Community Center

The First Ever Large Scale Mangrove Cleanup In Territory Nets Thousands Of Pounds Of Debris

ST. THOMAS -- The Great Mangrove Cleanup, the first large-scale community cleanup of the St. Thomas East End Reserves (STEER), took place last Saturday, April 21, where one hundred twenty-six volunteers gathered to remove debris, large and small, from STEER’s mangrove shorelines, according to a release issued Tuesday. STEER is a marine protected area on the east end of St. Thomas. Participating in the cleanup was a team from the University of the Virgin Islands (UVI) including members of the Center for Marine & Environmental Studies (CMES), Master of Marine and Environmental Studies (MMES) students and UVI undergraduates. Nearly 50 individuals from All Hands and Hearts, a volunteer organization assisting in hurricane recovery in the territory, also participated in the cleanup. Conservatively, organizers estimate more than 3,000 pounds of trash were removed  from mangrove shorelines of STEER. The vast majority of debris originated from land-based versus marine-based sources (90-95% of i...