Sustainable Solutions
University of Florida/IFAS’ new demonstration unit
The face of Florida is changing rapidly every day. New housing developments are mushrooming all over the state, sending land values skyrocketing and taking over agricultural lands. To mitigate the negative effects of this trend—including lowered water quality, higher energy demands, and the loss of local agribusiness—UF/IFAS Extension, together with numerous partners, is developing a new demonstration unit at the site of a former research and education center in Hastings. The sixty-five-acre site will show developers, farmers, policy makers, and homeowners how the future of Florida can include responsible resource management, a diverse economy, and a high quality of life.
Development Pressures
The project, known as the Florida Partnership for Water, Agricultural, and Community
Sustainability at Hastings, was conceived by a coalition of local farmers, business
leaders, and politicians in 2004 as a way to address growth issues that were affecting
northeast Florida, one of the fastest growing areas in the nation.
Although the impetus for the project was regional, said operations director Scott Taylor, “the issues that seem specific to this region are really a common thread throughout the state. The partnership is a great way to look at how we as a state are going to manage incredibly rapid rates of growth and all the issues that come along with that growth.”
Practical Demonstrations
The unit will serve several audiences and perform multiple functions. The center will use “living” displays to show visitors alternatives, such as low-impact development (LID), Florida-friendly landscaping principles, and niche crops, to traditional practices in development, agriculture, landscaping, water quality and use, and land management.
“This is another way University of Florida Extension can create and provide Floridians with solutions in sustainability,” said Taylor. “We live in Florida for the quality of life, but we need to be careful to safeguard that quality of life.”
The center’s outdoor demonstration and research areas will use landscaping and LID practices around existing buildings, as well as construction of three mini-subdivisions, to show builders, developers, and planners the newest technologies and strategies in reducing the impact of new developments, with the ultimate goals of reducing water, fertilizer, and pesticide use and increasing groundwater recharge.
In addition, alternative agriculture crops (such as muscadine grapes and peach orchards) will be grown on the site to give options to farmers looking to replace the traditional crops of the area (sod, potatoes) with more cost-effective, profitable crops.
“Agriculture is an important part of Florida. Not only is it the state’s number two industry, but the natural and managed landscapes of farms and ranches provide invaluable environmental services, including wildlife habitat,” said Taylor. “Alternative crops can make everyone winners, by providing farmers with more income on smaller farms and creating a less controversial interface between agriculture and residential developments.”
Other areas of the unit will use Florida Yards & Neighborhoods (FYN) principles to give developers and homeowners ideas about “Florida-friendly” yards, which utilize low-maintenance plantings and responsible water use. Florida-friendly yards reduce stormwater runoff, conserve water, reduce water pollution, and enhance wildlife habitat.
Model homes in three small subdivisions will be created on plots similar to the size of many Florida lots, and the areas around them will be landscaped to represent the range of landscaping practices possible in developments. Lots will range in upkeep from “high intensity,” with” with conventional use of fertilizer, irrigation, and pest control practices, to “low intensity,” with no fertilizer and irrigation use after the landscape is established. These landscapes will be monitored to determine the quantity and quality of surface runoff and groundwater leaving the lots and moving into the environment.
There will also be about twenty turfgrass plots with different cultivars of grass and levels of irrigation.
The unit’s paved parking lot will be relocated and replaced with permeable materials that allow rainwater to flow through it instead of across it. This kind of filtration ensures cleaner water enters waterways. A rain garden will be created to capture and filter water coming off one building’s downspout, and the downspout of another building will flow into a rain cistern for later use. And everywhere at the unit, the way water moves through the landscape will be studied and measured.
“Water runs off our private properties and into the public realm, connecting us all,” said Mark Clark, who is coordinating the demonstration unit’s stormwater- and wetlands-related efforts. Research conducted at the Hastings site will explore ways to improve water runoff management practices, said Clark, who is also an assistant professor of soil and water science at UF.
The demonstration unit will be open to visitors all year, and prospective visitors could be school groups, homeowners, developers, and policymakers, said Taylor.
An old rail line that runs adjacent to the site is now a part of the national rails-to-trails program, and when that area gets developed, Clark suggested, the demonstration unit will be a natural stopover or educational destination for trail users.
The unit will incorporate informational kiosks along pathways throughout the site with more in-depth information for visitors, and a Welcome Center will offer a brochure with a map and more information, as well. Other buildings throughout the site could offer exhibits on energy-efficient building and other related topics, Clark said.
In fact, every aspect of the center will have an educational aspect to it. For example, the site’s stormwater basin will be enhanced with vegetation for water treatment, habitat, and aesthetics. “We want to show that these components in landscapes don’t have to be just a regulatory requirement, but can also be amenities” for homeowners and developers, Clark said.
The project involves partners from the state to local levels, including the St. John’s Water Management District; the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services; local farmers; and city and county governments in Flagler, Putnam, and St. John’s counties.
Other partners include the university’s Florida Yards & Neighborhoods
program; Program for Resource Efficient Communities; and Soil and Water Sciences,
Agricultural and Biological Engineering, and Environmental Engineering Departments.
For more information about the University of Florida’s efforts in sustainability,
visit www.sustainable.ufl.edu. For
information about how you live more sustainably, visit
www.SolutionsForYourLife.com.
---Sarah Graddy