Mangrove restoration project moves forward

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s Rookery Bay National Estuarine Reserve is working to fulfill a mangrove restoration project at the corner of Collier Boulevard (SR 951) and Capri Boulevard, between Naples and Marco Island.

Funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Community-based Restoration Program, the project will restore and enhance approximately two acres of mangrove habitat and is scheduled to commence Sept. 1.

“We will be overseeing contractors as they remove a sandbag seawall and expand an existing small borrow pond to restore and enhance a mangrove forest,” said project manager Cheryl Metzger of Rookery Bay Reserve.

“The Rookery Bay Reserve contains one of the few undisturbed tropical mangrove forests in North America and maintaining these forests is an important part of what we do here,” she added.

Contractors will create a tidal creek approximately 20-feet wide with a two-foot-deep flushing cut to provide sufficient tidal flushing within the restored mangrove system. During the initial phase of the excavation, a coconut mat will be placed and seashore paspalum (turf grass) planted on the side slopes to prevent erosion. Although grading will help restore elevations appropriate for natural recruitment of mangroves, approximately 1,000 red mangrove seedlings will be planted by a corps of volunteers.