Dune Savers

Directions Website

Dune Savers As Dune Savers, we are committed to preserving and protecting the fragile ecosystems of our coastal dunes

🌱 Dune Savers – SPB Volunteer Morning 🌱Join us Friday, September 18, from 7:30–8:30 AM at 22nd Avenue on Pass-a-Grille B...
09/17/2026

🌱 Dune Savers – SPB Volunteer Morning 🌱

Join us Friday, September 18, from 7:30–8:30 AM at 22nd Avenue on Pass-a-Grille Beach.

⏰ Note the later start: We’re meeting 30 minutes later than usual because it’s still dark at 7:00 AM.

We’ll be working in the dunes to remove invasive plants, including:
• Mother-in-law tongue
• Century plant (Agave angustifolia)
• Young Australian pines that are continuing to pop up near the south end of the beach

🧤 What to bring: Gloves, eye protection, a refillable water bottle, and closed-toed shoes.

⚠️ Important Agave Safety Note: Some people can develop a poison-ivy-like skin reaction from agave sap, and sunlight can make the reaction worse (phytophotodermatitis). If you choose to help remove agave, please wear long sleeves, long pants, gloves, and eye protection.

Prefer not to work with agave? No problem! There is plenty of mother-in-law tongue to remove.

🚗 Parking: Park in a metered space between 21st and 22nd Avenues and see me for a parking pass. There’s no need to pay the meter.

Come help us protect and restore the beautiful dunes of Pass-a-Grille! 🌊🌾

09/10/2026

🌿 Dune Savers – SPB Volunteer Morning

Join us this Friday as we continue caring for the dunes on Pass-a-Grille Beach!

📅 Friday, September 11
🕢 7:30–8:30 a.m.
📍 22nd Avenue, Pass-a-Grille Beach

Please note that we are starting 30 minutes later than usual because it is still dark at 7:00 a.m.

We will be removing two invasive plants:

• Mother-in-law’s tongue (Dracaena hyacinthoides)
• Century plant (Agave angustifolia)

🧤 Please bring or wear:

• Gloves
• Eye protection
• Closed-toe shoes
• A refillable water bottle

🚗 Parking: Park in a metered space between 21st and 22nd Avenues, then see me for a parking pass. There is no need to pay the meter once you receive your pass.

⚠️ Agave safety warning: Agave sap can cause significant skin irritation, including a poison ivy–like rash. Anyone helping with agave removal should wear a long-sleeve shirt, long pants, gloves and eye protection. Avoid getting sap on your skin and wash exposed skin promptly.

Agave removal is completely optional. There is plenty of mother-in-law’s tongue to remove if you prefer not to work with the agave.

Thank you for helping us protect and restore our beautiful dunes! 🌊

09/04/2026

Keep Pinellas Beautiful

🌊 Join Us for September Beach Cleanups & Plantings! 🌱

Treasure Island - Adopt A Beach

Dune Savers is proud to work alongside our friends at Keep Pinellas Beautiful and Treasure Island Adopt-a-Beach to care for Treasure Island’s beaches and dunes.

📅 Saturday, September 12 | 9:00–11:00 a.m.

Choose between:

🧹 Beach Cleanup
Suncoast Sailing, 11165 Gulf Blvd.
Parking: St. Pete Municipal Lot, 11090 Gulf Blvd.

🌱 Planting at three locations
iBeach Motel, Page Terrace and Bilmar
Parking: Gulf Front Lot, 10400 Gulf Blvd.

📅 Friday, September 18 | 9:00–11:00 a.m.
🌱 New planting at Venetian Condos, 11275 Gulf Blvd.
Parking: St. Pete Municipal Lot, 11090 Gulf Blvd.

📅 Thursday, September 24 | 9:00–11:00 a.m.
🌱 Dune Savers volunteers only: replenishment planting at Sunset Vista Park, 9750 Gulf Blvd.
Parking: Private lot across from 7-Eleven, 9701 1st St. E.

📅 Saturday, September 26 | 9:00–11:00 a.m.
🌱 New planting at Surf Beach Hotel
Parking: St. Pete Municipal Lot, 11090 Gulf Blvd.

