Mangrove forests look like impenetrable snarls to
us, but they are refuges for young mullet, tarpon, snook, crabs and
shellfish. A complex food chain begins on and beneath the
mangroves. If you have mangroves on your property, try to maintain
them for the benefits they have to estuary life, in stabilizing the
shoreline and offering protection from storms.
A property owner may trim mangroves, if he or she
owns less than 150 feet of mangroves along their shoreline, and the
thickness landward to shoreline is 50' or less, and if the
mangroves are not taller than 10 feet from the ground. They may not
be reduced under six feet tall. Herbicides or other chemicals
cannot be used for defoliating mangroves. Any other activities
would require a professional mangrove trimmer or a permit. Contact
your local Department of Environmental Protection office for
details.
Mangroves are so important to wading birds that
when freezes in 1983 and 1985 killed the mangroves in a pelican
rookery near Port Orange, in Volusia County, pelicans abandoned the
site for nesting. The environmental advisory board of Port Orange
arranged for Ecoshores Inc., an ecological restoration firm, to
transplant a couple thousand mangroves rescued from a road-building
project. By 1997 the mangroves were a dense thicket and the
pelicans, safe from predators, were nesting in the restored
rookery.
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