POWERGRAMS

26 hile working alongside scientists to remove plants at one of Alabama's most iconic coastal habitats, Hannah Levy uncovered her future. "Getting to participate in the hands-on learning activities at Lightning Point and then back in the greenhouse at our school have inspired me to do what I want to do after high school, which is to become an environmental engineer," said Levy. "The main reason I want to go into environmental engineering is that I want to help solve problems in our environment and help the people in my community. That's exactly what we are doing in the Lightning Point project. We are helping to rebuild the marsh, which is beneficial to the community and industries of our area." Levy, a senior at Alma Bryant High School, got the chance to help lay the groundwork for a momentous effort to restore and rehabilitate the shoreline in Bayou La Batre. The project, led by the Nature Conservancy in Alabama (TNC), involved rebuilding 1.5 miles of breakwater and more than 40 acres of coastal marshland destroyed by hurricanes and other storms, as well as human-made disasters, like the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Levy was among 20 Alma Bryant High School 10th, 11th and 12th grade students who traveled to Lightning Point to help with the project. Before the restoration project began, they spent a day in November 2019 working with nursery growers and coastal scientists to collect more than 150 seedlings native to the area, including black needlerush, smooth cordgrass, marsh elder and saltbush. The students brought the seeds and tiny cuttings back to Alma Bryant High in Irvington, where they spent the intervening months nurturing and propagating them in the school's 14,000-square-foot greenhouse. Meanwhile, contractors worked at Lightning Point to build and create breakwaters, marshes, tidal creeks, two jetties and upland habitats that will support a diverse range of species. With the completion of the reconstruction, the students returned to Lightning Point to replant the propagated grasses and seedlings in the natural habitat and help stabilize the newly created marshlands. The field trips were made possible, thanks to a Students to Stewards grant from the Alabama Power Foundation, said Pamela Baker, head instructor of the Signature Academy of Coastal Studies at Alma Bryant High School. "It was a super exciting opportunity for me and my students," Baker said. "I think the most important thing is that my students got to meet and talk to real scientists – not across the country, but in their own community. It opened their eyes to how healthy salt marshes can impact the ecosystem and the fishing industry as a whole." The grant, which the school received in 2019, helped pay rental fees for a bus and boat to transport students to Lightning Point and to purchase supplies used in removing the plants. It also helped offset the cost of the students' field trip to Dauphin Island Sea Lab on Jan. 18. There, they completed a daylong marsh ecology course and toured the facility to help them gain a better understanding of the restoration work underway in Bayou La Batre. Mary Kate Brown, coastal projects manager with TNC, said the nonprofit is proud to have the opportunity to share with students about Alabama's marshlands and the role they play in the state's coastal ecosystem. Alma Bryant High School students worked in the marshes around Bayou La Batre. Photo by Brian Jordan

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