Microforest supporters aim for macro results to help Southwest Florida environment (and other environmental news)

[wondermint2]

Sarasota County Celebrates National Public Lands Day

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/sa...4aecff9b&ei=83

National Public Lands Day is the largest volunteer event in the nation. Sarasota County invited volunteers to help restore the trail at Potter Park in Sarasota.

The trail spans over three and a half miles. Volunteers gathered at 8:30am and worked together for hours, pulling weeds, planting flowers, and cutting tree roots blocking the trail, to restore the beautiful land.

The county is focused on this area because Potter Park is surrounded by neighborhoods, so they want to make it safer for the public. Sarasota County Parks and Recreation also brought out their brand-new mascot, a tree, of course! They say they have not named it, but they are looking for one.

Many volunteers say they grew up in Sarasota and keeping the land beautiful is important to them. “I’m from Sarasota County so I love visiting our parks and seeing all our nature,” said Carmen Carrion, a volunteer.

The county says after this morning they will still have much work to do one the trail. The next step is laying down shells as pavement on the trail.

[wondermint2]

Longboat Key environmental project restores treasured lagoon’s link to Sarasota Bay

For full article:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/lo...4e683804&ei=38

It’s Longboat Key’s sand.

They paid for a lot of it, they wanted to enjoy it, and they wanted it back.

A project recently completed just east of the Longboat Pass bridge on the north end of the island accomplished a lot of that in one swoop. But it wasn’t exactly a pail-and-shovel endeavor, and it wasn’t exactly a proposal that happened at the snap of a finger.

The Canal 1A project, conceived in 2018 for about $1.1 million in construction fees, served two purposes: shaving the ever-growing spit of sand that at times has cut access to the lagoon at the center of Greer Island; and returning thousands of cubic yards of that sand to nearby Gulf beaches.

“The sand goes right back on the beach, which is where it was supposed to stay originally, just that sand never really stays where you want it to,’’ City Manager Howard Tipton said recently in his monthly report to town residents. “It’s either moving north and south or east and west.’’

The sand wasn’t doing residents and visitors much good on the east side of the Longboat Pass bridge linking Anna Maria Island and Longboat Key. In fact, sand – through the years and most recently after a multimillion-dollar beach renourishment project up and down the shoreline – has consistently flowed off the northern beaches and piled up in places it never was before.

A lot of sand flowed around the northern tip of Longboat Key and gathered just north of the Lands’ End community, at times making it possible to walk through ankle-deep water from the beach to a nearby private dock.

[wondermint2]

Prehistoric fish in Florida: Details about smalltooth sawfish, alligator gar, Gulf sturgeon

For full article:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/pr...45b15296&ei=72

Wwhile it's easy to focus on the entertainment available in Florida — not to mention wildlife that skip the lines and make themselves at home in the Magic Kingdom — there is a prehistoric past that's around today, and we're not talking about finding rare shells or searching for shark teeth.

Let's go back further in time and then jump into the present with several prehistoric fish you can find in or around Florida, including the smalltooth sawfish, the Gulf sturgeon and the Florida gar.