From The Roots Up

Cultural Resilience and the Northern Bahamas Mangrove Restoration Project

BY ASHLEIGH SEAN ROLLE

As rebuilding efforts continue in the aftermath of one of the region’s most deadly hurricanes, East Grand Bahama serves as a gateway to an even slower recovery process: the restoration of red mangrove forests in the Northern Bahamas.

It has been two years since Hurricane Dorian made landfall on Abaco and Grand Bahama, and in that time residents have been trying their best to get back to some form of normalcy. Dorian hit in September 2019, leaving behind billions of dollars’ worth of damage in its wake—and that does not begin to compare to the human lives affected and lost.

As members of the East Grand Bahama community continue to rebuild, just off the coastline lies a dead forest on the flats, a ghost of what was. These flats once housed vibrant mangrove forests that were home to a variety of birds and fish. These mangroves were the cornerstone of a fragile ecosystem and acted as a refuge and nursery for animals of both the land and sea. Between Abaco and Grand Bahama, Dorian severely damaged or destroyed 69 square miles of this vital ecosystem.

Culturally speaking, Bahamians have lived off of the ocean since our forefathers were brought to the islands. With seafood being such a bedrock to Bahamian culture and mangroves supporting so much marine life, it would only make sense that locals would want to help revive and conserve such a delicate ecosystem. Grand Bahama lost 74 percent of their mangroves while Abaco lost 40 percent. This kind of loss creates longlasting ripple effects within the country, not just these specific communities.

A year ago when the topic of mangrove restoration was raised, it seemed like a daunting task. With so much going on in the world at the time, no one could deny that the project at hand would be a difficult one. But despite the many challenges, more than 16,000 mangrove seedlings have been planted since December 2020 for Bonefish & Tarpon Trust’s Northern Bahamas Mangroves Restoration Project. This crucial work was done in partnership with Bahamas National Trust, Friends of the Environment (FRIENDS), and MANG Gear, a Florida-based apparel company.

Transporting and raising mangrove seedlings requires a great deal of planning and care. Donated by MANG, thousands of seedlings were transported from Florida, delivered to nurseries in the Northern Bahamas and then planted in the devastated flats in the Northern Bahamas. Additionally, many seedlings have been collected and grown here at home in the Bahamas, in three nurseries setup on Grand Bahama and Abaco. This ambitious, multi-year project has many moving parts and relies heavily on community stakeholders to make it happen. One way to mobilize community members is through hosting planting events.

So, how are areas most in need of restoration identified? “The planting sites were chosen based on what was there before compared to what remains,” explained Justin Lewis, Bonefish & Tarpon Trust’s Bahamas Initiative Manager. Choosing a specific site partly depends on the pre-Dorian presence of adult red mangroves versus dwarf red mangroves. “Although we have only one species of red mangroves in the Bahamas, we see two different forms; the dwarf mangroves that dominate the flats, grow slowly, usually don’t get taller than chest high, and rarely produce seeds (propagules), and larger, seed-bearing mangroves that tend to grow next to blue holes and along creek edges with consistent water flows to provide more nutrients than found on the flats.”

Local bonefish guide Leroy Glinton (center), Sweeting’s Cay Chief Councilor Sherwin Tate (second from right), and Bahamas Ministry of Tourism officials Martha Rolle (left), Aulenna Robinson (middle), and Erica Laing (right) participated in the project’s first community planting event on May 8.

Nick Roberts

Mangrove restoration has a higher chance of success when the seedlings are planted in areas that naturally support seedbearing mangroves. This is because mangrove growth rates are higher in these areas, so the seedlings have a better chance of growing more quickly and becoming large enough to produce propagules. These propagules are then carried by currents to the flats, where they contribute to natural recovery. It’s for this reason that Roemer Creek on East Grand Bahama was chosen as the site for the project’s first community planting event. Roemer Creek contains sediment that promotes growth of seed-bearing mangroves, and the channel that runs through it enhances the dispersal of seeds to surrounding impacted areas.

On May 8, 2021, more than 60 volunteers, students, government officials and bonefish guides met at McLean’s Town in East Grand Bahama at the Government Dock, a gateway to other islands and cays in the Northern Bahamas for many generations. Planting event attendees were then ferried by several boats driven by local guides to the north mouth of Roemer Creek, eager to lend a hand in restoring mangroves that directly support East Grand Bahama’s iconic flats fishery and help buffer McLean’s Town against storms.

“Work like this is important—without mangroves I would basically be without a job,” said Livingston Tate, a bonefish guide from Sweeting’s Cay who helping to engage the angling community in the project. As a resident of East Grand Bahama, Tate has a vested interest in seeing his communities bounce back in every way imaginable. His boat was among the three vessels ferrying participants from the mainland to the planting site.

