Middle school students participated in the NOAA Planet Stewards project, “Propagating Understory Restoration Plants for Longleaf Ecosystems.” Here, they celebrated a successful day harvesting wiregrass seed spikes from a seed donor site at the Apalachicola Bluffs and Ravines Preserve. They will use the seeds to grow and replant native wiregrass in an effort to restore a nearby longleaf pine ecosystem. (Image credit: Rob Diaz De Villegas)
Through federal funding opportunities of up to $5,000, NOAA Planet Stewards supports educators working in formal and informal educational settings to carry out hands-on action-based stewardship projects with elementary through college age students, as well as the general public. Stewardship projects must make a substantive, measurable impact on an environmental issue related to the educator’s community. Projects should focus on the conservation, restoration, and/or protection of human communities and/or natural resources from environmental issues.