NOAA Virginia Restoration Day

On May 31, 2006, the Rice Center hosted the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration’s first Virginia Restoration Day. The event was co-sponsored by NOAA’s Chesapeake Bay office in Virginia and the NOAA Restoration Center. Leading the events of the day were the Honorable Preston Bryant, Virginia’s secretary of natural resources, and Captain Craig McLean, NOAA acting deputy assistant administrator. Joining them were Dr. Thomas Huff, VCU vice provost for life sciences and Lowell Bahner, director of the NOAA Chesapeake Bay office. More than 50 NOAA employees from across the lower Chesapeake Bay region, as well as faculty and staff from the Rice Center, the Virginia Coastal Zone Management Program, the Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences and students from around the state worked together on a variety of restoration projects.

The event focused on raising awareness of the need to actively restore Virginia’s environment. After weeks of growing wild celery from seeds, volunteers planted these underwater grasses in the James River at the Rice Center to promote the restoration of submerged vegetation, which is critical to the healthy functioning of the river and bay ecosystem. Volunteers also built and installed nesting boxes as part of the Rice Center’s Prothonotary Warbler project, learned about the need for water quality monitoring and then tested the James River for dissolved oxygen, pH, temperature and nutrient concentrations.

In addition many of the participants got down and dirty, removing over 750 pounds of debris from the James River shoreline.