Trees are used for many different things like medicine and paper and houses. So plant more trees. But away to save trees is to recycle. And the animils need a place to live too. Trees give us oxygen to breath. In Florida trees give us food like oranges and mango and bananas and coconut. Trees are great.

1. Trees breathe out oxygen. 2. We need oxygen to breathe. 3. Trees protect us from the sun. 4. Too much sun can give us skin cancer. 5. Trees also give homes to creatures. 6. Trees are part of an ecosystem. 7. Trees make our earth beautiful. 8. Some trees can be used for medicine.

My essay is about condominiums and sea turtles. The female sea turtles come up on the beach and lay their eggs. Then they waddle back to the sea and swim away, leaving their eggs alone. Months go by and the yolk grows bigger and then the egg hatches. This usually happens at night so the little turtles can follow the moonlight to the sea. But here is where the big problem begins. The lights from the condos are on and the turtles get confused. They head for the brightest light, which is toward town, not the sea. Many baby turtles are killed this way. Here are some things we can do to help them. First, if condo associations would plant more trees to shield the light from the condos onto the beach, then the turtles would be able to see the moonlight better and could follow it more easily. This would save many turtle lives. People who live in condos sometimes disturb turtle nests because they do not know they are there. If there were Do Not Disturb sings near the nests, people would know where they are and would leave them alone. This would let more turtles hatch when they are ready and then maybe they would survive. If we do these two simple things, plant more trees to shield the condo lights and put Do Not Disturb signs near the nests, more turtles would survive. Please help save the sea turtles.

In this writing I am going to show you little ways on how to reduce the population of pollution in our community. And how if you do them you will help your community little by little! My first idea on how to make the pollution of our community to drop is to make an adopt a sidewalk foundation, where people adopt sidewalks and everyday that person goes to the sidewalk that they adopted and makes sure it's clean. If it isn't they would clean it up. If a lot of people adopt a sidewalk and all the sidewalks of Key Biscayne were adopted they would all be clean. But if you want to keep your sidewalk clean you would have to be committed. My second idea on how we can help our community to become unpolluted is to have a Community Clean Up Day. In the Community Clean Up Day, everyone on Key Biscayne would come out on a Saturday and make a Clean-Up Committee. There would be different teams with different colors. Each team would have a station where they would clean up. Each team could have at least about three parents and four children. There could be a Community Clean Up Day about every month. (It would be volunteer.) My third idea on how to make Key Biscayne less polluted is to have more thrashcans. But not only to have more thrashcans but to have them very brightly colored and attractive looking! They could have slogans on them that the kids made from all the different schools on Key Biscayne. There could also be a contest for the best slogan. If there would be more trashcans with hot colors like hot pink, and pretty colors that would make it look attractive with slogans that kids made then more people would put there trash in the trashcans and not on the ground. If everyone helped clean up and if everyone worked together then maybe Key Biscayne could be an unpolluted environment for everyone living there!

Did you know that Key Biscayne began as a single mangrove seedling? Mangroves are trees that grow in shallow and muddy salt water or brackish waters, particularly along quiet shorelines. They produce woven masses of bent roots that are seen during low tides. Seeds from the mangroves are unusual because they mature while still on the tree, sprouting seedlings that can grow up to 12 inches long. The seedlings are cigar-shaped and heavier where the root end is located than at the leafy end. When the seed falls, they usually plant themselves below the parent tree. Red, white, and button mangroves grow in southern Florida and in other tropical areas. Mangroves are home to many animals. These include oysters, shrimp, barnacles, and small fish. Mangroves actually start islands just like Key Biscayne! They collect sand when water flows through and the sand gets caught in the roots. After many, many years an island forms from the sand that has been collected. I think mangroves are very interesting. It is how Key Biscayne began. Next time you see a mangrove seedling, think of it as the beginning of an island paradise.

