Doing Your Part Action Center Restoration Programs &           Activities Tree Planting Underwater Grasses Oyster Restoration Clagett Farm Volunteer Rewards Program Join Team Mud Busters

Take our Cyclist for the Bay pledge. Take our Boaters for the Bay pledge. Take our Gardeners for the Bay pledge.

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CBF's oyster restoration program provides citizens with the tools and information needed to help restore native oysters to the Bay. Until the 1980s, oysters supported the most valuable fishery in the Bay. Today, as a result of decades of pollution, over-harvesting, and disease, the Bay's native oyster population is merely about 2% of historic levels. Yet they remain an important part of the Bay's ecology.

Oysters form large reefs that provide habitat for a wide range of marine plants and animals. In addition, they feed by filtering microscopic plants from the water, and in the process improve water quality and clarity.

Rebuilding reefs and stocking them with oysters is a high priority for the Bay. It is a long-term process that will require the participation and commitment of federal and state agencies and citizens alike for many years. But it is important to restore native oysters to the Chesapeake.

View photos to Oyster Restoration at the Naval Academy Seawall in Annapolis, Md.

Time-lapse of Oysters Filtering Water   Windows Media Daily Press - CBF Adds Seed Oysters on the Piankatank River   Windows Media CBS News - Oysters Return to the Bay  Windows Media Would you like to help build living oyster reefs? Learn more about Maryland’s oyster gardening and oyster restoration programs, or contact Stephanie Reynolds at 443/482-2164 or sreynolds@cbf.org. Learn more about Virginia's oyster program, or contact Chris Moore at 757/622-1964 or cmoore@cbf.org.