.
[23:36] We've been averaging about 19 acres mulch per year.
[23:41] And fortunately, we've been blessed
[23:44] that our partners at FWC have been able to provide
[23:47] additional multi-mulching acreage from
[23:50] some funding that they've procured as well in 2025
[23:53] and 2026.
[23:55] And for the next slides.
[23:57] I'm going to be focusing on this main system that we've been performing
[24:00] up at the coursescrew marsh Trail system.
[24:04] So this is located where the Marsh Observation
[24:07] Tower is, if you're familiar with that area.
[24:09] It provides a good anchor point for us to start our
[24:12] work and work on some of the drier areas of
[24:15] the march system while working towards some of the interior
[24:18] where it gets a little bit wetter.
[24:19] It also provides us an opportunity for the public to
[24:23] view our restoration efforts of trying to restore
[24:26] this system as well.
[24:27] And we've been doing this for a couple reasons.
[24:30] One, it's a little bit easier for our contractors to get into that area,
[24:33] but we're also trying to keep a big block of polygons
[24:37] open for prescribed fire treatment, which is another land
[24:40] management tool that I'll touch on a little bit later.
[24:44] So for the planned work for this past fiscal year,
[24:47] we are going to continue to work interior and building on that polygon.
[24:51] However, when our contractors started working in this area, they
[24:54] found this area to be a little bit more wet than they were anticipating,
[24:57] that led to some rutting from their equipment and
[25:00] some downtime from them getting stuck.
[25:03] So instead of trying to force our way through there and potentially
[25:06] causing more harm than good.
[25:08] Um, we decided to rotate towards our contingency plan,
[25:11] which was to continue and expand that area down
[25:15] by the Corsegrew Marsh campsite that we had done that test plot at in.
[25:19] And you can see that we continued that work, again,
[25:22] working from the exterior towards the interior, addressing
[25:25] some of those drier areas, and trying to keep in
[25:28] mind our prescribed fire follow-up treatments as well.
[25:32] This ideally helps us out also because this provides
[25:35] us as another area that we can apply those prescribed fire treatments.
[25:38] That way we're not doing one burn every 2 to 4 years, which
[25:41] is the ideal fire return interval, but
[25:45] we can burn one one year, wait a year, burn another another year.
[25:48] And that way we're continuing those treatments.
[25:51] And the contractor uses a variety of equipment based on
[25:54] the environmental conditions that they're encountering.
[25:56] And this photo on the left, you can see a forestry mulcher
[25:59] on the left-hand side of that photo.
[26:01] That is a machine that can move very quickly and efficiently
[26:04] and cover a lot of acres in a short amount of time.
[26:07] However, it's a little bit limited because it'll
[26:10] get bogged down in wet areas.
[26:11] And when they start to encounter those wet areas,
[26:15] that's when they switch to the excavator with a mulching head.
[26:18] It has a lower PSI on the treads so it doesn't create as much running.
[26:22] And also it allows it to pick its spots of where
[26:25] it positions itself in the drier areas and swings its boom
[26:28] around to mulch those, Willow, and other woody species
[26:31] that we're looking to treat.
[26:33] And when we do this project, we mulch the vegetation all the way to the ground.
[26:37] This does not, unfortunately it does not kill the plant entirely.
[26:40] However, as these re-sprout,
[26:43] we're hoping that this project is performed as close to the wet season as possible.
[26:47] So as the resprouts start to form, the water levels will
[26:50] rise and either drown out the plants and potentially kill it,
[26:54] or at least it inhibits its growth enough for a lot
[26:57] of that emergence vegetation that we're looking to bring
[27:01] back into the system, starts to recover.
[27:04] And it recovers very, very quickly.
[27:06] In this photo, you can see that this was
[27:09] taken as mulching was occurring.
[27:12] So it was only about a week after this area was mulched.
[27:15] And in the photo, you can see a lot of those desirable native
[27:18] vegetative species coming back, such as sawgrass and
[27:21] cat tail and Sagittarian pickerel weed.
[27:24] However, this ultimately is not a one catch all
[27:27] treatment for restoring these areas.
[27:30] And we do have to implement one of our most effective land
[27:33] management tools, which is prescribed burning.
[27:35] And we were able to conduct a prescribed burn in July of this
[27:38] year for some of those areas that had been mulched in the past.
[27:41] Our primary objective was to reduce woody
[27:45] species rejuvenation and recruitment, with
[27:48] a secondary objective to reduce some of those cattail monocultures
[27:51] that had come back in some of the areas that we had mulched.
[27:55] And we were a little bit fortunate enough that
[27:58] in, uh, this year it was a little bit drier than we were anticipating.
[28:01] So when we did this burn during the height of growing season, which is
[28:05] ideal for treating those woody species.
[28:08] The water levels were a little bit lower.
[28:09] So combining high winds with
[28:13] aggressive firing techniques, we were able to achieve
[28:17] a lot of those results of reducing those woody vegetations that
[28:20] are spending a lot of energy, growing instead of trying
[28:23] to defend themselves against these systems.
[28:25] So the prescribed burn ended up being about 80 acres,
[28:29] and here is an image overlay of the area that was
[28:32] treated with the prescribed fire over top of the areas that was mulch.
[28:36] And you can see that most of the areas that were burned and
[28:39] covered in our prescribed fire treatment were areas that were mulched prior to last year.
[28:43] That is the result of those areas accumulating
[28:47] more fuels during those years, whereas things that were mulched
[28:50] last year just haven't had enough fuels to recover during that time period.
[28:53] The exception being there's areas that the cattail
[28:56] monocultures were starting to come back because cattails are very susceptible to burning.
[29:01] And when we took a look at our fire evaluations
[29:05] post-burn, you can see that this photo on the left, this
[29:08] is an area that was mulched in 2025 on the left in
[29:11] the area that didn't burn next to an area that had no
[29:14] treatment in history with vegetative reduction mechanically.
[29:17] So you can see that the, even with the aggressive firing
[29:20] techniques, the fire pushed through the area that wasn't mulched, but ended up
[29:24] stopping short just because those fuels hadn't accumulated enough.
[29:26] However, if we wait 2 or 3 years for the next fire return
[29:30] interval to come back, there is a lot of beneficial pyric
[29:33] vegetation in that community that was mulched in 2025
[29:36] that should allow that treatment to be more effective.
[29:38] And in the photo on the right, you can see this was an area that
[29:41] was mulched in 2023, looking into an
[29:45] area that was mulched last year.
[29:46] And you can see a little bit of an edge effect on the fire where it started to
[29:49] brown out those willow recruits that are coming back.
[29:52] And hopefully, again, allowing for more fuel accumulation.
[29:55] Future prescribed fires can be more beneficial.
[29:59] And we had the most success in areas with high fuels.
[30:02] So this photo on the left is an area that's primarily sawgrass dominated.
[30:06] That was 1st mulched in 2021 and then burned in 2023.
[30:10] And you can see that there is a gray layer of haze
[30:14] kind of just beneath the pine canopy.
[30:16] Those are all three-year-old willows that have been completely torched out.
[30:19] Um, and given that this area was
[30:22] mulched and has now been burned twice, um, with a
[30:25] fire intensity that we had in there, we don't expect many woody species
[30:28] to be successful recruiting in that area.
[30:31] And in the area on the right, this is an area that has not been mulched at all.
[30:34] And while you can see that there was not complete defoliation of a
[30:37] lot of the woody species.
[30:39] There is that browning out.
[30:40] So whatever woody species that weren't killed outright
[30:43] in the fire, they should be at least stressed enough that they're being
[30:46] reset to 0 and having to sprout from the ground.
[30:50] And we even had some unexpected effects in areas
[30:53] that had high cattails.
[30:54] So for these types of burns, we use the mature willows as a fire brake.
[30:58] A natural fire brake, which you can see on the left.
[31:01] This is an area where willow that has not been treated,
[31:04] the fire pushed in about 10 yards, and Willow is
[31:07] not very receptive to burning, so the flames were then extinguished.
[31:10] But it did have a good edge effect on that mature willow.
[31:14] In the photo on the right, that is an area where mature
[31:18] willow has not been mulched at all, but the canopy was
[31:21] a little bit sparser, and there was a dense variety
[31:24] of cattails underneath of it that allowed the fire
[31:28] intensity to continue and push into those mature willow systems.
[31:31] This actually extended about a 100 yards through
[31:35] those mature willows.
[31:36] So this may end up being a couple of acres that we don't need to
[31:39] treat at all if it has the desired effects.
[31:43] I also wanted to touch a little bit on some research that
[31:46] we're conducting with our partners in geospatial
[31:50] over at headquarters.
[31:52] So we are doing what's called multi-spectral imagery detection.
[31:56] They basically take a high resolution aerial
[31:59] image of corkscrew marsh and run different
[32:02] wavelengths of light through it, looking how different plant
[32:05] signatures come back to it.
[32:06] So in this map, Willow shows up as
[32:10] red or as pink, depending on what other sort of woody
[32:13] species are mixed in.
[32:14] Um, herbaceous vegetation, so there's up as green,
[32:17] and open water shows up as teal.
[32:19] So that area that's pointed out in the map where the previous molt
[32:23] chain has occurred, that's areas that is flooded and surface
[32:26] water that's reflecting back that signature.
[32:28] And from this, we can see that there's a density
[32:31] of willow surrounding the edge of the marsh.
[32:34] And for the central marsh basin, the
[32:37] eastern side is pretty heavily dominated by Willow.
[32:40] However, the Western side, it looks like there's a lot more
[32:43] open areas where there's not that much willow showing up, which
[32:46] was a little bit of a surprise for us.