I have always considered myself a very lucky girl because I live in a beautiful island, with the ocean as my back door, and lots of parks, with trees and flowers. I decided to choose as my topic for the Envirofest "Why should we plant trees?" because I believe it is vital that people realize how important trees are for us. I think trees are one of the most precious things we have on earth, because they help humans as well as animals in numerous ways. First of all they help preserve the balance of gases in the atmosphere. A tree's leaves absorb carbon dioxide from the air. They also produce oxygen and release it into the atmosphere. These two processes are necessary for people to live, because we could not be able to survive if the air had too much carbon dioxide and too little oxygen. Therefore if we want to survive we must plant more trees! Trees also help conserve soil and water. In open country, they act as windbreaks and keep the wind from blowing away topsoil. In addition their roots prevent soil from being washed away by heavy rains. These roots also help store water in the ground. In mountain regions, trees prevent sliding snow from causing avalanches. They also provide shelter for animals and many of them live and depend on trees. Trees are very important also for the products they give us. People everywhere in the world eat fruits like mangoes, oranges, apples, cherries, coconuts and nuts. Trees also give us chocolate, coffee, maple syrup, olives and such spices as cinnamon and cloves. Some trees produce subtances used as medicine, other trees give us subtances used in different industries (for example resin, tannic acid and latex all come from trees). Another way trees help us is with their wood. For many years people have used wood to make tools, to construct buildings, as fuel, and to create works of art. Wood is used to make everything from furniture to toys to paper. Wood is also used in the chemical industry to make alcohol, plastics, and other products. In order to make all these products from wood, people cut down millions of trees in the world's forest every year. However, we can't keep on cutting trees for our needs without replacing them! There is one more way that trees help us and that is for our enjoyment. Trees provide shade and beauty for our eyes. Many poets and painters have used trees as a source of inspiration to create their art. People everywhere in the world enjoy trees. If we did not have trees we could not have swings hanging from them for children to play or hammocks to relax on. And who doesn't love sitting under a tree on a beautiful spring day reading a book? That is one of my favorite ways to relax. For all these reasons it is very important that we educate children and grown ups as well on the importance of planting trees. I also think that it's very good that we have special days like Arbor Day, which recognizes the value of tree planting. I think the Village of Key Biscayne should have a special celebration on Arbor Day where we plant a tree in the Village Green and we put a special plaque on it with the date so that people of future generations will know how old that tree is and how important it was for us to take care of trees and hopefully they will do the same. As you can see there are many, many reasons why people should keep planting trees. Trees are our friends and we need to take care of them. However, sometimes I think that people take them for granted and don't understand that they won't last forever if we don't look after them and keep planting them.

The type of manatee found in our area is the West Indian manatee. It is a large, gray-brown aquatic mammal. The manatee's body tapers to a flat, paddle-shaped tail. It has two flippers. Its head and face are wrinkled with whiskers on the snout. The average manatee is about 10 feet long and weighs about 1,000 pounds. Manatees are found in saltwater bays, rivers, canals and coastal areas. West Indian manatees are found in Florida in the winter and can reach from Louisiana to Virginia, in the summer. Manatees are gentle, slowmoving creatures that spend most of their time eating, resting, and in travel. They eat only sea plants and hunt for for food at the bottom of bodies water. They remain at or near the bottom and usually only come up to breathe every three to five minutes. While West Indian manatees have no natural enemies and can live up to 60 years, many manatees die due to the activities of humans, mostly from accidents involving boats. Manatees are also killed by being crushed or drowned in canal locks and by fish hooks and fishing line. Most boating related manatee injuries occur when a manatee is hit or run over by a boat in the recreational size class. The most serious threat facing manatees is loss of habitat. It is believed that there are only about 2,600 West Indian manatees living in the United States and that this number will steadily decrease due to human activities and human interference with their habitat. While much more needs to be done to protect the manatee and insure that the manatee will be able to co-exist with humans in the future, manatees are, at least, protected under United States by the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the Endangered Species Act. These laws make it illegal to harass, hunt, capture, or kill any marine mammal. They are also safeguarded by the Florida Manatee Sanctuary Act. The Manatee Recovery Plan, which lists many things that must be dome to save the manatee, was developed as a result of the Endangered Species Act. Probably the most important steps that can be taken to protect the manatee are to have and enforce boat speed zones and to protect their natural habitat. Additional actions that will help save the manatees include more research of manatees and their habits, additional educational programs for boaters and fishermen, imposing fines for speeding in designated areas and government sponsored acquisition and preservation of aquatic habitat and sanctuaries for the benefit and protection of manatees and other forms of marine life. It is very important the the State of Florida's manatee protection activities receive enough money from the Florida Save the Manatee Trust Fund that received funds from the manatee license plate and voluntary donations. The expense of paying for manatee pretection needs is more than the amount of funding coming into the trust fund each year. This must not continue or we will not be able to save the manatees. We now know what is needed to protect this gentle mammal. Implementing the necessary activities will not involve enormous expense but will require more funds than are being raised. We must do everything we can to persuade the State of Florida to spend more money than it currently does in order to preserve this species.

