Saturday December 9th 2023, EcoTeers had a park cleanup event at Anne Kolb Nature Center in Hollywood. We were tasked with removing palm fronds and other natural debris from a lakefront, butterfly garden, and park trail. The park Manager/ Naturalist gave us some history on the 1500-acre park and how/why the park was created in 1996. The park has a watch tower of 72 steps high that allows you to look out and read signage on our Florida natural history. For example, our Port Everglades Inlet, Intracoastal Waterway History, and Mangroves. We were able to see a somewhat rare Atala Butterfly that was brought back by the planting of Coontie plants. We also learned that they’ve been removing Australian pines in the area in order to help prevent those local shorelines. In our time there, we were able to collect two large industrial waste bins and four smaller receptacles of natural debris and other materials. Additionally, EcoTeers collected any plastic found about the gardens in order to stand behind our fight for proper recycling. The estimated total of natural plant matter removed is totaled to be around 300-400 pounds in (4 cubic yards). We filled one large gallon sized bag with plastic and other waste matter to be recycled as they were found scattered throughout the nature center (estimated to be around 5-10 pounds of waste). This project carried on from 9AM to 12PM with the assistance of two park managers and naturalists.