With the help of a State Farm Youth Advisory Board grant and the Museum’s Reclamation Project, students participating in the Museum’s Upward Bound program are serving as Eco-Ambassadors to south Florida’s unique environments. We have all seen the PSAs (public service announcements) that make you stop and think, like NBC’s “The More You Know…” series. Now, our student Eco-Ambassadors are creating their own PSAs in a 5-day One Water Workshop. They’re learning about the whole process of creating a PSA, from scripting to filming to editing, and doing it all themselves in small groups of 4 or 5. The teamwork and creativity brought out in a project like this represents the same kind of effort that we need to apply to involving our communities in environmental conservation. These students are taking a first step towards that goal, by creating their PSAs on topics ranging from natural resource exploitation to restoration to environmental economics. The final films will be finished on January 7, and will be posted to the Miami Science Museum and State Farm Youth Advisory Board websites. So be sure to check back! Because the more you know…

A lone mangrove seedling

On Saturday, December 8^th, 60 Upward Bound Eco-Ambassadors joined a group of volunteers from Miami-Dade College in replanting almost 1,000 mangrove propagules at R. Hardy Matheson Preserve. The Preserve is undergoing a major management effort by Miami-Dade County to remove exotic plants, replant native habitats such as mangroves, and create a multi-use protected area for recreational activities.

In all, over 100 volunteers participated in planting mangrove seedlings that had been exhibited on a wall at Miami Science Museum since November 2011, as part of the Museum’s Reclamation Project.  Specifically, they planted young mangrove plants along the banks of the Snapper Creek, a historical waterway. Not only does Snapper Creek have historical significance, as evidenced by a 500 B.C. Tequesta Indian habitation mound, but it is also one of the largest tracts of coastal native habitat in Miami-Dade County. Until recently, the banks of the creek where the volunteers planted were covered in large mounds of landfill which were dumped there as part of periodic dredging of the creek for the purpose of recreational navigation. These mounds were also, until recently, covered in invasive plants such as Australian pine and Brazilian pepper, and devoid of any native vegetation. Thanks to the efforts of these Eco-Ambassadors, this area will once again be covered in mangroves and associated plants which will provide food and shelter for native birds, mammals and reptiles, such as the endangered American crocodile and the West Indian manatee.

This effort is being funded by a State Farm Youth Advisory Board grant to engage local teenagers in restoring local habitat, outdoor learning and telling their own stories about South Florida’s natural areas through film. Click here for more information on the Reclamation Project, the Eco-Ambassadors, and the State Farm Youth Advisory Board.

The eco-ambassadors gather to start the day

The group wades into the water to replant mangroves

In recent times, it seems more and more difficult for humans to avoid negatively impacting nature. But that does not mean that we can’t make a positive impact. The Museum’s eco-art Reclamation Project works to help restore our coastal environments. You can see these efforts every day, on an exterior wall by the Museum’s Wildlife Center. More than 1,100 mangrove seedlings are lined up in biodegradable cups, waiting to be replanted at several restoration sites scattered throughout Miami. Each year, when all the seedlings are taken to be planted, 1,100 more seedlings are brought in to replace the ones that were taken out. This year, as part of a grant from State Farm Youth Advisory Board, students from the Miami Science Museum’s Upward Bound Math and Science program replaced the 1,100 red mangrove seedlings on the wall with new ones they had collected in September from Bear Cut Preserve on Key Biscayne and Matheson Hammock County Park. The seedlings taken down off the wall will be replanted by the Upward Bound students over the next couple weeks at R. Hardy Matheson Preserve, a Miami-Dade County Park, and on Virginia Key. As part of the same grant, students also visited a restoration site at  Oleta River State Park that is currently covered in invasive species. In the spring, students will help restore the site by replanting 1.5 acres. Through these activities, students begin to have a first-hand understand of the importance of nature – because humans and animals need nature in order to survive, and nature certainly needs our help to survive as well.