National

BNT Takes Mangrove Restoration to East GB

GRAND BAHAMA, BAHAMAS – It was two days of mangrove restoration when Our News joined the Bahamas National Trust in Grand Bahama this week.

Published

1 year ago

July 30, 2023

Jameelha Missick

GRAND BAHAMA, BAHAMAS – It was two days of mangrove restoration when Our News joined the Bahamas National Trust in Grand Bahama this week.

Our mission? To plant red mangroves in areas severely impacted by deadly and destructive Hurricane Dorian.

But first volunteers headed west to Paradise Cove to collect seeds of red mangroves also known as propagules.

Executive Director of the Perry Institute for Marine Science, Craig Dahlgren. And after a quick briefing on exactly what to do, it was time to get picking.

After collecting, sorting and counting all the propagules, the real work began.

A 30-minute boat ride to a remote area in east Grand Bahama, is where the team hoped to plant 4,000 red mangrove propagules.

So exactly why is this mangrove restoration effort critical?

And with that it was now time to get planting.

I also got down and dirty planting some propagules of my own and lets just say, this is probably the easiest thing I’ll ever plant.

Before returning to the mainland, we stopped by an area where a team of volunteers planted propagules one year ago and as you can see those little mangroves are now in bloom.

Plant around 8,000 propagules this trip may seem like a whole lot, but Sands says there’s still much more work to be done to restore the mangrove population.