Upper Myakka Preserve

Up along the Upper Myakka River today, volunteering for the Conservation Foundation while planting native Pop Ash just north of Myakka State Park. All in an effort to help buffer the area from a multitude of overgrown and invasive plants. 

A Conservation volunteer with a bag from a removed non-native species, while also lugging a tray of locally native Pop Ash saplings, soon to be planted. 

 

Along the river's bank, grows the thick and matted, non-native Para grass. We as volunteers planted close to 100 young Pop Ash saplings, helping to restore the river's once natural shoreline.

As an aside, a giant Florida Apple Snail's shell found along the Myakka’s river’s edge. This large aquatic snail is a particular fresh-water mollusk preyed upon by the Florida snail kite, and a favorite meal for our native brown limpkins, as witnessed by the holes often found in their outer shell.