National Estuaries Day   September 29, 2012

Spend A Day on the Bay!

National Estuaries Day is the annual celebration of the vibrant and essential coastal areas where rivers meet the sea. Held on the last Saturday of September each year, National Estuaries Day is a terrific opportunity to learn more about estuaries and the perfect excuse to spend a day on your local bay. You can take advantage of volunteer opportunities and hands-on restoration in your nearby bay or estuary, participate in a guided walk or boat tour, or simply explore your estuary with family and friends. Every year, Restore America's Estuaries and its 11 national member organizations across the country organize special National Estuaries Day events--beach clean-ups, hikes, canoe and kayak trips, cruises, workshops, and more! While National Estuaries Day is celebrated on the last Saturday in September, events occur nationwide all month long. Here are just a few of the many events being held across the country in 2012 to celebrate National Estuaries Day, ordered so that those occuring sooner appear first:

NATIONAL ESTUARIES DAY EVENTS

Save The Bay's popular Beach Slam returns to Tillinghast Farm in Barrington, RI this September. Enjoy a day of free beach activities; including fly-fishing courtesy of L.L.Bean, kayaking, and paddleboarding with REI. This family-fun event also includes live entertainment, great food, rockclimbing, and more!

Slam was extremely successful last year, attracting more than 500 attendees. The event served as a perfect opportunity to raise awareness around the Bay by highlighting our delegation's involvement. This year it will undoubtedly be an even bigger success given increased growth and popularity!

Free admission and additional information can be found at: www.savebay.org/slam

Littoral Society members, new and old, will gather to catch up on the year's activities and get out and explore the coast. This year's meeting will take place in and around Island Beach State Park - a nearly pristine 10-mile stretch of the New Jersey coast adjacent to Barnegat Bay. Activities will include evening programs plus kayaking, surf fishing, star gazing, presenting the annual Graham Macmillan Award, and our always understated annual meeting. Members will also decorate shells to plant on our nearby oyster restoration site along with summer's worth of shells decorated by our Coast Camp Kids.

This is a members-only event , but it's never too late to join for $40 per year. Full weekend is $375 and includes all meals, lodging, and guided walks and talks. Our annual meeting has several price packages. More information can be found here:

http://www.littoralsociety.org/index.php/trips-a-events/51st-annual-meeting

Help the N.C. Coastal Federation celebrate National Estuaries Day with a ride along the beautiful Bogue Banks. The goal of the ride is to raise awareness for North Carolina's coastal estuaries and beaches. Funds raised will benefit the federation's restoration and protection projects. Our annual ride is great for all ages and biking levels, offering 20K, 40K and 80K options. The ride will begin and end at Fort Macon State Park, at the eastern tip of Bogue Banks. Riders will leave in waves, beginning at 8 a.m. with the 80K group. The 40K and 20K riders will leave a little later, biking towards Atlantic Beach, and turning around at specified points on the island. Volunteers will help with safety issues and mechanical breakdowns. There will be food and water stops along the way.

More information can be found here:http://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/event?llr=0&oeidk=a07e5pq1jt2cee40b75

The North Carolina Coastal Federation invites community members and volunteers to celebrate National Estuaries Day with an oyster reef construction event at the Waterway Park in Oak Island. You are invited to celebrate the beauty and productivity of our estuaries and coastal waters by helping to build two new oyster reefs along the estuarine shoreline of Oak Island. We will need lots of volunteers to place about 5,000 oyster shell and marl bags in the shallow water along the Park’s shoreline. Volunteers will be carrying and hauling the shell and marl bags from the stockpile area down to the shoreline where they will be stacked in the water to form the new reefs.

We will also be pulling seine nets and hosting other fun educational activities focused on oyster and salt marsh habitat. Please join us and bring your friends, family and coworkers for a couple of hours or for the whole day to participate in a fun and rewarding activity. Refreshments, supplies and equipment will be provided. This event is suitable for all ages. Pre-registration is requested.

