The Florida Senate
BILL ANALYSIS AND FISCAL IMPACT STATEMENT
(This document is based on the provisions contained in the legislation as of the latest date listed below.)
Prepared By: The Professional Staff of the Appropriations Committee on Agriculture, Environment, and General
Government
BILL: CS/SB 32
INTRODUCER: Environment and Natural Resources Committee and Senator Garcia and others
SUBJECT: Mangrove Replanting and Restoration
DATE: January 16, 2024 REVISED:
ANALYST STAFF DIRECTOR REFERENCE ACTION
1. Barriero Rogers EN Fav/CS
2. Reagan Betta AEG Favorable
3. RC
Please see Section IX. for Additional Information:
COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE - Substantial Changes
I. Summary:
CS/SB 32 requires the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to adopt rules for
mangrove replanting and restoration. The bill requires the rules to:
 Address significant erosion in areas of critical state concern;
 Protect barrier and spoil islands;
 Assist Everglades restoration and Biscayne Bay revitalization efforts;
 Promote public awareness of the value of mangroves;
 Identify vulnerable properties along the coastline and encourage partnerships with local
governmental entities to create mangrove protection and restoration zone programs;
 Protect and maintain access to the navigation of the marked channel and the right-of-way of
the Florida Intracoastal Waterway;
 Create permitting incentives and encourage the use of new strategies for living shorelines and
nature-based features; and
 Encourage partnerships with local governmental entities to create projects for coastal
protection through the Resilient Florida Grant Program.
The bill also requires the DEP to conduct a statewide feasibility study to determine the value of
mangroves and other nature-based solutions for coastal flood risk reduction within coastal
communities to reduce insurance premiums and improve local governments’ community ratings
in the National Flood Insurance Program’s Community Rating System. The DEP must submit a
report of the study’s findings to the Governor and Legislature by July 1, 2025.
BILL: CS/SB 32 Page 2
The bill has an indeterminate fiscal impact on state revenues and expenditures. See Section V.
Fiscal Impact Statement.
This bill has an effective date of July 1, 2024.
II. Present Situation:
Mangroves
Mangrove forests are a distinct saltwater woodland that thrive in tidal estuaries and low-energy
shorelines throughout the tropics and sub-tropics. Florida is home to three types of native
mangrove species—red (Rhizophora mangle), black (Avicennia germinans), and white
(Laguncularia racemosa)—and has an estimated 600,000 acres of mangrove forests, the majority
of which is found south of Cedar Key on the Gulf Coast and south of Cape Canaveral on the
Atlantic Coast.1
Mangroves play an important ecological role as a habitat for various species of marine and
estuarine vertebrates, invertebrates, and other wildlife,2 including endangered and threatened
species such as the manatee, hawksbill sea turtle, American crocodile, Key deer, and Florida
panther—all of which rely on this habitat during some stage of their life cycle.3 Mangrove
branches act as bird rookeries and nesting areas for coastal wading birds, including egrets,
herons, brown pelicans, and roseate spoonbills.4 Their intricate root systems provide critical
nursery habitats for fish, crustaceans, shellfish, and other marine life, allowing them to forage
and grow while remaining protected from predators.5 The roots also make ideal underwater
perches for barnacles, oysters, crabs, and other marine organisms.6 These organisms, in turn,
provide food for juvenile fish, birds, reptiles, and other wildlife both above and below the
water’s surface.7 Florida’s important recreational and commercial fisheries would drastically
decline without healthy mangrove forests.8
1
Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), Florida’s Mangroves,
https://floridadep.gov/rcp/rcp/content/floridas-mangroves (last visited Nov. 16, 2023). However, mangroves are gaining
ground along their northern Florida habitat limits, and as winter cold snaps decrease, mangroves are expected to expand
further north into new territory. Kristen Minogue & Heather Dewar, Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, With
Fewer Hard Frosts, Tropical Mangroves Push North, 1 (2013), available at https://sercblog.si.edu/with-fewer-hard-frosts-
tropical-mangroves-push-north/.
2
Section 403.9322(2), F.S.
3
Florida Museum, University of Florida, South Florida Aquatic Environments: Mangrove Life,
https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/southflorida/habitats/mangroves/mangrove-life/ (last visited Nov. 16, 2023). See also
Teresa O’Reilly, University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, Mangroves in Florida,
https://blogs.ifas.ufl.edu/flaglerco/2018/02/09/mangroves-in-florida/ (last visited Nov. 16, 2023).
4
Florida Museum, South Florida Aquatic Environments: Mangrove Life; DEP, Florida’s Mangroves.
5
Tiffany Duong, World Economic Forum, Why planting mangroves can help save the planet (2021), available at
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/08/planting-mangroves-helps-the-planet/.
6
Hannah Waters, Smithsonian Institution, Mangrove Restoration: Letting Mother Nature Do the Work (2016), available at
https://ocean.si.edu/ocean-life/plants-algae/mangrove-restoration-letting-mother-nature-do-work.
7
Id.
