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Mason Tringh ’27, Jessie Wahlers ’25 and Dewey Wethington ’25 prevented approximately $149,107 worth of potential flood damage—by ripping up plants last week in Tampa Bay.��

As part of an Honors class project at UTampa, they were tasked with designing a public project that addresses the negative effects of climate change in an interdisciplinary way. To do so, the group completed a one-day removal of invasive Brazilian peppertrees that have been tearing up the Bay, from St. Petersburg to the Hillsborough River, corroding the natural, flood-resistant Florida landscape.����

“It’s a plant-killer plant,” said Tringh, an economics ������ǰ�.��

Brazilian peppertrees were introduced to Florida as an ornamental plant nearly two centuries ago and have overtaken shorelines, growing like weeds that can grow up to 30 feet tall.��

The trees aren’t great for a lot of reasons — they cause skin irritation similar to poison ivy; have been known to make crabs cannibalize each other; their secretion messes with the algae and water along the shoreline; and they block other plants from getting carbon and sunlight — but their biggest danger is flooding.��

Every hurricane season, native plants like cattails, sawgrass and mangrove trees protect the shore, preventing flooding on the mainland. Cattails and sawgrass trap sediment too, actually building the shoreline and protecting it from erosion.����

The group initially pitched a different project in February. They wanted to restore Passage Key, between Anna Maria Island and Fort De Soto, as a mangrove island, but their professors advised them to reconsider for practicality and scale, asking the group to focus on localized climate change pollution. During the end of the first failed pitch, Wahlers had an idea.��

“It was a last-minute Hail Mary,” Tringh said.����

Wahlers, a biology and marine-science double major, knew Brazilian peppertrees weren’t converting carbon-dioxide to produce enough oxygen as much as the mangroves she worked on. When the group found out about the flood risk, they knew they had their project.��

They contacted Tampa’s Parks and Recreation Department, which, turns out, “really didn’t like Brazilian peppertrees either,” said Tringh, and the permit process was streamlined. After scouting locations, the group decided on Rivershore Drive Linear Park. The group then made contact with Keep Tampa Bay Beautiful, which had the resources and volunteers willing to aid the group to quadruple the effort.������

“We’re not just sitting off on the sidelines. We're actually working for what we want,” said Wethington, an animation ������ǰ�.��

Armed with gloves, bolt cutters and saws, they rolled up their sleeves and got to work.����

The group arrived around 8 a.m., before the heat kicked in, dressed in hats, with water bottles attached at the hip. Together with about two dozen volunteers, they split up into task forces: clearing debris and cutting the smaller trees; dragging the branches into a pile for a claw to put in the disposal truck; and sawing up the “hydra”— the biggest Brazilian peppertree on the property, sprawling 12 shoots tangled together, the circumference as big around as a CD.

Smaller trees were cut with bolt cutters and Garlon, a chemical sealant, was applied to the stumps to prevent regrowth, because the species regenerates quickly and forms a callus over any untreated stump, making it harder to cut again. Handsaws felled the larger trees, and the smoky, pepper-like smell of the cut Brazilian peppertrees stung the air.����

“It’s active work, saving the environment. And it just feels good,” Wethington said.����