Longboater spins off thesis into book

Tom Mayers’ book might have been written in another decade, but it’s still just as relevant as the day he finished it.

As a student at New College, Mayers wrote his senior thesis on the mangroves of Sarasota Bay. More than 25 years later, his thesis is now available in book form on Amazon and Kindle. It’s called “Sarasota Bay Mangroves 1991: Past Alterations and Future Possibilities.”

Mayers, whose family has owned property on Longboat Key since 1900 when his great-great uncle, Capt. John Savarese, bought land, is accustomed to living among the mangroves.

Mayers, 67, would come home from school and see Town Hall and Buttonwood Harbor under construction. His subsequent study of mangroves was natural.

“It just seemed a logical subject because I lived right here,” he said.

At New College, he was encouraged to pursue general studies, which made him look at things from many angles.

As part of his thesis, he worked with scientist John Morrill. He ended up working under Morrill for 20 years on and off, he wrote in the book.

“The heart of this document is a ‘ground truthed’ trip around Sarasota Bay where I counted and described the mangroves as I found them at the point in time in order to provide a ‘baseline study,’” he wrote in the “Forward to Second Publishing.”

For 40 years, Mayers worked as an environmental consultant, specializing on mangrove trimming to help clients ensure they were following the law when trimming the coastal trees. In addition to the thesis, Mayers added about 10 pages of reflection of his time in that role.

He writes in the book, “Never underestimate the value of visual appeal.”

“A good mangrove-trimming job can enhance the value of a property. A bad mangrove-trimming job can take away from the value of a property. A violation can pass on a legacy of scrutiny by the [Department of Environmental Protection] and can restrict the ability of future owners to trim their mangroves.”

Mayers said the work mangroves can do in filtering pollutants from the water is critical.

He says people should think twice before removing mangroves by drawing a parallel with fish tanks. He said it would be unwise to make room for more fish by removing the filtering machinery in the same way it would be unwise to remove mangroves to accommodate more people.

“I look at mangroves as a giant filter to offset development, so the idea of protecting mangroves is to keep the filter,” Mayers said.

With the recent, extended bout of red tide, people should be more interested in a book like this, Mayers said.

“I really think if you put it in perspective, the mangroves are critical to a healthy environment, and the more you destroy the mangroves, the less likely you are to have a healthy environment here,” he said.

Perhaps an excerpt toward the end of his book best sums up his feelings.

“I believe that it is important that we nurture the natural environment that we have left here on the west coast of Florida. A healthy environment helps to make healthy people, ensures high real estate values, provides habitat for our interesting wildlife, acts as a filter and buffer for human pollution and is good for fishing. Good mangrove laws, fairly applied, will help ensure the prosperity of the west coast of Florida in the future.”