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Water Family Fest, native plant sale offers education, fun activities
Weather doesn’t dampen visitors’ interest
Jim Tully, shellfish program specialist, and Noreen Spiegelman, CIB volunteer, staff the Don’t Chuck Your Shucks display to talk about the oyster-shell recycling program that supports local habitat restoration projects such as living shorelines and oyster gardening. SUBMITTED PHOTOS
May 29, 2022
The Delaware Center for the Inland Bays and Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control hosted the Water Family Fest and Annual Native Plant Sale May 14 at the James Farm Ecological Preserve in Ocean View.
The event included nearly 20 nature-based exhibitors; local nurseries Inland Bays Garden Center, Roots Landscaping, Monarch Nursery and Coastal Tributaries selling all native-to-Delaware plants; and Taco Reho and Kona Ice food trucks.
Attendees also participated in environmental education talks, guided hikes through the preserve, and hands-on activities like seining the Indian River Bay, bird watching and horseshoe crab tagging. The event attracted more than 300 visitors despite the cool and rainy weather.
Staff and volunteers on hand for the Water Family Fest and Annual Native Plant Sale May 14 at the James Farm Ecological Preserve in Ocean View are (l-r) Brittney Flaten, Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control; Jordan Taylor and Caitlin Chaney, Delaware Center for the Inland Bays; Alison Rogerson and Olivia McDonald, DNREC; and Nivette Perez-Perez, Anna Fagan, Lisa Swanger, Bob Collins and Jackie Knoll, CIB.
Noreen Spiegelman, a Center for the Inland Bays volunteer, explains the Don’t Chuck Your Shucks program to a young attendee.
John Hanson, a master naturalist and Center for the Inland Bays volunteer, discusses the center’s horseshoe crab monitoring program and its importance to various migrating bird species as well as the crabs.
CIB volunteer Lise Fortin is ready to explain how the center’s Living Shoreline Initiative helps protect and restore bayshore habitats.
