Students Partner with Civic Organizations to Create Microforest at NBP

July 12, 2021 – Sarasota

Twenty student volunteers from the Suncoast Science Center’s Student Community Innovation Program (SCIP) are partnering with a trio of civic and environmental organizations to design, implement and promote a microforest to be planted at Nathan Benderson Park.

The three organizations coming together as SURF — which stands for Sarasota Urban ReForesters — are Florida Veterans for Common Sense Fund, Rotary Club of Sarasota Bay, and Solutions to Avoid Red Tide. The park’s nonprofit operator, Suncoast Aquatic Nature Center Associates, is also a partner.

Microforests are low maintenance, small-scale forests that transfer carbon from the atmosphere into the soil and filter water pollutants. As a result, the organizers say, microforests have the potential to combat climate change and foster a habitat that is great for wildlife and welcoming for humans. A community component of the project will post updates on the microforest’s progress, and provide an educational tool to encourage environmentally-conscious practices.

“The microforest project at Nathan Benderson Park is especially exciting because it harnesses the expertise and leadership of several of Sarasota’s important non-profits, and combines it with the creative energies of college and high school interns in a program offered by the Suncoast Science Center,” states Charles Reith, a member of SURF serving as a mentor for the SCIP student volunteers.

The idea of a microforest originated from the Florida Veterans for Common Sense Fund. Since then, SURF created its first microforest at Celery Fields. The Nathan Benderson Park microforest will be the partnership’s second.

The microforest project, its organizers say, will deliver broad benefits to the local environment, community, and the SCIP volunteers involved. Aside from the microforest’s ability to remove carbon from the atmosphere and filter water pollutants, the organizations plan for it to be an enjoyable, new natural space in the park, serving as a reminder for greener decisions in the future. To build real-world skills, SCIP students are mentored by professionals in engineering, horticulture and communications. Those skills include critical thinking, communication, project and time management, and numerous technical skills.

The project, which continues through the summer of 2021, will involve volunteers at Nathan Benderson Park. To sign up for the first volunteer event on July 17, visit https://tinyurl.com/yc6tzadu. Check out @surfmicroforest on Facebook and Instagram for updates on the microforest project and to learn about future volunteer dates.

The microforest project at Nathan Benderson Park is made possible with the support of Florida Veterans for Common Sense Fund Inc., Gulf Coast Community Foundation and The Floyd C. Johnson and Flo Singer Johnson Foundation.