PALM CITY, Fla. — A Martin County community is restoring a mangrove island next to their marina that erosion has slowly destroyed.
Residents at Piper's Landing Yacht and Country Club spent two years cultivating 6,000 mangroves in an on-site nursery. Now, they are planting them in the waterway to bring the island back to life.
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"The mangroves were so thick and lush and we've watched them deteriorate and in some areas the island is dead now," Lisa Standing, a resident at Piper's Landing Yacht and Country Club, said.
Standing rallied her neighbors to take action. The community built 10 planter pools to grow red and white mangroves.
"We were able to collect just white and red seeds from our mangrove island," Standing said.
The effort required extensive research and permitting before a single plant could go into the water. They say it was an elaborate operation that turned into a labor of love
"We tried to match the habitat of all of our plants to the river habitat," Standing said. "We were here almost every day in the nursery and we inspected the plants, watered them if needed, monitored their health, matched salinity to the river."
With the nursery phase complete, residents brought in Keith Rossin, CEO of Mang Consulting Services, to do the planting.
"These are dredge filled little management areas and so they take that dredge fill and they actually bring it up to the right level for the elevation for the mangroves and that allows for us to plant these mangroves in here so this very unique way I've never actually seen this done before of how we can actually create mangrove habitat," Rossin said.
What are now thousands of small trees are expected to grow into the foundation of a new ecosystem.
"We will be able to go down to the mangrove island and enjoy beautiful lush island," Standing said. "It's just wonderful."
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