[32:48] So the next effort to go out
[32:51] and validate this model is to go out and hike in ground truth.
[32:55] So these are photos that were taken in that area where it shows
[32:58] the more pristine marsh.
[33:00] And this is much more typical of what a basin marsh should look like.
[33:03] There's still Button Bush and Willow and
[33:06] other woody species that you would expect, but they're in low densities
[33:09] and the majority of the vegetation is
[33:12] herbaceous.
[33:13] And this is an area that has no history of mechanical
[33:17] or prescribed fire treatments.
[33:19] To further, uh, validate our model.
[33:22] We are also partnering with our drone team over at headquarters
[33:26] to fly transex over the areas that have the transition
[33:29] genes from where Willow starts to go into those
[33:32] more herbaceous vegetative areas.
[33:34] And they take very detailed,
[33:38] high resolution videos down to less intensive an inch,
[33:42] in order to see what sort of species we're seen
[33:45] and further adapt our model and potentially
[33:48] also planned for future land management activities.
[33:54] So where does this leave us today?
[33:56] We'd like to continue the mechanical work.
[33:59] Ideally, we would like to start linking some of these areas of the pristine marsh.
[34:03] This aerial imagery that's shown with a multispectral
[34:07] detection is a couple years old, so it doesn't show the work that was performed this year.
[34:11] However, that area that we mulched down by
[34:14] the corkscrew marsh campsite almost broke through that
[34:17] buffer layer of mature willow.
[34:20] Also, the area up at Courstream Marsh,
[34:23] hiking system, where the majority of the work has been performed.
[34:26] There's also an airboat launch up there.
[34:28] So if we link these areas of pristine march during the wet season,
[34:31] we should be able to get airboats in the area and do future land management
[34:34] activities, further analyze how the system is responding,
[34:38] and do future planning efforts.
[34:40] We'd also like to try using different types of equipment.
[34:44] That excavator is ideal right now for some of
[34:47] the aquatic areas that we're working in.
[34:49] But as we get into the deeper water areas, it's also going
[34:52] to experience running and limitations when we have wetter
[34:55] than anticipated years.
[34:56] However, there are aquatic excavators that the tracks
[34:59] are basically booms like on a pontoon boat
[35:02] that can access those areas much more effectively with
[35:05] less impact to the environment.
[35:08] We also want to continue our prescribed fire regime.
[35:11] That's obviously the most cost-effective method that we have.
[35:15] In addition to restoring it to a natural state.
[35:19] We want to continue that prescribed fire return
[35:23] interval on our mulch areas.
[35:25] But we also want to start targeting those higher fuel areas.
[35:28] This area in the northern marsh, where it's
[35:31] identified on the map.
[35:33] That's, again, it's more of a modeled color because that
[35:36] is a less dense area of canopy with cattails underneath of it.
[35:40] And if we can get fire brakes set
[35:43] in around it, it's a potential that prescribed burning will
[35:46] treat that whole area without having to do mechanical work, which
[35:50] will make things go a lot quicker.
[35:52] And we also want to maintain the high quality habitat.
[35:56] That central marsh on the western section where we're
[35:59] seeing a lot more of that typical besian marsh system.
[36:02] We'd like to introduce fire in that to help maintain
[36:05] that and keep the willow from spreading in further.
[36:08] And we have already been in contact with our partners
[36:11] at the Florida Forest Service and planning some Ariel Burns
[36:14] potentially for that system.
[36:18] And I'd be ever missed if I didn't recognize all of our partners
[36:21] that helped make this work possible.
[36:23] Obviously, FWC, who helps co-manage this property
[36:26] with us, along with our partners at the crew land and water
[36:29] trust, conservation collier, and the department environmental
[36:32] protection that assist us, particularly with those prescribed fires.
[36:36] And with that, I'll take any questions.
[36:39] All right, thank you for your excellent presentation.
[36:42] It's very informative.
[36:43] Go ahead, Miss Smith.
[36:44] Um, You have a great planning
[36:48] mind because with all the conditions and financial,
[36:51] you know, the considerations, et cetera, you do a great job, um, and welcome to the team.
[36:55] So I thought I had a simple math question for
[36:58] you, but I don't think it's going to make sense now.
[37:01] But I'm going ask you anyways.
[37:03] So 73, 30, 7,330
[37:07] acres, and then you do 19 acres a year is,
[37:11] are you actually gaining ground or is
[37:15] it not all that 7300 that we have to be focused on?
[37:19] It's not the 7300 is not all
[37:22] that we have to be focused on.
[37:23] So the main marsh system makes up about 4500 of that.
[37:28] Um, there's areas where the hiking trails are in,
[37:31] uh, both at Corstery March and at Cypress Dems.
[37:33] There's a lot of music flatwoods in there.
[37:35] There's depressional marshes, which don't have the same sort
[37:38] of management, difficulties and challenges.
[37:41] Um, and there's hammocks as well.
[37:43] So it's just that main central marsh that we're working on.
[37:47] But also, that's why the prescribed fire isn't so
[37:50] important so that we don't backslide.
[37:52] We're not having to go back and retreat those areas and we're maintaining
[37:55] them as we make progress.
[37:57] Okay.
[37:58] Um, so you're using the drone.
[38:01] That was one of my questions is drawn because it's so effective.
[38:04] I'm assuming you're using AI to overlay this and really
[38:08] do some, that's a no-brainer question, right?
[38:11] Um, I'm not personally, that would probably be a
[38:14] question for our geospatial partners.
[38:16] They did most of the analysis.
[38:18] My effort in that was giving them areas where
[38:21] they could model effectively and also going out on the ground
[38:24] to validate the model.
[38:25] Okay.
[38:28] Cattails are our friend, right?
[38:31] They can be.
[38:32] Okay.
[38:33] They provide good wildlife habitat, particularly
[38:37] for rails and other species.
[38:39] And they also hold back nutrients from the water.
[38:42] The problem is, is that you don't want too much of anything,
[38:46] even though Carolina Willow is a native species.
[38:48] If it makes a monoculture, it leads to a loss in biodiversity.
[38:52] The same thing is true with cattails as well.
[38:56] And I have another question, but I can't read it.
[38:58] Oh, what is aerial burn?
[39:00] Like you said, you had aerial burn.
[39:01] So, um, for that, we would use a helicopter
[39:05] with an uh, HelaTorch on it, which basically lights
[39:08] the fire from underneath the helicopter.
[39:10] Um, and that way...
[39:12] Sorry, I love this, but...
[39:15] And that way it works much more effectively in aquatic
[39:18] areas where there may be water on the ground and you're looking to burn off some
[39:21] of that emergent vegetation and also areas where it's a little bit
[39:24] difficult to access, which obviously dealing with course through marshes.
[39:28] And this is a common, it's a common thing that you do is the aerial burn.
[39:31] Yes, it's one of the things that our bureau uses out for a
[39:34] lot of our lake Ochobee burns.
[39:36] Thank you for present, your presentation is very excellent.
[39:39] Thank you.
[39:40] Vice term, McCloud?
[39:41] Yes, great.
[39:42] Great presentation.
[39:43] Very thorough.
[39:46] Just in trying to understand our role in this.
[39:49] What kind of effects do
[39:53] these have, these efforts have on like water quality?
[39:58] Flooding?
[39:59] So, uh, it helps out a lot with just restoring the marsh
[40:02] to the natural system, um, just as like Miss Keeler was mentioning
[40:05] with the corkscrew watershed initiative.
[40:07] We're looking to get it back to that natural state.
[40:09] So all the efforts that we're
[40:12] doing is helping to address water quality in
[40:15] addition to hydration of the aquifers and all those
[40:18] other big picture efforts.
[40:20] Okay, thank you.
[40:23] I have a couple of questions.
[40:26] Do we currently have an updated land management plan for this area?
[40:30] Yes.
[40:31] The land management plan was last updated
[40:35] in 2023, I believe, for corkscrew marsh, Regulia.
[40:39] for the olive crew.
[40:41] Olive crew.
[40:42] Okay, so you're working off of that in chipping
[40:45] away at 19 acres a year, roughly.
[40:48] Yes, ma'am.
[40:49] Do we have the capacity to do more if the funding was there?
[40:53] Yes, ma'am.
[40:54] Okay, so we do have the capacity to move that along.
[40:58] The aerial imaging
[41:01] that you showed, was that just
[41:04] standard imaging
[41:07] or are we using drone technology for that?
[41:10] How are we doing that imagery that you showed?
[41:13] A little bit of both.
[41:14] So the aerial imagery.
[41:16] I forget which service geospatial uses, but they
[41:19] can basically pick which date the satellite
[41:23] imagery was taken, and that way we use the plant's biology
[41:26] most effectively.
[41:28] So some of the areas that we built
[41:31] into the model were during flowering season, when the Carolina
[41:34] Willow is producing those bright yellow flowers, in
[41:38] order to use that as part of the signature.
[41:39] And some of it was during just the regular summertime when
[41:42] it has leaves on it.
[41:45] And that way we can combine those to make a more accurate model.
[41:48] Obviously, if you're using aerial imagery with a deciduous
[41:51] plant, like the Carolina Willow, if you're doing it in wintertime when they
[41:54] don't have any leaves, the model is not going to be very effective.
[41:58] Um, so, uh, that's primarily what we've been using,
[42:01] but those very detailed high resolution imagery
[42:04] that the drones took a couple weeks ago when we were validating
[42:08] those transects.
[42:09] Those will become very effective because we
[42:12] can actually see plant species because again, the resolution is
[42:15] like .8 inches per pixel.
