Keep Broward Beautiful, Youth Environmental Alliance (YEA) and Waste Management team up or the John U. Lloyd Beach State Park Dune Restoration Project
The John U. Lloyd Beach State Park receives more than 700,000 visitors each year that enjoy its shorelines, surrounded by hammocks, mangroves, and sand dunes. However, coastal development, storms, and rising sea levels have left sections of the Park’s natural ecosystem vulnerable to sever erosion.
Keep Broward Beautiful, through Broward County’s Environmental Planning andCommunity ResilienceDivision, the State of Florida Park Service, and the Youth Environmental Alliance (YEA), a local non-profit organization, formed a partnership to clean-up and restore threated beach and dune areas in the Park while raising awareness of the importance of environmental stewardship. The restoration project is a reflection of a shared commitment to promoting sustainable, educational, and beautification programs that engage individuals to take greater responsibility for improving their community’s environment.
Students from Embassy Creek Elementary School and Yellow Wood Learning Community have planted over 5,000 sea oats and other native dune plants as part of a dune restoration project designed to mitigate future beach erosion and revitalize natural plant and animal populations. The project has been funded by a $10,000 Keep America Beautiful/Waste Management ThinkGreen® Grant.
“The Dune Restoration project at John U. Lloyd State Park is a priority project for both the State of Florida Park Service and Broward County, and we appreciate the funding of the Waste Management Think Green Grant to supply the needed funds for this effort,” said Dr. Jennifer Jurado, Broward County Director, Natural Resources Planning and Management Division.
“We are pleased to support Keep Broward Beautiful, Broward County, the Florida Park Service and YEA to make this dune restoration project a reality”, said Dawn McCormick, Community Affairs Manager for Waste Management.