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• Teaming up to help restore reefs, give back to oyster growers hit hard by the pandemic

  WMDT ABC-47 | February 17, 2021

  Local media coverage of the SOAR program, a collaboration between TNC, the Pew Charitable Trusts and Oyster Recovery Partnership (ORP) to support oyster growers in Maryland and boost restoration efforts in the Chesapeake Bay.

• Covid-Related Oyster Surplus Used for Bay Restoration

  Chesapeake Bay magazine | January 26, 2021

  The Nature Conservancy, the Pew Charitable Trusts, and an anonymous donor have found a way to support oyster farmers and help restore coastal waters at the same time.

  Over the next two years, the partners’ new Supporting Oyster Aquaculture and Restoration (SOAR) initiative is offering $2 million to oyster farmers to buy 5 million oysters that have grown too large (3–4”) for the half-shell trade, languishing on farms because of the pandemic-caused lack of demand.

  The project is helping preserve critical coastal jobs in Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, and Washington State (where Olympia oysters grow). SOAR’s big oysters will help stock existing restoration reefs.

• Partnership Conserves 318 Acres in Dorchester County

  Chesapeake Conservancy | January 5, 2021

  The 318 acres conserved in the Nanticoke Rural Legacy Area represent a diverse landscape made up of working agricultural fields, forest, and wetlands that support many native species and will provide space for critical marsh habitats to migrate to in the future.

  “The project is a great example of how collaboration between federal, state, nonprofit, and private partners can achieve landscape scale conservation success in the Nanticoke watershed. We are truly fortunate to have so many great partners working towards a shared goal of protecting this unique and important place on Maryland’s Eastern Shore," said Elizabeth Carter, land protection director for The Nature Conservancy in Maryland/DC.