[42:18] So one of the steps in
[42:21] the process or one of the 1st steps is to get that imagery, right?
[42:24] Yes.
[42:25] And then you plan what needs to be treated
[42:28] as a priority based upon the density and the
[42:31] type of plant that you see in those areas.
[42:33] Yes, ma'am.
[42:34] And that's why, that's why we're kind of adapting our strategy
[42:37] a little bit, because we've been able to verify
[42:40] that that Western part of the marsh is in much more of
[42:43] a pristine state than we would anticipate.
[42:46] So it could maybe be maintained right
[42:50] now instead of being put into maintenance, right,
[42:53] by some treatment?
[42:54] That's excellent.
[42:57] Because that's pretty impressive, that imagery that's able
[43:00] to pick out the type of plant that's on the ground and that.
[43:04] So great, great job.
[43:06] I don't see any other questions from the board.
[43:09] The only other comment that I have today is
[43:12] Rory's birthday, Rory Feeney, and he's joining us today at
[43:15] our board meeting for that.
[43:17] And as what do we do at the basin when we have a birthday,
[43:20] we've got cupcakes, right?
[43:21] So we have cupcakes to share with you and the staff
[43:24] can certainly take cupcakes as they go.
[43:27] So thank you, Rick, for being a part of it, and thank you for your excellent presentation.
[43:32] Thank you, ma'am.
[43:33] job.
[43:34] That brings us, is there any public comment?
[43:36] No, ma'am, we have not.
[43:38] Okay.
[43:39] The next item is the reason
[43:43] why we're here, and that is the fiscal 2627
[43:46] budget presentation by Candida Heater.
[43:56] Welcome, candy.
[43:59] Thank you, Madam Chair.
[44:00] Basin board members.
[44:01] Thank you for having us here today.
[44:07] So today's presentation is to,
[44:11] uh, finalize and, uh, request
[44:14] approval, uh, for the basin
[44:18] milledge rate and the basin's budget, which
[44:22] will, um, then be reflected in
[44:26] the district's overall, tentative
[44:29] and final milledge rate and adopted budget.
[44:34] For fiscal year 2026, 27,
[44:38] which begins October one of 2026,
[44:41] and then will end in September 30th of 2027.
[44:46] So today's presentation will briefly go
[44:50] over the millage rate.
[44:52] Millage rate is your 1st discussion.
[44:54] Then go over the revenues and
[44:58] expense, overview, some budget highlights.
[45:02] And then at the end, staff will
[45:05] be requesting 2 motions, and
[45:08] they will be requested to be voted on separately.
[45:16] So the first topic, the millage rate.
[45:19] The fiscal year 2026, uh, 27
[45:23] proposed milage rate is 0.0978 mils.
[45:28] That is $9.78
[45:31] per $100,000 of taxable value.
[45:37] This millage rate is the same millage
[45:40] rate that was proposed in July.
[45:43] There is no change, as well as it is
[45:46] the same millage rate as the current year, meaning there's
[45:50] no increase in military.
[45:52] The millage rate for a $500,000 home
[45:56] would equal about $48.90
[45:59] for the year.
[46:01] And this rate then covers services
[46:05] within the basin within Collier County,
[46:08] for flood control, picking operations,
[46:12] um, groundwater monitoring, uh, et cetera.
[46:20] The budget proposed before you
[46:23] today is $23,648,374.
[46:30] It is the same amount.
[46:32] that was proposed in July, so there
[46:35] is no change in the revenues nor the expenditures
[46:39] to the left are your revenues.
[46:42] Your advalorum taxes.
[46:43] at 68% or $15.9
[46:47] million of that $23000000
[46:50] proposed budget, as well as some
[46:53] intergovernmental federal revenues
[46:56] that are projected, um, to
[46:59] be received from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, as
[47:03] a potential reimbursement based on those expenses
[47:07] for picking in strand operations.
[47:10] Utilizing some fun balances, about
[47:13] 13% or $3.1
[47:18] million.
[47:19] And then various other revenues, such as investment income,
[47:23] right away permits, service center lease,
[47:26] as well as some fund balances from,
[47:30] they call your county cooperative agreement for Gordon and Palm.
[47:34] To the right are your proposed expenditure
[47:38] categories, the largest vein within your
[47:41] capital projects, uh, at 31%
[47:44] or 740000000 dollars, and
[47:47] then moving to uh, restoration of Picayune
[47:50] Strand at 4 million, uh, the service
[47:54] uh, center, as well as flood control
[47:57] operations, a little over $6000000
[48:01] And then Gordon and Palm at 900 uh 1000
[48:04] land stewardship at 883,000.
[48:10] So this is a little different.
[48:11] Part of this presentation in August that
[48:15] we present compared to the July, where
[48:19] we break down those areas within the
[48:22] district, the South Florida water management district, that is responsible
[48:25] for implementing the
[48:28] basin's work plan and those activities that we just briefly discussed.
[48:32] So first, the administrative services and executive
[48:36] offices at $612,000.
[48:39] That is made up of your general services and
[48:42] facility staff, um, that maintains the service
[48:45] center, uh, portion of that, uh,
[48:48] funding comes from the lease.
[48:50] The lease does cover a lot of those expenses.
[48:53] The picking strand, water quality, monitoring and lab analysis,
[48:57] which is under your water quality, a bureau
[49:00] within the South Florida water management district, and then all
[49:03] the control room.
[49:05] at headquarters that works
[49:08] with your water managers
[49:11] here at the basin for water management oversight.
[49:16] Also, ecosystem restoration, which is a division,
[49:19] um, within the district is $745,000,
[49:23] um, that is dominantly their responsibility
[49:26] for the basin that they'll be working on in 2627
[49:30] is the picking strand, threatening endangered species,
[49:33] aquatic vegetation, monitoring, uh, service
[49:36] center, uh, that uh, covers outreach
[49:39] and communication, uh, basin, water management, modeling,
[49:44] support.
[49:47] Your engineering and construction, uh, and modeling
[49:50] division, um, that's under, um, Ms. Lucinay
[49:53] that often comes over and presents, you know,
[49:56] for the basin at $9 million.
[50:00] This is the area that's responsible for
[50:03] the basin's projects.
[50:08] Field operations and, uh, which includes land management.
[50:12] This is at $7.8 million,
[50:15] and as we see here on the slide, dominantly
[50:19] responsible for maintaining the canals,
[50:22] the water control structures, Picayune
[50:26] strand operations.
[50:29] As well as the land management support for the various areas within the basin.
[50:36] Information technology.
[50:38] at 337,000.
[50:39] Um, this is made up of your SCATA team.
[50:43] It supports your SCATA system.
[50:45] as well as base and board support.
[50:48] And then you have the reserve's debt fees and charges,
[50:51] which the basin doesn't have any debt.
[50:53] And that's your emergency reserves, which is $2 million.
[50:59] Property appraiser, tax collector fees, self-insurance program.
[51:07] As mentioned earlier, the next steps, after this
[51:11] meeting is the inclusion of the basin's
[51:14] milledge and budget within the district's
[51:17] overall budget for the September
[51:20] 10th hearing at 515 in
[51:24] West Palm Beach and then September 22nd.
[51:32] So the 1st motion, being
[51:36] requested, is the milledge.
[51:39] Staff, uh, requests, the
[51:43] basin board of the South Florida Water Management District to approve the
[51:46] submittal of the millage rate of 0.0978 mills.
[51:53] For fiscal year 202627, requesting
[51:57] the board of the South Florida Water Management District
[52:00] to levy those Advalorum taxes within the Big Cypress
[52:03] Basin, on that rate to finance basin
[52:07] functions contained.
[52:09] In the fiscal year 2627 basin budget.
[52:14] Thank you, Ms. Heater.
[52:15] Troy, is there any public comment on this item?
[52:20] We have no registered speakers here in the room and no hands raised on Zoom, Mr. Chair.
[52:24] Thank you.
[52:25] Are there any board questions for candy on this item?
[52:30] Saying none if I could have a motion and a 2nd for
[52:33] this, this...
[52:35] So moved.
[52:36] Okay, Andy Hill moves to approve the military.
[52:39] Second.
[52:40] Vice chair McLeod, seconds.
[52:42] I'll now do a roll call vote.
[52:45] Mr. Romano?
[52:46] No.
[52:50] Ms. Leonhard?
[52:51] Yes.
[52:53] Mr. Hill?
[52:53] Yes?
[52:56] Ms. Smith?
[52:57] Yes.
[52:58] Vice Chair McLeod?
[52:59] Yes.
[53:00] And I vote, yes.
[53:01] That passes 5 to one.
[53:03] Thank you.
[53:05] The next resolution, staff request,
[53:09] a resolution of the big Cypress Basin
[53:12] board of the South Florida Water Management District,
[53:15] submitting the fiscal year 2026, 2027
[53:18] basin budget, in the amount of $23,648,374
[53:26] to the governing board of the South Florida Water Management District
[53:29] for inclusion in the district's budget.
[53:32] Thank you, Candy.
[53:33] Troy, is there any public comment?
[53:36] No, ma'am.
[53:37] Okay, is there any board comments or questions for candy?
[53:40] Seeing none?
[53:42] I'll take a motion and a second.
[53:44] So moved?
[53:45] Is that count?
[53:46] Mr. Hill moves to approve.
[53:49] Vice chair McLeod seconds.
[53:51] We'll now do a roll call vote.
[53:53] Mr. Romano?
[53:54] No.
[53:55] Um, Miss Lenhardt.
