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Protecting, restoring, and strengthening our coastal ecosystems and economy


Get Involved! Here are a few things you can do to help protect and enjoy Virginia's coast!

Thank the Ocean


There are actions we all take every day that can help to keep our ocean a healthy and thriving place. Link to the Thank You Ocean campaign site for examples of small steps that you can take to do your part in ocean conservation and reduce energy consumption. It can be your way to say “Thank you ocean”.

Help Singer James Taylor Keep Songbirds Singing

Singer and songwriter James Taylor donated $200,000 in proceeds from his May 2008 concert in Virginia Beach to help protect migratory songbird habitat on Virginia's Eastern Shore.

Their song is the music of the biosphere, describes Taylor.

You can join James Taylor in this effort.  Make a donation to help this critical Eastern Shore habitat.  Go to The Nature Conservancy's website at www.nature.org.

Are you a resident of the Eastern Shore? Plant ES Native!

Join other gardeners throughout Accomack and Northampton County who are participating in the new Plant ES Natives Campaign!

Help preserve critical Eastern Shore habitat by preserving and planting trees and shrubs that provide the insects and berries these migrating birds need for energy to complete their journey. Learn more about the Plant ES Natives Campaign...

Do you enjoy diving and snorkeling! Help restore Seaside seagrasses!


Volunteer to help collect up to 10 million eelgrass seeds in the meadows of South Bay on the Seaside of Virginia's Eastern Shore!

When: Mid-May - Mid-June, 2009 (exact dates to be determined in mid-May)

Over 100 local community volunteers needed!

You must pre-register in order to participate in the restoration project. Contact Jennifer Rich, The Nature Conservany volunteer coordinator, at 434-951-0572 or jrich@tnc.org

To learn more visit www.nature.org/seagrassrestoration

 

Stewardship Campaign Highlight

Chesapeake Club

"Save the Crabs, then Eat Em!"

Chesapeake Club educating homeowners about the Bay's nutrient pollution problem in a humorous way. 

The Chesapeake Club campaign urges Bay watershed residents to hold off on fertilizing their lawns until the fall, when rainstorms are less frequent and the ground is better able to absorb nutrients contained in fertilizer. This helps protect the Bay's remaining blue crab population, which has been declining in recent years.

To help save the seafood, Chesapeake Club offers yard care tips so you can create a blue crab-friendly lawn. And if you'd rather leave it up to the professionals, there are a growing number of lawn care providers offering the Chesapeake Club standard of yard care.

So skip the lawn fertilizer in the spring. Because is the grass really greener if all the blue crabs are gone?

Ocean Stewardship

 

Six Degrees to the Ocean -

An Ocean Conservancy website takes the "six degrees of separation" concept and marries it with the ocean.  The theory is that any headline appearing in the news can somehow relate back to the ocean within six steps of connection.  The activity illustrates just what a small world we live in and how integral the ocean is to our world.

http://www.oceanconservancy.org/site/

News2?page=NewsArticle&id=10981

 

Protect Virginia's Marine Animals - Tips from the Virginia Aquarium and Marine Research Center

Protect the oceans from harmful marine debris - http://marinedebris.noaa.gov/welcome.html
Promoting individual responsibility, NOAA has partnered with the Advertising Council, National Marine Sanctuary Foundation, Environmental Defense, and the Disney Studios to deliver an ocean health message that underscores the cause and effect of human behavior. Featuring scenes and characters from "The Little Mermaid", the new public service announcements drive home the message that "life in the oceans depends on you." Routine activities alone bring 6.4 million tons of debris, mostly plastics, to our oceans each year.

 

Coastal Stewardship Event Highlights

Virginia Waterways Cleanup -- Sept. 1- Oct. 31 Annually

Clean Virginia Waterways (a program of Longwood University)  schedules more than 150 river and beach cleanups in the fall – please visit the CVW web site to learn about a cleanup near you that needs your help! Sign up as a Site Captain! Any school, church, business, group, family or organization can signup to host a local cleanup. Please view the list of cleanup events on the Web at www.longwood.edu/cleanva/iccva.htm

If your town or county doesn't’t have a cleanup event, please help this great statewide event by volunteering as a Site Captain!

