Sunday, May 30, 1999
Seagrass farmer
reinvents the tractor
KEVIN BEGOS
Illustration: JOHN RUSSO
American Gothic By Grant Wood
The News Herald
"There's got to be a better way."
Jim Anderson had that thought four years ago as he struggled to plant seagrass - by hand.
"Seven of us were working and it took us eight hours to do just 125 feet," Anderson said. "We trampled more grass than we planted. Really, we just disrupted the area.
"Of course I couldn't sleep for three weeks. I knew there had to be something better."
Anderson has invented (patent pending) a seagrass planting machine. He applied lessons he'd learned from sod and strawberry farming on land - and floated them.
"All I am is a boat tractor," he said modestly.
That may not seem to a non-farmer like much of a claim, but consider what came before the tractor: oxen hitched to a plow.
"It's amazing how complicated these seagrass projects have been in the past," said Frank Courtney, a re-searcher with the Department of Environmental Protection.
"There had to be divers, people to hand the plants to the divers, people to supply those people with plants, extra vessels..."
An acre of barren bottom that formerly took divers weeks to plant can now be done in a day or two, Anderson said. The machine will plant one bundle of grass every two seconds.
And like a peddler hawking hair tonic to a town of Don Rickles-like men, Anderson has an audience.
DEP estimates that statewide, over 170,000 acres of seagrass has been damaged or destroyed. Some were smothered by pollution-laden waters that blocked the sunlight, and some were gouged and buzz-cut to death by Florida's armada of boaters.
"To me, this is one of those breakthrough kind of tools that will ultimately help us address some of the critical habitat issues," said Ken Haddad, head of the Florida Marine Research Institute in St. Petersburg. "There are still some things to be worked out, but our staff is really excited."
The problem with seagrass destruction is that it is harder to reverse than a few patchy areas on a suburban lawn.
Much, much harder. 
Researchers say that areas where the root system has been destroyed by churning props can take five, 10, or even 15 years to recover.
In the last year or two, Anderson has enlisted support from DEP, government officials, and some in the recreational boating community.
It wasn't always that way.
"I've had a lot of adversity," he said. "People have been very skeptical. I built three (boats) before I finally found the right combo."
The machine is essentially a pontoon boat with a a 9-foot diameter wheel that cradles seagrass, injects a hole in the bottom, and inserts the bundle of grass - sometimes with a fertilizer pellet, too.
The machine will work at various depths, and can even follow prop scars and plant just in the barren area.
The benefits of a seagrass vs. non-seagrass area are far more than just cosmetic, scientists say.
"One of the things it's going to do immediately is stabilize that sediment, and animals are attracted to it immediately," Courtney said.
Areas where seagrass has vanished become the equivalent of aquatic dust bowls.
The muddy bottom doesn't provide cover for much of anything, and currents can stir the bottom up, blanketing healthy areas with silt. Fishing? How many reports have you heard of an angler's secret mud flat filled with lunkers?
Anderson said the message about seagrass is reaching bureaucrats and anglers.
"The Florida Guide Association is behind it," he said. "They're losing their fishing rights (from prop scarring). They realize that, and want to do something."
North Florida boaters may think the possibility of "no boating" areas is remote, but a look around the state provides a reality check.
Anderson's invention was prompted by just such a threat.
"I have a sod farm in Hillsboro County - along the bay. And they were going to close Cockroach Bay (to fishing) because of prop scarring.
"Now, I'm just a regular fisherman - I take my kids out there. We basically stalled 'em by asking the county to just give us a year to replant seagrass, instead of closing the area."
Courtney said DEP will be funding three test plots in Tampa Bay this Summer and collecting detailed data on cost and survival rates.
A test last year in the Keys went very well, and Anderson has already planted about four acres of seagrass in other areas this year.
"There's enormous potential," Courtney said. "I think we'll be able to cut the labor part of this way down. I'm pretty excited."
Though the machine now does the job quickly and effectively, Courtney said Anderson had to solve a number of problems to get to this point.
"If you say something he'll come back with a new idea. Most people say, 'We'll go back and study that.' He'll solve it. If there's a problem, he's going to fix it."
One issue still to be resolved is seeds.
Thallassia seeds can be very abundant at certain places, like the Keys. Anderson and his crew collected over 3,700 in two days last fall. These seeds were floating near shore and were picked up without harming the environment.
Those seeds then had to be sprouted and tended for about two months before they were ready for planting.
An option Anderson has used in other places is to dig up small patches of seagrass in healthy areas, and use them for planting. That requires a permit, and does take more time.
Biologists at FMRI are also working on tissue culture programs for seagrass that would solve the seed problem.
"When the two of those converge - the machine and the availability of large numbers of plants - we'll have a great thing," Haddad said.
Many people are excited about Anderson's machine, but stress that it is just part of the answer. Replanting seagrass works only in areas were water quality is acceptable. Boater education and channel marking programs are also vital to make sure healthy grass beds don't continue to get torn up.
As Anderson muses about his invention, he switches gears to talk of his new "fields."
"They've got to get the water quality up," he said. "There's so much stress and habitat loss. Where's it going to end?"
Though Anderson's machine has reduced the costs of planting, it by no means eliminates them.
"We can do an acre for $20,000, to show you what we can do," he said.
Anderson said the best results have come when all levels of a community participate.
"Stewardship programs are great, where kids put grasses together, then I come up (to plant). It gets the everybody involved, and that's so much better."
In February, the Hillsboro County Commission voted 7-0 to continue mechanical seagrass planting in Cockroach Bay - the place where the whole idea originated.
"The Hillsboro county commissioners are coming out with me in the boat," he said. "That's what it takes; local government has to wake up and see how valuable this is.
"DEP has opened up, and Hillsboro County has been good - they've funded me for the last two years."
But Anderson, a farmer at heart, keeps on coming back to the basics. Tend to the soil - on land or in the water - and tend to the crops.
"Seagrass means so much - for the little crabs, the juvenile fish."
"I hope to manufacture machines. My goal is to help habitat and estuaries all around coastal communities."
Haddad said Anderson's outlook has resulted in a unique synergy.
"By combining a sod farmer and some marine scientists, the result is much better than each working on their own. It's really exciting.
You can picture him pitchfork - oops - seagrass machine at hand, heading out at dawn, a Johnny Appleseed for the Gulf.
"I'm just a farmer - but what I can do is grow."
