Crystal River, FL – It was a bright, sunny day when students from Crystal River Primary School jumped in the cool waters of Hunter Springs to plant eelgrass! This wasn’t any type of seagrass but a variety known as “Rock Star” eelgrass.

Duke Energy donated extra eelgrass plants to Crystal River Primary School.

Duke Energy’s Mariculture Center donated extra seagrass for the event. Students and teachers of Crystal River Primary School have grown the eelgrass in tanks in their classrooms since Eco-Week of December 2017.

During Eco-week, all the children of Crystal River Primary School learned about the springs system, Crystal River, and environmental stewardship. Each class received several tanks filled with eelgrass for the students and teachers to monitor. Every student planted an eelgrass plant in their class’s seagrass monitoring tank.

For the past two years, Save Crystal River has received grant money from Duke Energy. This grant money allows every classroom in the school to grow a tank of Rock Star Eelgrass. Seagrass is incorporated into lessons about science, ecosystems, biology, and even the art classes! We are grateful for Duke Energy’s continued partnership.

School students enjoy planting Rock Star eelgrass at Hunter Springs

On Friday, May 18, 2018, the fifth-graders of Crystal River Primary School brought the tanks filled with eelgrass down to Hunter Springs. Students waded down in the water and planted the grasses around the shore of Hunter Springs. Once the eelgrass take root, the rhizomes spread out creating more eelgrass plants! Soon this recently planted area will become a lush underwater meadow. All newly planted eelgrass is covered by cages. The cages protect the seagrass from manatees. The protection allows the roots to become well established. Once established, the manatees will graze but not pull out the eelgrass plants. Much like mowing a lawn, grazing encourages the plants to grow new grass shoots.

Manatee Exclusion Cages cover the baby eelgrass plants the students planted.

Over 1300 individual eelgrass plants found a new home in Hunter Springs on Friday, May 18, 2018. Even the adults wanted to get in on the fun! School Board Member Don Dodd planted eelgrass alongside the students. The students were more than happy to teach him the best way to plant the eelgrass. Additionally Jose Alonzo (USFWS), Hailey Getzlaff, Roger Smith (Crystal River Water Patrol), and Deputy Roush enjoyed spending the day on the water assisting with the eelgrass planting event.

School Board Member Don Dodd planted eelgrass with students.