After breaking off into pairs, the volunteers were sent out into the flats, each armed with a bucket filled with seedlings and a shovel. One member of the pair was instructed to dig the hole into which the other inserts the seedling. Simple enough, right? Not necessarily. For those less familiar with this landscape, moving through the mudflats is like maneuvering through quicksand, and watching the volunteers partner with one another to plant individual mangroves seedlings was both a hilarious sight and yet a heartwarming one when you realized just how much effort and care it takes to move from one spot to another.

“From the initial test planting we’ve done to the first community planting event, everyone has been a volunteer, everyone has been pitching in from the local community,” said Lewis, underscoring the importance of community engagement to the success of the project. “That’s the basis of this project—to have the community involved, trying to give back to their island, trying to get the Northern Bahamas back on track.” As Lewis speaks, one can recognize that this is such a critical aspect of the project: having local residents take ownership of a project in which they have the greatest stake.

BTT Bahamas Initiative Manager Justin Lewis and Kyle Rossin, MANG’s co-founder and CEO, unload mangrove seedlings for planting on East Grand Bahama.

Nick Roberts

It’s impossible to traverse the waters of the flats with any kind of grace, but Jewel Beneby, a science officer with the Bahamas National Trust, definitely moves through them with a determined force. “Everyone should care about what happens to the mangroves and about this entire restoration process,” she said as she planted the final seedling in her bucket. “Mangroves are one of the keys to climate resiliency in Small Island Developing States.”

She’s more than right. Beyond acting as an incubator for new marine life and a vital habitat that support biodiversity, mangroves diminish the power of hurricanes, and as climate change continues to be a threat to Small Island Developing States, storms are becoming more frequent, more powerful, and more deadly. It would be a gross understatement to say that mangroves are merely important: They hold the potential to be lifesaving. “What we’re doing out here is more than just community service,” said Beneby. “It’s helping jumpstart Mother Nature after something so key to our climate resilience was torn away.” With more than 16000 mangroves planted to date, community members have played an integral role in the project’s success. It could be seen in the busload of students that took the hour-long drive from city center Grand Bahama to East End in order to participate in the inaugural planting event. Rachelle Manchester, an 11th grader at Bishop Michael Eldon School, describes herself as someone who not only loves the environment but wants to see it thrive. Rachelle is a student who is not new to environmental advocacy, and has done volunteer work with movements like Save the Bays, a Bahamian movement dedicated to fighting unregulated development and environmental degradation. “I’ve always been interested in getting out there and dealing with Mother Nature,” Manchester said. “This event was the first time I had seen the mangroves since the storm and it was honestly just devastating. I’m really happy I can do my part."

Educational outreach has also been a key component of the project. BTT has been working closely with FRIENDS on Abaco to integrate mangrove planting in their summer activities. During their camp this year, the kids in Abaco are projected to plant more than 1,000 mangroves on their home island.

Bonefish guide Livingston Tate transports volunteers and mangrove seedlings during a community planting event.

Photo: Nick Roberts

As eager as we may be to see the mangroves restored to their former glory, the steps that are being taken now are only introductory ones. The Northern Bahamas Mangrove Restoration Project indeed will be a project that’s playing the long game. As Lewis indicated, it will be years before we begin to see the mangroves as vibrant as they once were, welcoming a plethora of fish, lobster and bird species into their fold and doing their job to fight off the force of powerful waves by acting as a storm break. That is why it is important that we do our job, by planting, educating and volunteering our time to ensure that we help Mother Nature as much as she helps us. By volunteering time and effort to mangrove restoration, Northern Bahamians have decided to bet on themselves and their futures, ensuring that their children are able to reap the benefits of decisions made long before they were born.

Volunteers plant mangrove seedlings amid the destruction.

Nick Roberts

The restoration project doesn’t just represent the fight for climate resiliency. It also speaks loudly to the undercurrent of the resiliency of a people who have lost everything other than cultural pride and passion. It speaks volumes to the ways in which they are willing to fight for cultural preservation within their communities through environmental restoration. It’s the fight that most island states are facing, and it’s one that many Northern Bahamians have now been thrust into. The willingness, however, to rebuild in every facet of the word, is the reason why soon enough, green will replace grey and life on the flats will be restored.

Ashleigh Sean Rolle is a Bahamian writer who calls Freeport, Grand Bahama, her home. She writes for the site 10th Year Seniors, where she regularly shares her opinion on everyday Bahamian affairs. She is a contributor for Huff Post. Her work has also appeared at CNN.com.