8
DEP, Florida’s Mangroves, https://floridadep.gov/rcp/rcp/content/floridas-mangroves (last visited Nov. 16, 2023).
BILL: CS/SB 32 Page 3
Mangroves also help maintain water quality and clarity by trapping sediments, absorbing
nutrients, and removing pollutants that would otherwise end up in estuaries and coastal waters.9
Their roots provide attachment surfaces for various marine organisms that filter water through
their bodies and, in turn, trap and cycle nutrients.10 Without natural filters like mangroves,
dangerous conditions like red tide, sargassum, and algal blooms can proliferate.11
In addition, mangroves capture massive amounts of carbon dioxide emissions and other
greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.12 Wetlands primarily store carbon in the soils, where it
can remain for centuries. This buried carbon is known as “blue carbon” because it is sequestered
via photosynthesis and stored underwater in coastal ecosystems like mangrove forests, seagrass
beds, and salt marshes.13 Current studies suggest that mangroves and coastal wetlands annually
sequester carbon at a rate 10 times greater than mature tropical forests, making them some of the
most efficient natural carbon sinks in the world.14
Mangroves’ specialized root system can help prevent erosion by stabilizing shorelines.15 They
also protect against damage from storm surge by reducing wind and wave energy16 in shallow
shoreline areas.17 According to one study by the Nature Conservancy, in Florida, mangroves
prevented $1.5 billion in direct flood damages and protected over half a million people during
Hurricane Irma in 2017, reducing damages by nearly 25 percent in counties with mangroves. 18 In
Collier County, some regions immediately behind the county’s mangroves receive annual risk
reduction benefits of over $1 million.19 Another study suggests that without the mangroves on
9
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), Mangrove Forests,
https://myfwc.com/research/habitat/coastal-wetlands/mangroves/ (last visited Nov. 16, 2023).
10
DEP, Florida’s Mangroves.
11
Duong, Why planting mangroves can help save the planet.
12
See Jean Brodeur et al., National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), NOAA Blue Carbon White Paper, 1
(2022), available at https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/40456; NOAA, Coastal Blue Carbon,
https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/ecosystems/coastal-blue-carbon/ (last visited Nov. 16, 2023); Jessica Merzdorf, National
Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), NASA Study Maps the Roots of Global Mangrove Loss (2020), available at
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2020/nasa-study-maps-the-roots-of-global-mangrove-loss.
13
NOAA, NOAA Blue Carbon White Paper at 1.
14
Id.
15
DEP, Florida’s Mangroves, https://floridadep.gov/rcp/rcp/content/floridas-mangroves (last visited Nov. 16, 2023); NASA,
NASA Study Maps the Roots of Global Mangrove Loss, available at https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2020/nasa-study-
maps-the-roots-of-global-mangrove-loss.
16
On average, mangroves reduce wave heights by 31 percent. Siddharth Narayan et al., The Effectiveness, Costs and Coastal
Protection Benefits of Natural and Nature-Based Defenses, 4 (2016), available at
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0154735.
17
United States Army Corp of Engineers, Engineering with Nature: An Atlas, 110 (2018), available at https://erdc-
library.erdc.dren.mil/jspui/handle/11681/27929; DEP, What is a Mangrove?, https://floridadep.gov/water/submerged-lands-
environmental-resources-coordination/content/what-mangrove (last visited Nov. 16, 2023); NASA, NASA Study Maps the
Roots of Global Mangrove Loss.
18
Siddharth Narayan et al., The Nature Conservancy, Valuing the Flood Risk Reduction Benefits of Florida’s Mangroves, 2,
available at https://www.nature.org/content/dam/tnc/nature/en/documents/Mangrove_Report_digital_FINAL.pdf.
19
Id. at 10. Worldwide, mangroves reduce risk to more than 15 million people and prevent more than $65 billion in property
damages each year. Duong, Why planting mangroves can help save the planet, available at
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/08/planting-mangroves-helps-the-planet/.
BILL: CS/SB 32 Page 4
Florida’s coast, the storm surge of Hurricane Wilma would have extended up to 70 percent
further inland.20
The amount of protection afforded by mangroves depends on the width of the forest. A narrow
fringe of mangroves offers limited protection, while a wide fringe can considerably reduce wave
and flood damage to landward areas by enabling overflowing water to be absorbed into the
expanse of forest.21 Notably, the Legislature has found that in Florida, many areas of mangroves
occur as narrow riparian fringes that do not provide all the functions of mangrove forests or
provide such functions to a lesser degree.22
Human activities such as coastal development are responsible for destroying more mangrove
forests worldwide than any other type of coastal habitat.23 Climate change, which results in
higher sea levels and more intense droughts and storms, is increasing the rate of mangrove loss.24
In Florida, mangrove loss is compounded by the regional water management system that was
built in South Florida between the late 19th and mid-20th centuries, which has reduced the
natural flow of water through the Everglades to Florida Bay and other coastal bays.25 Drier
conditions can slow or stop the natural buildup of organic peat soils like those in the Everglades
and cause the peat soils to collapse.26
20
Jodie Berezin et al., University of Massachusetts Amherst, Using Mangroves to Mitigate Hurricane Damage to the
Southern US Coast, (2018), available at https://blogs.umass.edu/natsci397a-eross/using-mangroves-to-mitigate-hurricane-
damage-to-the-southern-us-coast/.
