Conservation and Fisheries Department staffers and others planted about 40 mangroves in Brandywine Bay on Friday in celebration of Earth Day.
The agency invited the public to help with the event, and volunteers spent about 90 minutes strapped up in knee-high boots, wading in the shallows off the western edge of the bay.
The seedlings were planted in vertical plastic pipes jutting several inches out of the water.
Mangroves are good for life in the marine environment and offer protection against tsunamis, said Ronald Massicott, programme coordinator for the National Parks Trust.
Cynara Benjamin-Duncan, an environmental officer at the CFD, said the planting went well, but she wished more than eight people had attended.
“It’s important that we are assisting the environment and bringing back what was once there, which are mangroves, to replenish the earth,” she said.
The CFD also runs a summer programme that teaches children to plant mangrove trees and to otherwise protect the environment.
At least one business in the territory observed Earth Day as well. About 20 employees of Harneys worked with students from around the territory to collect more than 30 bags of garbage in the Brewers Bay area on April 16, according to the law firm.
First celebrated in 1970, Earth Day is now held internationally on April 22 each year. The Earth Day Network, an organisation that connects activists, educators and other organisations around the globe to spread environmental awareness, promotes the holiday. According to the organisation, Earth Day is the largest civic observance in the world.
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