[53:57] Yes.
[53:58] Mr. Hill.
[53:59] Yes.
[54:00] Miss Smith.
[54:01] Yes.
[54:01] Vice chair McLeod?
[54:03] Yes.
[54:04] And I vote, yes.
[54:05] That passes 5 to 1.
[54:09] Thank you very much, Candy.
[54:10] Thank you.
[54:13] Okay, that brings us to our technical reports.
[54:17] With our field station activity report,
[54:20] with Mike Barber and Mike, you're on Zoom.
[54:23] Can you hear us, and go ahead?
[54:27] Yes, ma'am.
[54:27] Here?
[54:28] Good morning, Madam Chair and fellow boardmen.
[54:30] I am Mike Barber, supervisor for the Big Cypress Phil Station.
[54:36] And I'll be presenting the fuel station activity report today.
[54:42] We'll go over pump station operations, different
[54:45] activities that we do within the maintenance area,
[54:49] and an outlet.
[54:54] Here on the airport road canal, we're doing mechanical
[54:57] harvesting, we're using the truck store,
[55:01] one of the pieces of equipment that we have, where this
[55:04] machine comes in handy.
[55:05] You can drive it down to banks.
[55:07] You don't have to have the access ramps.
[55:10] We go in, we cut the vegetation,
[55:14] put it on the bank, and go back and pick it up with
[55:17] the skid steer, move it where we can get to it,
[55:20] with the trash truck and haul it off.
[55:27] Here is another type of equipment
[55:30] we use for the mechanical harvesting, this is with
[55:33] help from West Palm Field Station with their crane and crane
[55:36] operator, and Miami Field Station with
[55:39] a towboat and towboat operator.
[55:43] We put this in the bigger canals, the deeper canals.
[55:46] It's got the big plow, as you can see on the pitcher on the left.
[55:50] You can see the big plow behind it.
[55:52] They can drag that behind this towboat and
[55:55] it actually breaks the vegetation loose from
[55:58] the bottom of the canal.
[56:00] We ran the I 75 canal from Pine
[56:04] Ridge all the way down to Golden Gate and then
[56:07] transferred over to the Golden Gate canal and ran
[56:10] it from Golden Gate 2 to Golden Gate 3.
[56:14] We spent about a month and a half doing this and it
[56:17] has now been sent back to the Miami Field Station.
[56:21] And doing this, this helps with vegetation.
[56:24] We get it before it gets bad.
[56:26] We don't have to spray it as much or do heavier
[56:29] treatments if we can keep doing this mechanical harvesting.
[56:37] Here there are some trees that were spotted by some
[56:40] of our subcontractors, so we went out.
[56:43] This is on a Cypress canal.
[56:44] We went out and uh, The group,
[56:47] the team members went out and cut these trees up before they got down into
[56:50] the hallway into the canal and transferred
[56:53] down against the structure and caused any damage or any blockage.
[56:58] They cut them all up, removed them, and hauled them to the Atlantic.
[57:06] Here we're at FICA 5 where we changed out some
[57:09] damaged wiring or some gearboxes.
[57:12] It was just some stuff that need to be done within the maintenance
[57:16] realm of doing things.
[57:19] There's several other guys changing wires and then our
[57:22] IT tech working on getting everything back
[57:25] to where it's back in operation four.
[57:32] Here we assisted the skate of the
[57:36] group with solar panel upgrades.
[57:39] We went from 150 or from a 100
[57:42] watts, solar panel through this bigger 350
[57:45] watt panel.
[57:46] We went from ATM batteries to lithium batteries.
[57:51] This helps with left sunlight,
[57:54] charges faster, and then also this keeps the RTUs running.
[57:58] Say, if you do lose power or the generator fails
[58:01] or anything like that, this keeps the RTUs
[58:04] up and running so that we can still receive data.
[58:07] We did this in-house to save money so we
[58:10] didn't have to get contractors and stuff like that.
[58:12] And this has been done at Cocoa 3, Cocoa 2.
[58:16] And now, as of last week, Cocoa one has been upgraded also.
[58:25] Here we have Phil Station, technician
[58:28] working on the side gate.
[58:30] We had a storm and lightning hit the control board and
[58:33] took out the little gearbox motor.
[58:36] We do this in-house so we don't have to hire it out,
[58:39] save the district money by doing a lot of stuff like this in-house.
[58:47] Our normal cars in the canal.
[58:49] Car on the left, went into the Facto Canal on July
[58:53] 3rd, car on the right, went to the airport road,
[58:56] canal on July 30th.
[58:58] Both drivers walked away.
[59:00] But no injuries, minimal damage
[59:03] to the canal bank.
[59:04] We was able just to rank down the ruts where they drug them back
[59:07] out and everything's good to go.
[59:13] Here we had, this is at the fuel station, one of the doors
[59:17] was leaking around the top.
[59:19] So, again, in-house repairs,
[59:22] we went and got some rain gutters, rain gutter, door guards,
[59:25] and installed them over the door to keep it from running down and running through the top of the door.
[59:33] Here's our 3 month outlook.
[59:36] You know, just our normal preventive maintenance and inspections.
[59:40] Keep on doing our vegetation, control.
[59:43] Continue working on our canals.
[59:46] And we'll be waiting for when the rain gets here so we
[59:49] can do gate changes if needed.
[59:55] We'll transition now into the comprehensive Everglades
[59:58] Restoration Project Activity Report.
[1:00:05] Photo on the left shows a pub station operator
[1:00:08] manually exercising the vows on
[1:00:11] the fuel farm at the back of pub station.
[1:00:15] They do this, just to keep them, make sure they're moving, because during
[1:00:19] the dry season, nothing's actually getting used out there.
[1:00:22] It's just very little fuel, so these valves don't have to open and close much.
[1:00:25] So it goes around and manually moves these.
[1:00:29] They do this at each pump station.
[1:00:32] On the right is distribution
[1:00:35] pump shaft, while they was doing some maintenance, they noticed that
[1:00:39] the shaft was pitted, so they pulled that shaft out,
[1:00:42] had it sent off and recoded, put it back together this way.
[1:00:46] It doesn't cause any issues in the future.
[1:00:54] Here we have pump station operators
[1:00:57] replacing the stem boot covers on the gates.
[1:01:00] These boots go from the top of the gate to
[1:01:03] the bottom of the gearbox and they cover that stem.
[1:01:07] This keeps the dirt and trash from building up on the stem
[1:01:10] and being transferred into the gearbox and causing
[1:01:13] gearbox and gearbox damage.
[1:01:22] Phil station staff members had to go down these tough booms,
[1:01:25] they keep the debris from going on across to the,
[1:01:29] like, Union one, Weir and going
[1:01:32] into the Port of the Isles there by the marina.
[1:01:35] As you can see, on the left-hand side, the
[1:01:38] grates that go on these tough booms are completely covered with
[1:01:42] barnacles and different things and
[1:01:45] they was not working right.
[1:01:46] It was impeding the flow.
[1:01:55] Airfield station staff members replaced all the
[1:01:58] hardware, cleaned the tough booms as much as
[1:02:01] they could get off of them.
[1:02:03] We utilized the little skid steer to help pick
[1:02:06] these up and move things around so you wouldn't nobody getting hurt.
[1:02:16] Either replaced, anchored off on both sides of the canal.
[1:02:20] that are back in operational form now.
[1:02:27] And...
[1:02:29] Ms. our chair, Ms. Roman, spoke to this earlier about
[1:02:32] the green heart of the Everglades, staff members went down.
[1:02:37] We took the trees down, as you see here, on the pitcher on the left.
[1:02:41] That is our superintendent, Mr. Dan Walsh,
[1:02:44] he took the initiative to do the tree cutting force.
[1:02:48] He is still arborist.
[1:02:50] So it worked out pretty good for us.
[1:02:52] We took all the trees down, cut them up, hold them off.
[1:03:02] Picture on the left, we thought was neat because once Dan
[1:03:07] cut the tree down, we've seen this picture or got this
[1:03:10] image of the heart.
[1:03:14] Yeah, green heart on the Everglades.
[1:03:16] Great.
[1:03:16] These two pieces of equipment here is
[1:03:19] the only thing we rented, we rented the stump grinder
[1:03:22] and the mini excavator with a jackhammer on it.
[1:03:26] We ground all the stuffs down, then we busted all of
[1:03:29] that concrete up that was on the seawall there, and
[1:03:32] it didn't have any rebar.
[1:03:34] So we reused most of that for
[1:03:37] rip wrap around there.
[1:03:38] That saved a lot of money for the district.
[1:03:47] We got the sod down, we got everything leveled out, put
[1:03:51] sod all the way around and it's been getting water.
[1:03:54] It's staying green right now.
[1:03:57] We've already had people down there fishing.
[1:03:59] I haven't seen anybody launch any kayaks
[1:04:02] or canoes yet, but there's been a lot of people in there fishing and
[1:04:05] we're getting a lot of good feedback.
[1:04:11] The outlook for this is, you know, just our normal wet
[1:04:15] season, pump orders, our PMs,
[1:04:18] and, uh, we will, we're gonna start this week doing
[1:04:23] entrance road, work and maintenance
[1:04:26] cycle for the tie back levees between each pump
[1:04:29] station will go in and grade these levees
[1:04:32] and stuff so that if we have to go across them or whatever, we can,
[1:04:36] you know, air our, keep them in good shape.
[1:04:41] And closing this is a picture that was taken at Golden Gate 3,
[1:04:45] this is fuel station and service center staff,
[1:04:48] and I just wanted to put this in there to acknowledge everyone because
[1:04:51] without this group of people and everyone's
[1:04:55] hands and everything we do, these presentations would
[1:04:58] not be happening because these people,
[1:05:01] each and every one helps with everything we do here.
