Two years ago, Xavier Cortada led over 800 hundred volunteers in painting mangrove seedlings on the concrete columns that hold up I-95: a metaphoric reforestation of Downtown Miami.

This year, Cortada is leading a collaborative eco-art project on South Beach. This time volunteers will distribute actual seedlings throughout the community to remind viewers that most of Miami Beach was once a mangrove forest. At the end of the project, volunteers will use the seedlings to actually reforest Biscayne Bay.

The Reclamation Project needs your help to distribute over 2500 mangrove seedlings to various business and hotels. Organized teams will canvas the beach on Saturdays from October 26 through December 3, 2006. Interested volunteers should meet at 10 am at Books & Books, 933 Lincoln Road, Miami Beach. Click here to see project calendar...

Volunteers can also help recruit other volunteers, identify sites that will adopt seedlings, reforest, and identify individuals and corporations willing to make donations to implement the project.

All volunteers and sponsors will be invited and recognized at an invitation-only full moon reception to be held at the Cape Florida Lighthouse on Key Biscayne on the evening of February 3, 2007).

To volunteer, please contact Jackie Kellogg at: .