Southport Magazine

Participants of the oyster-shell recycling project at St. James Plantation held July 18th, 2013 venture out to Waterway Park. Photo by Nick Noble

On Thursday, July 18th, about 125 bushels of cleaned and prepared oyster shells were reintroduced to the waters at Waterway Park at St. James Plantation. For its seventh year, the oyster recycling and restoration program at the golf community welcomed dozens of volunteers of all ages.

As they revisited and repaired reefs from previous summers, volunteers also planted spartina grass along the banks of the Intracoastal for erosion control and to improve water quality and oyster habitats.

Carol and Jim Miller are residents of St. James and have participated in the projects for about five years now. As a fisherman, Jim said that ensuring a strong oyster reef means a healthy fishing environment.

St. James residents, UNCW students, and UNCW campers all work hard to replace spartina grass along the waterway. Photo by Nick Noble

“By building an oyster reef, we’re building a place where bait fish can live,” he said. “And we saw the demonstration of what an oyster can do cleaning out water.”

The water-cleaning demonstration was a part of this year’s project, and it included two fish tanks sitting on a picnic table, both full of water taken from the waterway nearby. One was filled with oysters. “Eventually, the oysters will clean out that water, and it takes about two or two-and-a-half hours for about five gallons of water. It’s really amazing,” Jim explained.

Carol said that the oyster reef restoration and recycling projects appealed to her interests in environmental stewardship. “I had also done some sea-oat planting down in Oak Island … and it was just a fun thing where I got to meet a lot people,” she said. “It’s also a chance to learn some environmental stuff and do some dirty work.”

Though the increasingly hot summer day made the project a little challenging, Carol and Jim said that the long-term rewards were worth the day of hard work.

“I think it helps build up the community as well,” Jim added.

“St. James is a volunteer-oriented community,” said project manager Taylor Ryan.

“They show up to help build the reefs, plant the grasses, come out to hear guest speakers, and we make it free to children and grandchildren of residents,” Ryan explained of the increasingly successful endeavor.

Participants placed approximately 125 bushels of recycled oyster shells along the banks of the waterway to increase water filtration. Photo by Nick Noble

However, not everyone that came out for the project was from the St. James Plantation community.

This program works closely with the University of North Carolina Wilmington’s Center for Marine Science, which added to the volunteer force: college interns and students from its Oceans 17 summer academic enrichment camp.

“These [campers] are from around the country,” Ryan explained. “And this year we had a request from the board of the Boys and Girls Club of Southport to have a special program for them yesterday, and the kids had such a good time that they were more than anxious to come back today.”

In honor of the week’s theme of “living by the sea,” the Boys and Girls Club unit manager Tina Fobes returned to St. James with almost a dozen 9- to 15-year-olds after their previous outing the day before.

“We arranged to meet with the UNCW students [yesterday] to learn about oyster reefs and what they do, how to conserve and improve the reefs in the area,” she explained. “[The kids] had a lot of fun playing in the water and learning about the animals.”

People of all ages received a bit of environmental education during the project. Photo by Nick Noble

Fobes remarked this was a wonderful opportunity for the kids to experience their community in a way that many rarely have a chance to. “We reach out to kids that need a place to go, whether it be afterschool or a summer program, and we like to do things within our community to help our kids learn what’s out there for them to do [and] show them that there are opportunities for them.”

Under supervision of UNCW interns, children were able to see and touch the various plants and wildlife to a degree, and Ryan said that the hands-on experience will be a memory to last a lifetime.

“If each one of these kids came out of these two days with one idea of something they could make a difference with sometime in their life, then this was a success,” he said. “We’re delighted to have them and we’re going to expand our program in the future for kids, definitely.”

For more about St. James Plantation news and events, visit www.stjamesplantation.com