Mangroves – they’re more than just a plant

Mangroves are Mother Nature’s natural protectors for our canals, shorelines, and barrier islands like Sanibel.

“Some of the contributions that mangroves made to the island during Hurricane Ian included reducing the wind and wave energy, preventing erosion, and protecting major infrastructure like roads, buildings, and businesses, whether they be commercial or residential properties,” said Rachel Rainbolt, Conservation Officer for the City of Sanibel Natural Resources Department.

Sanibel has three types of mangroves spread across the island:

• Black mangroves
• White mangroves
• Red mangroves

Woodring Road is the first of many shorelines once you cross the Sanibel Bridge. It’s along that shoreline that the city has implemented their “living shoreline” project.

Rainbolt said, “The city has a living shoreline project that helps provide the initial stability that these properties need so that they can start growing on their own, possibly more efficiently than they would have done without our assistance.”

This is one of the many projects the City of Sanibel has been a part of that is working to restore mangrove growth on the island. They also have partnered with SCCF for a hands-on approach with the community to promote

“We are one of the organizations that goes out and gets people out involved, boots on the ground and planting these seedlings where we’re not seeing this naturally happen. We’re going out, and we’re giving Mother Nature a little bit of a boost. So we have seedlings that we’ve been growing at our nursery that we go take out to these areas to hopefully get not only the habitat restored but get the community out and engaged with that restoration process”, says Kealy McNeal, SCCF’s Coast Watch Director.

Mother Nature’s first line of defense

John Dolan has seen firsthand how protected you and your home can be behind mangroves.

“Well, our house got damaged. Like most houses on the island, we had about eight and a half foot of water in our ground floor level,” said Dolan, “But we didn’t have a single window break because they caught a lot of the debris. After the hurricane, we spent a long time removing the debris from that mangrove. And obviously, if it wasn’t there, it would have ended up on our home.”

From Ian on, Dolan has seen the mangroves regrow and regain strength. He thinks that, by the way they look now, they may even be more robust than they were before Ian.

“Just let them grow. I mean, it paid dividends for us,” says Dolan. He and his home are thankful for the mangroves he shares with the island.