April 22, 2021 – On Earth Day Marquis partnered up with Grayton Beach State Park to help restore the Longleafs in Deer Lake Park from 8 am to noon.
Marquis wanted to give back to our beautiful community by helping out our local ecosystem for Earth Day. Did you know that our Milano Collection is eco-friendly? It is a high-density moisture resistant board that is 100% post-consumer recycled material, which saves more than 10,000 trees/day. There is also no added formaldehyde to the construction, rather, Marquis uses an eco-friendly bonding agent that creates the hermetic seal against water.
Earth Day Cause
Marquis Fine Cabinetry has partnered up with Grayton Beach Florida State Park for Earth Day 2021 to restore Deer Lake by pulling Sand Pines in efforts to keep the newly planted Longleaf’s thriving. At one time, according to Chris Dixson, Grayton Beach State Park Services Specialist, there used to be 90 million acres of the Longleaf Ecosystem. However, now there is less than 5% due to the timber industry. The area that this volunteer event will be focusing on previously had North Florida Slash Pine and Sand Pines, which migrated into the space when the Longleaf’s were removed for their timber. About two weeks ago, Grayton Beach Florida State Park planted 500 Longleaf’s. However, in order to keep the Longleaf’s growing and surviving, thousands of tiny Sand Pines need to be hand pulled before they overpopulate the zone again.
Earth Day Volunteers + Staff
We couldn’t have been happier with the amount of volunteers that came out to help pull Sand Pines. It only took about a little over 2 hours to pull all the Sand Pines in the designated area. We ended up moving to another location to start pulling more. The park rangers and firefighters were so amazing. They not only educated all of us but they were passionate about this project and our community. A class of students from 30A Learning Academy chose to take advantage of Earth Day and took a field trip out to their state park to help with this initiative – such a great idea!
Earth Day Volunteer Event Outcome
Overall, we had close to 20 volunteers. W even kept count of all the Sand Pines pulled, are you ready? An astounding 10,894! The little competition between everyone, was a great game! We are so thankful to everyone who came out to support our local community, the beautiful place we are lucky to call home.
Future Community Outreach
Furthermore, Marquis plans on hosting further community outreach events in the future. Interested in giving back to your community? Follow us on Facebook to keep up with future opportunities.