Thank the Ocean
There are actions we all take every day that can help to keep our ocean a healthy and thriving place. Link to the Thank You Ocean campaign site for examples of small steps that you can take to do your part in ocean conservation and reduce energy consumption. It can be your way to say “Thank you ocean”.
Help Singer James Taylor Keep Songbirds Singing
Singer and songwriter James Taylor donated $200,000 in proceeds from his May 2008 concert in Virginia Beach to help protect migratory songbird habitat on Virginia's Eastern Shore. Their song is the music of the biosphere, describes Taylor. You can join James Taylor in this effort. Make a donation to help this critical Eastern Shore habitat. Go to The Nature Conservancy's website at www.nature.org.
Are you a resident of the Eastern Shore? Plant ES Native!
Join other gardeners throughout Accomack and Northampton County who are participating in the new Plant ES Natives Campaign! Help preserve critical Eastern Shore habitat by preserving and planting trees and shrubs that provide the insects and berries these migrating birds need for energy to complete their journey. Learn more about the Plant ES Natives Campaign...
Do you enjoy diving and snorkeling! Help restore Seaside seagrasses!
Volunteer to help collect up to 10 million eelgrass seeds in the meadows of South Bay on the Seaside of Virginia's Eastern Shore! When: Mid-May - Mid-June. To learn more visit www.nature.org/seagrassrestoration
Stewardship Campaign Highlight...
Chesapeake Club - "Save the Crabs, then Eat Em!" Chesapeake Club urges Bay watershed residents to hold off on fertilizing their lawns until the fall, when rainstorms are less frequent and the ground is better able to absorb nutrients contained in fertilizer. This helps protect the Bay's remaining blue crab population, which has been declining in recent years. Chesapeake Club offers yard care tips so you can create a blue crab-friendly lawn. And if you'd rather leave it up to the professionals, there are a growing number of lawn care providers offering the Chesapeake Club standard of yard care.
Coastal Stewardship Event Highlights...
Six Degrees to the Ocean
http://oceanconservancy.org/site/
An Ocean Conservancy website takes the "six degrees of separation" concept and marries it with the ocean. The theory is that any headline appearing in the news can somehow relate back to the ocean within six steps of connection. The activity illustrates just what a small world we live in and how integral the ocean is to our world.
Protect Virginia's Marine Animals
Tips from the Virginia Aquarium and Marine Research Center Stranding Response Team
Protect the oceans from harmful marine debris
http://marinedebris.noaa.gov/
welcome.html. Promoting individual responsibility, NOAA has partnered with the Advertising Council, National Marine Sanctuary Foundation, Environmental Defense, and the Disney Studios to deliver an ocean health message that underscores the cause and effect of human behavior. Featuring scenes and characters from "The Little Mermaid", the new public service announcements drive home the message that "life in the oceans depends on you." Routine activities alone bring 6.4 million tons of debris, mostly plastics, to our oceans each year.
Virginia Waterways Cleanup - Sept. 1- Oct. 31 Annually
Clean Virginia Waterways website
Clean Virginia Waterways (a program of Longwood University) schedules more than 150 river and beach cleanups in the fall and needs your help! Sign up as a Site Captain! Any school, church, business, group, family or organization can sign-up to host a local cleanup. Please view the list of cleanup events on the Web at http://longwood.edu/cleanva/
aboutcvw.htm. If your town or county doesn't have a cleanup event, please help this great statewide event by volunteering as a Site Captain!
The annual Virginia Waterways Cleanup is part of the International Coastal Cleanup, which is the world’s largest volunteer effort to collect data on litter and trash in the aquatic environment! Cleanup events are held on the coasts, AND inland, since inland litter often ends up in our oceans. To learn more about the Virginia Waterways Cleanup, please visit the .
Virginia & World Water Quality Monitoring Day
During September through October, citizens of Virginia join in Virginia & World Water Monitoring Day, a statewide opportunity to positively impact the health of rivers, lakes, estuaries and other waterbodies. Volunteer monitoring groups, water quality agencies, students, and the general public are invited to test four key indicators of water quality: temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen, and turbidity. The Virginia Water Monitoring Day website includes statewide events, tools for teachers/schools, statewide contacts and 2007 map and summary of data.
Coastal Stewardship Publication Highlight...
Restoring Virginia's Wetlands - A Citizen's Toolkit
Promotes the Voluntary Protection, Enhancement, Restoration and Creation of wetlands - prepared in partnership with the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), through a grant award from the United States Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Wetlands Program Development Grants initiative. Guides viewers through the background information necessary to understand wetland functions and values.
It provides useful information to Virginia's landowners, both private and public, on the status of wetlands, various options for the use and management of their wetlands, current regulatory protection as well as voluntary efforts, and technical and financial resources for protection, enhancement, restoration and creation projects. Included within the ToolKit are basics regarding wetland identification, types and classification as well as a section discussing types of wetland monitoring. Available on-line and in hardcopy.
Go to ... Restoring Virginia's Wetlands - A Citizen's Toolkit.
Especially For Students...
NOAA launched a website for student internship, scholarship and other opportunities. This is a great new one-stop shop for information on all the great NOAA-funded opportunities. Check it out online
http://oesd.noaa.gov/noaa_student_
opps.html.