Florida - Orange Groves, Water Quality

Charlie Tucker produces 100,000 boxes--4,500 tons--of oranges a year on his 250 acres of groves just north of Tampa on Florida's "ridge." He has another 200 acres in lakes, wetlands, and buffers. Tucker, whose father bought the place in 1948, has been working on it for 50 years and has been installing buffers for about 12 years. "Between every bit of water and grove there are buffers--at least 50 feet wide and many 300 to 400 feet wide--to keep pesticides from running off. It doesn't matter how big or small the lake is. If nitrogen, phosphorus, or herbicide gets into the lakes, it'll eventually get into groundwater. So, anywhere in our area is really important." According to Tucker, the lakes drain from one to the other, then into creeks, and eventually into Tampa Bay. "That's what the whole buffer situation is about--to keep contaminants from reaching the water."

Tucker is an enthusiastic supporter of the National Conservation Buffer Initiative. He helps the Natural Resources Conservation Service in Florida mobilize others to install buffers and assisted in setting up a number of field days in the spring of 1998. The focus is on "the ridge," one of Florida's most important aquifer recharge areas. Tucker says it's time to pay attention to Florida, not just to other farm states. "That's why we're trying to get the southeastern U.S. involved in buffers--without rules and regulations. That's to everybody's advantage." Tucker boasts that his own buffers are home to "deer, 'gators, turkeys, all kinds of waterfowl, cranes, and wood ducks." With buffer strips and water mixed in with his orange groves, he says, "we use our best land that's suitable for citrus; all the rest is in buffers."

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