A group of dedicated HSBC employee volunteers helped us out on March 7th to remove an excessive amount of invasive species at Virginia Key Beach Park! HSBC and Miami Waterkeeper have partnered on numerous volunteer outings where HSBC employees give back to the environment. Check out what the group accomplished this time around!
Back in October 2019, Miami Waterkeeper and HSBC volunteers participated in a restoration project at Virginia Key Beach Park. Volunteers got their hands dirty as they maintained trails and built new ones throughout the park’s green spaces and coastal hammock. Volunteers even dubbed one of the trail portions the “HSBC Trail,” a place they would be able to show to their families the effort and hard work they put into preserving one of the public green spaces here in Miami.
This month, the HSBC volunteers tackled a completely different restoration effort on Virginia Key: removing immense amounts of the invasive species called Scaevola teccada. This was not an easy undertaking and required many strong hands and positive attitudes, two attributes shown through this dedicated group of volunteers.
This particular invasive species is a fast-growing, fleshy bush that encroaches native coastal hammock ecosystems in South Florida, putting pressure on mangroves and other native plants like the seagrape. Particularly at this site on Virginia Key, the invasive Scaevola was taking over the native variety Scaevola plumieri, an important flora to this coastal habitat.
Our volunteers learned what both plant varieties looked like, the invasive vs native, and set forth to remove hundreds of pounds of the exotic bush! After 3 hours, we had removed well over 400 pounds of the invasive species! A job well done by this dedicated group of HSBC volunteers!
HSBC is a partner of the Waterkeeper Alliance and is dedicated to offering these service opportunities to their employees across the United States. As members of the Waterkeeper Alliance, Miami Waterkeeper is happy to be able to work with local businesses and corporate groups to address environmental needs in our communities. A very special thanks to the City of Miami Parks and Recreation Department for making this restoration project possible!
If you have a corporate group or know of one who may be interested in volunteering with us, please send an email to [email protected] to find out more!
Originally published at https://www.miamiwaterkeeper.org/intensive_invasive_species_removal_at_virginia_key_with_hsbc