Ecosphere Restoration Institute

04/07/2026

Join us at Ecosphere's Third Annual Garden Party, April 16, 2026, from 6:30-9pm at Ulele. For more information and to purchase tickets, please visit our website:
https://www.ecosphererestoration.org/events
Use promo code FriendsFamily for 20% off 2 or more tickets.
We would love to see you there!

03/26/2026

Manatee Appreciation Day was yesterday. We are still celebrating! Graphic by Crystal River National Wildlife Refuge.

02/09/2026

Ecosphere's President and Founder recently was featured on the TBD (Tampa Bay Developer) podcast, focusing on springs restoration and other issues that affect Tampa Bay.

TBD Podcast is a weekly show featuring ambitious and interesting people influencing Tampa, Florida. New episodes every Tuesday and Friday! Stay tuned for more real estate and business content.

01/15/2026

Saturday! Please consider joining us and ZooTampa staff this Saturday, January 17, from 9am to 11am, at Lowry Park Spring to install native plants, remove invasive plants, and remove trash from the Spring and along the Hillsborough River. More information and sign up here: https://lnkd.in/eVqQKcUw. We hope to see you there! This work is supported by a grant from the Tampa Bay Estuary Program, funded by income from TBEP’s Tarpon license plate. Here is the link to get your Tarpon tag and support projects that benefit the health of Tampa Bay: https://lnkd.in/e5Yey9Bb.

12/15/2025

Volunteers needed tomorrow! Ecosphere learned of a worthy cause in need of additional volunteers for a cleanup at the St. Pete Pier tomorrow from 11AM to 3PM. For more information and to sign up, please visit

By The Blue Urban Project

09/24/2025

We’re celebrating 30 years of Restore America’s Estuaries during !

This summer, Ecosphere and our partners at Tampa Electric completed a living shoreline near Apollo Beach - softening ~600 feet of a steep, eroding shoreline and creating a tidal creek system that now supports fish, birds, and other wildlife. What’s unique? This was one of the rare living shoreline projects built on private property, made possible through a Public/Private/Partnership (P3) with both public and private funding.

Of the 54 living shorelines our founder has implemented, only four have been on private lands - but they matter. The birds and fish don’t care who owns the land, and neither should restoration.

We’re also leading 170 acres of seagrass restoration statewide in Florida. While not the full answer to widespread seagrass loss, these projects give nature a jump-start in places where beds disappeared and won’t return without help.

Healthy estuaries = thriving communities. That’s why we
Learn more here: https://www.ecosphererestorationinstitute.org/current-projects.html



Restore America's Estuaries, Tampa Electric

09/03/2025

https://www.tampaelectric.com/blog/2025/Project-Plants-First-Acres-of-Seagrass-Near-Manatee-Viewing-Center/

Manatees heading south this winter may find their favorite buffet growing again in the water outside of Tampa Electric’s Big Bend Power Station. This month marked the beginning of phase one for the seagrass restoration project, which could restore up to five acres of seagrass in the Big Bend water...

08/28/2025

We are excited to share that Ecosphere is now an official partner of the UN's Race to Resilience! We share common goals that benefit ecosystems and people, and it is an honor to be invited to partner.

The nonprofit founded by Tom Ries in 2003, is also one of the few R2R members with boots-on-the-ground expertise in resilience.

07/11/2025

Part four of four in our video series on the Newman Branch Restoration Project. We are so glad to see this plan come together into a productive habitat already supporting wildlife!

07/11/2025

Part three of our four part video series showing the Newman Branch Restoration project. This one focuses on the partnerships involved, without which the project would not have been possible.

07/09/2025

Part two of our four part video series showing the Newman Branch Restoration project. Take a look!