Environmental restoration projects underway at G.T. Bray Park in Bradenton

A Manatee County park has been working on upgrades to help water quality and to restore natural habitat. You can hear the call of birds just feet away from 59th Street West in Bradenton. Invasive plants have been cleared, and a stormwater pond transformed with native vegetation. "It’s an opportunity to provide habitat where there is none," said Staff Scientist Dr. Jay Leverone with the Sarasota Bay Estuary Program.

For the last several months, the Sarasota Bay Estuary Program has worked to not only restore the pond, but create wetlands in the Western portion of G. T. Bray Park. 130,000-cubic-yards of dirt was removed from a stream along with invasive plants. "This was an opportunity to demonstrate that if there is an area that is relatively small, several acres that is of private or public land, that we can rejuvenate that land for the betterment of the wildlife," said Lever.