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Special Interview with Dr. Scott Angle, UF Sr. Vice President of Agriculture and Natural Resources

Join Lara and Shannon as they interview Dr. J. Scott Angle, UF Senior Vice President for Agriculture and Natural Resources and leader of UF/IFAS.

Episode Transcript:

SHANNON:
On today's episode, we have a special interview with Dr. Scott Angle, Senior Vice President for Agriculture and Natural Resources at UF/IFAS. We are gonna hear all about his central Florida tour of IFAS Research and Extension programs. And we'll get a little taste of what UF/IFAS is doing to help solve the natural resources challenges of tomorrow.

LARA:
Welcome to “Naturally Florida,” a podcast about Florida's natural areas and the wild things that live here. I'm Lara Milligan.

SHANNON:
And I'm Shannon Carnevale.

LARA:
This podcast is brought to you by UF/IFAS Extension in Polk and Pinellas Counties.

SHANNON:
Thanks for tuning in, everyone. We are here with Dr. Scott Angle. He is the Senior Vice President for Agriculture and Natural Resources for University of Florida/IFAS. And he is in central Florida going on a little tour of some of the research and extension work going on in our part of the state. And so, Dr. Angle, we were wondering if we could start with asking, “How has your tour been?”

DR. ANGLE:
Well, thanks. I'm glad for the opportunity to meet with the two of you. I've been on what will be a three-day road trip of the area between Orlando and Tampa learning more about the work that IFAS is involved in. So I’ve seen some very traditional agricultural projects and seen some natural research projects. I was on Lake Toho earlier this morning looking at the snail kite. And just now I was at a citrus grove that is being grown under protective cover to learn more about that relatively new technology.

SHANNON:
Oh, that's fascinating. The protective cover, is that the screening over many, many acres?

DR. ANGLE:
Correct. That is screening that is over often…I learned today that they call them “pods.”It’s about a ten-acre pod. And what it does is prevent invasives, whether it's a disease or insect, from getting into the protected area. So the manager of the grove can use fewer materials, pesticides in particular, and not worry as much about citrus greening or HLB.

And the trees actually grow quite a bit faster. So it's a…I don't know if it's maybe niche too defining for that technology, but it is certainly something that's going to be important for the future of the Florida citrus industry.

SHANNON:
Oh, that's so cool. I mean, I've seen these projects up close and they are very impressive. I just love seeing on the innovation that comes out of our research centers. And I'm so glad that citrus is starting to have some hope in that regard because I think, as Floridians, we can all get behind that.

LARA:
One thing like Shannon and I have a very localized perspective being county agents and working at the county level. And we know that all Floridians benefit both from our ag lands and our natural lands. We try and touch on that as much as we can in our podcast episodes. But how do you really see IFAS bridging the divide between these two major areas of ag and natural resources?

DR. ANGLE:
Yeah, that's a great question because there's no way you can separate natural resources, the environment from agriculture. They are intertwined at many different levels. Agriculture can have a negative impact on our natural resources. It can have a positive impact on our natural resources. Obviously, that's the goal to make sure that farmers that are growing, whether it's a plant or animal species, does not just have a neutral impact on environment or natural resources, but actually can have a positive impact on our natural resources.

There are lots of examples of that. Farmland that’s properly managed can actually enhance the number of animal species on that land. So it is science and it's technology. And farmers sometimes have to do things a little differently to do that. But it is possible if they pay attention to the need for natural resource protection, and sometimes even enhancement.

SHANNON:
Yeah, that's a great point. A lot of our ranch lands here in Polk County and across central and south Florida provide wonderful habitat for a lot of wildlife species, including many endangered species. Now, in some of our past episodes, we've talked about the water quality question from an urban perspective, and we were wondering if you could go into a little bit more detail about water quality from a ag perspective.

DR. ANGLE:
Yeah, it's very complicated, first of all. Agriculture can have a negative impact on water quality. And there are examples here in Florida of that happening, particularly from a historical perspective. But more recently we've been using ag land actually to clean up water and make sure that water, as it moves downstream or even into our bays and tidal areas, is cleaner than what it was leaving a field.

So it's complicated, but it takes a lot of management. I'll give you one quick example. One of the major concerns in Florida is that for some of our springs and lakes, it is enriched with nutrients, nitrogen and phosphorus in particular. Nitrogen, phosphorous, of course, comes from everyday living—from septic tanks, and if you fertilize your lawn that can be a part of it.

But some of it also comes from agriculture. And so while we can't control everything, I think agriculture has a responsibility for assuring that the loss of nutrients from farmland into bodies of water is minimized as much as possible. Now, we still need farmland. I've been around, I've been in public meetings, particularly in metro areas where they tell me the solution is let's just get rid of agriculture.