Parking and supplies are provided free of charge. Come lend a hand and help keep Treasure Island’s beaches clean, healthy and beautiful! 💚

🌿 Join Dune Savers – SPB this Friday!Help us care for our dunes on Pass-a-Grille Beach!📅 Friday, September 4🕖 7:00–8:00 ...
09/03/2026

🌿 Join Dune Savers – SPB this Friday!

Help us care for our dunes on Pass-a-Grille Beach!

📅 Friday, September 4
🕖 7:00–8:00 a.m.
📍 22nd Avenue, Pass-a-Grille Beach

We’ll be removing mother-in-law’s tongue (Dracaena hyacinthoides) and century plant (Agave angustifolia).

🧤 What to bring and wear:
Gloves, eye protection, closed-toe shoes, and a refillable water bottle.

🚗 Parking:
Park in a metered space between 21st and 22nd Avenues, then see me for a parking pass. No need to pay the meter with your pass!

⚠️ Important agave safety note:
Agave sap can cause significant skin irritation, including a poison ivy–like rash. Anyone choosing to help remove agave should wear a long-sleeve shirt, long pants, gloves, and eye protection, and avoid contact with the sap.

Agave removal is completely optional! There’s plenty of mother-in-law’s tongue to work on if you prefer to skip the agave.

Thank you for helping protect our beautiful beach and dunes! 🌊

08/29/2026

We have some heartbreaking news to share. The nest laid by Krysta, the first loggerhead we satellite-tagged and released as part of the 2026 Tour de Turtles, disoriented this week due to lights from nearby properties on Anna Maria Island.

This week Anna Maria Island Turtle Watch & Shorebird Monitoring, AMITW was notified about 70 live and five dead hatchlings scattered along Gulf Drive South. They successfully rescued the live hatchlings and released them onto a darker stretch of beach. The next morning, they also found a hatchling in a pool and another in a storm drain – these hatchlings are recovering at Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium

Florida’s beaches host 90% of all sea turtle nesting in the U.S. and are densely developed, leading to disorientations like these occurring regularly. When local governments, property owners, and visitors are educated and change their behavior, it is possible to prevent disorientations.

As we enter peak hatching season, remember to turn off lights visible from the beach, close blinds and curtains, leave flashlights at home, and share this knowledge with your friends. Visit our website learn more: https://conserveturtles.org/program/beach-lighting/

📣 Native Dune Plant Spotlight: West Coast Dune Sunflower 🌻The West Coast dune sunflower (Helianthus debilis subsp. vesti...
08/29/2026

📣 Native Dune Plant Spotlight: West Coast Dune Sunflower 🌻

The West Coast dune sunflower (Helianthus debilis subsp. vestitus) is a native wildflower perfectly suited to our Gulf Coast dunes. Its cheerful yellow flowers and dark centers bloom throughout much of the year, adding color while supporting our coastal ecosystem.

This hardy plant:

🌞 Thrives in full sun
🌊 Tolerates heavy salt spray
💧 Survives drought with very little water
🐝 Provides nectar for bees and butterflies
🐦 Produces seeds for birds and small mammals
🌿 Forms dense growth that provides wildlife shelter

An annual to short-lived perennial, it readily reseeds and can return year after year. It’s great for stabilizing and beautifying dunes—and it also makes a wonderful addition to a sunny, sandy Florida yard!

The West Coast dune sunflower is found naturally only along Florida’s southwest Gulf Coast, including Pinellas County, making it a special part of our local coastal landscape.

Dune Savers – SPB will meet Friday morning, August 28th, at 22nd Avenue on Pass-a-Grille Beach, 7:00 am to 8:00 am. Rec...
08/27/2026

Dune Savers – SPB will meet Friday morning, August 28th, at 22nd Avenue on Pass-a-Grille Beach, 7:00 am to 8:00 am. Recommend gloves, eye protection, refillable water bottle, and closed-toed shoes. Please park at a metered parking space between 22nd and 21st Avenues, and see me for a parking pass – no need to pay for parking. We will be removing mother-in-law tongue, which is no longer called Sansevieria hyacinthoides, but due to genetic testing has been moved to the genus Dracaena ‘druh-see-nuh,’ so now called Dracaena hyacinthoides. Also, with help from UF/IFAS Plant Identification and Information Services, the plant in the dunes commonly called Century plant, has been identified as Agave angustifolia. This plant is not native to Florida and is on the watch list for being invasive. We will be removing it.
Unfortunately last Friday we were not able to do the Great Southeast Pollinator Count in the dunes. We had good intentions, but lightning chased us off the beach. Everyone took home the counting sheets and planned to count when the weather cleared. Results from the 2026 Pollinator Count are not posted yet, but past year’s totals are posted here: https://gsepc.org/census-data/

We did get a little work completed in the dunes, but the storms came up quickly and we took off running! We will get this Agave angustifolia spreading in the dunes another day!

