Edmiston to Direct State's Coastal Areas

Lee Edmiston, one of the region's key scientific voices on water issues in the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint basin, has moved on to a post in Tallahassee overseeing management of Florida's more than four million acres of submerged lands and coastal uplands.

Edmiston began Oct. 1 as director of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection's Coastal and Aquatic Managed Areas (CAMA), which oversees management of the state's 41 aquatic preserves, three National Estuarine Research Reserves, the state portion of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, and Florida's Coral Reef Conservation Program.

"A national search was conducted and after completion, I realized the right person was right in our own backyard," said Bob Ballard, the DEP's deputy secretary of land and recreation. "Lee is passionate about protecting Florida's coastal and aquatic resources. As director, his years of knowledge will strengthen DEP's efforts to ensure protection of our ocean and coastal resources."

Edmiston, 58, succeeds Stephanie Bailenson, who left in May after overseeing CAMA since Dec. 2005.

"I'll still be involved in the ACF (Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint) water issue," said Edmiston, who spoke by telephone from Naples where he was busy this week on a meet-and-greet tour of various aquatic preserves in the state.

"One of the things I requested is I'd still be involved because I've spent 30 years trying to protect the bay," he said. "You can't walk away from something like that."

Edmiston is considered among the region's most knowledgeable scientists on the state of the Apalachicola Bay, after becoming the Apalachicola National Estuarine Research Reserve's research coordinator in 1990.

Originally from Oklahoma, he earned a bachelor's in oceanographic technology and biology from Lamar University in Beaumont, TX, and then came to Florida State University, where he did his master's work in the ‘70s, on Apalachicola Bay.

After earning a master's in biological oceanography from FSU, Edmiston came to the county in 1985, to join the staff of the former Florida Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission when it opened a field office.

            Five years later he joined ANERR, and since then has been busy refining research and monitoring of everything from birds to turtles and fish, and most intensively lately, water quality.

            "The number one thing we've been working on is the ACF water issue," Edmiston said. "We do a lot of monitoring, looking at impacts and changes in water flow and what it's doing to the bay. The water quality in Apalachicola Bay is still good, but the issue is not necessarily quality as much as it is quantity, the amount of water coming down the systems.

            "We've seen impacts on oysters and shrimps; the shrimp harvest has been decimated," he said. "We're seeing changes in some of the fish we see in the bay; we're seeing increased salinity, and a die off of submerged aquatic vegetation."

            But Edmiston sounded a hopeful note. "We're seeing some changes in the bay. It doesn't mean they're permanent, but it gives us some ideas of problem we'll have down the road," he said. "It's still fairly unpolluted and if we can guarantee that we get water flows that resemble the historic flow regime, that we get them at the time we need, if we can have success in getting that, that's what we need to do to help protect the bay."

            Right now, Edmiston is living in Liberty County and commuting to Tallahassee, where his office is in DEP's Commonwealth Building. His wife, Polly, who once taught science at Apalachicola High School, now teaches science at Port St. Joe Middle School, and is looking for a job nearer to Tallahassee.

            All three of the couple's children, Sarah, Jeff and Jenny, graduated from AHS. Sarah works at the University of Florida at Gainesville as a student advisor, Jeff manages a restaurant in Prattville, AL, and Jenny is a certified athletic trainer, working on her master's at the University of North Florida.

            Edmiston said he has no intention of saying farewell to the place his family called home for so many years.

            "I'll never be a local, but I lived there 23 years and that's where my heart is," he said. "I still plan on doing everything I can to help protect the bay. It was very hard to leave Franklin County but it was an opportunity to do good all over the state and for Apalachicola Bay at the same time."