Foundation creates playbook to improve water quality

The Gulf Coast Community Foundation created a playbook that highlights 43 activities that could keep Sarasota’s waterways clean and healthy.

It’s no secret that one of the biggest attractors to Sarasota County is the waterways that surround and weave their way throughout the area.

That’s why the Gulf Coast Community Foundation launched a new initiative — The Community Playbook for Healthy Waterways — to help residents and county leaders focus on keeping those waterways clean and healthy.

Jon Thaxton, Gulf Coast Community Foundation senior vice president, said at a Siesta Key Association meeting that the organization first got the idea for a playbook when the county was experiencing red tide outbreaks in 2019.

Gulf Coast Community Foundation leaders hope the playbook will encourage and inform residents and policymakers on how to improve water quality.

After learning about factors that contributed to red tide, such as unnatural nutrients entering the county’s waterways, Thaxton said the organization felt called to do something.