NeutralGator: A Tale of Two Swamps

N E W S R E L E A S E - For immediate release
Belle Glade tree-planting will neutralize carbon from UF game
Marshall Foundation volunteers will plant trees on November 15 as part of “Neutral Gator” program

West Palm Beach, Florida, November 10, 2008 – Arthur R. Marshall Foundation Chairman John Marshall announced today that the organization would be participating in an effort to “neutralize” carbon emissions produced by the November 15 University of Florida home football game against the University of South Carolina.

About 30 volunteers and staffers from the West Palm Beach-based Marshall Foundation, which works for the restoration and preservation of the greater Everglades ecosystem, will spend the morning of the game planting native trees on Torry Island, a 700-acre wetland near Belle Glade.
The effort is part of the Neutral Gator Initiative (www.neutralgator.org), a program co-sponsored by UF’s Office of Sustainability that aims to offset carbon emissions resulting from UF’s 2008 football season home games.

“It’s a wonderfully creative way to focus people’s attention on global warming antidotes and the role of Everglades restoration in mitigating sea level rise. We’re proud to be a part of it,” said Mr. Marshall, adding that he’s especially pleased that the initiative originated at his alma mater. Both John Marshall and his uncle Arthur, for whom the Foundation is named, graduated from the University of Florida.

“We are also very pleased that our Arthur R. Marshall Summer Interns who are environmental science majors at UF are participating,” said Mr. Marshall. “They will act as Everglades subject-matter experts and ‘tour guides’ at the Neutral Gator booth at the game.”

The tree-planting will take place at 9 a.m. on Saturday, November 15 at 5000 W. Canal Street North in Belle Glade. Two hundred native, wetland trees will be planted in an area that was once part of the original Everglades ecosystem, and that the Marshall Foundation has long been working to reforest. To date, the Foundation has planted more than 35,000 trees on Torry Island. The South Florida Water Management District, which owns the land, will be “donating” carbon credits earned by the planting to Neutral Gator. Past and future plantings will continue to sequester carbon and other contaminants.

For more information about the Marshall Foundation, please call 561.805.8733 or visit http://www.artmarshall.org/.

To read the National Academy of Sciences summary on the current state of the Florida Everglades, visit http://dels.nas.edu/dels/rpt_briefs/everglades_brief_final.pdf?utm_source=Network&utm_medium=Widgetv2&utm_content=v2&utm_campaign=Widget

Available for Interview:
John Marshall, Chairman of the Board, Arthur R. Marshall Foundation
561.805.8733; jaminfo@aol.com
Media Contacts:
Susanna Laurenti, Director of Communications & Outreach, Arthur R. Marshall Foundation,
561.805.8733; susanna.laurenti@artmarshall.com