To the surprise of many, mangroves are not just a smelly environment!!! Mangroves are a unique and significant part of Key Biscayne's diverse and beautiful ecosystem. Not only do the mangroves contribute to the overall productivity and biotic diversity of Key Biscayne's reef environments, but they also are the home to many strange plants and animals. The mangroves themselves are unusual because they grow in a habitat that many plants are unable to grow in. Mangroves are found in the waters surrounding Key Biscayne. Unfortunately, acts have had to be taken by the law to preserve and conserve them. Lately, Key Biscayners have begun to have an intensifying interest in the mangroves that will continue to be essential to our island environment for many years to come! There are three primary types of mangroves in Florida. They are the red, black, and white mangroves. Key Biscayne is the home to the red and black mangroves. Red mangroves appear everywhere in the tropics. Red mangrove roots may grow twelve inches long, a half inch in diameter at the tip, and have been observed to grow an inch an hour! Black mangroves have been called salt trees because at times their gray-green leaves are covered with tiny particles of salt absorbed from the tides. Mangroves are more valuable than one would think. Mangroves give shelter to a variety of strange creatures, including blue crabs, plankton, hermit crabs, toad fishes, snakes, shrimp, lobster, raccoons, and all sorts of beautiful birds. Additionally, sea turtles, sharks, and the endangered manatee enjoy the abundant food supply in the mangroves. The red mangrove leaves that float are an essential part of the mangrove wilderness food chain. Mangroves need special water such as salty water and silt-laden fresh river water. They tend to grow from a tangle of arching roots, and grow best in environments with low wave energy. As you can see the mangroves serve numerous essential purposes! On Key Biscayne specifically, the mangroves are vital for several reasons. A wide mangrove swamp is a coastline's best defense against the fury of storms. Even with hurricane, such as violent Hurricane Andrew, mangroves are a great assistance to islands. They helped Key Biscayne to weather the storm. Mangroves provide oxygen to Key Biscayners and shelter to many animals. A particular incident occurred in 1987 with a man named Coto. Coto paid a handyman named Humberto to trim mangrove trees at his Matshta Point property. Coto and his wife say they never told Humberto to trim the mangroves. In the final judgement, the Coto's were fined $10,000 by a judge, who wrote that they were responsible for what occurred on their property, whether they knew about it or not. This just goes to show how very crucial the mangroves are to our island. The overabundance of raccoons on Key Biscayne caused a major problem. The raccoons that search for food along the mangrove roots at lowtide sometimes tended to be overagressive. It was not that unusual to find a raccoon stealing food out of a dumpster or even begging for food out of your own hand! The red mangroves are very important to us because they supply the world with fuel for cars, dyes to color things, and tannic acid. At Bearcut people have taken the care to build fences around the mangroves! Thankfully, people have begun to realize the importance of mangroves here on Key Biscayne, and worldwide. We have begun to take the initial steps to preserving these ecosystems. Hopefully, people will continue to be educated about the mangroves and will be able to take the necessary actions to protect them!!!!