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Habitat restoration making a difference in coastal Virginia

Habitat restoration is making a difference in coastal Virginia, several speakers said during a conference Tuesday at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, Gloucester Point.

For the daylong program at Watermen’s Hall on the VIMS campus, host Chesapeake Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve in Virginia brought together nine speakers from various agencies and academic backgrounds to update the approximately 125 scientists and planners in attendance about habitat restoration efforts throughout the Chesapeake Bay region.

Greg Garman, director of the Center for Environmental Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University, said two areas on the James River above Hopewell have seen large quantities of donated stone placed on the river bottom to make new substrate where, it is hoped, Atlantic sturgeon may soon breed. Stone placement occurred there in 2010 and 2011, he said, but there is no quantified evidence that sturgeon have yet settled on the site.

One problem in conducting...

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