Oyster Reef Partners Needs Your Support by Steve King

Posted by Robert Nelson

on Jan 25, 2013

Less than a year after initiating an innovative project to construct the first fully three dimensional oyster reef in the Chesapeake Bay in almost 100 years, a unique partnership between St. Mary’s College of Maryland, the St. Mary’s River Watershed Association and District 7620 Rotary Clubs is preparing to construct the first phase of the new 3 dimensional reef in the St. Mary’s River in St. Mary’s County. The demonstration project is expected to serve as a model for restoration of at least half of the Bay’s 70,000 acres of historic three dimensional oyster reefs that were mined into extinction at the end of the 19^th Century and early 20^th Century. Restoring the tremendous algae and nutrient filtration capacity of the Bay oyster is essential to restoring its water quality.

Over the past year the partnership completed an exhaustive literature search and analysis; prepared a comprehensive design report; obtained all required State and Federal permits; purchased and deployed Coast Guard approved navigation hazard buoys; and initiated a public outreach effort, including a new website and Facebook page. To keep project costs affordable, last Fall, project team member, Dr. Christopher Puttock of the Rotary Club of College Park organized Rotary and non-Rotarian volunteers who constructed ninety 350 pound concrete reef balls at the Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s Oyster Recovery Facility in Shady Side, Maryland. On three occasions, Dr. Puttock and his volunteers met at the CBF facility and under the supervision of CBF staff members assembled fiberglass molds and carefully filled them with fiberglass reinforced concrete. The following day the volunteers returned to remove the molds and clean up the site.

In December 2012 Rotary and non-Rotarian volunteers met in Shady Side to load the reef balls into a 53’ tractor trailer supplied at no cost by Cullins Trucking of Clements, Maryland, and into pickup trucks and utility trailers driven by Gov. Bob (Oyster Bob) Parkinson and Leonardtown Rotarian, Steve King. The reef balls having a combined weight over 31,000 pounds were then driven 75 miles to a temporary storage site in Lexington Park, Maryland. Rotary volunteers, assisted by volunteers from the St. Mary’s River Watershed Association and staff of the St. Mary’s County Metropolitan Commission, then unloaded the reef balls at the Marlay Taylor Water Reclamation Facility where they will be temporarily stored until they are placed in the water. All involved in the relocation effort were exhausted at the end of the day, but they enjoyed the physical exercise and the camaraderie of working together to move the heavy reef balls. The following day, however, Gov. Bob was overheard remarking, “…I’ve got sore muscles that I didn’t know I had.”!

By using volunteers to construct the reef balls instead of buying them, the cost was reduced from $200 per unit to $20 per unit, for a total cost savings of over $16,000! The generosity of Cullins Trucking and the use of volunteers to move the reef balls saved an additional $2,000. The first phase of the reef construction must be completed before the end of March 2013. It will involve placing the ninety reef balls manufactured by volunteers in 5’ of water at low tide. The reef balls will be used to form three of six new 20’ diameter by 4’ high reefs. The other three reefs will be constructed from re-cycled concrete for the purpose of determining which material is the most cost-effective and sustainable to use for future reef construction. The six new Phase 1 reefs will cover 0.5 acres of the proposed 2.8 acre reef. A second phase will be constructed next year and will involve eighteen additional reefs ranging between 6’ and 8’ in height on the remaining 2.3 acres. Project partners are applying for a TRF Global Grant to cover the Phase 2 cost.

Project Rotarians report that Planning, design, permitting, buoy purchase and installation and public outreach costs incurred so far have been covered by a $4,500 District Grant awarded in FY2012 and by cash contributions from the following District Clubs: Leonardtown, Lexington Park, College Park, Annapolis, Glen Burnie, Annapolis Evening, Rockville, Capital Hill and Annapolis Yacht Club and by three individual Rotarians.

At press time, the estimated cost to purchase the 110 tons of re-cycled concrete needed to complete the first Phase of construction and to hire a licensed marine contractor to build the reefs, as required by State and Federal permits, will be approximately $18,400. So far the District has awarded another $4,500 District Grant for the first phase of construction; $6,000 has been contributed by the Lexington Park, Leonardtown and College Park clubs; and $2, 450 has been raised from individual donors through the project’s website. Unfortunately, that still leaves a shortage of about $5,450.

Rotarians involved in this important project need your help to quickly raise the additional funds needed to get Phase 1 completed within the next two months. Club contributions can be mailed to the Leonardtown Rotary Club Foundation, P.O. Box 738, Leonardtown, Maryland 20650. Individual Rotarians and non-Rotarians can mail their checks to the same address or they can contribute on-line by Pay Pal at the project’s website: www.rereefthebay.org. All donations will be recognized on the project’s website. Donors can also have their names inscribed on a reef ball by donating $100 or more. Donors who purchase a reef for $3,000 or more will have their names inscribed on reef ball and on permanent signage to be erected at the College waterfront. In-kind donations of recycled concrete, concrete hauling services and volunteer labor to assist with the removal of protruding steel from re-cycled concrete is also needed. Donations to 501(C) 3 non-profits are tax deductible under Section 170 of the Internal Revenue Service Code.

If your club would like to have a project member give your members a briefing on the project, call Rotarian Steve King at 301-373-5980 or email him at watersteve@md.metrocast.net.