This even will occur at Waterway Park at 1504 E. Yacht Drive Oak Island, NC 28465 More information is available here:http://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/event?oeidk=a07e68fazsj687bb673

Make Reef Balls for oyster restoration at Shady Side, Maryland
WHEN: September 28, 29 at 9AM to noon

To mark National Estuaries Day, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation invites the public to help restore the Bay’s oyster reefs by making Reef Balls for deployment in the Bay. Reef Balls are concrete reef modules shaped like igloos with holes through them. Before deployment, our reef balls spend a week or two in our large setting tanks where oyster larvae attach to them. When deployed in the Bay reef balls literally “sprout” with oysters forming a simulated reef.

This event will cover two days and be held at CBF’s Oyster Restoration Center in Shady Side, Maryland. The public is invited to sign up for either or both days. On Friday the 28th, thirty fiberglass Reef Ball molds will be assembled with locking pins and inflated balls inside, and concrete will be added and tapped down to fill all voids. After curing overnight the Reef Balls will be “hatched” on Saturday the 29th and the molds disassembled. Next spring the 320 pound Reef Balls will be set with oysters and deployed in the Bay creating a new underwater habitat for fish, oysters and other invertebrates.

For more information log onto www.CBF.org/oysters or contact Meghan Hoffman at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

The Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana and Abita Beer invite volunteers to participate in a wetland restoration project that will create sand dunes along the shoreline of Elmer’s Island in Grand Isle, LA. Elmer’s Island is a 230 acre wildlife refuge managed by the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, and is located along the beachfront just west of Grand Isle, LA. It is one of the few beaches in Louisiana that is accessible by car and is well known for its excellent fishing and bird watching. This area provides essential protection for Louisiana’s inland communities and wetlands, and it was severely impacted by recent hurricanes and the 2010 Deepwater Horizon Oil Disaster. Volunteers will help repair sand fence that was damaged by Tropical Storm Lily in 2010 and plant thousands of dune grass around the fence line. The project will assist in stabilizing and capturing sand in the hopes of building dunes, reducing coastal erosion and create wildlife habitat.

There is no cost to attend the event. Volunteers under the age of 18 must be accompanied by an adult. All ages are welcome, but this is a strenuous activity so volunteers should possess good physical fitness. All equipment (shovels, gloves, hammers, etc.) as well as lunch and drinks will be provided.

For more information contact Hilary Collis ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ) or visit www.crcl.org.

On Saturday, September 29, celebrate National Estuaries Day by joining the Galveston Bay Foundation for a “Marsh Mania” planting. Volunteers will spend the morning planting marsh grass along the shoreline of Moses Lake in Texas City. Grab your family, friends, and colleagues and have a muddy and fun morning outside and enjoy a few perks—free t-shirt and free lunch!

Date: September 29, 2012

Time: 8:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.

Location: Moses Lake at Texas City Prairie Preserve

Who: We need you! Volunteers ages 12 and up are encouraged to join us.

What: Help plant smooth cordgrass on a newly constructed wetland.

Why: GBF's conservation programs focus on wetlands preservation and restoration, as well as land preservation. The Galveston Bay system has lost over 35,000 acres of wetlands during the last fifty years. Wetlands provide habitat for finfish and shellfish as well as rookery and foraging areas for birds. They also stabilize shorelines and provide flood control, and they naturally improve water quality by filtering water. GBF's nationally recognized, community-based habitat restoration program, called "Marsh Mania," has involved thousands of citizen volunteers and restored hundreds of acres of wetlands over the last fourteen years. Join us, and become an official “Marsh Maniac!”

For more information about the event or to register, please contact Julie Mintzer, (281) 332-3381, ext. 207, or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .Information can also be found here: http://galvbay.org/events_marsh.html

Did you know that San Francisco Bay is actually an estuary? Have you ever heard of brackish water? Do you know how many major estuaries can be found in the U.S.? Save The Bay’s field educators are estuary experts, and after spending “a day on the Bay” with them, you will be too.

