November 2006 Reef Ball/DOE/Cayman Sailing Club/Local Volunteer Red Mangrove Nursery Creation Project
The DOE obtained a grant for creating a Red Mangrove Nursery to replant Red Mangroves in areas lost to hurricane damage. Because some areas where stripped of natural "mangrove muck" and were exposed to waves, the mangroves could not restart themselves naturally. DOE joined forces with the Reef Ball Foundation to use small reef ball "mangrove planters" and a combination of international and local volunteers to complete the project. The project sucessfully planted over 850 red mangrove trees in just two weeks. After the trees reach the appropriate height for their intended final locations they will be moved from the nursery and planted. Find photos and documentation of the building of the red mangrove nursery, potting over 850 mangroves and planting them in a plastic lined nursery. Space donated by Cayman Island Sailing Club, grant funding and project management by Cayman Department of Environment, and training and volunteers provided by Reef Ball Foundation. Additional funding from the Spurlino Foundation.
Not sure what a Red Mangrove Tree looks like? It's the one locals sometimes call the "walking tree" because it has "prop" roots to hold it up in the water. Mangroves are special because they are the only tree species that can grow fully in salt water. Red Mangroves are even more special because their roots provide rich marine habitat since they are submerged in sea water.
Before anything would happen on Cayman Island, an enourmous amount of effort was spent to build planters and stock a container with supplies for the red mangrove nursery creation.
Construction of the Reef Ball "planters" for Red Mangroves was done by Reef Innovations, a Reef Ball Foundation authorized contractor, in St. Cloud, Florida. Since this project was operating on tight grant funding, manufacturing of the shippable sized Reef Balls was done in the US where costs were lower. These pictures are from this construction phase.
Reef Ball Red Mangrove Teams did a survey of red mangrove loss due to the hurricane. This survey and a grant application by the Department of Environment for Mangrove rehabilitaion started the project.
The most technical aspect of creating a Red Mangrove nursery is the actual construction of the site. Red Mangrove roots must be kept constantly wet for the plants to survive. This means elevation in regards to tides is critical.
Reef Balls created especially for Red mangroves have only 2 openings at the top and have a bottom made of a paint can lid designed to rust through after final planting so root systems can get to the natural soils they are planted on. Each Reef Ball is lined with burlap and filled with soil including a very slow release fertilizer and an iron supplement. 3-5 Red Mangrove propogules (seeds) are placed in each reef ball. The key to a good volunteer table is setting everything up to minimize the lifting and movement of the pots to their final location. Reef Balls were planted by local volunteers and school kids, Reef Ball international volunteers/staff, and Department of Evironment volunteers/staff.
The volunteers came up with a back saving device to float the reef ball mangrove pots into their final resting position on the nursery bed. By controling the water level of the nursery, a temporary flood stage was created to allow easy floating into place. After all the mangroves are in place, the nursery water levels will be returned to the lower level required for plant germination and growth.
The Cayman Academy kids where the first of many local volunteer groups to participate in the Red Mangrove Nursery project for islandwide red mangrove rehabilition efforts.
After a night at pirate week, we made Kathy "walk the plank" to deploy Reef Balls in the red mangrove nursery.
Falafel's has the best food on the island...especially for a large team of volunteers that needed calories in a hurry to get back to moving Reef Balls. Falafel's owner has a deep interest in Mangroves and Corals and helped the team to organize the Rotary Club to help out. Even his wife pitched in from Cayman.net with articles about Reef Ball projects in the Cayman Observer. Thanks to Alan and Al La Kebob's for the great food at a reasonable price!
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