[1:05:07] And if there's any questions, I'll be happy that.
[1:05:11] This is an amazing photo.
[1:05:13] It is.
[1:05:13] Mike, thank you for your presentation, but this is an amazing photo
[1:05:17] of the Woodstorks gathering at
[1:05:20] the Picayune Strand Restoration project.
[1:05:23] And Mike told me that he took this picture as
[1:05:26] the date is on it.
[1:05:27] July 2026.
[1:05:29] So that's like, you
[1:05:33] know, just a month ago, right?
[1:05:35] Normally, uh, and we've got Audubon in the audience,
[1:05:38] but normally they're not gathering like that hanging out.
[1:05:41] So restoration is working and that's just
[1:05:44] an amazing photo as well as the one with all of the
[1:05:47] members of the field station mic.
[1:05:49] So I want you to pass that on to the guys our thanks.
[1:05:52] Are there any questions for Mike on the field station report?
[1:05:55] PJ?
[1:05:56] Just a quick question.
[1:05:58] Oh, sorry.
[1:06:00] For the vegetation that you mechanically removed.
[1:06:03] Do you do you compost it or do you use
[1:06:06] it for anything or just throw it?
[1:06:07] What do you do with it?
[1:06:10] We take it to the county landfill, and they actually put
[1:06:13] it over on the backside and let it dry out, and then they
[1:06:17] use it to build up their areas back there
[1:06:20] as far as keep it for erosion purposes.
[1:06:24] They grind out.
[1:06:25] I think they grind some of it.
[1:06:26] I'm not sure.
[1:06:27] I could find out for you and get
[1:06:30] back with you and let you know exactly what they do with it, but when we
[1:06:33] go to dump it, they have us put it on the backside of where
[1:06:36] they have their yard debris.
[1:06:39] You can let Lisa know.
[1:06:40] Um, it's sorry.
[1:06:42] Just, it's a good answer, because I just didn't want to put into the lands fill.
[1:06:46] I'm sure there's got to be a use for it and so that sounds like a really good use for it.
[1:06:49] Do we have very much solar?
[1:06:53] on property on any of our properties.
[1:06:55] That's the 1st time I saw that we had a solar capabilities.
[1:06:59] Excuse me, we do.
[1:07:01] A lot of our STA systems have a solar backup.
[1:07:04] So yes, we do rely on our solar powers.
[1:07:08] Okay, primarily for the backup, um, nothing
[1:07:11] to really, like, for a
[1:07:14] primary power source or anything like that.
[1:07:16] I'm going to let you ask that question to Brad that whenever he comes up next.
[1:07:20] Would love to ask that question.
[1:07:23] No, I'm just kind of curious because I'm like, yeah, I should have we should have asked that
[1:07:26] question before because, you know, we're in the sunshine state, but yes, it's
[1:07:29] also Brad will be able to answer that much better than I can.
[1:07:32] Fantastic.
[1:07:32] Thank you.
[1:07:33] You're welcome.
[1:07:34] Thank you.
[1:07:35] Any other questions for Mike Barber on the field station report?
[1:07:40] Mike, I don't see any.
[1:07:41] Hope you're feeling better.
[1:07:42] Thank you for your report.
[1:07:43] Excellent.
[1:07:45] Yeah, I'd like to add that in that picture of the Woodstorps,
[1:07:48] I'd like to take credit for that, but that came from Amanda
[1:07:51] McKenzie and Mary Festmeyer from over at headquarters.
[1:07:54] They're the senior lead environmentalist and the lead environmentalist on the project.
[1:07:59] They gave me that picture because I had asked them about if
[1:08:02] they had anything for down there.
[1:08:04] So I don't want to take credit for that picture.
[1:08:07] All right, Mike.
[1:08:08] Noted.
[1:08:09] Thank you so much.
[1:08:10] Okay, now we have Brad Jackson with our water conditions report.
[1:08:14] Brad, welcome.
[1:08:16] All right, thank you very much, and good afternoon, Madam Chair, board members.
[1:08:20] It's a pleasure to be here again, to give you your update.
[1:08:22] I'll kind of go over what's been going on in our system, what the conditions are.
[1:08:25] Basically, this wet season, but mostly since last board
[1:08:29] meeting early July.
[1:08:31] So I will jump right in with the no
[1:08:35] surprise to this chart here.
[1:08:36] Basically, everyone already knows how dry our area has been.
[1:08:40] We're running quite a deficit.
[1:08:42] That's basically the main takeaway from basically my
[1:08:45] presentation today is normally we're in water, like flood control mode.
[1:08:49] We can do water conservation mode at any time of year.
[1:08:52] It's really dependent on conditions and we're in that condition now where
[1:08:55] our rainfall is, you know, 50, 60% of
[1:08:59] normal for a wet season.
[1:09:00] So you'll see a lot of information today, really about how
[1:09:03] dry it is, and what we're trying to do to make sure that
[1:09:06] we hold on to that precious resource while we, you know, still have it,
[1:09:09] and we're able to hold it.
[1:09:11] Make sure we're recharging aquifers, things like that.
[1:09:14] But here you can see we're running about a 10 inch deficit.
[1:09:18] June, July, August, all pretty much half of
[1:09:21] what you would normally see this time of, you know, for a
[1:09:24] wet season.
[1:09:26] Technically, our wet season started, the middle of, um,
[1:09:29] May on middle of May, May 15th, but, you
[1:09:32] know, it really hasn't been much of a rain maker yet for us.
[1:09:36] You can see the chart on the lower right.
[1:09:39] That's kind of our, um, each color
[1:09:43] is, you know, the upper the upper percentiles and lower
[1:09:46] percentiles of our rainfall as you move from the left is
[1:09:49] January, the right is December.
[1:09:50] So the black line is your average.
[1:09:53] The red line is this year.
[1:09:54] You can see 2017 is our highest year,
[1:09:57] and it's almost, we would almost double where we would be.
[1:10:00] Um, if you were to, you know, look back in time, but they
[1:10:03] had about twice as much rain at that given year than we have this year.
[1:10:06] So almost a full years of rain already in 2027
[1:10:10] this year, only 30 inches, quite shy,
[1:10:13] short of everything that we have,
[1:10:16] that we would really need this time of year.
[1:10:19] So looking back at the rainfall itself, where did it
[1:10:22] actually rain, where it didn't it?
[1:10:23] Your average colors here that you would expect to see?
[1:10:27] The left is June, July, August, going from left to right.
[1:10:31] Normal would be kind of a beige color.
[1:10:33] Blues are below average, reds are above average.
[1:10:36] You can see there's really no red.
[1:10:38] And really no beige.
[1:10:39] So not a surprise there that since we're running about 50 to 60%
[1:10:42] of average for this time of year, hence the water conservation that we've been doing.
[1:10:47] Um, you can see, there's a little bit of rainfall
[1:10:50] that fell in the July in the Southern, um, Facca
[1:10:53] Union and Henderson Belmead area, um,
[1:10:56] but it's very, very localized.
[1:10:58] And, um, you can see some of those responses when I get
[1:11:01] to the Henderson Creek, um, graphs a little bit later.
[1:11:05] Looking at August, if we end up getting much rainfall,
[1:11:08] the rest of this month, and we'll see what the next few days have in store for us.
[1:11:12] But right now, if we end where we are today, it would be our driest
[1:11:15] August, since we, our records
[1:11:18] here from 1990, so it would be our driest looking back that far.
[1:11:21] So quite a record, if that comes to fruition.
[1:11:25] Either way, it's very dry for us.
[1:11:29] So I will also now start to stare step through our
[1:11:32] canal system, and I've got a new graph I've
[1:11:35] put on here to basically show the importance and compare
[1:11:39] past years with this year and how much water we're actually moving through the system,
[1:11:42] and then out to our tide.
[1:11:44] So on the on this slide
[1:11:47] here, you remember the blue shaded areas.
[1:11:50] That's our normal operational levels on both of these.
[1:11:54] This top graph is GG4, which is the blue
[1:11:57] triangle, and then the purple triangle off to the left is GG1.
[1:12:01] The water flows along this canal and out when we have an excess of it.
[1:12:04] So you can generally see GG4 is basically
[1:12:07] right smack in the middle of average.
[1:12:09] We've had 50% rainfall, and yet we still have normal
[1:12:12] water levels in Golden Gate 4, showing
[1:12:15] that we're able to retain the water we do have rather than wasting it and
[1:12:18] sending it off to tide.
[1:12:20] GG1, you see similar stories here.
[1:12:23] The purple line.
[1:12:24] That's our water level this year versus historical.
[1:12:27] When we're in flood control operations, which we're not right now.
[1:12:30] We're trying to conserve water, were higher than that.
[1:12:33] So this is exactly, this is not by,
[1:12:36] um, this is on purpose.
[1:12:38] This is what we're trying to do to conserve the water resource.
[1:12:41] Make sure it can go into our groundwater, our surficial aquifers,
[1:12:45] keep our wellings hydrated.
[1:12:46] And on the left, this chart
[1:12:49] down here says GG1 discharge.
[1:12:51] This is the volume of water that moves through that last structure.
[1:12:54] So this, um, kind of teal color.
[1:12:58] That's the amount of water that went out in 2024.
[1:13:01] The blue is this year.
[1:13:03] So in 2024, 160,000
[1:13:06] acre feet, in a wetter year, that's what we did.
