"I don't think many people know about our local ecosystems or recognize how important they are to keeping our beaches beautiful, keeping tourists here, and keeping our water as sparkling clean as it is," says Aidan Holdsworth.
The high school senior in Gulf Shores, Ala., is working to restore a "living shoreline" along the shores of Little Lagoon, a natural solution to shore erosion, reports Reuters.
Holdsworth, who received a $700 grant from the Gulf Reach Institute to purchase black needle rush marsh grass seedlings, says the grass provides habitat for animals and helps filter overflows of phosphorous, nitrogen, sediment, and excess salt from runoff water before it reaches estuaries like the lagoon.
Holdsworth, who has been working with environmental science teacher Krista Fleming, says he was already educating the public when he planted the seedlings in the high school's greenhouse.
But Tropical Storm Alberto hit the area in June, flooding the greenhouse and ruining 31 of the 100 seedlings he had planted just two weeks earlier, reports Al.com.
"I don't think we could've prepared the plants for that, unfortunately," he says.
Holdsworth says he plans to keep up the restoration work after he graduates high school.
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