Planting Mangroves With Felipe

Last month, the river mouth closed up again. The tides had been really low and the ocean water wasn’t reaching the mangrove, and the sand shifted and it closed up. This meant crisis time for our project because this would mean the water inside would become stagnant and kill the mangroves, and the areas without water would dry out and also kill the mangroves. Basically, everything that happened after the earthquake in 2012 and kill our mangrove again. Felipe and I skipped a school event one morning to go open it up. The timing was perfect because the tides were beginning to be higher so the water was able to reach higher up the beach and closer to the mangrove. We were surprised when we got there that the river mouth opened up by itself! Although it slightly ruined our plans, we were glad the mangrove was basically able to sustain itself and open up on its own. Since we had nothing to do there, we went back to my house and while I untangled the rest of the mangrove seedlings in the bucket leftover from 5th grade field trip, Felipe tried cleaning out the nursery; but I finished pretty quickly so we headed down to the mangrove to plant. We created a strategy to maximize efficiency by working collaboratively; Felipe would go around the mangrove digging holes, and I would put the seed in and cover it with mud/pat it down and move on to the next hole. This way, in around 20 mins, we were able to plant 50 mangroves! We were both shocked by how quickly and efficiently we were able to complete our task. The only downside to our planting adventure was that we couldn’t plant where we wanted to, because it was too wet and we kept sinking, so we had to move to a drier area. Once we were done, we went back to my house to rinse off and then went for a smoothie at my restaurant to celebrate our successful morning! I think this all just shows that by coming together to work with other people and creating strategies to maximize the output, you’re able to do great things together, and it showed you don’t need a lot to give back to the planet, because it was pretty simple and not really time consuming when we worked together, so this just proves anyone can do it! There are no excuses for helping the planet!! Over break, it has been feeling like the hottest days of my entire life here at home, and everything is drying up, and everyone is worried about water and a drought. I am worried about my mangrove nursery, and we might possibly have to plant them sooner than the event, or they will dry out here.

Learning outcomes: Work collaboratively, Commitment and perseverance, Global Importance, Strengths and areas for growth
Learner profiles: Communicator, Reflective, Open-minded