There are many ways that you can get involved to help restore and protect the Coastal Bays.
Here we provide a few examples, but encourage you to visit some of the other excellent websites that will help you make a difference.
A few examples of how you can get involved
- Reduce or stop fertilizing your lawn and garden. If you want to fertilize your lawn, autumn is the most appropriate time for cool season grasses.
- Look for ways to filter run-off, such as directing drains and gutters into vegetated areas.
- Consider installing a rain barrel to capture runoff and to conserve water.
- Plant native trees and plants along your neighborhood stream to increase the riparian buffer, thereby decreasing the amount of unfiltered storm water running into the stream.
- Pump out your septic system regularly.
- Reduce your use of electricity and automobiles. Nitrogen oxide released from vehicles and power plants deposits onto the watershed, eventually washing into the bays and stimulating algal blooms.
- Hold a neighborhood cleanup to remove trash from the streets and stream banks before it enters a waterway.
- Respect and make room for wildlife around your home and neighborhood. Participate in the Coastal Bays citizen scientist’s activities like reptile and amphibian counts, horseshoe crab surveys and bird inventories.