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Salt marshes are among the most productive ecosystems in the world. They create habitat for wildlife, protect shorelines from erosion, reduce flooding, and protect water quality by filtering runoff.
About a dozen volunteers wearing rubber boots and slathered in sunscreen have come to Robinson Preserve along the south shore of the Manatee River in Northeast Bradenton to plant saltmarsh grass
along new areas of tidal basin.
Damon Moore, a Division Manager with Manatee County s Parks & Natural Resources, gathered this crew at a marsh grass nursery created a decade ago at this 600-plus acre park.
The first part of bolstering this important coastal habitat is digging up the cordgrass before transplanting it to bare shoreline elsewhere in the preserve.