MyMangrove profile picture

MyMangrove

mymangroves

About Me


I am a tree that grows in saline coastal habitats in the tropics and subtropics. Here in Florida and down in the Keys, there are three of us that dominate the marine influenced wetland areas: Red Mangrove (Rhizophora mangle); Black Mangrove (Avicennia germinans); White Mangrove (Luguncularia racemosa).
I support unique ecosystems, especially on my intricate root systems. In areas where roots are permanently submerged, I host a wide variety of organisms, including algae, barnacles, oysters, sponges, and bryozoans, which all require a hard substratum for anchoring while they filter feed. Mangrove crabs improve the nutritional quality of the mangle muds for other bottom feeders by mulching my leaves. In at least some cases, export of carbon fixed in mangroves is important in coastal food webs. My habitats also host several commercially important species of fish and crustacea.
Not only do I filter water and maintain water quality and clarity - I also protect the coast from erosion, surge storms, especially during hurricanes, and tsunamis. My massive root system is efficient at dissipating wave energy. Likewise, I slow down tidal water enough that its sediment is deposited as the tide comes in and is not re-suspended when the tide leaves, except fine particles. As a result, I build my own environment. Because of the uniqueness of my ecosystem and my protection against erosion, I am often the object of conservation programs . I am grateful for their help.
Without the help of conservation groups my family and I would probably be facing golf courses or be mulch. Which is why I ask you to please find any way to support these good folks . Whether it's volunteering . Donating money. Going to concerts . Or just spreading the word. They need your help in protecting Mother Earth.
Scream. Yell. Whisper.
As much as I need your voice . The Florida Panther needs yours desperately. They once roamed my neighborhood with such pride. Now these beautiful cats are fading away . With less than 100 of them left they need all the help you can give them. Sadly, just this year, 13 14 19 have already died (Total deaths 2006: 11). 15 of which killed by vehicles. And while I can be repotted the Panther can not.

My Interests

Exhaling as much oxygen as possible in hopes that it will clear more minds to help realize that protecting earth is protecting humanity's future.

I'd like to meet:

Methuselah Tree (P. longaeva) ..
Old Growth Ancient Forests (before they disappear).

I'm too late. But I wish I could've met Baijii
(Lipotes vexillifer is functionally extinct as of 2006)

Let us not lose another beautiful animal.
Or tree.
Or river.

Please visit my friends below. They're impassioned by their purpose and work tirelessly to keep your world a better place to live in. Please pick a cause. Any cause. Help them. Donate your time. Spread the word. Start small. Go local. See what you can do in your neighborhood. Or in your own backyard. See what you can do now.

No matter what you chose to make your cause we all will benefit -- because everything is connected.

Movies:

Koyaanisqatsi: Life Out of Balance

An Inconvenient Truth

Television:

Kinda hard to get cable out here but when I get the chance I enjoy PBS NOVA, FRONTLINE & Stephen Colbert

Books:

When you get a chance please read these books.
Go to the library, buy one that's used and save a tree or two.

The Everglades: River of Grass
by Marjory Stoneman Douglas

Silent Spring
by Rachel Carson

The Dying of the Trees
by Charles E. Little

Heroes:

"God has cared for these trees, saved them from drought, disease, avalanches, and a thousand tempests and floods. But he cannot save them from fools."
John Muir
"A nation that destroys its soils destroys itself. Forests are the lungs of our land, purifying the air and giving fresh strength to our people."
Theodore Roosevelt
"It is a wholesome and necessary thing for us to turn again to the earth and in the contemplation of her beauties to know of wonder and humility."
Rachel Carson
"This, however, is not just a question of morality or ethics, but a question of our own survival. For this generation and for future generations, the environment is very important. If we exploit the environment in extreme ways, we will suffer, as will our future generations. When the environment changes, the climatic condition also changes. When the climate changes dramatically, the economy and many other things change. Our physical health will be greatly affected. Again, conservation is not merely a question of morality, but a question of our own survival."
Dalai Lama
"We must become the change we want to see."
Mahatma Ghandi
"There are no other Everglades in the world. They are, they have always been, one of the unique regions of the earth, remote, never wholly known. Nothing anywhere else is like them; their vast glittering openness, wider than the enormous visible round of the horizon, the racing free saltness and sweetness of the their massive winds, under the dazzling blue heights of space. They are unique also in the simplicity, the diversity, the related harmony of the forms of life they enclose. The miracle of the light pours over the green and brown expanse of saw grass and of water, shining and slow-moving below, the grass and water that is the meaning and the central fact of the Everglades of Florida. It is a river of grass."
Marjory Stoneman Douglas

