Restore Urbanna Creek and Christchurch Oyster Farm

Restore Urbanna Creek, a project designed by Waterfront Director Will Smiley (Christchurch School) is a restoration project involving the native Chesapeake Bay oyster. Adult oysters filter up to 50 gallons of water a day. Through a collaboration of nine organizations—both for-profit and non-profit—and two high school programs-- Restore Urbanna Creek has planted over 3 million oysters in Urbanna Harbor and plans to add an additional 3 million this summer. 6 million oysters will filter 300 million gallons of water/day. Christchurch School students studied and investigated the creek extensively prior to the reef build and could not find a living oyster where a large native population used to thrive. Now five years into the project, oysters are found all along the shoreline of the creek because enough oysters have been replenished and they are reproducing on their own. Partnering with the town of Urbanna wastewater treatment facility, water quality data was collected in the creek before the reefs were built. Now water quality monitoring continues to compare the data before oyster population was reestablished. We anticipate chemical and physical change to occur in addition to the biological change.

In addition to the extensive work done in Urbanna Creek, Christchurch School also runs an oyster farm where students are involved in the farm operation, marketing, and sales of the oysters they grow. (also designed and directed by Will Smiley) .The Christchurch School Oyster Farm is the largest of its kind run by high school students.

Intended impact of project

Reduced environmental impact
Improved occupant health & performance
Increased environmental & sustainability literacy