Brief history of the Eastern Shore
The seaside of Virginia's Eastern Shore is a global treasure. This vast system of barrier islands, bays, and salt marshes has been designated by the United Nations as a Man and the Biosphere Reserve.
The intertidal and shallow subtidal areas, undeveloped beaches and marshes have supported an incredible array of waterfowl and shorebirds.
These habitats have also served as breeding, nursery
and foraging 
sites for finfish and shellfish, which are of tremendous
economic value to commercial and recreational fishermen.
Today the seaside may look like a coastal wilderness. But it hasn't always been that way.
British colonists found its welcoming shores. Blackbeard and his pirates landed here.
By the 1800's, this barrier island lagoon system was a mecca for hunting, fishing, and recreating for people from Washington, D.C. to New York. Finfish and shellfish harvests provided income to thousands of Virginians. Unimaginable numbers of oysters, scallops, finfish, waterfowl and shorebirds were devoured from its seemingly limitless cornucopia.
But all that changed. 
Harvests of all types of seafood and birds declined dramatically beginning in the late 1800's due to over-harvesting, disease, storms and loss of habitat. Powerful and destructive hurricanes and storms hit Virginia's seaside in the 1880's, 90's and early 1900's.
Eventually, the cottages, hunt clubs, resorts and small communities
were gone. The numbers of birds have also declined steadily due
to hunting, predation and habitat loss. As is so simply stated on
the gravestone of Hog Island resident, Maggie Simpson (1844-1914),
"How many hopes lie buried here." (from Seashore Chronicles by Barry
Truitt and Brooks Miles Barnes.)
Things have been fairly quiet on the seaside since the Great Depression.
But sadly, we have not seen a great resurgence of underwater grasses, oysters, scallops, finfish and birds. Resource managers, scientists and the shore's residents have wondered "why?" Why in the face of valiant conservation efforts over the last few decades have the resources not rebounded?
Maggie Simpson's hopes may not lie buried much longer.
Recent restoration success has brought new hope to the Eastern
Shore. Through the efforts of the Virginia
Oyster Heritage Program on the seaside, small scale experiments
with scattering eelgrass seed are actually taking root and flourishing.
And the oyster reefs on the seaside are also doing well. A new program,
modeled after the Virginia Oyster Heritage Program, has brought
together a new partnership and funding to build on the momentum
of recent restoration successes, and develop the tools necessary
to support long-term restoration and management strategies on the
seaside...
the Virginia Seaside Heritage
Program.