Well, that doesn't work very well when we all need to eat on a regular basis. So we are going to have agriculture. But there is a responsibility to try to reduce the loss of nutrients from farmland into water. And as you just suggested a minute ago, it's even now possible through appropriate management to actually clean up water that might be contaminated with nutrients.

And so that when it leaves that farmland, it can even be cleaner than when it went into the farm. So there are a lot of ways we can do that. You can run it through fields of dense vegetation, swamps, marshes. They all can have a very positive impact. And we're still learning how we can manage these technologies that will improve water quality and how they integrate with agriculture.

But it's turning out that there are a lot of opportunities for agriculture. Number one, no longer to be a source of nutrients and water and degrade water quality. Number two, to have kind of a net balance—no in, no out. But now we're learning it can actually be a very positive for cleaning up water quality. So agriculture can, the water that leaves farming can be sometimes cleaner than the water that moved on to that farm.

SHANNON:
Which is fantastic news for all of our riverine ecosystems, our lakes and our marine ecosystems at the coast, right. So these are all ecosystems that our listeners care a lot about. From what we can tell, our listeners here at “Naturally Florida,” are residents and visitors who care a lot about the beautiful spaces we have in Florida, but they’re everyday people, they're not research scientists.

So as the VP of Ag and Natural Resources at the University of Florida, if there was one thing you could tell them about what IFAS is doing to make their lives better, what would it be?

DR. ANGLE:
Yeah, sometimes we can get a little geeky (LAUGHTER) in talking about science, and too much in the weeds literally and figuratively. But there are some more examples that are quite a bit obvious to everyone. Probably the main example that everyone thinks about everyone is concerned about would be protection of manatees within our streams and estuarine areas. Manatees are challenged from a number of different perspectives, but here are some of the things we're doing at IFAS to protect the manatee population.

First of all, under IFAS we have the vet school of the University of Florida. And so when a manatee is injured, we will often dispatch veterinarians along with their students to both care for the manatee, but also teach students how to care for wildlife at the same time.

Manatees live among the grasses that grow on the bottom of our rivers and streams. That's where they forage. That’s where a lot of their food is found. Some of this we call “submerged aquatic vegetation,” but basically grasses that live underwater. They are challenged. We've lost a lot of those grasses. And so IFAS is looking for ways that we can reestablish grasses growing on the bottom of our streams and rivers so that the habitat for the manatee will be enhanced.

And lastly, particularly through a lot of our marine and aquatic programs, we're working with boaters to teach them how not to run over manatees, where they are found, how to avoid them. There's a lot of technique that boaters can follow that will protect the health and the lives of manatees. And so we have a very large extension education program to help boaters understand the risks that are associated with manatees.

LARA:
That is awesome. It actually reminds me, I just recently met Vicki Gambale with Florida Sea Grant. She is also working with boaters doing outreach and education about specific to the Clean Vessel Act, but how boaters can basically lessen their contribution to water quality issues. And it is amazing. And personally, that's one thing that I really love in extension is our connection with our clientele.

You know, whether that is boat owners or septic tank owners. You know, we really can help everyone in some way, shape or form. And sometimes our work actually focuses on helping unique clientele like our wildlife species. And I actually understand that you just this morning got to see firsthand some of the work that IFAS researchers are doing on the endangered snail kite. Would you mind telling us a little bit about that?

DR. ANGLE:
I was impressed by what I saw today. The snail kite—which I'm not a birder, by the way. (LAUGHTER) And so I am… probably all of your listeners know more about this than I do, but I came today to learn more about the snail kite and some of the challenges that it is facing. These are limited populations. These are birds that feed almost exclusively on snails.

And so they have more restrictions in how they live and where they can live than a lot of other bird species do. So it is a endangered species within our area. Populations are relatively low. But we have several scientists…I was with Rob Fletcher today, Dr. Rob Fletcher who works for IFAS in our wildlife and ecology section. And he's studying ways that we can both protect the snail kite and enhance its range in number within these areas where the snail kite could live.

So there are a lot of things that we can do. Probably protecting habitat would be one of the most important. But just understanding the lives of snail kites: Where do they nest? How do they nest? What attracts them, what discourages them from moving into an area?

He's got a world-class program and has learned an awful lot about the snail kite.
And so we can then use that information that he has developed to enhance the habitat so that hopefully we can encourage more snail kites moving into this area, more reproduction and more birds overall. It's a fascinating species that has a very unique niche. And I think if we were to lose that species from our area, it'd be a real loss for our ecosystem.

SHANNON:
Yeah, I agree. Between the two of us, Lara is the birder, though. So, Lara, could you describe the snail kite for our listeners just in case they haven't seen one?

