Seagrass Seed Planting Volunteering

Last month (in April) our Assistant Ecologist Frankie Ferraro supported Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust as a volunteer to plant seagrass seeds at Calshot, Hampshire.

Frankie joined six other volunteers one afternoon in April where they undertook seagrass seed mulch planting, using the innovative repurposed sealant gun to inject the seagrass seeds.

This planting is part of the Solent Seagrass Restoration Project and Solent Seascape Project, as the scheme recently hit a milestone of 40,000 seagrass seeds planted.

You can sign up to volunteer here – https://www.hiwwt.org.uk/volunteering-opportunities

Frankie has signed up again becoming a Seagrass Champion. At FiveRivers we offer an additional holiday day to be used as a volunteering/wellbeing day every year. We do this because we’ve learnt that our staff want to give back to their communities and interests so instead of them having to use their holiday allowance we’ve given them an extra day to do so.

When asked why she wanted to get involved Frankie said this ‘I wanted to get involved in this seagrass scheme as they’re rebuilding our seagrass meadow ecosystems, which will also act as a natural flood defence. They’re invaluable and we need more of these schemes. As an ecologist I am practically interested in the great work seagrass does to improve water clarity and quality which will help improve the waters biodiversity of aquatic wildlife.’