Why its hard to take Toby Overdorf seriously about the threat to our starving Manatees.
Floridians, and pretty much everybody else, love manatees. We hate it when manatees are injured by propellers or predators, and it is safe to say that nobody wanted to hear about the increased mortality last year due to starvation. Most of us on the Treasure Coast support conservation efforts to preserve habitat, no matter our political persuasion. We want to see an end to the negative impacts of pollution and algae blooms to our precious coastal ecosystems that are so important to our local residents, businesses and tourism interests. That brings us to the curious case of State Representative Toby Overdorf.
Toby works in the “environmental” field as a consultant, but his actions so far in Tallahassee certainly don’t reflect those of an “environmentalist”. During the 2019, 2020 and 2021 Florida Legislative Sessions, Toby voted against every bill supported by the Sierra Club Florida, 100% of the time. For example, he didn’t support allowing home rule local bans on single-use plastics, nor did he support limiting use of sunscreens that have a negative impact on our coral reefs. The scores aren’t out yet for the recently completed 2022 session, but this year he voted with FPL on their self-written bill limiting solar energy on resident’s homes and voted in favor of #BigSugar’s bill 2508. Both of those bills were vetoed by Governor DeSantis.
It gets worse. In the last two legislative sessions, Overdorf introduced and/or sponsored bills, perhaps on behalf of his campaign donor / developer friends and “consultancy” clients, to create “Sea Grass Mitigation Banks”, a failed idea that would allow coastal developers to buy “credits” which would allow them to destroy legacy sea grass banks during waterfront construction. The “credits”, according to this incredibly stupid plan, would be used to offset the loss by maintaining already existing sea grass beds and/or planting new beds of sea grass. The jury is still out on whether the planting of new marine habitat is even a viable thing. Overdorf’s bills were a resurrection of a law passed in the 2008 Florida legislative session which was vetoed by then Governor and current Congressman Charlie Crist. Crist stated at the time of his veto that “he opposed the seagrass bill because it would have allowed marine development that could endanger seagrass beds and destroy marine estuaries and delicate nesting grounds for sea life with no guarantee the replacements would survive.”
Reaction to the bills was unsurprisingly negative and pointed. “Our seagrasses are hanging by a thread and food will be dangerously scarce for our manatees this year. Tallahassee lawmakers should be doing everything they can to protect our existing seagrass and fix our water quality so that new seagrass can grow back naturally, instead of pretending we can solve our problems simply by taking private money to offset public harm. Tallahassee leaders should kill this bill before it kills any more of our manatees.” said Lindsay Cross, the water and land policy director for Florida Conservation Voters in Tallahassee.
There was this from Friends of the Everglades Executive Director Eve Samples and Royal Gardner: “Over the past decade, the Indian River Lagoon has lost more than half of its seagrass beds. The problem has gotten so bad for manatees that Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission in December launched a pilot program to feed romaine lettuce to the starved sea cows in Cape Canaveral.” That piece pointed to this reaction in the legislature from a colleague of Toby’s:
“We have a certainty of destruction and a possibility of success,” REPUBLICAN State Rep. Randy Fine (Brevard County) said of the bill during a Dec. 1 meeting of the House Environment, Agriculture and Flooding Subcommittee.
Finally, TC Palm’s Editorial board stated thusly: “ Trying to create new seagrass beds without bringing pollution under control is a bit like building a cabin in the woods while a forest fire is raging…So, by all means, let's encourage our legislators to take steps to protect seagrass, which plays an important role in Florida's ecology. But let's not encourage quick fixes that really don't fix anything. A much better strategy would be to sharply limit coastal development that damages sensitive areas in the first place.”
Toby Overdorf pushed this sea grass mitigation plan in the recent legislative session in early 2022, AFTER massive publicity of the death of over 1100 manatees in 2021, a new, and sad record. Thankfully his bill was killed pretty easily.
Toby would like us to think he’s a huge supporter of fixing the problem of manatee starvation, but that’s the problem. People can change their minds, but tigers can’t change their stripes.
In March of this year, Toby announced that he was pushing a plan to “expedite” permitting of planned sea grass planting in the lagoon. An article this week by Max Chesnes in TC Palm, pointed out there is a considerable delay in Florida’s Department of Environmental Protection actions, delays that will not lead to any substantial improvements this year. Said Toby this week: "‘Frankly, I am disappointed,’ Overdorf told TCPalm Friday. ‘When I left the Legislature after our main session was over, I had assurances they were going to work on this immediately and it would be available for this year's grow season. Unfortunately, it doesn't appear that is the case.’"
Frankly Toby, we’re more disappointed. Here you are, voting lock-step on everything under the sun for a Governor who likes to think he’s the most powerful Governor in the land, one who even thinks he’ll be President. Governor DeSantis who also claims occasionally to be an environmentalist, and we have 2-term legislator Toby Overdorf who can’t get Florida’s own Department of Environmental Protection to make this a priority? We understand that even if DEP had taken “immediate” action on this, it wasn’t going to fix the problem of starvation this year, already this year 600 manatees have died. But man, oh man, Toby, were you just sitting on your hands about this issue before a reporter called you this week? Do we have to endure another record year of manatee mortality before you decide to do your job sir and make this YOUR priority?
Let’s hope some of our neighbors, from any party, try to shake things up and get Toby moving before your new Representative for the area (ME) gets sworn in this November. I will be “on the job” of legislator 7 days a week, and the lagoon’s health, the manatees’ health and the seagrass’ health will certainly be top priorities for our district. Please support my campaign by volunteering, hosting a meet & greet or sending a check.
- Curtis Tucker., Candidate for Florida State House, District 85