My Blog

A SWEET DEAL! (if it goes through)

Booting US Sugar from the Everglades By MICHAEL GRUNWALD/WELLINGTON, FLA.Tue Jun 24, 3:45 PM ET Florida Governor Charlie Crist could be turning his constituents into su...
Posted by MyMangrove on Wed, 25 Jun 2008 04:16:00 PST

Too bad we cant we buy off this administration to protect rather than harm the environment.

Oil firms get OK to bother polar bears NEW RULES: Feds say "incidental harm" during exploration is acceptable. By DINA CAPPIELLOThe Associated Press WASHINGTON -- Less than a month after declarin...
Posted by MyMangrove on Sun, 15 Jun 2008 09:04:00 PST

RIP: Caribbean monk seal

Caribbean monk seal becomes extinct By JAYMES SONG, Associated Press WriterSat Jun 7, 7:13 AM ET Federal officials have confirmed what biologists have...
Posted by MyMangrove on Sun, 15 Jun 2008 08:55:00 PST

Why the world needs us mangroves.

May 15, 2008 In Myanmar, Mangroves Out, Flooding In By Andrew C. Revkin Satellite images show the depletion of mangroves in the Irrawaddy River delta of Myanmar between 1995 (t...
Posted by MyMangrove on Mon, 26 May 2008 02:00:00 PST

EPA = ass clown

March 31, 2008EPA Issues Wetlands RulesBy THE ASSOCIATED PRESSFiled at 2:30 p.m. ETWASHINGTON (AP) -- The Bush administration announced requirements Monday that would encourage developers to compensat...
Posted by MyMangrove on Thu, 03 Apr 2008 03:02:00 PST

Were slaughtered so people can have nice gardens

Louisiana’s Mulch MadnessCypress forests are the state’s best defense against hurricanes. So why are loggers clear-cutting the last trees?Michael BeharMarch 01 , 2008Dean wilson slams forw...
Posted by MyMangrove on Thu, 03 Apr 2008 02:46:00 PST

Is the Endangered Species Act endangered?

Since ’01, Guarding Species Is HarderEndangered Listings Drop Under BushBy Juliet EilperinWashington Post Staff WriterWith little-noticed procedural and policy moves over several years, Bush adm...
Posted by MyMangrove on Sun, 23 Mar 2008 09:23:00 PST

Oh c’mon humans. You can’t be serious!!!!

U.S. to let states kill sea lions to save salmon Wed Mar 19, 2008 8:21am EDT By Teresa Carson PORTLAND, Oregon (Reuters) - Washington and Oregon can start killing sea lions that feed on migrating sa...
Posted by MyMangrove on Wed, 19 Mar 2008 07:25:00 PST

Check out ForestEthics.org -- pretty cool folks!

About ForestEthicsFounded in 1994, ForestEthics is a nonprofit environmental organization with staff in Canada, the United States and Chile. Our mission is to protect Endangered Forests, and to achiev...
Posted by MyMangrove on Sat, 15 Mar 2008 09:31:00 PST

"...All up and down the whole creation, Sadly I roam,..."

The Ungreening of America: Down Upon the Suwannee RiverIt was only a small environmental rule change by Bush’s EPA. But it’s threatening Florida’s Suwannee River -- and the nation&rs...
Posted by MyMangrove on Sat, 15 Mar 2008 09:28:00 PST