Do’s & Don’ts: Tips from Those Who Install Coastal Habitat Restoration Projects
By Amy Nelson
It is one thing to plan, conceptualize, and design a coastal habitat restoration project. It’s quite another to implement one. Here, we share a few pointers from people who know what it’s like to be on their hands and knees planting marsh grass in rising tides; to brave winter winds to ensure native dune plants are installed before planting season ends; to scuba dive several meters deep to attempt a coral transplant. Those involved in the on-the-ground or underwater realities of coastal habitat restoration projects have much wisdom to offer, and we thank these experts for sharing theirs with us:
- Robin Lewis, whose design-build firm Lewis Environmental Services has been restoring saltwater marshes, mangrove forests, and seagrass meadows since the 1970s;
- Griff Evans of Ecological Restoration and Management, who has been implementing coastal dune and tidal marsh restoration projects for more than 25 years; and
- Diego Lirman, whose Benthic Ecology Lab at the University of Miami’s Rosensteil School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences is collaborating in the largest staghorn coral (Acropora cervicornis) restoration projects along the Florida Reef Tract.
