By Peter Roos
Tampa Bay Watch is celebrating its 29th anniversary by thanking the entire community for supporting bay restoration and education programs. Each volunteer, member, partner, and sponsor truly make a difference and plays a key role in the important work that Tampa Bay Watch does.
Since 1993, these people have helped them coordinate more than 250,000 volunteers, students, and campers, install 15,000 oyster reef units and 2,500 tons of oyster shell to create more than two miles of oyster shell reef communities, and plant more than1,000,000 native grasses to restore 250 acres of coastal tidal ponds.
They are seeking unpaid college interns to assist with their summer camp program at both the Discovery Center and their Marine Education Center in Tierra Verde. The internship will be serving students ages 6-15 and each summer camp location offers weekly, fun-filled, hands-on learning adventures focused on marine ecology.
Upcoming volunteer opportunities include reef ball construction twice a week to a native grass planting on Saturday, 3/26. Opportunities to get involved with habitat restoration over the next month abound!
Brick Street Farms partnered with @byosolar to take their new urban hub model to a whole new level of sustainable farming! They worked closely on a solar design that will not only provide enough energy to power our container farms, but through the design and placement of the panels, rainwater will be collected, filtered, and used to water the plants inside. The unique design allows their grow hubs to function as sustainable, renewable farm plots.
Charlie Crist reported that Eckerd College will supplement its ongoing work to reduce ocean pollution resulting from single-use plastics. Awarded as part of the EPA’s Gulf of Mexico Program, a $500,000 grant will provide funding for Eckerd to create a mobile application that will help Pinellas County residents digitally track their single-use plastic consumption with the goal of keeping waste out of the Gulf of Mexico. As a member of the powerful House Appropriations Committee, Crist was able to secure $20 million for the Gulf of Mexico Geographic Program in Fiscal Year 2021. TampaBayWatch.org