UGA Marine Extension and Georgia Sea Grant is hosting its second open house at the Brunswick Station on Sept. 26 from 4-7 p.m.

Visitors of all ages are invited to tour the facility, engage with coastal experts, and learn about Marine Extension and Georgia Sea Grant’s research, education and extension efforts on the coast.

“The whole idea is to connect people in the community to the resources that we have here at Marine Extension and Georgia Sea Grant,” said Bryan Fluech, associate marine extension director. “From helping residents prepare for hurricanes to installing a rain garden, we have in-house experts ready and willing to serve people on the coast.”

Staff will have stations set up throughout the facility that feature live marine animals and reptiles, hands-on marine debris activities and information about Georgia’s shellfish industry.

A new virtual reality demonstration station will allow visitors to experience what it’s like when an 8-foot storm surge impacts a home on the coast. The program, which was developed in collaboration with the Games and Virtual Environments Lab in the UGA Grady College and Mass Communication, takes users through a hurricane event with storm surge and then allows them to elevate their house and obtain flood insurance to protect their family and property against future flood risks.

The R/V Georgia Bulldog, a 72-foot shrimp trawler that has been converted into a multipurpose research vessel, will be open to visitors. The Bulldog has been providing logistical support for research projects that involve fishery development, bottom mapping and sea turtle conservation since the 1980s.

Visitors are also invited to explore the station’s half-acre native plant demonstration garden with more than 115 types of native plants.

Staff at Marine Extension and Georgia Sea Grant’s Brunswick Station have been serving coastal Georgia communities for over 40 years, conducting important water quality research, ensuring safe seafood, preparing communities for coastal hazards and educating Georgians about stormwater management.

Additional details about the event can be found here: https://gacoast.uga.edu/event/brunswick-station-open-house/

Learn more about Marine Extension and Georgia Sea Grant at https://gacoast.uga.edu/.

Contact: Emily Kenworthy, 912-598-2340 ext. 107, ekenworthy@uga.edu

Marine Extension and Georgia Sea Grant is hosting 14 summer interns at the coast who are working with staff and faculty in Brunswick, Athens, and Savannah on a number of research, education and outreach initiatives. Summer internships with Marine Extension and Georgia Sea Grant are critical to enhancing environmental literacy and workforce development in the coastal region. Seven of the internships were made possible thanks to support from Friends of the UGA Aquarium.

The area next to the soccer field at Brunswick’s Howard Coffin Park received a much-needed facelift in the form of native plants and new soil. The 3,000-square-foot tract is a large scale stormwater demonstration project that UGA Marine Extension and Georgia Sea Grant hopes will educate visitors on ways to improve water quality.

Jessica Brown, stormwater specialist at Marine Extension and Georgia Sea Grant, oversaw construction of the site, which is called, in technical terms, a bioretention cell.

Jessica Brown (third from left) discusses the demonstration project with City employees.

“This project will serve as a case study and educational demonstration of a bioretention cell, which is a stormwater management practice that captures and treats runoff,” Brown says. “It’s a form of green infrastructure that helps protect and restore habitat by mimicking the natural water cycle.”

The bioretention cell, next to a tidal ditch, will act as a buffer for the park. When it rains, excess water from the soccer field will flow into the bioretention cell, which consists of layers of sandy soils, mulch and stone. Pesticides, fertilizers and other chemicals applied to the playing field will be filtered out through these layers instead of running directly into the tidal creek.
With population growth and increased land development in coastal Georgia, the use of green infrastructure has become increasingly important because it protects water quality and coastal habitats from pollution.

Brown worked with the City’s Engineer, Garrow Alberson, to design the bioretention cell. City employees constructed the project.

Alberson hopes the project will raise public awareness of green infrastructure practices.

“It seems that a lot of developers and engineers are hesitant to implement these practices because of factors like cost, long-term maintenance and effectiveness,” he said. “Hopefully, the construction of the demonstration cell will show that these practices can be effective for runoff volume reduction and water quality improvement, and that the practices can be cost-effective to install.”

Keren Giovengo, EcoScapes program manager, demonstrates how to plant one of the native plants in the bioretention cell.

