A community in Florida has planted 4-thousand trees to help fight environmental issues. Volunteers and residents of the Colony Cove community in Ellenton, Florida, are planting 4-thousand trees on a 1.5-acre peninsula just up the Manatee River from Tampa Bay. Organizers say their goal is to create a microforest to recycle carbon emissions and protect against red tide, a toxic algae bloom.
"This forest is going to be great for the climate,” says Charles Reith with Suncoast Urban Re-Foresters. “But it's also going to divert a lot of water that would otherwise carry nutrients to the river and then the bay, and it's those nutrients that are causing red tide."
Reith claims the density of the forest will make it grow ten times faster than if the trees were spread out. "This will be used to grow a 100-year-old forest in 10 years," he says. Volunteers like Ky Miller are just happy to be doing something to help the environment, saying "If we don’t take care of it, we have no future."