Super Bowl LV Community Greening Program Focuses on Tampa Bay Shoreline Restoration Projects at Picnic Island, Mosaic Park and Maximo Park

Tampa, Fla. – (December 8, 2020) – Helping to protect Tampa Bay’s iconic shoreline is the focus of Nation Football League (NFL) Green’s latest Super Bowl LV community greening effort. Large mangroves and native vegetation have been planted to secure and stabilize the coastline at Picnic Island, Mosaic Park and Maximo Park.

Each project also included a shoreline cleanup as Keep Tampa Bay Beautiful, Keep Pinellas Beautiful, Hillsborough County Parks, the City of Tampa, the City of St. Petersburg and TREE Inc. worked alongside community volunteers. The shoreline restorations are part of a larger initiative by the National Football League, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Super Bowl LV Host Committee to leave a positive “green legacy” in the Super Bowl host community. Tampa Electric, and NFL sustainability partners Verizon, Oikos Triple Zero and Castrol® are helping to support the projects.

Mangroves and shoreline plants play a vital role in stabilizing Florida’s coastline ecosystem and preventing erosion. Mangroves provide habitat for wading birds, fish, amphibians and invertebrates while also protecting nearby populated areas by absorbing storm surge impacts during extreme weather.

Picnic Island sits on a 100-acre site along the southwestern tip of Interbay Peninsula. Here, volunteers walked along the shoreline to remove litter and debris that had washed ashore, then joined Keep Tampa Bay Beautiful, and the City of Tampa Parks to plant 50 large Red, Black and White Mangroves and also Green Buttonwoods along the shoreline.

Girl Scouts from the West Central Florida Region joined representatives from The Florida Aquarium at Picnic Island to learn how to raise mangrove seedlings for future plantings. NFL partner Tervis is providing plant pots made from recycled tumblers for the seedling plantings and The Florida Aquarium is providing seedlings and education. The Girl Scouts will earn Fun Patches for their efforts, which are expected to lead to badges, as they work on this continuing legacy initiative. 

Maximo Park is a beautiful greenspace at the southernmost point of Pinellas County where Boca Ciega meets Tampa Bay. It is heavily impacted by environmental factors, particularly shoreline erosion due to the currents and tidal influence. Keep Pinellas Beautiful, the City of St. Petersburg Parks Department and TREE Inc. joined community volunteers to remove invasive plants, remove litter from the park, and plant native shoreline trees, mangroves and a mixture of ground cover including beach sunflower and seagrasses to help stabilize the area and protect against shoreline erosion. The project focused on the Frenchman’s Creek Salt Marsh area in Maximo Park and provides an extension to St. Petersburg’s Living Shoreline initiative.

Mosaic Park sits on the Alafia River. The shoreline provides habitat for wading birds, fish and local wildlife and is a popular community spot for fishing, crabbing and boating. Tampa Electric team members joined Keep Tampa Bay Beautiful and Hillsborough County Parks to clean up the area and plant 200 large, established mangroves along the shoreline.

Other Super Bowl LV community greening projects have included the creation and planting of sand dunes at Picnic Island to prevent erosion and protect against storm damage, a beautification project to create a pollinator garden at Veterans Memorial Park, a large tree planting at the Boys & Girls Club in Wimauma, native plantings and removal of invasive plants at Lowry Park and McKay Bay Nature Park, and one of the most innovative Super Bowl environmental projects, the continued restoration of Florida’s barrier coral reef.

NFL Green and its partners are working with Force Blue, a group of retired special ops military veterans, The Florida Aquarium, the University of Miami and Florida Department of Environmental Protection to expand a coral reef project started for Super Bowl LIV. What began as an effort to plant 100 corals in honor of the NFL’s 100^th season has expanded to become 100 Yards of Hope, a football field-sized coral restoration project utilizing corals grown at The Florida Aquarium’s Center for Conservation campus and the University of Miami’s (UM) Rosenstiel School.

Force Blue divers recently joined scientists from the University of Miami’s Rescue a Reef program, The Florida Aquarium, Frost Science and SECORE International for the largest effort to date as they planted more than a thousand staghorn corals (a threatened species) from UM, and 100 two-year-old juvenile staghorn coral colonies from The Florida Aquarium (genetically unique individuals that may help unlock answers to coral resilience in the face of a changing climate). Thousands of mountainous star coral larvae (another threatened species) reared by SECORE and Frost Science were also added to the reef. The corals were transplanted evenly between three plots, establishing the north and south endzones and center field of the football field-sized reef. Divers plan to be back in the water in January to continue work on 100 Yards of Hope.

Additional “greening” projects are planned in advance of the Super Bowl to plant a fruit tree orchard at Mango Recreation Center and create a vegetable garden and community compost project at the Keep Tampa Bay Beautiful Environmental Education Center at Reed Park.