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Jennifer Buchanan, Education Coordinator,
Grand Bay
National Estuarine Reserve, 228-475-7047 Eric Brunden, Stewardship Coordinator, Weeks Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, 251-928-9792 Jeremy Phillips, Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge 251-540-7720
Baldwin County
Grasses in Classes
Lee Yokel,
Mobile Bay National Estuary Program,
251-431-6409 April 11 Grand Bay Reserve, Bayou Heron Mississippi – Volunteers with Mississippi Power assist in harvesting salt marsh plants with Reserve personnel and the Dauphin Island Sea Lab. Individuals will be boated to selected locations to harvest Juncus sp. Using special shovels, small plugs will be taken at measured intervals so as not to significantly impact the existing marsh. April 12 Grand Bay Reserve, Bayou Heron, Mississippi – harvesting continues as needed. Over 250 plugs will be needed for the restoration site. April 12 Weeks Bay Reserve Grasses in Classes Dune Vegetation Planting Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge, Alabama with Fairhope High School. The students have grown three dune grasses necessary to help stabilize dune systems and create natural habitat. They will be planting Seacost Blue Stem Schivachyrium scoparium littorale, Panic grass Panicum amarum, and Saltmarsh Hay Spartina patens. April 13 Dune planting continues at Bon Secour Refuge . April 17 Grand Bay Reserve, Bayou Heron, Mississippi - Construction of sand wedge for future salt marsh planting with Dauphin Island Sea Lab and Reserve personnel. US Environmental Services has been contracted to construct the wedge with between 70 and 80 cubic yards of sand. April 18 Sand Wedge construction continues in Bayou Heron, Mississippi. April 18 Tentative – Harvesting underwater grass Vallisneria sp. plants in Daphne, Alabama; Dauphin Island Sea Lab, Mobile Bay National Estuary Program. These plants will be taken to Weeks Bay Reserve where personnel will attempt to grow the plugs in controlled conditions as well as supplement a restoration site. April 19 Planting Vallisneria in Weeks Bay Reserve, Barner Branch Project, Alabama with Lisa Allen and Gulf Shores High School / Grasses in Classes program. Reserve specialists have been trying to eradicate an invasive water plant and hope to stimulate the regrowth of Vallisneria with the Daphne transplants. Students have grown the tape grass as well and will transplant them to the wild. Monitoring will follow to watch for success. April 19 Grand Bay Reserve, Bayou Heron, Mississippi; Volunteers planting Juncus sp with Reserve personnel and the Dauphin Island Sea Lab. Plugs taken the previous week will now be transplanted to the newly created sand wedge. This area has been eroded and it is hoped this project will help to stabilize the retreating shoreline. April 20 Grand Bay Reserve, Bayou Heron, Missisippi planting continues. April 25 Harvesting underwater Shoal Grass, Perdido, Alabama, Dauphin Island Sea Lab and Mobile Bay National Estuary Program. These grass will be used for a restoration site in Little Lagoon, Alabama. April 26 Planting Shoal Grass Bon Secour National Wild Life Refuge, Little Lagoon, Alabama with Gulf Shores High School, Dauphin Island Sea Lab, and the Mobile Bay National Estuary Program. Students will assist researchers and resource managers in trying to establish an underwater Shoal Grass meadow in Little Lagoon. May 2006 Juncus harvesting and planting Weeks Bay, Alabama Eric Brunden and AmericaCorps Volunteers, and the Dauphin Island Sea Lab. This is the sister site to the Grand Bay saltmarsh project though without the construction of a sand wedge. Researchers hope to be able to compare the two locations once both are thriving.
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