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Blue shirts, green backdrop: TECO volunteers continue to restore Newman Branch Creek

Volunteers at Newman Branch Creek.
Volunteers at Newman Branch Creek.

Across hundreds of acres of Tampa Electric-owned land south of the company’s Manatee Viewing Center – an area known as Newman Branch Creek and the site of the Florida Conservation and Technology Center, currently under construction – vegetation grows in abundance without help. Unfortunately, a lot of that vegetation is highly invasive, non-native Brazilian pepper.

But thanks to TECO volunteers, many in their blue Volunteer T-shirts, the area now has thousands of new plants that will help restore Newman Branch Creek as a unique showcase for natural Florida.

The volunteers, from Tampa Electric’s Environmental, Health & Safety (EHS) and Real Estate teams, convened on the site on Jan. 8. They added buttonwood, spartina and seashore papsalum in spots where crews previously removed Brazilian pepper and mulched it by the ton. It was Phase II of the restoration initiative that began about a decade ago.

Stan Kroh stands where volunteers added plants. Before long, this will start to look like a lush plot of natural Florida.
Stan Kroh stands where volunteers added plants. Before long, this will start to look like a lush plot of natural Florida.

“The team’s incredible work to help restore Newman Branch Creek complements the work that others have done in the past to transform this area completely for the better,” said Stan Kroh, manager of Land and Stewardship Programs with EHS. “People who saw Newman Branch Creek when it was an abandoned fish farm and trailer park two decades ago won’t recognize it in a couple years when it will be teeming with native plants, restored water-flow and all of the environmental education opportunities that will come with those things.”

The team from TECO collaborated, as it has over the past 13 years, with Tom Ries and the nonprofit Ecosphere Restoration Institute. Ries, president of Ecosphere, praised the volunteers and TECO overall.

Tom Ries, right, details plans for the upcoming Phase III of the Newman Branch Creek restoration project. He and Stan Kroh are standing on the mulched remains of highly invasive Brazilian pepper, in an area that volunteers will fill with native species of plants better suited to the natural habitat.
Tom Ries, right, details plans for the upcoming Phase III of the Newman Branch Creek restoration project. He and Stan Kroh are standing on the mulched remains of highly invasive Brazilian pepper, in an area that volunteers will fill with native species of plants better suited to the natural habitat.

“TECO is our best partner – we couldn’t do it without you,” Ries said of his organization’s mission to restore local ecosystems. “With the Brazilian pepper removed, it won’t out-compete the native species that are so crucial to the natural health of this incredible habitat, a treasure here in Apollo Beach.”

Ries, a strong proponent of living shorelines, said he was excited about upcoming Phase III of the Newman Branch Creek restoration, which will be underway this spring. As with Phase II, it will involve planting native species where Brazilian pepper once dominated the landscape.

Kroh said TECO was ready to keep doing its part.

“Planting native and Florida-friendly vegetation helps initiate a positive ripple effect that creates a healthy ecosystem with benefits for plants, animals and ultimately every person who values natural Florida. Thanks to great effort by these volunteers, we have a healthier habitat today.”

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