1 week Ago
NFL Green, the league's environmental program, hoped to complete a local marine conservation project in the host city of Super Bowl LVII in 2023. Just one problem. The game was in Arizona.
"Big, big, big beach, but no ocean," said Jack Groh, director of NFL Green. But amid the desert's open soil and cactuses is the 200-mile Salt River, which flows through Phoenix and empties into the Gila River. The rare, forested desert river not only provides much of the area's water supply and a source of recreation, but is an oasis and habitat for wildlife, including wild horses.
Get top local stories in Philly delivered to you every morning. Sign up for NBC Philadelphia's News Headlines newsletter. The vital waterway, already imperiled by climate change and extreme heat, now faces another threat: apple snails.
An invasive species that consumes aquatic plants, the snails are destroying the river's native ecosystem. Upon learning that, the next mission was identified for NFL Green and Force Blue, a nonprofit that retrains Special Operations veterans to work with environmentalists on ocean conservation projects. Force Blue — which first partnered with NFL Green on coral reef restoration projects during Super Bowl LIV in Miami and Super Bowl LV in Tampa Bay — offered to remove the snails by hand.
NFL Green then collaborated with a local aquarium and organized a one-day project with about 500 community volunteers to remove the snails and other debris from the Salt River during the opening of Super Bowl Green Week. "The apple snail project is going to make a difference in that community for years and years to come by restoring that habitat," said Susan Groh, associate director of NFL Green and Jack's wife. "Because of how much attention fans pay to the NFL, we have a really unique opportunity to lead by example and kind of shine the spotlight on that.
"Far more people pay attention to sports than science. So, if we can bring those two things together, that's really..
. Mike Gavin.
