MEDIA ADVISORY: Oct. 4, 2012
DEP’S INDIAN RIVER LAGOON AQUATIC PRESERVE OFFERS MANGROVE FOSTER CARE EVENTS
~Growing a mangrove for spring planting involves participants in a unique ecosystem restoration opportunity~
BREVARD COUNTY – With minimal effort, a person can help
restore their local shoreline by fostering a mangrove. The first in a series of
mangrove fostering events will take place at the Brevard Zoo on Thursday evening.
A brief
informative workshop will teach participants the importance of mangroves within the
Indian River Lagoon Aquatic Preserve and provided them with the opportunity to
take home and foster a mangrove. Foster
parents are needed and are important to the program because there is not enough
covered nursery space to care for mangroves
through colder months. In the spring, the mangroves are returned to the Preserve’s
Shoreline Restoration Project to be planted along a shoreline.
“One person
nurturing one mangrove for planting in the spring can protect the shoreline,”said
Kevin Claridge, director of the Department’s Coastal and Aquatic Managed
Areas. “Mangroves multiply and create a
wide coastal fringe that will help protect the land from waves during storms
and provide valuable fish habitat.”
Caring for
the plants is simple:
-
Keep
the pot moist;
- Don't use fertilizer;
- Keep inside or outside - if outside bring in during frost events
Mangrove
workshops are scheduled to be held at the Brevard Zoo twice a month in October and November.
These workshops include a presentation about the three different species of
mangroves found in Florida, the Indian River Lagoon ecosystem, the Indian River
Lagoon Shoreline Restoration Project and its partnership with the Brevard Zoo,
as well as how to care for a foster mangrove. Following the presentation is a
private tour of Brevard Zoo’s Indian River Lagoon aquarium, where the foster
parents are able to view red mangroves in the type of habitat they would create
and enhance once planted along the Indian River Lagoon shoreline. To conclude the workshop, the volunteers are
given their own foster mangrove to take home and nurture.
The next workshops are:
Oct. 4, 6-7 p.m.
Oct. 6, 6-7 p.m.
Oct. 17, 6-7 p.m.
Brevard Zoo
8225 N. Wickham Road
Melbourne, FL 32940
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