Join Save The Bay, in partnership with the California Department of Fish and Game, as we remove invasive weeds, maintain our natives plantings, and create habitat for wildlife at Eden Landing Ecological Preserve.

Volunteers will learn about the ecology of the San Francisco Estuary while participating in the largest tidal wetland restoration project on the West Coast of North America.

This event is free, and you can find additional information at https://www.savesfbay.org/secure/national-estuaries-day-eden-landing-ecological-reserve-haywardunion-city

or by contacting Natalie LaKeidan (Community Engagement Manager at Save The Bay) at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or 510.463.6809.

SAVE THE SOUND
National Estuaries Day River Walk and Press Conference

September 29th, 9:30 a.m. - Noon

Location:9:30 am: River Walk starts at the Edgewood Park Duck Pond, New Haven, CT and concludes at the West River Tide Gates
11am: Press Conference at the West River Tide Gates, New Haven CT; just south of Route 1 (Columbus Ave.)

Save the Sound will guide residents through a 1.5 mile tour to explore the West River.  The walk will highlight the recently completed West River Restoration Project and how the physical project is already showing signs of ecological healing and providing increased recreational opportunities for people.   The walk will begin at the community’s beloved Edgewood Park Duck Pond.  From there where participants will walk the new public access boardwalk and see a meadow in the process of transformation into a functioning wetland.  Then for a walk down Marginal Drive to observe the stirrings of restored fish and marsh life and finally a tour of the newly installed self-regulating tide gates along Route 1 that makes all of this new habitat possible.  The walk will be followed by a press conference with elected officials and advocates on the recently installed tide gates.  It will highlight the critical federal and state partnership, particularly the importance of NOAA funding in leveraging state investment.

For more information on the West River Restoration Project visit: http://www.ctenvironment.org//save-the-sound/habitat-restoration.cfm

We are planning to do several coastal cleanups throughout the Bay area! Locations will include Ft. DeSoto Park, the Sunshine Skyway Bridge, Clam Bayou Park, and possibly the Lost River Preserve. Volunteers will participate in a monofilament cleanup by kayaking and boating to various bird islands in Tampa Bay to remove monofilament line from the mangroves and shorelines.

Working with Keep Pinellas and Hillsborough County Beautiful programs and the National Audubon Society, priority shoreline areas will be targeted for cleanup and fishing line removal activities. The day of the coastal cleanup, volunteers will meet at their designated location where Tampa Bay Watch staff will give a briefing about the project and the importance of marine debris removals. Trash bags and a dumpster will be provided for the disposal of the trash collected. Volunteers will separate out into their designated areas where they will scour the mangroves and shoreline for debris. At the end of the event, everyone will meet back up for lunch and a final weigh-in of the trash collected.

The monofilament cleanup has historically been a kayak/boating based event where the volunteers go out on the designated event date and cleanup colonial bird nesting islands throughout West Central Florida as assigned by Tampa Bay Watch staff. Based on the number of volunteers that have signed up for the monofilament fishing line cleanup, the priority cleanup area will be divided into designated locations so that each volunteer or group of volunteers has an island or group of islands that they are responsible for. Packets of information will be mailed to participants the week before the event which will include instructions and guidelines for the event, data sheets for the collection of the fishing line and a return envelope so that all of the collected fishing line can be returned to Tampa Bay Watch for monitoring reports and recycling.

There is no cost to attend either event, but participants in the monofilament cleanup must have their own boat or kayak for transportation. Participation in all events requires registration through Tampa Bay Watch. We prefer that children under age 15 participate only if with supervision. Participants can go to our website, www.tampabaywatch.org, to register or contact Rachel Arndt at 727-867-8166 or via email at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

NATIONAL ESTUARINE RESEARCH RESERVES

Can't get to one of our member groups? Try finding a National Estuarine Research Reserve near you at http://estuaries.noaa.gov/GetInvolved/Default.aspx?ID=153