Set sprinklers to water the lawn or garden only - not the street or sidewalk.
Use the microwave to cook small meals. (It uses less power than an oven.)
Purchase "Green Power" for your home's electricity. (Contact your power supplier to see where and if it is available.)
Scrape, rather than rinse, dishes before loading into the dishwasher; wash only full loads.
Cut back on air conditioning and heating use if you can.
Turn off appliances and lights when you leave the room.
Many people live and play on the Lynnhaven River. It’s a beautiful natural resource, but its water isn't as great as it could be because the oyster population is too low.
The decline happened over decades. Disease and over-harvesting took a heavy toll on its oysters.
The problem was compounded during the 1970s and 80s when development along the river created more runoff and sedimentation, effectively smothering oyster reefs.
Now, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Virginia Institute of Marine Science are part of a bay-wide effort to reverse the trend.
Project manager Brian Rheinhart says it’s vitally important for the future of the Lynnhaven.
"The water quality goes down because the oysters act as a natural filter. The clarity of the water goes down which reduces your underwater grasses," he explains.
Fewer underwater grasses mean less habitat for other underwater creatures.
There are economic impacts as well. The river once yielded some of the tastiest oysters in the world. Called "Lynnhaven Fancies," they were enjoyed by presidents and other heads of state.
The oyster population is about one to two percent of the historical levels. The plan is to create about 111 acres of permanent oyster reef sanctuary. That would bring numbers up to 10 percent of historical levels.
Marine Biologist Dave Schulte with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is experimenting to find the best environments for the oysters to thrive. To reach the goal, oysters will have to overcome natural threats like blue crabs, cow-nose rays, and birds.
"We wanted to see just how much damage cow-nose rays do. As it turns out, they do a great deal of damage," he notes.
The key is allowing the oysters to form a reef as protection against predators.
Protected reefs aren't the only places the oysters will flourish. Researcher Russell Burke with VIMS says some of you have prime real estate.
"The bulk of the oysters are located in the inter-tidal zone on people’s property lines and a lot of it has to do with the concrete rip-rap and the granite rip-rap," says Burke.
If you live along the water, it's best to leave natural shoreline alone. But if you've already made changes or if you are planning to, rip-rap works much better for oysters than flat wooden bulk-head.
In the next couple of months, the team will begin constructing 34-acres of new oyster reefs in Lynnhaven River.
It's our watch, so by taking these steps and reducing harmful runoff into the Lynnhaven, we should enjoy a healthier river, and maybe we’ll be able to once again dig-in to those "Lynnhaven Fancies."
