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Billion Oyster Project

Resilience On The Half Shell

Nancy Anderson, Executive Director of the Sallan Foundation paid a visit to Governors Island Billion Oyster Project headquarters, an ecosystem restoration and education project that is trying to restore one billion oysters to New York Harbor.

None of this work would be possible without the restaurant shell-collection program and the education of the next generation of environmental stewards — as of 2019, the Billion Oyster Project includes programming in more than 80 middle and high schools.

Meanwhile, let's take a dive into Sallan's back pages and see where things stood as the 2013 Mayoral hopefuls — nine declared candidates had the chance to convince New York voters they were the one at an Earth Day Sustainability Forum.

Jumping forward a few years the soft ecological initiatives reported on in Anderson's Torchlight Column Industrial Strength Sustainability started to take shape.

Ensuring Urban Resilience, Come Hell Or High Water ℃limate Week 2016 panel organized to examine how NYC and Hoboken are working to effectively and efficiently adapt to the consequences of climate change and build resilience. Kate Orff presented Living Breakwaters — a method of restoring oyster reefs and re-engineering the Tottenville shoreline of Raritan Bay to respond to climate change, which at that time was an upcoming project from her landscape architecture firm SCAPE. Orff received a MacArthur Fellowship less than a year later.

Nancy Anderson visits Governors Island headquarters of BOP
Photo Caption: Anderson visits headquarters of the BOP on Governors Island, with a mountain of oyster shells curing behind her

Reef Building Explained
Photo Caption: Here's how oyster reefs get built, good for new oysters, good for N.Y. Harbor, good for aiding storm surge resilience

Oyster Shell Life Cycle Poster
Photo Caption: Who knew there's an oyster shell recycling program for NYC restaurants, add to NYC climate resilience by slurping oysters — Yum!