Ellen Lynch reports some good news about our project to erect an Osprey platform and two Great Blue Heron nest sites on Wesley Island, between North and South bridges in Fort Pierce. After some slow progress through June and July, the County contractor got through the red tape necessary to have a barge float equipment and materials out to Wesley Island and erect our poles and nesting materials.

The Lynches did the shopping for the wood, poles and fittings needed to make the nests and we delivered them to Andrew Cunningham, our St. Lucie County contact with the Environmental Resources Dept., who built the nests and arranged for the barge.

On Monday, July 29, the poles will be delivered and loaded onto the barge and on Tuesday, the barge will be taken to the island and our poles will be erected. They will also be planting some native plants and sprucing things up out there.

If you would like to watch from the mainland, you can get a good view from the boat ramp in front of the Smithsonian Aquarium on Seaway Dr.

Thanks for the help of our past President, Eva Ries, whose knowledge of grants and her ability to network with the right people made all this possible. I am also pleased to share that we have not used all our grant money on these three poles. There will be a lot left over if we want to consider doing more of these later on.