ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — As social distancing rules for parks loosen up around the St. Petersburg area, volunteers now have the green light to get back to work. 

One group of volunteers at Crescent Lake was happy to be back in action.

For the first time in months, the Friends of Crescent Lake and Keep Pinellas Beautiful were able to clean-up. 

Volunteers like Melissa Short and her two sons have been coming for three years now.

It started as a class project. 

“We enjoyed it so much," she said. "It's nice being outside that we've come back ever since."

Both of her sons did their Eagle Scout projects out here.

"I like it out here, because I get to be outside. It's fun just volunteering out here,” said Alex Short.

Cleaning up around the lake and helping to restore habitats for birds, plants, and other wildlife has made a big difference.

You can tell by what you find.

"This is part of our, our natural diversity we're restoring here," said organizer Jim Bays as he held up a crawfish. "These are also food items for the Great Blue Heron and other birds, waiting birds that we have here. And so yeah, it means also that the habitat is healthy enough we can support them and so the water quality is acceptable,” 

While it may take a little bit for the groups to get their volunteer numbers back up, for Melissa and her sons, they’re going to keep coming every month.

"It’s just nice being out In the weather helping the environment and just the satisfaction of what it looks like when we're done,” she said.

Friends of Crescent Lake and Keep Pinellas Beautiful have been volunteering out on the lake for at least once a month for the past 13 years,