thebahamasweekly.com - South Andros Commemorates Coastal Awareness

Community
South Andros Commemorates Coastal Awareness
By Felicity Burrows
Apr 27, 2011 - 11:01:31 AM

The beach clean-up team included Sharon Henfield (far right) from Nature’s Hope for Southern Andros, students from South Andros and Felicity Burrows (first row on the left) from The Nature Conservancy.

Long Bay Cays, South Andros - On Saturday, April 16, 2011, the South Andros local conservation group Nature’s Hope for Southern Andros made their mark in commemoration of Coastal Awareness Month by leading a team of students and volunteers in a beach clean-up in Long Bay Cays, South Andros (Photo above).

Slide Show: Volunteer dumping woody debris into the fire while others collected trash along the beach.

This activity involved removing debris from along the beach, cutting down and stacking invasive Casuarinas, burning dead trees and limbs that were lying along the ground, raking and bagging leaves and weeding the area (Photos above). The trash collected were placed in garbage bags and carried to the local dumpsite. Casuarina trees that were easy to transport by hand were stacked so that their wood can be used in the future to craft benches, gazebos and other types of wooden furniture. This type of craft work is currently being carried out on a small scale by the South Andros Junior Achievement group.

Slide Show: Felicity Burrows from The Nature Conservancy assisting in beach clean-efforts in Long Bay Cays, South Andros.

Marine Conservation Specialist, Felicity Burrows (Photos above) from The Nature Conservancy also assisted in the beach clean-up.

Miss Burrows took the opportunity to talk to participants individually on the importance and benefits of the team’s efforts. She stated that the trash that is thrown and seen along the coast is an example of how we live. Are we comfortable with that? She further stated that it is up to all Bahamians to do their part in making sure that the health of our coastal environment is maintained if we expect to sustain a healthy and profitable lifestyle.

Nature’s Hope for Southern Andros aim to make the clean-up site a model of what a healthy and clean beach should represent. In addition, the group hopes to encourage other community members to take action and become actively involved in replicating such efforts in other communities in South Andros.