Hey there! I’m Rachel Hawes, the Conservation League’s Coastal Stewardship and Engagement Manager. Despite a buggy beginning to the season, we’re off to a busy spring of volunteering and being active in the community!
We started this month with a nature walk in Lewis Ocean Bay Heritage Preserve with our very own North Coast Project Manager and Certified Wildlife Biologist, Trapper Fowler. Attendees learned all about why Lewis Ocean Bay is a North Coast treasure and its existing threats. Spring is when we begin to shift our oyster-related volunteer events with the SC Department of Natural Resources (SCDNR) from land-based activities like constructing manufactured wire reefs (MWRs) and picking trash out of the oyster shell pines, to water-based activities like installing those MWRs out in our creeks! We started in Beaufort constructing over 30 MWRs, which will be used in SCDNR oyster reef restoration projects later this month and year (see dates below to join us).
We also jetted up the coast to Coastal Carolina University where we co-hosted an all day volunteer event constructing over 30 more MWRs with students and community members in the region. More on that in this Post and Courier article covering the event. We will finish up the month with our last opportunity to pick trash out of SCDNR’s recycled oyster shell piles in Charleston – stay tuned to see if we beat last month’s record of picking up 133 pounds of trash!
Check out our upcoming events and opportunities to get involved here.