BILOXI, Mississippi (WLOX) - Bayou August in Biloxi was filled with volunteers clearing out damaging vegetation and adding beneficial plants instead. The cleared space will be used for a walking trail so that people can enjoy nature.
Dawn Haight, Executive Director of the Land Trust for the Mississippi Coastal Plain said that plans for the project have been in the works for more than six months.
Haight said the organization was granted $50,000 from the Southern Company’s Five Star grant program for the project, which requires the organization to have at least five partners from across the community to help with volunteer work.
Haight explained that the volunteers benefit from helping with the bayou as well.
“It’s a win-win. We have the Knights of Peter Claver here helping us today. We also have a couple of our interns who were provided to us through the Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College,” Haight said. “They’re doing a program where they complete their high school diplomas and then get some work experience so that they can get jobs going forward. So, we’ve got them here working today and we’ve had a whole bunch of other volunteers.”
Haight said she was pleased with seeing a variety of ages within the volunteers because it shows that everyone is interested in the same goal.
“It says that we are all on the same page with the land trust and with the volunteers. I mean, we are all working towards the same end goals,” Haight said. “That’s strengthening our community ties, strengthening our ties to nature and that’s a wonderful thing.”
Haight said that she is excited for people to walk the new trail since the state has relaxed COVID-19 restrictions.
“If kids and people don’t get out into nature and be able to see what nature looks like and enjoy this wonderful environment we have, then they don’t know to appreciate it, which can lead to degradation. So, getting people out into nature is so critical to getting people to care about wonderful resources we have,” she said.
Haight hopes that the project will be completed within a couple of days.
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Workers gather at Biloxi's Bayou August for environmental restoration - WLOX
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