Shoring up waterways

By AMANDA PALLESCHI
Published April 30, 2007

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Erika Barth dug into the wet sand at Schultz Nature Preserve to make a new home for a cordgrass plant.

She was doing her part to restore the shoreline and create a new habitat for Tampa Bay wildlife, but her fresh manicure was eroding.

The Sickles High School senior didn't mind. Prom was last weekend anyway, she said. She joined about 35 members of the East Bay High School FFA, the environmental group Tampa Bay Watch and adult volunteers on a recent Saturday to help restore shoreline near the Schultz Nature Preserve and at Whiskey Stump Key in Hillsborough Bay near Gibsonton.

The students waded through tall brush to the waterfront near Whiskey Stump Key to plant salt marsh, or cordgrass, plants. The smart ones brought gardening gloves and wore sneakers or galoshes. Others made do with flip-flops and bare hands.

The 5, 000 salt marsh plants they would plant that day retain soil, feed birds, house crustaceans in Tampa Bay and filter stormwater, said Martha Garcia, an environmental specialist for Tampa Bay Watch.

East Bay High School students have been working on the plants for months through their agriscience classes, where they care for the plants, learn how to test the water, and spot insects and diseases.

Nicole Custer and Jessica Blocker, both 15, don't really want to be farmers. They joined East Bay's FFA and the agriscience program because they are interested in the program's veterinary-assistant classes. But the East Bay freshmen happily hauled coolers out to Whiskey Stump Key on April 21.

For others, the effort was part of a larger passion. Barth made East Bay's project a stop on her campaign to become an FFA state officer.

"It's one of those things you get addicted to, " she said, her fingernails - and cheeks - covered in wet sand.

Amanda Palleschi can be reached at (813) 661-2456.