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The following page includes images from the 2008 NOAA Restoration Day season, beginning with the NOAA Bay Grass Growing Workshop on March 10, 2008. Photos have been added from March until the 2008 NOAA Restoration Day event on June 2, 2008.

View the Photo Gallery Archive for past photos from 2002 - 2007 which documents the entire history of this project.

2008 Photos

NOAA Restoration Day Activities -- Maryland Event: June 2, 2008

The fifth annual NOAA Restoration Day event was held at the Chesapeake Bay Environmental Center (CBEC) on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, the site of the first Restoration Day event in 2004. Over 150 volunteers, from all NOAA line offices, participated or lead activities. Staff were divided into ten teams to complete a variety of restoration science projects. These activities were taking place simultaneously in four different areas of the property. Restoration activities included: planting seagrass and other wetland plants, clearing brush and the shoreline, seeding an oyster reef, and various mapping and
charting activities. See links below to view photos and a description of each activity.

• Registration & Set up - More than 150 volunteers from across NOAA joined staff from the Chesapeake Bay Environmental Center to restore a portion of the Chesapeake Bay near Kent Narrows on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. 
  
  
• Welcome Remarks - Opening remarks came from leadership across NOAA and CBEC.
  
  
• Oyster Seeding- Approximately 600 bags of native oyster spat were added to offshore reef. Thirty volunteers moved bags of oysters from shore to boat, and sprinkled oysters onto offshore reef.
  
  
• Reef Ball Monitoring - Individual reefballs were be lifted onto a barge, where volunteers monitored the surface area to measure oysters and organism growth to see if they are an effective artificial habitat. Case Marine crane crew deployed over the pre-existing reefball area. 
  
  
• Bottom Mapping - Six volunteers watched the side scan sonar and detailed bottom mapping technology for habitat assessments, and map potential oyster bottom.
   
• Fish Seining - In the morning session, twenty-four volunteers pulled seines along the beach area at Hog Bay, and then pulled it ashore. Fish were identified and enumerated. In the afternoon, a fish trawl was pulled from a mullet skiff in the Marshy Creek area.
  
  
• Wetland Planting & Brush Removal - Over the course of the day, over 45 volunteers helped to plant over 2,400 wetland plants around a man-made pond near the visitor center to return it to a wetland. Some volunteers also used skimmers from canoes to remove pond scum/algae and helped clear non-native brush from the area to be made into wood chips.
  
  
• NGS Elevation Activity - This activity utilized forty volunteers over the entire day and included three parts: setting upland bench marks, running level lines, and wetland SET deep rod marks.
  
  
• Underwater Grass (SAV) Planting - Roughly twenty volunteers planted 66 SAV trays of Wild Celery (Vallisneria Americana) previosly grown in tanks in twenty-two NOAA offices in Marshy Creek.
  
  
• Native SAV Inventory (via kayaks) - Approximately 40 total volunteers used kayaks to identify native submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) in Marshy Creek during two sessions. They also helped clean-up the SAV growing equipment.
  
  
• Bird Activities - Three birding activities took place at CBEC during NOAA Restoration Day. Twelve volunteers toured and learned about wild raptors being rehabbed at the center, twelve more built bird boxes, and sixteen participated in a bird watching census on the property.
  
  
• Shoreline Cleanup & Gazebo Staining - Throughout the day, about twenty-five volunteers helped clean up trash and debris from the shoreline along Prospect Bay, and six helped stain a gazebo near the CBEC visitor center.
  
  
• Awards - Several volunteers were awarded and acknowledged for their participation including hosting underwater grass tanks in their office from March until June. Awards were distributed at lunch and during the social after the event.
  
  
• Scenic - The Chesapeake Bay Environmental Center (CBEC) is a beautiful place along the Chesapeake Bay near Kent Narrows on the eastern shore of Maryland.
  

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