We incorporate volunteer work at the DEP nursery as
often as possible to aid in the propagation and
distribution of our stock of plants. Volunteers are
helpful in day to day tasks such as plant care and
general upkeep of the nursery on a small scale, but
they are also essential when the nursery is ready to
complete a project outside of daily operations on a
larger scale; volunteers aid in the timely
completion of projects due to the extra workload
that is usually required when a large number of
plants have to be moved from the nursery back into a
salt marsh habitat. Volunteers include private
citizens, students from local schools, and also
members of groups and clubs within the Pensacola
area.
The DEP nursery also provides internship
opportunities for college students interested in an
environmental career. Students are given the
opportunity to be involved in nursery operations as
well as plantings and collections to witness, full
cycle, work that is done to restore salt marsh
habitats.
Upon request, nursery employees are available to
give informal presentations at habitat sites that
have been restored such as Project Greenshores.
This aids in educating the public about the
interactions between salt marsh habitats and humans,
but can also serve as an ecological overview for
science classes from local schools.
As part of a new program called “Grasses and
Classes”, several local schools have offered to aid
in the production of plants in exchange for the
hands on experience that students will receive from
dealing directly with plants that are to be used in
restoration projects. This dynamic relationship
allows the nursery to produce more plants and
provides a learning environment for students that
cannot be achieved inside a classroom.