Volunteers Donate 4,100 Hours Removing Trash and Planting Native Vegetation to Help Keep PBC Clean and Green

For immediate release: January 20, 2012
Contact: Ann Mathews, 561-233-2426

North Jupiter Flatwoods Natural Area

North Jupiter Flatwoods Natural Area

Cypress Creek Natural Area

The numbers have been crunched and the results are outstanding. Volunteers with the Palm Beach County Department of Environmental Resources Management (ERM) donated more than 4,100 labor hours in 2011 to help Palm Beach County’s environment.

More than 1,100 volunteers worked on 76 habitat restoration projects in county-owned natural areas and restoration areas. They removed 54,907 pounds of trash and invasive exotic vegetation from wooded areas, scrublands, and along the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway and Lake Worth Lagoon. The trash varied from beer bottles and soda cans to kitchen appliances and parts from a Chevy Impala.

Volunteers also planted 31,000 native trees, grasses and shrubs, including 12,700 red mangroves, at restoration projects at Juno Dunes, Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse, Hypoluxo Scrub, Yamato Scrub, and Pondhawk natural areas. Volunteers moved mulch to prevent weed growth and preserve soil moisture around just-planted native vegetation. They collected 3,000 red mangrove seedlings for use in 2012 wetland restoration projects, and erected 700 feet of fencing to protect threatened gopher tortoises.

ERM’s volunteer program is a valuable tool that offers land managers a large supply of energetic workers who fight the heat, insects and difficult terrain to help protect the county’s natural treasures. For more information on joining ERM’s volunteer program, please visit the department’s website at www.pbcgov.com/erm.