The annual Virginia Waterways Cleanup is part of the International Coastal Cleanup, which is the world’s largest volunteer effort to collect data on litter and trash in the aquatic environment! Cleanup events are held on the coasts, AND inland, since inland litter often ends up in our oceans. To learn more about the Virginia Waterways Cleanup, please visit the Clean Virginia Waterways web site: http://www.longwood.edu/cleanva/

Virginia & World Water Quality Monitoring Day

During September through October, citizens of Virginia join in Virginia & World Water Monitoring Day, a statewide opportunity to positively impact the health of rivers, lakes, estuaries and other waterbodies. Volunteer monitoring groups, water quality agencies, students, and the general public are invited to test four key indicators of water quality: temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen, and turbidity.

Just Follow These 4 Simple Steps!

Step 1: Register your site. Choose any lake, stream, bay, or other waterbody where you can safely monitor. Register your site with both the Virginia and the World Water Monitoring Day Websites by contacting Dana Roberts dana.roberts@vaswcd.org  or Gary Speiran gary.speiran@usgs.gov 

Step 2: Prepare your monitoring equipment. Use your own equipment or obtain an easy-to-use test kit free of charge by contacting James Beckley  jebeckley@deq.virginia.gov.  Kit contains an informative instruction book and reagents to repeat up to 50 tests.

Step 3: Monitor your site. Invite others to help you monitor or do it yourself. Visit your site anytime from September 18 through October 18 to test the water. Remember, safety first !

Step 4: Report your data. You did the work, so let us know about your water. You can submit your results by returning back to where you registered your site in the first place. Results may be entered anytime from September 18 through November 18 for inclusion in the annual Virginia Water Monitoring Day summary reports.

The Virginia Water Monitoring Day 2007 web site includes statewide events, tools for teachers/schools, statewide contacts and 2007 map and summary of data.  

 

New Coastal Stewardship Website Highlight

Ecosystem Valuation ---

This website describes how economists value the beneficial ways that ecosystems affect people.  It is designed for non-economists who need answers to questions about the benefits of ecosystem conservation, preservation or restoration.  It provides a clear, non-technical explanation of ecosystem valuation concepts, methods and applications.

 

New Coastal Stewardship Publication Highlight

Restoring Virginia's Wetlands - A Citizen's Toolkit

Restoring Virginia's Wetlands - A Citizen's Toolkit

Promotes the Voluntary Protection, Enhancement, Restoration and Creation of wetlands - prepared in partnership with the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), through a grant award from the United States Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Wetlands Program Development Grants initiative. Guides viewers through the background information necessary to understand wetland functions and values.

It provides useful information to Virginia's landowners, both private and public, on the status of wetlands, various options for the use and management of their wetlands, current regulatory protection as well as voluntary efforts, and technical and financial resources for protection, enhancement, restoration and creation projects. Included within the ToolKit are basics regarding wetland identification, types and classification as well as a section discussing types of wetland monitoring. Available on-line and in hardcopy. Go to ... Restoring Virginia's Wetlands - A Citizen's Toolkit

Especially For Students...

NOAA has recently launched a new website for student internship,
scholarship and other opportunities. This is a great new one-stop shop
for information on all the great NOAA-funded opportunities. Check it out
online http://www.oesd.noaa.gov/noaa_student_opps.html.

 

 

 

Captain John Smith Trail

 

Every October, Virginia Archaeology Month highlights the importance of our unique archaeological resources to tourism, to education, and to understanding the past. Events range from exhibits, lecture series, and tours, to special hands-on children’s programs and take place at libraries, museums, historical societies, and on active archaeological sites. For further information, including suggestions for hosting activities, visit www.dhr.virginia.gov/home.htm , click on ‘Archaeology’ and then on ‘Virginia Archaeology Month.’  Join in the fun and fascination of Virginia archaeology.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Other websites to check out...

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