[1:13:08] Sending water out compared to this year.
[1:13:11] It's not even 20,000 acre feet of water that left the system.
[1:13:14] So the little bit of water we have, we're holding it in and not
[1:13:17] releasing it out of the system.
[1:13:19] That's basically the takeaway on this slide and all the rest of them.
[1:13:24] The Kokahachie Canal.
[1:13:26] I won't spend as much time on these since I explained the 1st one, but these are basically
[1:13:29] repeats just to kind of show the differing conditions of everything.
[1:13:32] So Cocoa 3, the blue triangle, Cocoa one, the coastal structure.
[1:13:36] The thing I want you to note here, Cocoa 3 is so low.
[1:13:40] I mean, we're not, we're below the 25th percentile on this canal.
[1:13:44] So we're trying to hold everything we can.
[1:13:46] We have an open the structure.
[1:13:47] The rainfall just hasn't materialized in this
[1:13:50] area to make sure that it could even respond yet.
[1:13:53] So as the rainfall happens, we'll continue to see the
[1:13:56] headwater go up and up and up, but it just hasn't materialized yet.
[1:14:00] You can see it on Cocoa one as well, this small little recession here.
[1:14:04] Um, this line going down.
[1:14:06] That's not us moving water through it.
[1:14:08] That's just the water, you know, ET, water use.
[1:14:12] It's just going down on its own.
[1:14:13] It's hot, it's sunny.
[1:14:14] So that's unusual to see this time of year.
[1:14:18] You can see that it's above the green line.
[1:14:19] Again, that's on purpose.
[1:14:21] to hold the water back so we can make sure we're keeping
[1:14:24] saltwater intrusion at bay, the groundwater recharge, all of those
[1:14:27] things happening.
[1:14:29] And the discharges for Coco one on the left, you don't even see a
[1:14:32] blue bar on this one because we haven't released any water yet.
[1:14:35] That's how dry.
[1:14:36] This basin's been.
[1:14:40] Henderson Creek here.
[1:14:42] So this one, this is the area that got a little bit of rain in July, so we
[1:14:45] do have a little bit of more discharges in the southern area.
[1:14:48] You can see this graph here.
[1:14:50] The blue is this year in 2024.
[1:14:52] again, it's still a far cry from 2024, but it's
[1:14:56] more than the others, just because that's where the rainfall happens,
[1:14:59] so you can see we're able to respond to the rainfall when it happens,
[1:15:02] move through the correct amount and retain the right amount
[1:15:06] within the system, make sure that our water
[1:15:09] levels are healthy and able to keep the water that we need inside the system.
[1:15:13] So basically what you can see in the Henderson Creek one,
[1:15:16] the water levels are normal.
[1:15:18] They're within the green, they're within our normal operational band.
[1:15:23] So I've got a couple new slides here for Picking
[1:15:27] and Strand and Miller and kind of how the canal system interacts
[1:15:30] with the Picking and Strand project, and to show
[1:15:33] how the water comes into the system and how much we pump out,
[1:15:36] not out, but into the restoration project.
[1:15:39] So this one is the Miller 3.
[1:15:42] This is the control structure here, and it moves water south down
[1:15:45] this canal to the S 486 pump station when there's water available.
[1:15:49] I've got the 2 graphs here sitting.
[1:15:51] tied by side or one on top of each other.
[1:15:53] The blue is Miller.
[1:15:55] This one down here is the pump station.
[1:15:57] You can see they run very close together.
[1:15:59] They're parallel.
[1:16:00] So, you know, what happens upstream also happens downstream.
[1:16:04] The thing I want you to note here that's interesting are the flow rates,
[1:16:08] not just the stage, not just the water surface elevation, but
[1:16:11] the flow rates down here, the purple is the pumped flow,
[1:16:14] how much water we actually moved.
[1:16:15] versus Miller 3.
[1:16:17] But the important part is the actual capacity of these structures.
[1:16:21] The miller pump station can pump upwards of
[1:16:24] 1400 CFS, I think.
[1:16:26] And we've spent one day pumping 200 CFS.
[1:16:29] So not even a very small percentage of
[1:16:32] what the structures can actually handle.
[1:16:34] And this is pretty much across our entire board, not
[1:16:37] board our entire system.
[1:16:39] We're using a fraction of the capacity because we're in water conservation mode.
[1:16:43] So that's kind of the story here is, yes, we're still moving water,
[1:16:46] but we're conserving it and sending the water intentionally to
[1:16:49] where it needs to be, you know, best for the
[1:16:52] water levels and best for the restoration project to the to the south.
[1:16:56] And that more of these pumping
[1:17:00] volume comparisons, the blue is this year, and the orange
[1:17:03] is what happened in 2025
[1:17:06] last year, the 1st year we had it online.
[1:17:08] So again, 3 times what we pumped last year,
[1:17:11] 3 times what we've pumped this year so far.
[1:17:13] So a very different, very different system.
[1:17:16] But at the top here, even though we pumped
[1:17:19] 3 times less than we did last year, there's still some water on the landscape
[1:17:22] in the picking and strand.
[1:17:23] If the colors are red, bluish.
[1:17:26] There's not a whole lot of it, but there is some water,
[1:17:29] kind of in these lower areas here, and the pump stations,
[1:17:32] this purple triangle, and you can kind of see some of the areas where
[1:17:35] some of the water is moving through there, but it is definitely less
[1:17:38] than it has been in previous years.
[1:17:43] Moving slightly to the east, the Fact Union Canal, and the picking and
[1:17:46] pump station, S487, the same graph here,
[1:17:49] basically a Fact Union 5 is the blue triangle, more
[1:17:52] of the same story, intentionally holding water back inside
[1:17:56] the system, and picking a strand down here.
[1:17:58] We're holding waters just above where they would normally be,
[1:18:01] but we're still providing water to the restoration project to the south,
[1:18:04] as you can see from the 2026 purple
[1:18:07] line, the pump flow down here at the bottom.
[1:18:13] So I wouldn't normally include this slide
[1:18:16] in an August presentation, but we did have drought
[1:18:19] conditions in June.
[1:18:20] They've improved somewhat looking, you know,
[1:18:23] this came out yesterday, August 25th, or 27th,
[1:18:27] but we still have moderately dry conditions,
[1:18:30] abnormally dry conditions, and even some moderate drought
[1:18:33] inside the our basin area.
[1:18:36] So it really, this helps guide, you know,
[1:18:39] lets us know how dry things really are across the board.
[1:18:41] It's not just an isolated system, an isolated spot that's
[1:18:44] dry, but basically the entire state is in some form of drought one way or the other.
[1:18:48] And that helps guide, you know, a little bit of what
[1:18:51] our strategy will be for gate operations, water levels, things like that.
[1:18:57] I spent a lot of time talking about the water levels, but
[1:19:00] I didn't tell you how those looked in comparison to historical.
[1:19:04] So what you see here, it's kind of a rainbow
[1:19:08] of colors, but the left is the water levels inside
[1:19:11] each of those canal.
[1:19:13] is a map of our canal system.
[1:19:14] The reds are lower than they are.
[1:19:17] Um, usually for August, such as the, such
[1:19:20] as this area here, the Cocahachie, and some areas are higher
[1:19:23] than what you would normally see in August, such as GG1.
[1:19:25] They're black in some of the areas over here in Facca Union,
[1:19:29] again, intentional where they were higher than normal.
[1:19:32] The lower ones, we haven't got water to those areas yet.
[1:19:35] There just hasn't been enough rainfall.
[1:19:36] So, this is really indicative.
[1:19:39] It's unusual to see that because we're doing water conservation.
[1:19:43] We if, you know, we need to do change operations.
[1:19:46] I've shown you the same slide before, before a hurricane,
[1:19:50] and basically they're all red showing we've made those pre-storm operations.
[1:19:54] So we can pivot one way or the other to make get ready for a
[1:19:57] storm event if one, you know, it happens to threaten us again.
[1:20:01] And then looking to the north, the corkscrew watershed
[1:20:04] area, this place is exceptionally, it
[1:20:08] appears to be exceptionally dry.
[1:20:09] All of our groundwater, our surface water levels there are below the 10th percentile.
[1:20:13] So very dry, and you don't have to take just the color for it.
[1:20:17] We went out and took some pictures of what that situation actually looks like.
[1:20:22] This is our cork 3 structure.
[1:20:24] That's on the north end of our canal.
[1:20:27] And this is the roadside ditch that runs along
[1:20:30] the Shady Hollow Boulevard.
[1:20:32] The Cork 3 structure is this concrete structure here.
[1:20:35] This is normally completely full and there's four, 5
[1:20:39] more feet of water sitting inside of this canal, and
[1:20:42] then there's water coming into this as well that we have to move through.
[1:20:45] That is not the case this year.
[1:20:46] You can see how dry, everything really is out there.
[1:20:49] So very, very unusual.
[1:20:52] And then this is just to the east of there, cork two.
[1:20:55] This is, um, on the other, just as you come
[1:20:58] off of a Mockley road onto Shady Hollow Boulevard.
[1:21:01] The cork 2 structure here.
[1:21:03] You can see the water lines and how much room there is.
[1:21:06] This is three, 3.5 feet that we still need to fill
[1:21:09] up before we even start to think about discharging water in
[1:21:12] a routine, you know, case and routine operation.
[1:21:15] So we still have a lot of storage capacity left in the system, which
[1:21:19] is why it's so comfortable that we can, you know, be able to conserve
[1:21:22] water, since we have so much storage left, we're able to hold more
[1:21:25] water, um, where we can because we know we have
[1:21:28] baseline capacity in the system because we're not flowing anything today.
