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A team of students from Countryside High School’s “Bay Grasses in Classes” program recently planted plugs of Spartina alterniflora, salt marsh or smooth cord grass, along Tarpon Key, just west of the Sunshine Skyway Bridge near Tierra Verde.
Visiting Tarpon Key is a rare opportunity since it is a National Wildlife Refuge managed by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and can only be accessed via boat. The planting project is intended to help replenish the eroding shoreline while offering wildlife secure places for nursery areas and foraging habitat on the island.
The planting was sponsored by The Laramar Group, a development company that creates apartment homes that are water and energy efficient, have reduced carbon footprints, and have landscapes with reduced fertilizer, pesticide and irrigation needs.
“Our commitment to protecting the environment led us to this unique partnership with Tampa Bay Watch,” said Steve Boyack, Laramar’s vice president of asset management. “By sponsoring the Bay Grasses in Classes program, Laramar is working with Tampa Bay Watch to greatly improve water quality and seagrass habitat in Tampa Bay.”
Tampa Bay Watch initiated Bay Grasses in Classes in 1994. Salt marsh wetland nurseries have been established at several bay area schools through this program.
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