Oystertecture: Individual Voices Tyler

11.13.12

We went out to work with the Oyster Gardening for Restoration and Enhancement (OGRE) program to collect, sort, document, transport, and place oysters for restoration. The program takes clamshells from Roger Williams University with larvae already "set" on them places them into floating cages that are distributed to 100 volunteer sites throughout the state of Rhode Island. After spending a year or two growing up to 1" in size, they are brought back and documented before being placed into a permanent shellfish restoration site.

The process was time consuming and labor intensive, requiring about twenty people for up to six hours of work. After spending a Saturday doing this I am re-thinking the methods I can use in my own project to transport oysters from the community farm to the filtration system. I now think that transporting them at high tide and using a boat or floating dock to aid in the process would be very beneficial. I also think that making my cages smaller to enable easy cage replacement by only one person would streamline the work flow during cage replacement.

More information about the OGRE program can be found here: http://ceed.rwu.edu/ogre.html.

The floating cages that hold the oysters.

Sorting the oysters to create sample sets for data collection.

Data collection.

Transporting 43 totes of oysters by truck.

Approved oyster restoration site.

Placing the oysters into their new homes at the approved restoration site.

-Tyler-

11.06.12

Mid-term reviews were on November 1, 2012 and Frank and I used the discussions as an opportunity to present our current status on the project and try to flush out any major flaws in our current methods or ideas. Overall I think the discussions went well and we received helpful feedback, including the news that we chose a good site to test our ideas. Even though it requires some re-design I think that the most beneficial feedback I received was to incorporate the oyster filtration and salt marsh system into the new retaining walls and embankment for the vehicular bridge. The idea behind this is to minimize the flow restriction and make for a more natural tidal flow in and out of the smaller cove. I think this could make for a great system, however I need to make sure that I still incorporate the original sculptural qualities and and water movement into the system.

As I move forward I think I need to gain a greater understanding of the currents and the salt marsh habitat. I also want to look into piled walls as a method of construction. This method is less intrusive and I think that without the need to make footings the overall feasibility of the project increases, especially for application at other sites.

Mid-term review presentation materials

Tidal flow map displaying the high and low tides as well as the section cut locations

Section A-A

Section A-A Enlargement

Section B-B

Section B-B Enlargement

Oyster Filtration Proposed Site Plan

Study model of the proposed oyster filtration system

Annotated study model of the proposed oyster filtration system

-Tyler-

10.23.12

In Process Diagram Tying to Understand the Coves, the Currents and the Pollution of Buttonwoods Cove and Brush Neck Cove

-Tyler-

10.17.12

Site Pollution and Watershed Map

After site selection and concepts, the next step was to investigate the larger watershed to understand where potential pollutants sources are located.The Site Pollution and Watershed Map highlights the watershed, pollutant sources and current shellfish closure locations. Frank and I have read conflicting information pertaining to the permanent closure of Brush Neck and Buttonwoods Coves to shellfishing, but we think that since Greenwich Bay is not permanently closed that the water quality problems come from upstream. I am currently looking into filtering the water in two different locations. The first is located throughout the estuary or cove with the help of the tide. The second addresses the problem more locally at the location where the river and the estuary meet.

Below are a few study models looking at the possibility of slowing down the tide leaving the cove or estuary and forcing the water to flow through a oyster filtration system. One system incorporates a flexible substrate that allows for oyster setting and lets the tide come in at an average speed, but when it flows back out the system stands up and slows it down. Slowing the tides flow back out to sea provides the oyster more time to filter the water. The second approach uses oysters in a more contained environment that encourages or forces the tide to flow through them for filtration.

Flexible oyster substrate that flows with or against the tide.

Stepped gabion oyster filtration, retention oyster filtration, oyster cultch filtration, directing the flow through oyster cultch filtration

Possible ways to encourage the tide to flow through an oyster gabion filtration system.

-Tyler-

10.13.12

After visiting the Matunuck Oyster Farm I thought that the techniques used were minimally intrusive to the surrounding residents and salt pond. However after visiting our potential site at Brush Neck Cove and Buttonwoods Cove in Warwick, RI, I am concerned that creating constructed shellfish habitat that cleans pollutants coming form upstream may overly dominate the site. Even though the water is polluted, the site is visually beautiful and appears clean. At this point I think that the form of the structure will need to either be invisible or sculptural and compelling. I am currently looking into ways to construct oyster gabion to clean the polluted water as it enters the estuary. However the Wenk Associates Shop Creek project in Denver, CO comes to mind when I think that it may be equally as important to consider methods of cleaning the water further upstream.