Video: Watch here Local10.com WPLG
“For over 100 years as South Florida’s coastline was developed, acres upon acres of mangroves were destroyed in the process.
In recent years we’ve begun to understand just how vital mangroves are to protecting our shores and cleaning up our waterways.
Two Palm Beach County brothers recognized that and launched a company with the goal of restoring the world’s lost mangroves.
They’re doing it by selling hats and shirts, changing the world by planting one mangrove at a time.
On the day Local 10 News met up with the brothers, as the sun rose over the historic lighthouse on the Jupiter Inlet, a team of dedicated volunteers began to plant the first of 1,000 baby mangroves on an eroding shore where these ancient trees once dominated the coastline.
‘We are putting back what was once here and we are using natural elements to stabilize eroding shorelines,’ said Peter Dewitt, program manager for the Bureau of Land Management of the Jupiter Inlet outstanding natural area…
‘These mangroves are our future. They’re the future stability of our economy. They’re protecting our ecosystems, protecting our shorelines and protecting our community for the future,’ said Mang co-founder Keith Rossin.
That’s why 30-year-old twin brothers Keith and Kyle Rossin are on an urgent mission to plant as many mangroves as they can.
So together they created ‘Mang,’ a high performance outdoor apparel brand with a commitment to plant one mangrove for every product they sell.
‘Buy one, plant one,’ Kyle Rossin said. ‘It all started with our passion to protect the environment.’
The seed was planted six years ago inside their mother’s garage that today is still an overflow space for inventory…
Meanwhile in mom’s backyard, a mangrove nursery began to flourish.
Kyle Rossin said they have roughly 20,000 mangroves.
‘The nursery cycles through about 10,000 a year, so each year we run an annual propagule collection campaign,’ he explained.
This past weekend, the Mang brothers planted 2,200 red mangroves in Grand Bahama.
In December, they’ll be planting mangroves in Costa Rica just as they have here in Florida, Madagascar, Mozambique, the Philippines and Honduras.”
— Louis Aguirre, Local10.com WPLG