Dune Savers – SPB will meet Friday morning, August 21, at 22nd Avenue on Pass-a-Grille Beach, 7:00 am to 8:00 am. Recom...
08/19/2026

Dune Savers – SPB will meet Friday morning, August 21, at 22nd Avenue on Pass-a-Grille Beach, 7:00 am to 8:00 am. Recommend gloves, eye protection, refillable water bottle, and closed-toed shoes. Please park at a metered parking space between 22nd and 21st Avenues, and see me for a parking pass – no need to pay for parking.

Friday will be a little different. For those who want to participate, we will be helping with the Great Southeast Pollinator Count! You do not need to be an entomologist! If you can tell a butterfly from a bee, you can do this. There are only 8 categories of pollinators, and the counting sheet (see attachment) has pictures of the pollinators. Basically, you will get a bucket to sit on, and watch one plant (of your choice) for 15 minutes, and record the number of insects that come to the plant. It will be fun! We will have the counting sheets, pencils and buckets. There is additional pollinator and bee information attached. This is a 2 minute video explaining the process. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncC-mM7ZSNw&t=4s

After we finish the Pollinator Count, we will go back to removing mother-in-law tongue, which is no longer called Sansevieria hyacinthoides, but due to genetic testing has been moved to the genus
Dracaena druh-see-nuh, so now it is called Dracaena hyacinthoides. (I never will learn all these names!) Also, with help from Theresa Badurek (Pinellas County Extension) and Marc Frank, Extension Botanist UF/IFAS Plant Identification and Information Service Gainesville, the plant in the dunes that has stuck all of us, is, ”Agave angustifolia. It is not native, and according to the UF/IFAS Assessment, is a predicted “high invasion risk”: https://assessment.ifas.ufl.edu/assessments/agave-angustifolia/. It is not listed on the FISC list yet.” The good news is we can remove it, the bad news is, we have a big job ahead of us! Slowly, but surely. A shout out to the Extension for all of their help! They are a great, FREE, resource. If you have any questions about plants, trees, etc., they are there to help.

Dune Savers – SPB will meet Friday morning, August 14, at 22nd Avenue on Pass-a-Grille Beach, 7:00 am to 8:00 am. Recom...
08/13/2026

Dune Savers – SPB will meet Friday morning, August 14, at 22nd Avenue on Pass-a-Grille Beach, 7:00 am to 8:00 am. Recommend gloves, eye protection, refillable water bottle, and closed-toed shoes. Please park at a metered parking space between 22nd and 21st Avenues, and see me for a parking pass – no need to pay for parking. There are a few Dune Sunflowers to plant and we will continue removing Sansevieria and Brazilian pepper north and south of the crossover. New volunteers are welcome, and no prior plant knowledge is necessary. We are all learning together : )

📣 Native Dune Plant Spotlight: Mangrove Spider Lily 🌿🤍Have you spotted this beautiful native plant around our coastal ar...
08/08/2026

📣 Native Dune Plant Spotlight: Mangrove Spider Lily 🌿🤍

Have you spotted this beautiful native plant around our coastal areas?

The Mangrove Spider Lily (Hymenocallis latifolia) is a Florida native that feels right at home in our coastal dunes, but it can also be found growing in swales, mangroves, and swamps.

Growing about 2–4 feet tall, it produces beautiful white, “spidery” flowers with six long, spreading petals. 🌸

One of the coolest things about the Mangrove Spider Lily is that its bright white flowers stay open through the night, making them especially attractive to night-flying moths that help pollinate the plant. 🌙🦋

It’s beautiful, hardy, versatile—and another great example of why our native dune plants are worth appreciating and protecting! 🌊🌿

Next time you see one, take a closer look!

Address

Saint Pete Beach, FL
33706

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Dune Savers posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Shortcuts

Share

Category