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Rejuvenating Puschel Preserve: Pollinator Garden Volunteer Plantings
Last week, Coastal Watch hosted two days of volunteer plantings at our native plant pollinator garden at SCCF’s Puschel Preserve. This property, previously a Hurricane Ian debris staging site, is now on its way to becoming a beautiful community space. The front acreage will soon feature a welcome plaza, pollinator garden, walking/biking trail, sculpture garden, and demonstration marsh. We were thrilled to restore this preserve and bring it closer to public opening!
Our Volunteer Contribution
Volunteers assisted SCCF staff by planting several hundred plants in the designated pollinator garden area. Over only two days of planting, we planted over 400 plants including 18 different species of wildflowers, trees, grasses, and shrubs.
John Weaver, an active Coastal Watch volunteer, shared his thoughts: “We were here for the hurricane… We did evacuate and come back six weeks later and we watched Puschel Preserve as the debris piles grew, and they grew like 30 feet tall and a couple hundred feet long. It was unbelievable. And that was just one of 5 or 6 locations so to help today to make it go back to what it looked like 10 years ago or even better… it’s just great to be a part of that. And even just to see right now – all the grass back and the natural foliage growing back. We’re so thankful to be able to help out with the storm cleanups. It means a lot to us to be able to put back into the island what the island has given to us.”
A Burst of Color
Volunteers planted a variety of wildflowers, including coreopsis (tickseed), liatris (blazing stars), red salvia coccinea (scarlet sage), and rhynchospora colorata (starrush whitetop). Skye McDonald-Newman, our Coastal Watch technician, affectionately referred to the newly planted coreopsis as “little splotches of sunshine.”
Next Steps
Our next stage will involve planting the lower elevation wetland areas, once it dries out, allowing us to introduce more water-tolerant species. Stay tuned for future volunteer opportunities so that you can be a part of the next stage of the Puschel Preserve transformation!
