Brevard Zoo — Restore Our Shores
The Zoo’s lagoon restoration arm. Oyster gardening off your own dock, reef-building workdays, clam, mangrove and seagrass planting across Brevard.
Volunteer with Restore Our Shores ↗
Act
Take action for the lagoon.
Start with the people already in the water — the Zoo’s Restore Our Shores, the Marine Resources Council, the Lagoon Coalition and more — then check your registration, request a mail ballot, join the mailing list, or write your representatives. Each one is a step, not a slogan.
Get involved
Closer to home
Join the people already restoring the lagoon.
Voting is one afternoon. These groups work in and around the water all year, and every one of them needs hands. Each link opens the organization’s own sign-up page; nothing is collected on this site.
Marine Resources Council
Independent lagoon science and the team behind the annual Lagoon Report Card. Volunteer days, citizen science and the Low Impact Living program.
Get involved with MRC ↗Brevard Indian River Lagoon Coalition
Citizen coalition that organizes neighborhoods, hosts its Straight Talk public forums and keeps pressure on pollution at its source.
Volunteer with the Coalition ↗Keep Brevard Beautiful
Shoreline and waterway cleanups and hotspot litter removal that keep debris and nutrients out of the water.
Join a cleanup ↗Lagoon Loyal
Brevard County’s own program, supported by Save Our Indian River Lagoon and the Stormwater Consortium. Everyday yard and home actions, seasonal tips and local recognition.
Join Lagoon Loyal ↗ORCA — Ocean Research & Conservation Association
Water-quality research and pollution mapping on the lagoon, with citizen-science monitoring you can take part in.
Get involved with ORCA ↗Sea Turtle Preservation Society
Sea turtle monitoring and beach conservation along the Space Coast, based in Indialantic.
Volunteer with STPS ↗One Lagoon — IRL National Estuary Program
The National Estuary Program for the whole 156-mile lagoon. Newsletter, webinars, podcast, the lagoon license plate and the small-grants program for community groups.
Visit One Lagoon ↗Brevard County Natural Resources
The County department that runs the Save Our Lagoon projects. Volunteer opportunities, the oyster gardening partnership with the Zoo and watershed education.
County volunteer opportunities ↗Get off septic with County help
Save Our Lagoon homeowner grants pay up to $18,000 toward an advanced septic upgrade, up to $24,000 toward a septic-to-sewer quick connect, and help with leaking private sewer laterals. Amounts depend on your property’s estimated nitrogen load.
Homeowner grant programs ↗ · IRLProject@brevardfl.gov · (321) 633-2016
Watch the money yourself
The volunteer Citizen Oversight Committee reviews every Save Our Lagoon project and the annual plan in public meetings. Agendas, progress reports and recordings are posted by the County.
Report what you see
Fish kills go to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission hotline at 1-800-636-0511. Algal blooms go to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection at 1-855-305-3903.
Know a Brevard lagoon group that belongs here? Email hello@lagoonfacts.org and I will add it.
Check your registration
Confirm you are registered and see your precinct on the Supervisor of Elections' own lookup. Nothing is entered on this site.
Check my status on Vote Brevard ↗Register to vote
Not registered yet? Start on Vote Brevard’s registration page, which uses Florida’s official registration system.
Register on Vote Brevard ↗Update your registration
Moved, changed your name, or switched parties? Update your record through Vote Brevard’s official registration page.
Update my registration on Vote Brevard ↗Request a vote-by-mail ballot
Cast your ballot from home. Request a mail ballot from the Brevard Supervisor of Elections.
Request a mail ballot on Vote Brevard ↗Join the mailing list
Get occasional updates about the November 3 ballot and the lagoon's restoration. This is the ongoing update list; it is separate from the one-time ballot reminder offered on the Vote page.
Contact your representatives
Find your officials and send a ready-to-edit letter urging support for lagoon funding.
Volunteer with the lagoon
Do hands-in-the-water work with the organizations restoring Brevard's estuary.
More ways to help
Three things you can do at home.
The tools above open the official state and county systems, or handle a task directly. These next three are ongoing habits — the everyday work that keeps nitrogen and phosphorus out of the water.
1. Cut your fertilizer.
Reducing unnecessary fertilizer lowers the amount of nitrogen and phosphorus available to wash or leach into the lagoon watershed. Even a single household's fertilizer reduction, multiplied across a neighborhood, matters at scale.
Follow the current fertilizer rules for your city or unincorporated Brevard County, including seasonal restrictions, setbacks, and any exemptions. Consult the applicable official ordinance or county guidance for your address rather than relying on a single county-wide summary.
- Follow Brevard’s summer fertilizer restriction (June 1 – September 30) — no nitrogen or phosphorus fertilizer during those months. The ordinance exists because summer rains flush unabsorbed fertilizer straight to the lagoon.
- Use slow-release fertilizer the rest of the year, and only when soil test results say your lawn actually needs it.
- Do not fertilize before a rain event. Wait for a dry stretch so what you put down has time to be absorbed.
- Replace turf with native Florida landscaping where you can. Native plants need little to no fertilizer once established, and they support pollinators the lagoon watershed also depends on.
2. Get on sewer if you can.
If your house is on septic, eligible property owners may qualify for county assistance. Current limits and requirements vary by program: advanced septic upgrades, septic-to-sewer connections and private lateral repairs have separate eligibility and reimbursement rules. County planning estimates use about 47 pounds of nitrogen per year for a conventional residential septic system; actual loading and the reduction achieved by a project vary by property and technology. See the current Brevard County Homeowner Grants page for current amounts and requirements.
To check if a septic-to-sewer conversion is available or planned for your neighborhood, contact Brevard County Utility Services.
3. Contact your county commissioner.
The five members of the Brevard Board of County Commissioners oversee the SOIRL program, adopt the annual project plan, and set watershed policy (fertilizer ordinances, sewer expansion priorities, stormwater standards). They read constituent email. Tell them the lagoon matters to you and why.
Missing something?
If there is an action you think should be on this list, email [email protected] and I will add it.