On November 29, two members of the SC Department of Natural Resources visited with sixth grade students to discuss the SCORE (South Carolina Oyster Restoration and Enhancement) program. They shared with the girls the essentialness of this keystone species and the need to maintain and reestablish oyster habitats in our Lowcountry waterways. As part of the study the girls learned about the oysters' roles as grounders to prevent erosion, as filters to help clean the waterways, as a food source, and as the cornerstone species for diverse and populous habitats. They also learned about the SCDNR's programs to recycle oyster shells which some of their classmates had already been involved in. The community program of SCORE has volunteers bag recycled shells and then help place them in tidal creeks as foundation blocks upon which new oyster reefs form. The visiting DNR researchers brought one of these bags from a current reef, and the girls searched among the shells to find an amazing array of other species that had used the bag as their habitat including Spaghetti worms, mud crabs and the invasive green mussel.
