Florida’s lakes and waterways are some of the most valuable natural resources we have, but the way we’re managing them deserves a much closer look.

This week, I sat down with Andy Braddock to talk about submersed aquatic vegetation management in Florida—and once you start digging into how this system works, some pretty uncomfortable questions start coming up.

We’re spraying aquatic vegetation in the name of managing and protecting our waterways, but what happens after those plants die? That vegetation doesn’t simply disappear. It decomposes, nutrients are released back into the water, clarity can suffer, and native vegetation that depends on sunlight suddenly has an even tougher environment to grow in.

Then there’s the money.

Who is paying for the research used to justify these management practices? Who benefits from the conclusions? Who sells the chemicals being applied year after year? And how much of the science guiding these decisions is truly independent?

Those are serious questions, and asking them doesn’t mean we’ve already decided what the answers are.

Andy and I dig into the nutrient loads associated with vegetation treatment and decomposition, declining water clarity, the struggle to reestablish native submerged vegetation, and whether our current approach is actually addressing the underlying problems—or helping create a cycle that requires even more intervention.

Florida spends a lot of money managing these waterways. If the result is healthier lakes, healthier fisheries, and thriving native vegetation, great.

But if the water keeps getting cloudier, native vegetation keeps struggling, and we keep reaching for another round of chemicals, at some point we have to ask a pretty simple question:

Are we actually fixing the problem—or are we paying to perpetuate it?

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