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Swiftmud Recognizes South Shore Volunteers

Photo from TECO

Fourth graders from Redlands Christian Migrant Association Academy in Ruskin helped Tampa Electric Co. plant native grasses along the shoreline of Newman Branch Creek last spring.

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By YVETTE C. HAMMETT

yhammett@tampatrib.com

Published: March 25, 2009

DADE CITY - Their work makes a difference - along the shoreline of Tampa Bay and further inland.

Since 1991, volunteers have offered more than $1 million in hourly service to environmental projects in the region.

On March 14, the Southwest Florida Water Management District recognized many of these helpers for their volunteer work in 2008. Several, including a number of children, are from the South Shore area.

Wendy Anastasiou, director of Tampa Electric Co.'s Manatee Observation Center, coordinated two events involving youngsters from the South Shore area. Both involved planting on TECO-owned property that has been set aside for conservation, said Brandt Henningsen, senior scientist with the state's Surface Water Improvement and Management program, or SWIM.

Henningsen coordinates much of the restoration work along Tampa Bay's shoreline and counts on volunteers such as those from TECO to pitch in, he said.

For the first project, Anastasiou rounded up 200 fourth-graders from Ruskin Elementary School to plant 3,400 plugs of spartina grass that will help stabilize the shoreline along Newman Branch Creek, south of Big Bend Road.

The students also learned the meaning of environmental restoration and what it accomplishes, Anastasiou said.

The second project included 20 students from the Redlands Christian Migrant Association Academy in Wimauma, who planted about 1,000 plugs of marsh grass along the same creek.

Both school groups were recognized by the water district.

Before the restoration work started at Newman Branch Creek, Anastasiou said invasive Brazilian peppers had taken over a former fish farm. The SWIM team re-contoured the area, restoring freshwater uplands and the estuarine tidal creek, she said. After that, the volunteers stepped in to plant.

Tampa Bay Watch environmental scientist Martha Garcia also received an award for her work with the Grasses in Classes program, in which high school students raise marsh grass in school-based greenhouses for use in Tampa Bay shoreline-restoration projects.

"They had three different volunteer events in 2008, including one upland planting at Schultz Preserve," Henningsen said, referring to the Fred and Ira Schultz Preserve south of Big Bend Road.

Another of the Tampa Bay Watch projects was a volunteer planting of red mangrove seedlings purchased by the National Football League. The NFL participates in environmental projects that help offset carbon emissions produced during Super Bowl games. This year's big game was held in Tampa.

Inmates from the Manatee County Sheriff's Correctional Facility also received an award for volunteering to harvest thousands of marsh grass plugs from a nursery at the state's fish hatchery at Port Manatee. The hatchery received an award for growing and donating the plugs.

Henningsen said the volunteer efforts are critical, not only as a savings to taxpayers but because of their environmental benefit.

"It's a huge environmental education opportunity, especially for students to learn to appreciate the resources," Henningsen said.

Since he started coordinating volunteers for SWIM initiatives in 1991, volunteers have put in 55,000 hours of service to help with projects along Tampa Bay, he said.

The federal government values each hour at $19.51. In 2008, Henningsen said, volunteers logged 1,505 hours of volunteer service in 2008.

"These are just people of all ages from all walks of life coming out to help," he said.

Reporter Yvette C. Hammett can be reached at (813) 865-1566.

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