Hope Town School Sandwatchers remove invasive species
The sea oats the school planted a couple years ago to help restore and strengthen the dune damaged by the latest hurricane, are thriving and making the school Sandwatchers proud of their work. Unfortunately they are also being joined on the dunes by other plants some of which are invasive species and will overrun the sea oats if left in place. The most prevalent plants invading the dune are casuarinas (Australian Pine) and Hawaiian Sea grape. The Hawaiian Sea grape was popular on our island as a quick growing plant that can be easily trimmed to make an attractive hedge. Unfortunately, they know no boundaries and spread rapidly overtaking other native species. Casuarinas needles once they fall allow no plants to exist in that area.
Our school spent 1 hour, 3 days a week on our test site beach on a project to remove these. We experimented with bleach, vinegar, salt water and borax to see if any of these substances would kill the invasive. The borax and the vinegar worked somewhat. We ended pulling up what we could and digging out the rest. In total, we took out 941 young casuarinas and 5, 200 Hawaiian Sea grapes. Once these plants were removed it gave the sea oats more room to grow and spread. The removal of invasive species is so important to the health of our beaches we decided to hold a series of community meetings to explain to members of our seaside community how important it is to keep these plants out of our ecosystem as they do nothing to protect and strengthen the dunes.
People who attended the meetings were very surprised at the work the school had done and actually volunteered to help on the next work party. I love the way we helped to support the sea oats and I have enlisted my Abaco Swim Team members to help me on Saturdays after our swim practice. This group travels by ferry from neighbouring Marsh Harbour for swim practice and they enjoyed helping me out. I am still working on this project by myself as I feel these plants need to be removed permanently!
Elizabeth Ryan Knowles -- Head Girl - Hope Town Primary School
Our school spent 1 hour, 3 days a week on our test site beach on a project to remove these. We experimented with bleach, vinegar, salt water and borax to see if any of these substances would kill the invasive. The borax and the vinegar worked somewhat. We ended pulling up what we could and digging out the rest. In total, we took out 941 young casuarinas and 5, 200 Hawaiian Sea grapes. Once these plants were removed it gave the sea oats more room to grow and spread. The removal of invasive species is so important to the health of our beaches we decided to hold a series of community meetings to explain to members of our seaside community how important it is to keep these plants out of our ecosystem as they do nothing to protect and strengthen the dunes.
People who attended the meetings were very surprised at the work the school had done and actually volunteered to help on the next work party. I love the way we helped to support the sea oats and I have enlisted my Abaco Swim Team members to help me on Saturdays after our swim practice. This group travels by ferry from neighbouring Marsh Harbour for swim practice and they enjoyed helping me out. I am still working on this project by myself as I feel these plants need to be removed permanently!
Elizabeth Ryan Knowles -- Head Girl - Hope Town Primary School