21
DEP, Florida’s Mangroves.
22
Section 403.9322, F.S.
23
FWC, Mangrove Forests, https://myfwc.com/research/habitat/coastal-wetlands/mangroves/ (last visited Nov. 16, 2023).
24
Miriam C. Jones et al., Rapid inundation of southern Florida coastline despite low relative sea-level rise rates during the
late-Holocene, 1, 10 (2019), available at https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-11138-4.
25
United States Geological Survey, Rising Sea Levels Could Accelerate Florida Bay Mangrove Loss (2019), available at
https://www.usgs.gov/news/national-news-release/rising-sea-levels-could-accelerate-florida-bay-mangrove-
loss#:~:text=Florida%20has%20lost%20much%20of%20the%20mangrove%20forests,USGS%20research%20published%20in%20the%20
journal%20Nature%20Communications.
26
Id.
BILL: CS/SB 32 Page 5
State Regulation of Mangroves
In 1996, the Florida Legislature passed the Mangrove Trimming and Preservation Act (the Act)
in ss. 403.9321 - 403.9333, F.S., to protect mangroves from unregulated removal, defoliation,
and destruction.27 The Act is implemented by the Department of Environmental
Protection (DEP) as well as several delegated local governments, including Broward,
Hillsborough, Miami-Dade, and Pinellas Counties, the City of Sanibel, and the Town of Jupiter
Island.28
Under the Act, a permit is generally required to alter or trim mangroves,29 though certain
statutory exemptions exist.30 Property owners do not need a permit to trim their mangroves when
the mangroves are in a riparian mangrove fringe (RMF)31 and are no more than 10 feet in height,
so long as the homeowner does not trim the mangroves below six feet in height and does not
defoliate any mangrove. If the mangroves are more than 10 feet in height, the homeowner will
need to hire a professional mangrove trimmer,32 but they still may be exempt from permit
requirements. However, if the mangroves are not in an RMF, the property owner will need to get
a permit and a professional mangrove trimmer.33
Riparian property owners can obtain a permit from the DEP to trim mangroves if:
 The trimming is conducted in an area where the DEP has not delegated the authority to
regulate mangroves to a local government;
 The trimming is supervised or conducted exclusively by a professional mangrove trimmer;
 The mangroves subject to trimming under the permit do not extend more than 500 feet
waterward;
 No more than 65 percent of the mangroves along the shoreline which exceed six feet in
pretrimmed height will be trimmed, and no mangrove will be trimmed so that the overall
height of any mangrove is reduced to less than six feet; and
 No herbicide or other chemical will be used to remove the leaves of a mangrove.34
A general permit can also be obtained for the limited trimming of mangroves within existing
navigational channels, basins, or canals to provide clearance for the navigation of watercraft if
certain conditions are met.35
The DEP may require mitigation if mangroves are to be trimmed or altered under a permit issued
pursuant to s. 403.9238, F.S.36 In such cases, the DEP must establish reasonable mitigation
27
Section 403.9322(1), F.S.
28
See DEP, Mangrove Trimming – Delegated Local Governments, https://floridadep.gov/water/submerged-lands-
environmental-resources-coordination/content/mangrove-trimming-delegated-local (last visited Nov. 13, 2023).
29
Section 403.9328(1), F.S.
30
Section 403.9326, F.S.
31
RMF is defined as mangroves growing along the shoreline on private property, property owned by a governmental entity,
or sovereign submerged land, the depth of which does not exceed 50 feet. Section 403.9324(7), F.S.
32
Section 403.9329, F.S., delineates the criteria for which persons may be considered a professional mangrove trimmer.
33
DEP, Mangrove Frequently Asked Questions, no. 8, https://floridadep.gov/water/submerged-lands-environmental-
resources-coordination/content/mangrove-frequently-asked#whyimportant (last visited Nov. 16, 2023).
34
Section 403.9327(1)(a), F.S.
35
Section 403.9327(1)(b), F.S.
36
Section 403.9332(1)(c), F.S.
BILL: CS/SB 32 Page 6
requirements that allow the use of mitigation banks as an option, where appropriate.37
Restoration or mitigation is required for any area in which five percent or more of the mangrove
trees have been trimmed below six feet in height.38 Restoration must be accomplished by
replanting mangroves to achieve within five years a canopy area equivalent to the area
destroyed.39 Any replanting for restoration and mitigation must result in at least 80 percent
survival of the planted mangroves one year after planting, otherwise additional mangroves must
be planted and maintained until 80 percent survival is achieved.40
Where restoration or mitigation is not practicable, the impacts resulting from the destruction,
defoliation, removal, or trimming of mangroves must be offset by donating an amount equivalent
to the cost of creating mangrove wetlands at a 2-to-1 created versus affected ratio based on