By Nanette Wiser
WATER WISE As the holidays approach, consider the gift that keeps on giving our planet a chance with a donation to an eco-friendly organization like Tampa Bay Watch or shop their online store. Volunteer with your friends and family at their estuary clean-ups/restoration projects or gift a membership to the Tampa Bay Watch Discovery Center, a sea-worthy experience. One of their regular activities is a morning at the Tampa Bay Watch Marine Education Center, 3000 Pinellas Bayway South in Tierra Verde to help build oyster reef balls! This task involves pouring marine-friendly concrete into a fiberglass mold to create oyster reef balls, then taking apart the molds when dry. The reef balls will be installed at a future date to stabilize shorelines and prevent erosion while creating habitat similar to natural oyster communities found along shoreline areas throughout Tampa Bay. www.tampabaywatch.org
CLIMATE-LOVING CITIES Tampa Bay Innovation Center’s next cohort program (1/2023) will focus on sustainability start-up companies, working with Florida Power and Light and Duke Energy, all interested in climate tech and clean tech innovators. PODS will also support the program with mentoring and financial support as well as Ark Invest, who holds the naming rights to the TBIC’s new building to open in summer 2023, the Ark Innovation Center. Hoping to support sustainable solutions from Florida start-ups, TBIC is looking for these idea imagineers: Energy storage and delivery (smart-grid), smart buildings and low impact development, sustainable sources of power generation, supply chain or retail waste reduction, low waste manufacturing and clean water/water conservation. www.tbinnovates.com/accelerator
TORTOISE SAVIOR Evolutionary biologist and herpetologist Peter Scott joins Eckerd College this fall as an assistant professor of biology. He appeared on the cover of Science magazine in 2020 as the lead author of a study of the DNA of Mojave Desert tortoises. Scott and his fellow researcher at UCLA collaborated with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to study the tortoises that had been placed in its Large Scale Translocation Site in the Ivanpah Valley southeast of Las Vegas. According to published reports, many of the tortoises were kept as pets, which became illegal when the animals were added to the endangered species list or had to be moved because of development. The Fish and Wildlife Service wanted to see if the tortoises could safely reenter the wild.