Sowing Their Seed: Students Helping Sea Oats Preserve Beach’s Sand Dunes
By Jeremy Morrison, The News Herald, Panama City, Fla.
Oct. 10–PANAMA CITY BEACH — From his perch near M.B. Miller Pier, John McMurray looked down on a group of students roaming the dunes collecting sea oat flowers. McMurray snapped off a tiny flower from a nearby stalk and showcased the feathery specimen in his palm. Inside the flower is a seed. By the end of the morning, the students had collected enough seeds to fill a pair of cupped hands.
“But, it takes a 30-gallon garbage bag full of flowers to yield that out,” McMurray said.
As vice chairman of the Bay Soil and Water Conservation District, McMurray has been involving local students in the process of replenishing the dunes with sea oats, to lessen the impact of erosion, for the last three years. Tuesday morning, members of Mosley High School’s science and outdoor clubs, as well as a fifth-grade class from Patronis Elementary School, culled the dunes for sea oat flowers.
“Yeah, it’s pretty cool,” senior Dylan Walsh said as he walked back toward the parking lot for a group photo.
Once the flowers have been collected, they are handed off to J.C. Hovanesian of CNPS Inc. Hovanesian works throughout the Gulf Coast region on beach erosion control. He takes the seeds to his Allanton home and grows them about 10 inches high over the winter before replanting them in the spring.
Sea oats, Hovanesian said, need the leg-up in reproducing because so few seeds are produced. The procreative shortfall, he said, is because of an evolutionary trade-off.
“They exchanged their ability to produce seeds for the ability to survive in this environment,” he said of the hearty plant.
In addition to the M.B. Miller Pier site, flowers were collected Tuesday from near the Dan Russell Pier. Farther down the beach, Rick Seltzer Park did not have enough sea oats to harvest from, but the site will be included in the spring’s replanting.
Hovanesian wants participation in the project to give the students a greater understanding of the beach environment and promote good stewardship.
“It connects them with the sand dunes,” he said.
Nancy Dow, a teacher at Mosley who heads up the science club, agrees.
“It brings them out in their community,” Dow said. “They actually get the hands-on.”
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