USVI-BVI Mangrove Restoration Learning Exchange: When Growing Mangroves Collaboration is Key.
The University of the Virgin Islands (UVI) Center for Marine and Environmental Studies (CMES) hosted a mangrove restoration learning exchange with individuals from the H. Lavity Stoutt Community College (HLCC) in Tortola, British Virgin Islands (BVI). The exchange is the first of two that will bring researchers and students together in the U.S. Virgin Islands and the BVI to learn from each other about mangrove restoration techniques. The exchange is funded by the Virgin Islands Community Foundation’s Judith A. Towle Fund.
Faculty, staff, graduate, and undergraduate students attended the exchange which included a tour of UVI’s new, land-based mangrove and coral nurseries, a visit to a newly restored mangrove site at Range Cay, a tour of the University’s Environmental Analysis Lab, and a site visit to the St. Thomas East End Reserves, a marine protected area and potential future mangrove restoration site.
The exchange was led by UVI Assistant Professor, Dr. Kristin Wilson Grimes; UVI Watershed and Marine Specialist, Allie Durdall; and Head of Marine and Maritime Studies at the Centre for Applied Marine Studies (CAMS) at the HLCC, Susan Zaluski. Grimes leads a group dedicated to growing restoration, research, outreach, and education of the territory's mangroves (GRROE U.S. Virgin Island Mangroves). The nursery has grown over 5,000 mangroves for restoration since its establishment in the spring of 2021 in St. Thomas, USVI.
More information is available in a news release on the Media Section of the UVI Website-www.uvi.edu/ - and from this direct link.