[1:21:32] Lisa and talked about the
[1:21:35] Bird Rookery Boardwalk.
[1:21:37] This is just by there, that we have a stage recorder just to the east of
[1:21:40] where the trailhead is.
[1:21:41] And these are some pictures of what that area kind of looks like.
[1:21:45] You can kind of see the, I tried to pick
[1:21:48] out the normal water surface where you would expect it to
[1:21:51] be this time of year in the swamp area, but it's completely bone dry.
[1:21:55] I mean, you can, there's you could walk out there.
[1:21:57] That's very abnormal.
[1:21:59] It tells me, again, there's lots of storage available upstream
[1:22:02] in our headwater for flood control, which basically
[1:22:06] lets us make sure that we can do water conservation operations
[1:22:10] correctly and not sure, you know, make sure we're not putting anything at risk.
[1:22:15] Looking forward, um, the seasonal outlook.
[1:22:19] So right now, we're kind of in this drier than normal scenario.
[1:22:22] September kind of looks the same thing.
[1:22:25] I'm sure people have heard the El Nino and Super El
[1:22:28] Nino things in the news and all that.
[1:22:29] The way it affects us is in our dry season.
[1:22:33] We get more rainfall, that time of year.
[1:22:36] Um, you know, through November through February
[1:22:39] time frame.
[1:22:40] I think I've talked about that in the past.
[1:22:42] It doesn't mean it's a June type event, but it does mean
[1:22:45] that we have more than average rainfall that we're expecting.
[1:22:48] So, hopefully we can get a little bit of rain to help offset
[1:22:51] some of the dry conditions we've got over the summer and
[1:22:55] help get us through the next dry season without anything, anything major.
[1:22:59] In the short term.
[1:23:00] Here's our weather outlook.
[1:23:02] This is already out of date.
[1:23:05] The Tropical Storm Dolly has now longer a tropical storm.
[1:23:08] It was off to the east.
[1:23:09] It's a remnant now and is expected to dissipate.
[1:23:12] you know, it's already dissipated.
[1:23:13] So it'll continue to track up towards this path here.
[1:23:17] And then it brings some beneficial rain to the Caribbean, but it's
[1:23:21] not opposing at risk or anything at this point, but we'll keep our eye on it
[1:23:24] and be able to make adjustments as we need to.
[1:23:27] In the short term, the forecast over here, this is the
[1:23:30] 7 day forecast.
[1:23:31] This tells me we're basically gonna go back
[1:23:34] to maybe more of a typical rainy season, at least for the next week.
[1:23:37] This tells us we're going to get about 2 inches over the next week,
[1:23:41] which is a good thing, but also that's only average.
[1:23:44] It's not going to help us make up.
[1:23:46] It's gonna keep us from losing more ground as far as the rainfall of that facet.
[1:23:50] And then I did talk about how the monthly outlook or
[1:23:53] the seasonal outlook going forward and down and below.
[1:23:57] This is you've got our new tool that
[1:24:00] our meteorologist has helped us or put together for us, but
[1:24:03] this gives us an outlook of kind of what we would expect looking forward in time.
[1:24:06] You can see September, October, November, et cetera.
[1:24:09] But the thing, don't pay too much attention on the decimal all the
[1:24:12] way out to the 100th point, but the bigger numbers here,
[1:24:16] five, three, 4 inches.
[1:24:17] Those are, you know, two, 3 times what we would normally see in
[1:24:20] those months, but they're not June type rainfalls.
[1:24:24] They're not 10 inches.
[1:24:25] So it's not anything that may really make up that much deficit.
[1:24:29] It might just help us keep the, you know, keep us from receding down where
[1:24:32] we normally would, um, the normal recession you would see at that time of year.
[1:24:36] So this would be beneficial rainfall given how dry
[1:24:39] we are at this point in time.
[1:24:42] And with that, I will close with this picture
[1:24:46] of another fairly low looking canal in the Cocahachie area.
[1:24:51] Very interesting, Brad.
[1:24:52] thank you for your presentation
[1:24:54] questions from the board.
[1:24:55] Okay, Mr. Hill.
[1:24:57] All right, Brad.
[1:24:58] I'm not going to ask you how you start water.
[1:25:01] flowing from the skies.
[1:25:03] I just checked my radar app and it's not changing today.
[1:25:08] slide eight, it was kind of interesting,
[1:25:12] where you look at the, um, yeah,
[1:25:16] on the upper right, um, slide, yeah.
[1:25:19] But I was wondering, is it stops at 41.
[1:25:23] Is it possible to have a take a look at that throughout
[1:25:26] into the 10,000 islands to
[1:25:30] see what water seeps into the estuary?
[1:25:33] So we drew the line at 41 because the
[1:25:36] LIDAR that this is based on.
[1:25:38] So it's based off basically our well network versus
[1:25:42] LIDAR and the LIDAR gets less effective, less accurate
[1:25:45] as you get into the wet wet areas, and so we
[1:25:48] cut it off there for that for that kind of reason.
[1:25:50] And it looks like that the blue spots, which I believe,
[1:25:54] suggests adequate water.
[1:25:56] That also tied out with your with your rainfall.
[1:25:59] Correct.
[1:26:00] And that was kind of interesting in that area.
[1:26:03] Why it was just, do you have any thesis
[1:26:06] as to why we're getting rain in that area and
[1:26:09] not in other areas?
[1:26:11] It was, I mean, it's just random?
[1:26:13] Yeah, kind of.
[1:26:14] I mean, it just depends on where it falls that particular day.
[1:26:16] I wish it would fall a little bit more, but yes,
[1:26:20] yes.
[1:26:21] Good.
[1:26:22] Thank you.
[1:26:23] Miss Smith.
[1:26:25] I like your new reports are much more clear.
[1:26:28] Is that you?
[1:26:29] Did you do that?
[1:26:30] Oh, it's software.
[1:26:31] Okay.
[1:26:32] So Mr. Eckstein came in, which
[1:26:35] I love the public coming in and asking questions and it's very specific.
[1:26:39] I'm assuming you're going to be pretty much answering those questions.
[1:26:46] So I have one.
[1:26:47] If you are not, if you're going to do what he kind
[1:26:51] of is asking me to do is kind of like release those levels.
[1:26:53] What does that do?
[1:26:56] In this in this drought.
[1:26:57] So if we were, If we were
[1:27:00] to lower levels at this point, the water levels would respond
[1:27:03] quickly and drain the surficial
[1:27:06] groundwater that's surrounding everything around that, which
[1:27:09] are below the 10th percentile for this time of year, I checked our water,
[1:27:13] groundwater level conditions just a few minutes ago, and
[1:27:16] most of the, all of the surficial wells on the lower west
[1:27:20] coast or below the 10th percentile.
[1:27:22] So it would only start to affect those even more.
[1:27:24] That's kind of what's helping hold those levels up.
[1:27:26] Are those canal levels and our water control structures
[1:27:30] are helping that along with some of the secondary systems.
[1:27:33] So they'll open those up right now.
[1:27:34] You'll get one flush of water out, and
[1:27:37] then the water would be, would be gone.
[1:27:39] So short term effect, long term, um,
[1:27:43] more damage.
[1:27:44] Okay, interesting.
[1:27:46] The other question was just to follow up on the solar.
[1:27:49] Do we have?
[1:27:52] Thank you, Lisa.
[1:27:56] So the solar that we have.
[1:27:58] It's basically it, we have a lot of STA sites and
[1:28:01] areas where there's not commercial power readily available.
[1:28:03] So the solar panels are the primary source,
[1:28:06] to keep the batteries charged, so they keep a battery charge for
[1:28:09] our monitoring wells, like the ones up in bird rookery.
[1:28:11] There's not a power pole sitting right there.
[1:28:13] So that's what the solar power, the solar panels are for.
[1:28:16] They keep the batteries charged.
[1:28:17] And they've gone, our skated team's gone through and upgraded those
[1:28:20] over the last 2 years to make sure that we're
[1:28:23] more resilient, so we're on cloudy days.
[1:28:26] when we have hurricanes, things like that where the sun doesn't come out.
[1:28:28] We don't lose that battery power, so we still have that information available.
[1:28:31] But as far as control structures, no, those
[1:28:35] have commercial power or some sort of backup generator, something
[1:28:38] of that effect that's more resilient than just solar power.
[1:28:40] Okay, so where it's effective, resilient,
[1:28:43] we'll have solar, if not, we'll use a traditional grid.
[1:28:48] Right.
[1:28:49] And even then, we have a back.
[1:28:50] So like the upgrades that the field station was doing at Cocoa 3,
[1:28:54] they have commercial power and backup
[1:28:57] generator, but the solar power helps keep things still online
[1:29:00] if something goes wrong with the other things.
[1:29:01] So we're triple redundant almost.
[1:29:04] Okay, understood.
[1:29:05] Thank you.
[1:29:05] Appreciate it.
[1:29:08] Thank you, Miss Smith.
[1:29:09] Okay, thank you, Brad.
[1:29:10] I don't see any other questions.
[1:29:11] Sorry, thank you.
[1:29:12] Appreciate it.
[1:29:14] Next item is the monthly financial report with Candida Heater.
[1:29:23] Thank you, Madam Chair.
[1:29:25] The monthly financial report, um, that is
[1:29:28] in your package today, um, that I'd like to brief you
[1:29:31] on is through June 30th.
[1:29:35] So thus far, we have collected
[1:29:38] $21.8 million.
[1:29:42] You had budgeted for recurring 17.2.2.
