Virgin Islands Group Embarks On Massive Mangrove Restoration - St. Croix Environmental Association - Brief Article

National Wildlife, Oct-Nov, 1999

When Hurricane Hugo swept through the Virgin Islands in 1989, it destroyed many of St. Croix's mangrove swamps, vital habitat for the island's marine and bird life.

Now, with the help of the St. Croix Environmental Association (SEA), an arm of NWF's affiliate, the Virgin Islands Conservation Society, the mangroves are coming back. With a grant from the

Virgin Islands government and the Royal Caribbean Ocean Fund, SEA is launching a three-year project to plant 21,000 young mangrove trees in Sugar Bay on the north-central coast of St. Croix. Most of the work will be done by SEA volunteers.

A decade after the storm, the scene at Sugar Bay is still one of mud flats with tangles of bleached dead trees, says SEA's Carol Cramer-Burke. Destruction of mature mangroves was so complete that not enough seed stock remained for the trees to regenerate naturally.

In a 1997 pilot project, SEA planted 1,000 red mangroves at Sugar Bay and found that plants shielded by PVC pipe encasements were four times more likely to survive because they were protected from crabs and wave action. Encasements will be used on all the new plantings.

Mangroves are vital to the island's ecosystem, Cramer-Burke explains, serving as nurseries for fish, shellfish and crustaceans, providing nesting habitat for migratory birds, protecting coastlines from storms and helping to purify runoff water before it reaches coral reefs and sea-grass beds.