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September 6, 2025 Weekly Newsletter

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A federal appeals court has temporarily blocked the shutdown of Florida's controversial "Alligator Alcatraz" immigration detention facility in the Everglades. The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 that the facility is state-operated rather than federal, exempting it from federal environmental review requirements. Environmental groups and the Miccosukee Tribe, citing concerns about habitat destruction plan to continue their legal challenge.

We'll have more information on this developing story and its environmental implications next week. If you would like to support the Friends of the Everglades legal defense fund, you can donate here.

The Psychology of the Leaf Blower:

Why Convenience Trumps Conservation

The humble leaf blower reveals something fascinating about human psychology: we'll often choose the option that creates more work, costs more money, and damages the environment, as long as it feels more efficient.

This is called the "labor illusion," the belief that visible activity equals productive work. Blowing grass clippings into the street feels like completion, even though it simply relocates the problem. The immediate visual payoff (a pristine driveway) triggers the reward centers of our brains, while the delayed consequences in nearby waterways remain abstract but are more consequential.

This is what psychologists term "temporal discounting," we heavily weight immediate benefits over future costs. Instant gratification. The satisfaction of a crisp and clean yard happens now; algae blooms occur later, elsewhere, to become someone else's problem. Even environmentally conscious homeowners can struggle with this cognitive bias.

Social proof compounds the issue. When neighbors consistently blow debris into streets, the behavior becomes normalized. This is the exact opposite of what we should be doing, and is in fact a violation of the Vero Beach code. But we can unconsciously assume that widespread practices must be acceptable (especially for residents from areas where it doesn't look like stormwater will drain directly into waterways.) This creates what researchers call "pluralistic ignorance," where everyone follows a harmful norm because they believe others have validated it.

Leaf blowers satisfy our desire for control and immediate results in ways that patient decomposition or proper disposal cannot. They transform a boring chore into something that feels powerful and efficient, regardless of actual outcomes.

Perhaps the biggest danger of the leaf blower is moral licensing: once we’ve swept our driveway clean, we feel like we’ve done something good even if we’ve just pushed the problem elsewhere, and into the lagoon.

The leaf blower isn’t the enemy, but how we use it matters. Every sidewalk and road leads to a drain, every drain to a canal, and every canal to the lagoon. When clippings are blown into the street, they don’t magically disappear, they are transformed into pollution.

So the next time you’re in the yard, or watching your landscaper work, help keep lawn clippings out of the the lagoon! If you notice a neighbor doing it wrong, remind them (politely) that taking care of their clippings helps keep the lagoon alive. Small changes, multiplied across our community, can add up to real protection for our waterways.

South County seeing 3,000-home building boom (Vero News) - A massive, 20-year-old master plan for nearly 3,000 homes in South Indian River County is being revived, with multiple builders now actively developing subdivisions spurred by a recent real estate boom and the new Oslo Road/I-95 interchange.

Sebastian, Indian River County set to break ground on sewer extension to curb lagoon pollution (Sebastian Daily) - The City of Sebastian and Indian River County are collaborating on a sewer extension project to curb lagoon pollution, with a public groundbreaking ceremony scheduled for September 10 from 1 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. at 1542 Indian River Drive.

Fellsmere, Sebastian and Vero Beach council spots are up in November (TCPalm) - The city council races in Fellsmere, Sebastian, and Vero Beach are set for the November 4 election, with multiple candidates having qualified to run for the open seats in each city. We heard late this week that Terry McGinn has dropped out of the race in Sebastian so there is no longer a contested election in the City and Sherrie Matthews has been automatically elected to the one year term.

Sad dearth of serious City Council candidates (Vero News) - Ray McNulty's opinion piece discusses the lack of qualified candidates for the Vero Beach City Council race, noting that only the two incumbents and a perennial third-place finisher, Brian Heady, are running, with Heady's previous campaigns yielding only 11 percent of the vote in 2024 and 252 votes in 2021.

Fort Pierce Buc-ee's: How its 100-foot sign impacts sea turtle nesting (TCPalm) - Proposed plans for a new Buc-ee's in Fort Pierce, including a 100-foot-tall sign, have raised concerns that light pollution from the project could impact local sea turtle nesting and disorient hatchlings on nearby beaches.

Turtle Team sounds alarm on detrimental night beach activity (Vero News) - According to local conservation group Coastal Connections, human disturbance has caused a dramatic increase in "false crawls," or failed nesting attempts, with the false crawl rate on a high-traffic stretch of Vero Beach tripling from 24% in 2023 to 74% this year.

You may have heard of sheep grazing under solar panels but there are other benefits as well, check out the above video for a bit of background.

Based on the research conducted at Wellington Solar Farm in New South Wales, Australia, agrivoltaics (the practice of combining solar energy production with livestock grazing) has shown benefits for both renewable energy and animal welfare. A three-year study involving 1,700 Merino sheep revealed that animals grazing between solar panels experienced no negative health impacts while actually showing improved wool quality with increased fiber strength and growth rates. The solar infrastructure created beneficial microhabitats that protected sheep from extreme weather conditions while promoting healthier grass growth through improved soil moisture retention from the panels' shade effect.

The success of this approach shows significant economic and environmental advantages. The sheep naturally control vegetation growth around solar panels, eliminating the need for costly mechanical mowing or chemical treatments, while farmers gain access to additional grazing land without purchasing new property.

Similar studies in France have confirmed these benefits, with researchers noting improved thermal comfort for livestock and enhanced forage quality. This dual-purpose land management is a promising solution that simultaneously addresses renewable energy production, efficient land use, and sustainable farming practices, demonstrating how thoughtful environmental design can create win-win scenarios for multiple industries.