Education
Get Hip to Habitat
Get Hip to Habitat is a program of the Galveston Bay Foundation (GBF) that brings our education and marsh restoration initiatives together in
one program. With this program, GBF works closely with students and teachers to establish salt marsh wetland nurseries on their school campus
grounds. Students harvest smooth cordgrass from an existing wetlands nursery in Baytown, transplant the plugs to containers and cultivate the
stems in shallow, plastic pools at their schools. The pools mimic an intertidal salt marsh. Students carefully monitor and maintain the salinity
of the water in their mini-marsh nurseries for the duration of the project. After a season/semester of growth, GBF assists students in planting
the matured stems at carefully selected marsh restoration sites around Galveston Bay.
The program introduces the students to the natural resources of the Galveston Bay estuary, and the nurseries provide a source of native wetland
plants for use in habitat restoration projects. The program provides students with interactive classroom presentations, valuable hands-on science
education at the school as well as in the field, and exposes students to the benefits of restoration and the value of a healthy bay.
For more information, please call Della Barbato at 281-332-3381 x 212 or email at dbarbato@galvbay.org.