LARA:
Yeah, sure. So if you've never seen a snail kite, they're a medium-sized raptor. They're either slate gray if it's male, or brown if they're female. Then they have pretty distinct coloration throughout. So their eyes are red; their legs are kind of a reddish orange. And then their bill is kind of more of a yellowish orange, but you really want to hone in on that bill, because it's very, very curved.

It's exclusively designed for excavating those apple snails. Like you said, Dr. Angle, they’re, you know, specialists. So that is like their main food source. So you really, really want to look for that. But yeah, and you guys can, you know, look it up. We’ll link some stuff in the show notes if you want to find out more.

DR. ANGLE:
One of the things I was really impressed by today—in addition to learning more about kind of the life cycle of the snail kite—I also learned that it's a big part of the economy. While we were out on the lake several airboats came by, each with 10 or 20 people in them. And I was told that these are people from all over the world who have come in to this area to just see a snail kite.

They've read about them. They know about their endangered status. And birders, as you know, one of the many important things in the birding community is to be able to check off that you've seen that bird. And so it's part of our economy, too. It's not just the ecology and it's not just for every natural resource. It's part of our business economy for bringing people here.


Of course, we need to make sure that they don’t, that tourists don't become a burden and actually discourage these populations. But when properly handled and managed, they can bring money into the economy and raise awareness of the snail kite and the need to protect them.

LARA:
Yeah, that's a good point. And we do usually try and incorporate some type of call to action for our listeners. So that would be a good one—talking about protection of snail kites and their habitat. So they are considered endangered at the federal level. And we're currently in their active nesting season. It's usually like February through July. They can nest year-round, but we really want to stay at least 500 feet away from any active nest site.

Because they're so well studied, most of these nest sites are going to be marked with signage to tell you that. But we also know, because they're so well researched, that they are really prone to having, like, failed nests if they are disturbed in any way. So we just want to do our part and if we are curious and want to go see them, that we just do so from a nice, safe and respectful distance.

SHANNON:
Yeah, that's a great point, Lara. Thanks for bringing up a call to action. So back to the data that you were just discussing, Dr. Angle. It sounds like Dr. Fletcher's immense amount of data presents a lot of opportunity for future research. Can you spend a minute going into some of the innovative ways IFAS is looking to work with these humongous data sets?

DR. ANGLE:
Yes, tremendous amounts of data are being collected by Dr. Fletcher with the snail kite, other species he studies, but also other areas of natural resources. And it almost gets to the point where it becomes unmanageable. There is so much information, there's so much data that no human can wrap their brain around all of that data to actually turn that into actionable management needs.

And so how do we do that? The University of Florida has recently invested in what I think probably will be the most important way of addressing the data that we are collecting now in such large quantities and that’s through the process of artificial intelligence. The university is, we’re hiring lots of new faculty, including in the area of natural resource management. We have one of the fastest AI supercomputers anywhere in the world.

And so we are literally right now building a program that will allow artificial intelligence to begin to sift through this data in a way that no human can do, sift through the data and find patterns within that data that will then inform us about how we can manage the snail kite or submerged aquatic vegetation or manatees or any other natural resource issue.

It could even be how will we, for instance, sequester carbon out of the atmosphere and lock it up in soil and begin to deal with climate change? The ability of artificial intelligence now to unlock the human mind or the constraints of the human mind and really open it up to things that we're not capable of understanding, the AI supercomputer will be able to do that for us and that’s going to move us dramatically ahead in our ability to manage natural resources.

LARA:
Wow. Yeah, that's amazing! The advances in technology and all that the researchers and scientists can do, it just always amazes me. So thank you for sharing some of that insight. And I think that's actually a really good way to wrap up our interview with you today, just kind of highlighting the future and IFAS and really all worlds of research in agriculture and natural resources.

And so we just want to thank you so much for taking time out of your very busy schedule to come and sit and be on our podcast with me and Shannon. And we look forward to hearing more fun stuff coming out of IFAS in the future.

DR. ANGLE:
Well, thank you. It's a pleasure to meet the two of you and appreciate the opportunity to join you.

SHANNON:
Yes. Thank you so much, Dr. Angle. And thank you to everyone listening today to this special interview with University of Florida’s Senior Vice President of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Dr. Scott Angle. Don't forget to check out the show notes today where we will put a bevy of resources in case you're interested in learning more.

Thanks for listening to “Naturally Florida,” a podcast about Florida's natural areas and the wild things that live here. Stay updated on new episodes by subscribing on your favorite podcast platform. If you enjoyed today's episode, consider sharing it with a friend. “Naturally’” is produced by your hosts Shannon Carnevale

LARA:
and Lara Milligan.

SHANNON:
If you have questions or suggestions, submit them online at naturallyfloridapodcast.com. This podcast is brought to you by the University of Florida's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences Extension, an Equal Opportunity Institution. Thank you for listening.

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