Oyster reef domes were installed at MacDill Air Force Base in Hillsborough County using Mini-Grant funds. Photos courtesy Tampa Bay Estuary Program
This year, the Tampa Bay Estuary Program is providing nearly $80,000 to 20 community groups for education, pollution prevention and restoration projects that benefit the bay.
Funds for the Bay Mini-Grants come from sales of the Tampa Bay Estuary license plate, also known as the “Tarpon Tag.” The license plate funds have awarded w$1.6 million to 330 projects since the year 2000.
Grants provide up to $5,000 for community-based restoration and education projects in the Tampa Bay watershed. Clubs, neighborhood associations, business and trade organizations, community and environmental groups, and schools are eligible to apply. Applications are due in September of each year.
The 2018 grant recipients are:
Anna Maria Island Turtle Watch
$4,500.00
Students in AMI Elementary School’s Young Ambassadors program will implement a campaign to secure commitments from businesses to stop using plastic straws. Students will deliver contracts and paper straws to local beach businesses, restaurants and convenience stores. Business owners will pledge to stop using plastic straws by the end of summer 2018.
Boys & Girls Clubs of Manatee County
$2,100.00
Middle school students, many economically disadvantaged, will take part in a 7-week environmental education program that includes outdoor field trips and hands-on learning activities focusing on the bay’s diverse bird species.
Buchanan Middle School
$4,622.24
Middle school students will help design and build a series of hydroponic gardening systems for the entire school. More than 300 students will participate in engineering, constructing, painting and monitoring the garden systems. The systems will become a teaching tool for students to learn efficient use of water and incorporate STEM lessons into curriculums.
Canterbury School of Florida
$5,000.00
Grant funds will expand an existing marsh grass nursery and create an outdoor classroom where teachers can promote Tampa Bay awareness and education. Students from four schools — Canterbury, First Presbyterian, Shore Acres Elementary and Academy Prep — will visit the outdoor classroom for interactive lessons.
City of Oldsmar
$2,783.00
Funds will purchase materials and plants for a Florida-Friendly demonstration garden and interpretive signs at Mobbly Bayou Preserve Environmental Education Center. Mobbly Preserve “Adopt-A-Park” volunteers will work under UF/IFAS direction to create the garden, which will divert and treat stormwater runoff from the environmental education center and adjacent parking lot before entering Tampa Bay.
Friends of the Tampa Bay National Wildlife Refuges
$5,075.00
Grant funds will pay for bus trips to bring more than 300 students to Weedon Island and Fort DeSoto parks to provide outdoor learning opportunities. Students from local Title 1 schools will participate in STEM activities, including a shoreline clean-up.
FWC/Fish and Wildlife Research Institute
$4,372.38
FWRI staff will use satellite imagery and circulation models of Tampa Bay to create a marine debris hot spot map. The map can be used to guide marine debris prevention and clean-up efforts to areas identified as persistent and significant sources of debris.
Keep Pinellas Beautiful
$5,075.00
This comprehensive program will involve youth in removing invasive plants and installing native plant gardens, using a curriculum focused on invasive species supplemented by monthly classroom presentations and quarterly service projects.
Manatee School for the Arts
$5,000.00
This project will engage and educate marine science students through hands-on curriculum in the classroom and through field trips. The students will also make “Trash Art,” an art display created with trash found during clean-ups.
Manatee County Parks and Natural Resources
$1,981.00
Participants visiting Emerson Point Preserve will take guided snorkeling trips with preserve staff to learn about underwater life in the estuary, and how to protect the habitats they are experiencing.
Nature’s Academy
$4,950.00
Coastal Connections for Florida 5th Graders will bring this program, for free, to 32 schools including 14 Title 1 schools in Manatee County. Students will participate as citizen scientists using dip nets and sensors with data uploaded to the Gulf of Mexico Coastal Ocean Observing System (GCOOS) database.
Palmetto Youth Center
$4,975.00
Funds will be used to hire professional guides for environmental education field trips and eco-tours to provide hands-on education and visit science-based centers. Many of the more than 100 underserved members attend Title 1 schools and do not have opportunities to attend trips and experience hands-on environmental learning. .
Planet Love Life, Inc.
$4,000.00
This small non-profit located in Wimauma will create 1,000 personal monofilament collection tubes for anglers using repurposed tennis canisters. The tubes will have a strap and float system to prevent accidental loss and marine pollution. Fishing line collected by anglers will be sorted and sent for recycling.
SCUBAnauts International
$3,861.00
Approximately 45 teenagers will monitor a seagrass mitigation site to evaluate whether the area is still providing the cover and function that it had when completed and approved in 2011. TBEP will receive a summary of the data and a presentation on the project by the young SCUBAnauts.
Shorecrest Preparatory School
$5,075.00
Students will continue to remove invasive plants, a project begun through a previous grant, and plant native plants along the school shoreline. Funds will purchase additional tools, plants and irrigation materials to ensure plant survival. Nearly 1,000 students will participate in creating this native coastal zone at the school.
St. Petersburg Saturday Morning Market
$5,075.00
“Bay Before Bags.” Just as the name suggests, this grant aims to cut back on the single-use plastic bags at the market. This initiative will work with local organizations and universities to create an awareness campaign at the market and provide reuseable instead of plastic bags.
Surfrider Foundation Suncoast
$2,904.97
This awareness campaign will educate the public on the hazards of single-use plastics, using printed materials distributed at numerous tabling events. Grant funds will also support clean-ups at local beaches, recycled paper bags to business in St. Pete’s Grand Central District, and a partnership with USF St. Pete to provide data collection and analysis of the effectiveness of the program.
Terrace Community Middle School
$2,370.00
Seventh-grade science students, teachers and parents will continue improving the modified wetland area on the school’s campus. Funds will purchase wetland plants. Students and teachers will partner with the Florida Suncoast Native Plant Society to ensure correct plants and placement in the wetland area.
The Florida Aquarium
$3,050.00
Teachers of grades 5 to 8 within the Tampa Bay watershed will participate in two estuary-based educator workshops. These “Adaptations of the Estuary” sessions will explore how organisms adapt to ever-changing estuary dynamics such as salinity, temperatures, pollution and nutrient loadings. When complete, teachers will receive lesson plans, presentations and activities to practice in their classrooms.
Great Explorations Children’s Museum
$5,050.00
Funds will pay for remodeling of the Explorer’s Cove as an ‘underwater’ learning and play space. Four educational stations: Sea Species Wall, Don’t Pollute, Mangrove Seed Pods, and a Book Nook featuring the Florida Water Story are all part of the exhibit remodel. Each component will feature fish and wildlife conservation and age-appropriate habitat protection messages.