A decade and a half after Franklin Fifth graders first started planting a living shoreline at ANERR. It is exciting to see that the plant formerly known as Spartina alterniflora (smooth chordgrass) is flourishing. The most recent classes to visit and plant Spartina alterniflora dug into the sand and dug into the data with equal enthusiasm.

Northwest Florida Aquatic Preserves (NWFLAP) staff recently planted a living shoreline project with the help of local students from Washington High School. These students are part of our Grasses to Classes program where they learn about living shorelines and care for three different species of salt marsh plants throughout the school year.

For the past five years, Northwest Florida Aquatic Preserve has been working on a grant funded by Deepwater Horizon Program’s Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA) to add additional plantings of native vegetation to the islands at Project GreenShores II, place informational signage, remove invasive species and debris, and conduct monitoring.  

ORCP staff worked together to capture drone images of the living shoreline along Cat Point. Living shorelines have been monitored along Cat Point since 2004, with breakwaters and marsh plantings added throughout the years. The team set out to deploy ground control points (GCPs) across the survey space. Flights were flown the next day at low tide.

Dr. Serina Wittyngham from the University of North Florida and members of the Guana Tolomato Matanzas National Estuarine Research Reserve staff selected sites to monitor the upland edge and transition zones of the marshes on the Guana Peninsula. This will be part of a long-term monitoring project that focuses on marsh migration into the uplands. Dr. Wittyngham also installed one of her plots.