![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/DSC_0521-1024x683.jpg\")
Bayboro Harbor and the surrounding areas were drastically changed when the waterway was dredged in the early 20th century.\u00a0Photo by Matthew McGovern | The Crow\u2019s Nest<\/p>\nSGEF charges students one dollar each semester, allowing for projects like beach restoration to take place.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Photo by Matthew McGovern | The Crow\u2019s Nest<\/p>\n
By Matthew McGovern<\/p>\n
The University of South Florida St. Petersburg\u2019s waterfront is finally getting a system of defense.\u00a0<\/p>\n
On Nov. 8, over a dozen members of the Student Green Energy Fund (SGEF) student organization gathered to establish a living shoreline along the University of South Florida St. Petersburg campus waterfront.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The idea to mend a portion of the campus\u2019 waterfront has been in the works for over a year, according to Julianna Parisi, a senior majoring in environmental policy and the chair of SGEF. In 2024, SGEF vice chair Oliver Laczko secured a grant from the Tampa Bay Estuary Program to restore the harbor\u2019s beach.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe goal of the project is to restore a living shoreline to the beach, which is a combination of native vegetation, oyster reefs, and oyster bags that will harbor a lot of biodiversity while also maintaining the sedimentary structure of the beach so that we can continue to reduce erosion,\u201d Laczko told The Crow\u2019s Nest last year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Last year\u2019s back-to-back hurricanes \u2014 which changed the landscape of the beach significantly \u2014 among other challenges, delayed the project. Now, SGEF is ready to step in and preserve the ever-changing landscape of the shoreline.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Bayboro Harbor and the surrounding areas were drastically changed when the waterway was dredged in the early 20th century.\u00a0Photo by Matthew McGovern | The Crow\u2019s Nest<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can\u2019t really plan when we want to do things,\u201d said Julianna Parisi, a senior majoring in environmental policy and the chair of SGEF. \u201cAnd so, we pushed it back to this year. We found a plan and then the beach, it completely changed, and so we got to a point where the original plans just didn\u2019t work anymore.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Bayboro Harbor has a well-documented<\/a> history of neglect, a topic some SGEF members, like Laczko, have a robust understanding of.<\/p>\n The beach on campus is now adorned with native plants, including sea grapes, salt meadow cordgrass, and blue stem palmettos.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Though visually appealing, this ongoing effort by SGEF and its members will provide long-term benefits to USF St. Petersburg students and the local ecosystem.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI love it, I love this team,\u201d Laczko said. \u201cI\u2019m really proud of the work we\u2019re doing and the work of the student volunteers.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/DSC_0503-1024x683.jpg\")
Over half of the 14 SGEF members in attendance were new to the organization, Oliver Laczko told The Crow\u2019s Nest. Photo by Matthew McGovern | The Crow\u2019s Nest<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t Post Views: 7
\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/a>
Written by: Matthew McGovern<\/a> on November 17, 2025.
Last revised by: Julia Ferrara<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SGEF charges students one dollar each semester, allowing for projects like beach restoration to take place.\u00a0\u00a0 Photo by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":49755,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-49754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49754\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}