[1:29:46] The reason for the additional funding
[1:29:50] is, as mentioned previously, is
[1:29:53] related to the agreement.
[1:29:56] We call your county, um, and schedule to
[1:30:00] submit funding to the to the basin
[1:30:03] for the Gordon and Palm River.
[1:30:05] So that is the increase above what was budgeted.
[1:30:09] You have collected all of your abalorum
[1:30:13] funding as projected.
[1:30:16] The month of June is typically when
[1:30:20] we do collect all of our admalorum.
[1:30:24] Um, expenditures, we have expended $14.8
[1:30:30] million, um, from last
[1:30:33] month, May to June, we spent
[1:30:36] $25000000 and that's,
[1:30:39] um, related to the tower, payments for the tower.
[1:30:42] Right now, you do have a fairly large balance.
[1:30:47] Um, within your operations and maintenance program
[1:30:50] of about uh, $12 million.
[1:30:53] That is made up of your $2000000
[1:30:57] emergency reserves, which we hope we don't use, and it will stay available.
[1:31:01] Um, as well as uh,
[1:31:04] staff is uh, holding funding there to cover
[1:31:07] uh, the I 75 Weir
[1:31:10] 2 when the bids come in and they come in on Tuesday.
[1:31:16] In comparison to this time last year,
[1:31:19] so June of this time last year.
[1:31:22] Um, comparison in revenues last
[1:31:25] year, you were at $20, uh, $2 million,
[1:31:29] so you're about 150000000 in collections in revenue.
[1:31:32] Um, that is related to the Avalorm,
[1:31:35] uh, tax revenue, as well as some of
[1:31:38] your Picayune operations.
[1:31:40] You've received a little more revenues in
[1:31:43] intergovernmental because of picking from the Corps of Engineers,
[1:31:47] expenditures.
[1:31:49] This time last year, you were at about 12000000
[1:31:52] this year at 14.
[1:31:54] It's about $2000000 higher, and that's because of the
[1:31:57] tower paying out and finishing that project.
[1:31:59] So, um, everything looks very, um,
[1:32:03] financially stable, um, for the for the basin,
[1:32:06] and uh, that concludes my report.
[1:32:09] Thank you.
[1:32:09] Questions for candy on the monthly report.
[1:32:12] I don't see any questions.
[1:32:13] Thank you.
[1:32:14] Thank you.
[1:32:16] All right, that brings us to the 2nd public comment
[1:32:19] portion of the meeting.
[1:32:21] Again, this is another chance for the members of the public
[1:32:24] to speak on anything that was not covered in the agenda.
[1:32:27] Troy, is there any public comments?
[1:32:30] Madam Chair, we have none at this time.
[1:32:32] All right, then that brings us to the final board comment.
[1:32:36] And we'll go ahead and start with Miss Smith.
[1:32:39] I have none.
[1:32:41] Okay, we'll go to Mr. Romano.
[1:32:43] have none.
[1:32:45] Ms. Leinhardt?
[1:32:46] I guess the only comment I can offer is as we listen to
[1:32:49] the different field station reports and the crew reports
[1:32:53] as an example, it's very interesting to see the
[1:32:56] work in-house to control costs.
[1:32:59] So it's very much appreciated, and I think relevant to bring up
[1:33:02] today as we approved a tax rate and budget for our board.
[1:33:06] So thank you.
[1:33:06] Well said, thank you.
[1:33:08] Mr. Hill?
[1:33:10] I got something for you.
[1:33:12] Michelle was made some comments about solar,
[1:33:15] and some of you may or may not know what I do for a living.
[1:33:18] I run an investment firm, and we have a significant
[1:33:21] holding in a company called Next Power, which
[1:33:24] is the world's largest company in the
[1:33:27] in the adjacent into the solar
[1:33:30] business, where they provide the equipment
[1:33:33] for a solar panel to transverse as
[1:33:37] the sun is moving through the sky during the course of the day.
[1:33:40] Their business isn't putting
[1:33:43] a couple solar panels on top of one of our buildings.
[1:33:45] They do utility scale at a very large base.
[1:33:49] And it's a business
[1:33:52] that's growing rapidly due to the needs for energy.
[1:33:56] And the thing that I've seen in a for
[1:33:59] a while is that we have a significant area of open
[1:34:02] territory where this could come into
[1:34:05] play in the spreader basins.
[1:34:07] And you're just like, how can we put solar panels that's going to get wet?
[1:34:11] Well, here's where the connection comes with their equipment.
[1:34:14] They are working with farms that
[1:34:18] elevate the solar panels above the ground.
[1:34:22] So you see, if you go on their website,
[1:34:25] you see photos of cattle,
[1:34:29] either grazing animals, in
[1:34:34] some areas of growing crops all underneath the solar panels.
[1:34:39] And those solar panels move through the course of the day.
[1:34:41] And since candy's just about finished with a budget.
[1:34:44] Another month or so she'll be finished.
[1:34:46] She probably doesn't have much to do, but I think this will be a huge Apple
[1:34:49] project to take up her time in case she gets bored.
[1:34:53] I think it's something to start taking a look at.
[1:34:56] And what could we do with the power?
[1:34:58] Obviously, adjacent to the solar production
[1:35:02] of energy comes batteries, huge
[1:35:05] industrial scale batteries to store power
[1:35:09] until needed.
[1:35:10] And then when it's, if it's not needed, I'm sure there could be
[1:35:13] a connection to the grid to sell it to some entity, FPNL,
[1:35:16] obviously, would be the 1st thought.
[1:35:20] It's, I mean, this is going to be 25,
[1:35:23] $50000000 type of project, but it could be
[1:35:26] a significant source of revenue for the basin.
[1:35:32] That's what I got for you to think about.
[1:35:35] Vice chair McLeod?
[1:35:37] Vice Chair McCLough?
[1:35:39] Thank you for that, Andy.
[1:35:40] for me today.
[1:35:42] Just to show you how engaged Candy has been.
[1:35:47] If you're interested in reading this, this is available online,
[1:35:50] but this is the budget for the district as a whole.
[1:35:54] And so Candy Hat and her
[1:35:57] team, Julie Matock, who really helps the basin,
[1:36:00] does a great job for us.
[1:36:02] They are leaning forward here at this point in the year.
[1:36:05] getting all these budgets submitted to Tallahassee.
[1:36:09] And with everything that they
[1:36:12] do, that's a huge responsibility.
[1:36:14] So thank you for all you do for the basin, and
[1:36:17] also, I'll take this opportunity to thank you for everything
[1:36:20] you do for the district to make that, make that work for us.
[1:36:24] Um, couple comments on solar.
[1:36:28] This is not a new technology.
[1:36:30] It's just getting some innovative applications.
[1:36:33] One of the things that I looked
[1:36:36] at many years ago when I was on city council was the
[1:36:39] fact that how could we incorporate solar to
[1:36:43] minimize the cost of our or our utility cost.
[1:36:46] And one of the things you can do is
[1:36:49] on the storage tanks, you can apply solar panels, and then
[1:36:52] you can take off some of those costs from your operations
[1:36:55] from utilities.
[1:36:57] You know, you don't need to just float it on a lake either.
[1:37:00] You can also float solar panels on a lake.
[1:37:02] And you bring some, some, um, uh, benefits from that.
[1:37:07] But it's more complicated than just the technologies available.
[1:37:10] And so that might be something for us to
[1:37:14] see if we can maybe find a partner, that we could do a demonstration
[1:37:17] project at no cost to the taxpayers to see if we
[1:37:20] could have some application for it.
[1:37:22] But, um, you know, that, I'll leave that with
[1:37:25] Lisa and the staff, um, from time to
[1:37:28] time at the district level.
[1:37:30] We look at innovative technologies for folks to come to
[1:37:33] us and give us ideas on ways that they can, the
[1:37:36] benefit and in the partnership.
[1:37:38] So I'll leave it at that and see.
[1:37:41] But solar is not a new technology.
[1:37:43] It just needs greater application and storage
[1:37:46] like you said, Andy, with the batteries.
[1:37:48] you know, from that aspect.
[1:37:52] A couple of other items.
[1:37:54] One, I want to congratulate and welcome Jacob,
[1:37:57] who's joined the basin team as one of our engineers
[1:38:00] and water managers.
[1:38:03] So thank you for those who haven't met Jacob.
[1:38:06] He's here today.
[1:38:06] And feel free to meet him before the end of the meeting.
[1:38:11] Also, I want to thank Derek Brown, our basin attorney.
[1:38:15] He sits here every meeting, right to my left,
[1:38:18] down here next to Lisa, Keeler, our basin administrator,
[1:38:22] and he does an incredible job behind the scenes for us.
[1:38:25] And Derek, I need to give you a
[1:38:28] shout out because you've just always there for
[1:38:31] us, no matter what we need, and it's very,
[1:38:35] very helpful to have you hear all the meetings with us as well.
[1:38:38] So a big shout out to you today and a thank you.
[1:38:42] Also, I want to congratulate Michelle
[1:38:45] on your vice chair for this coming year.
[1:38:47] I look forward to seeing what you can do in
[1:38:50] the chair and thank you for having my back.
[1:38:52] That's the most important thing.
[1:38:54] And cupcakes for all.
[1:38:57] Don't forget, even our members of the
[1:39:00] public who joined us today.
[1:39:01] Feel free to join in in the cupcakes for our birthday
[1:39:04] celebration.
[1:39:06] I'll see you at our next meeting, which is Friday,
[1:39:09] October 23rd.
[1:39:10] We're adjourned.
[1:39:18] call out my
[1:39:28] in the