It took all of us, decision by decision, to bring the Bay to where it is now, and will take all of us to bring it back from the brink. Citizens around Chestertown are doing their part. The Chester River was recently accepted as the nineteenth river under the Maryland Grow Oysters (MGO) program, a three-year-old oyster stewardship program where citizens grow oysters off of their own piers or those of amenable friends.
“I saw the opportunity,” said Chester River Coordinator Mike Hardesty, who applied for the MGO program, and also serves as the Chesapeake Semester program coordinator at Washington College. “Community members were really excited to participate, and I knew it had a lot of potential. I thought: ‘Let’s do it.’”
On July 6th a group of interested residents from the Chester River area gathered in the second floor of the Custom House to learn more about their role in saving this crucial species from Chris Judy, Director of the MGO program.
Judy, an employee under the Shellfish Division with the Department of Natural Resources, started MGO in 2008 with just one river. This summer, the program has grown to nineteen rivers, including the Chester.
Judy explained that the entire process is relatively simple and summed it up by saying that oyster growers “just add water.” The program provides cages, empty shells, and oyster spat (eggs) in late August and early September. Citizens need only supply a pier and dedication, and they will keep the cages for nine months. At that time, the oysters will be too small to eat yet mature enough to be planted in a sanctuary.
In its first year MGO collected over 236,000 oysters, which was truly a group effort. Prison inmates in Church Hill make the cages, a hatchery in Cambridge provides the oyster spat, and the oysters are planted in several different sanctuaries that are developed in the same river where they grew.
Judy is hoping that local projects like this will get people motivated. “We want to see citizens engaged with oyster stewardship, and expand Bay stewardship. I hope the program generates interest and a commitment to the Bay,” said Judy.
Hardesty noted that a hands-on experience with the Bay is one of the best ways to start building a relationship with it.
“It’s all about getting people to go out and get their hands dirty,” he said. “If they get involved with any aspect of the Bay, it might get them to do other things.”
This program is a continuation of oyster stewardship for Washington College’s Center for Environment and Society, who were among seventeen partners in the Hail Cove Restoration Project. With funding from Friends of Eastern Neck, ten bushels of oysters were planted at Hail Cove, and the Center received a Coastal America Partnership Award for its efforts, which Hardesty described as “quite an amazing achievement.”
Interested volunteers may contact Mike Hardesty at [email protected] for more information.
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