Approved!

Great News! The project was approved yesterday and I cannot wait to start working on it. Today I am preparing letters and brochures to send out to residents and possible donors and materials suppliers. Stay tuned for more details!

One Step Further

So excited to be one step closer. I dropped my project proposal off today for final review and approval. I just have to be patient and we'll hopefully hear something within the next week. Stay tuned!

My Project - An Introduction

The project is simple, really. The Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries need cleaning - oysters clean water - we need to grow oysters. Well, it's a little more involved than that.

The project I have proposed is to organize a group of homeowners along the shoreline of my neighborhood (Waterview, Portsmouth, VA) to "host" seed oysters for the summer. The oysters will be provided by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF) and will live in floating cages called Taylor floats tied to the piers of homeowners who agree to host floats. CBF is one of my two proposed project beneficiaries; the other is the Virginia Marine Resources Commission - they are responsible for maintaining the protected "sanctuary" reefs in the state.

The first phase of the project will be to get approval to move forward with the project, which I hope to get this week. Next, I need to enlist the help of the homeowners who have piers where the water is also deep enough for the floats to "float", keeping the oysters submerged. Once I know how many participants I will have I need to obtain the necessary materials and organize the construction of the floats. There's a link to the right with a video that explains the process. Once the floats are ready I will arrange to get the seed oysters and we'll deploy the floats for the summer. The floats need to be tended to about every two weeks from April through September - more on that later. In September we will harvest the oysters for transplant onto a sanctuary reef further down the river near the West Norfolk Bridge.

All that remains now is the final approval to move ahead. To learn more about my project beneficiaries and others doing important work to protect our marine environment, visit the links to the right.