Our Mission

Retention ponds have been developed across our community to reduce the concentration of pollutants in runoff, and yet, many of them lack the proper vegetation required to filter out pollutants.​ The Sustainable Pond Project, a youth-led nonprofit originally founded in Sarasota, Florida, intends to target under maintained ponds in our community, supplying them with necessary plants and vegetation to thrive. 

 

Through our research and analysis of Sarasota County as it relates to these ponds, we were met with several key findings. For one, we realized that this issue was much bigger than what we previously expected. In fact, as 4000+ stormwater ponds reside in Sarasota County, over 80% of our surveyed population lived near a retention pond, which, when scaled to the entire county, equates to roughly 375,000 people! Additionally, though we knew the severity of the issue was sizable, using the Littoral Zone Scorecard—a qualitative retention pond evaluation guide developed by the University of Florida’s IFAS Extension Office—we found that of the 20+ retention ponds surveyed, nearly 85% lacked necessary vegetation. 

 

Our mission at The Sustainable Pond is to reverse this trend by implementing sustainable, science-backed solutions that restore the health of these waterways. By partnering with other local nonprofits, environmental organizations, and community members, we aim to replant native vegetation, improve biodiversity, and ultimately protect the water resources that are essential environmental health.