One of the largest mangrove restoration projects in Florida history is finished, repairing damage from a decades-old mistake that was hiding in plain sight.
For eighty years, a stretch of mangrove forest on the edge of Marco Island has been dying.
The reason was hiding right under people's tires: San Marco Road.
It was built in 1945, across a mile of mangrove swamp along Marco Island.
The construction didn’t leave enough space underneath for the water in two creeks to flow freely back to where it once did.
It’s tough to overstate the importance of mangrove forests along Florida’s Gulf Coast, where they shield homes and lives from hurricane storm surge. Mangroves, which are both trees and shrubs, provide canopies that are vital roosting habitat for herons, egrets, pelicans, and other coastal birds. Mangroves' dense root systems, which protect juvenile fish, crabs, and shrimp while the little creatures mature, are truly gnarly.
Mangrove forests are one of the most effective ecosystems on the planet in helping humans deal with climate change as they store up to five times more carbon per acre than tropical rainforests. Despite covering less than 1% of coastal areas, mangrove forests account for up to 15% of all carbon stored in coastal sediments worldwide after trapping carbon in the oxygen-poor mud beneath them for thousands of years.
More:
- Florida's Coastal Savior: The Benefits of Mangroves
- Importance of mangroves the focus at upcoming Sanibel events
- Go To: Smithsonian Museum of Natural History - Mangrove Restoration: Letting Mother Nature Do The Work
- WATCH: Southwest Florida in Focus - Rebuilding Florida’s depleted mangrove forests
By the time everyone realized what was in the mangrove forest on Marco Island, 64 acres of mangroves were dead. Nearly 160 acres of the green forest was sick, stunted, damaged, and failing.
The land had become part of what is now the Rookery Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve.
Several years ago, crews began clearing out decades of sediment built-up in a pair of creeks under the road. They pushed culverts five feet in diameter under the road.
The $3 million restoration, at Fruit Farm Creek, is one of the largest repairs to a mangrove forest in Florida history.
Now incoming tides are flooding the mangrove forest once again.
Environmental reporting for WGCU is funded in part by VoLo Foundation, a nonprofit with a mission to accelerate change and global impact by supporting science-based climate solutions, enhancing education, and improving health.
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