Riverside Conservancy

Thank you Florida Master Naturalists for conducting a shoreline survey at the Riverside Conservancy Center today! Thank you NOAA, IRL Council, Earth Focus Initiative of the CEK Foundation, the Litowitz Foundation and our many partners for supporting our restoration.

Lagoon Lecture Thursday at Riverside Conservancy Center.

What happens to an oyster shell after the last bite? At the Marine Discovery Center, it becomes part of a growing effort to restore habitat in the Indian River Lagoon and beyond.

Tess Sailor-Tynes, MDC’s conservation science coordinator, will discuss the organization’s Shuck & Share program during the Riverside Conservancy’s Lagoon Lecture series at 1 p.m. Thursday, June 18, at Riverside Conservancy, 1413 S. Riverside Drive, Edgewater.

Read the article for free using the link in the comments.

Marine Discovery Center launched its Shuck & Share program in 2013, which has recycled more than one million pounds of oyster shells since that time.

MDC’s Tess Sailor-Tynes will talk about the program as the guest speaker for Riverside Conservancy’s Lagoon Lecture series on Thursday, June 18.

The presentation, “Community-Based Restoration in the IRL and Beyond,” will be held at 1 p.m., at Riverside Conservancy, located at 1413 South Riverside Drive, Edgewater.

Shuck & Share has been an integral part of MDC’s conservation work for more than a decade. Sailor-Tynes will discuss the program’s beginnings, community partnerships and current habitat restoration efforts.

A staff member since 2018, she currently serves as MDC’s Conservation Science Coordinator and facilitates conservation staff, programs and the center’s conservation department. Her work entails integration with the center’s education and outreach teams, as well as community-wide partnerships that focus on conservation and sustainability.

Admission to the presentation is free and open to the public.

We planted 3.7 million clams in a Ponce Inlet bay today! Thank you Paul & Diane Caron, NOAA, IRLNEP, Earth Focus Initiative, Dr. Art Litowitz, IDEAS for US, and our many friends and volunteers who help us save the lagoon one shoreline at a time. Special thanks to Bob Chew who captained the boat today! ❤️

Thanks to a NOAA grant, the IRL Council, Dr. Todd Osborn, Lagoon Solutions, Mike Sullivan, the Earth Focus Initiative (funded by the CEK Foundation), Dr. Art Litowitz and our many friends and volunteers, Riverside Conservancy “planted” 500,000 clams this morning in the Indian River Lagoon (Edgewater, FL)!

Local beekeeper Donna Athearn will be the guest speaker for Riverside Conservancy’s Lagoon Lecture series on Thursday, May 21.

The presentation, “Commercial Beekeeping and Their Sweet Life,” will be held at 1 p.m., at Riverside Conservancy, located at 1413 South Riverside Drive, Edgewater.

Athearn will discuss the many types of bees that commercial farms must use to grow fruits and vegetables and the role that bees play as pollinators for these crops.

Both Athearn and her late husband, master beekeeper Marlin Athearn, have each served as president and vice president of the Beekeepers of Volusia County. They have operated 26 beehive colonies in New Smyrna Beach and Edgewater for the last 15 years.

Donna Athearn teaches about honey bee biology, how bees make honey and what they need from humans to survive on this continent in educational programs for schools, clubs and organizations. She also owns a catering company that uses many honey and wax products.

Admission to the presentation is free and open to the public.

Dr. Corie Charpentier of Stetson University will be the guest speaker for Riverside Conservancy’s Lagoon Lecture series on Thursday, April 30.

The presentation, “Night Vision: How Light Pollution Impacts Fish Food in Our Lagoon,” will be held at 1 p.m., at the Edgewater Public Library.

An associate professor of biology at Stetson, Dr. Charpentier will explore how light influences the biology of coastal animals by cueing behavior and biological clocks.

Charpentier notes that over the last 150 years, artificial light has increasingly illuminated the nighttime sky. Many coastal invertebrates begin life as planktonic larvae in waters exposed to artificial light at night along developed coastlines, but little is known about the impact of this light pollution on larval behavior.

During her presentation, she will explore how marine life responds to light pollution and will focus on the larval stages of invertebrates that are crucial contributors to coastal food webs and biodiversity, such as crabs, shrimp and oysters.

Dr. Charpentier is a marine biologist who pursues research in the ecology and physiology of coastal animals. She earned her bachelor’s degree in marine science at Eckerd College, her Ph.D. in marine biosciences from the University of Delaware and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Rutgers University.

The library is located at 103 West Indian River Road, Edgewater. Admission is free and open to the public.