MCAS working to reintroduce native oyster, restore Neuse River shore after Florence

MCAS Cherry Point — A partnership between an eastern North Carolina Marine Corps Air Station and one of the state’s preeminent universities could bring a native oyster population that once thrived on the river banks back to the area.

According to Cherry Point environmental specialists, the Eastern oyster (Crassostrea virginica) once thrived along the Neuse River near what is now Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point. However since that time, more than 80 years ago, the local Eastern oyster population gradually faded away.

Recently, a partnership between Cherry Point and Duke University has been studying the feasibility of re-introducing the once native species back into this section of the Neuse River.

The partnership is a result of a project started by Duke University called Duke Restore, and officials said the overall goal is to build ecosystems that benefit people and nature.

Cherry Point’s partnership with Duke University is part of a much larger, ongoing project on the installation. More than 5,000 linear feet of shoreline along the Neuse River was severely damaged during Hurricane Florence in 2018, and since then they have been working to secure funding to repair the damage and make extensive improvements to the shoreline’s design that will last for generations.

The environmental department is planning to build a living shoreline, which they said will be a combination of an offshore sill and native vegetation that better protects the shoreline and also provides other benefits like carbon storage and essential habitats for vertebrates and invertebrates.

Records show the Neuse River shoreline has suffered significant erosion, receding more than 20 feet in some locations since the late 1990s and officials said the new shoreline layout will incorporate unique designs that will allow the shoreline to accumulate sediment material as opposed to continuing to erode.

EAD Natural Resources Manager Jessica Guilianelli said the project paves the way for a shoreline that protects the infrastructure, is environmentally conscious, and sets the installation up for success for decades to come.

In the midst of more than $1 billion of renovations and construction to accommodate the coming F-35B Lightning II, and the ongoing recovery from Hurricane Florence, she said MCAS Cherry Point has worked to be an environmental steward of its surrounding natural resources.