The final phase of the project involved installing native plants, selected by Keren Giovengo, Marine Extension and Georgia Sea Grant’s EcoScapes program manager. The EcoScapes Sustainable Land Use program promotes responsible stewardship of natural resources in Georgia through sustainable land development and landscaping practices.

“Because of the size of the bioretention cell, I was able to consider a variety of trees, shrubs, grasses and palms for the site,” Giovengo says. “They were selected to provide a diverse array of local deciduous and evergreen species that are low maintenance and can tolerate drought, flooding and salt.”

Twelve students participating in a landscaping course through the Job Corps Center in Brunswick assisted with the planting.

Job Corps, a no-cost education and career technical training program administered by the U.S. Department of Labor, helps young people ages 16 to 24 improve the quality of their lives through career technical and academic training.

Students participating in a landscaping course through the Job Corps Center in Brunswick assisted with the planting.

“They’re in our program for roughly eight months and we help them earn their high school diploma or learn a trade and become certified,” says Kevin Brandon, landscaping instructor at the Brunswick Job Corps Center.

“We look for as many hands-on opportunities like this as possible because our goal is to get them a job when they complete the course,” he says.

Thanks to help from the students, all 216 native plants were in the ground in less than four hours.

Brown plans to showcase the demonstration site to environmental professionals and public works staff in surrounding counties.

“My hope is that we can do enough demonstration projects, such as this one, to better understand how they perform in a coastal environment and build capacity within the local workforce,” says Brown. “Fostering ownership of these type of practices at the local level will go a long way to support future implementation.”

Learn how to lessen the impact of stormwater runoff on water quality and coastal habitats during a two-day workshop presented by UGA Marine Extension and Georgia Sea Grant.

The workshop, May 18-19, will be held at the UGA Marine Extension and Georgia Sea Grant office in Brunswick, Ga.

Participants will learn about the impacts of stormwater runoff before designing a green infrastructure plan for their property. Green infrastructure and low impact development are management practices that naturally filter and store runoff, reducing the amount of pollution entering local waterways.

“Stormwater is best managed at its source and there are numerous opportunities for residents to do their part in protecting our ecosystems from stormwater pollution,” says Jessica Brown, stormwater specialist for Marine Extension and Georgia Sea Grant.

Brown will identify the different types of pollutants entering Georgia’s waterways before teaching participants how to identify sources of pollution and calculate runoff.

Presentations by Kelly Hill, coastal resources specialist with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, and Mark McClellan, regional specialist and forester with the Georgia Forestry Commission, will highlight low impact development practices and the benefits of stormwater management on a regional scale.

The afternoon will be spent designing a rain garden. Guidance on selecting native vegetation and creating a site-specific maintenance plan will be provided by EcoScapes Program Manager Keren Giovengo.

“Our goal is that participants will leave the workshop with enough information and skills to start considering solutions they could implement at home or in their community,” says Brown.

This workshop is offered as part of Marine Extension and Georgia Sea Grant’s coastal stewards program, a series of conservation workshops designed to engage adults in activities that enhance understanding of issues impacting coastal communities and inspire stewardship of natural resources.

This workshop is offered at a special reduced fee of $20 thanks to funding from Georgia Power. Dinner on Friday night and lunch on Saturday is included. Registration is required by May 16. Contact Kayla Clark at 912-598-3345 or kayla270@uga.edu. More information is available here https://gacoast.uga.edu/events

Learn how to lessen the impact of stormwater runoff on water quality and coastal habitats during a two-day workshop presented by UGA Marine Extension and Georgia Sea Grant.

The workshop, Jan. 19-20, will be held at the UGA Marine Education Center and Aquarium on Skidaway Island in Savannah.

Participants will learn about the impacts of stormwater runoff through demonstrations and hands-on exercises that encourage the use of green infrastructure, such as native plants and soils.

Green infrastructure and low impact development are management practices that naturally filter and store stormwater runoff, reducing the amount of waste entering local waterways.

“Stormwater is best managed at its source and there are numerous opportunities for communities and residents to do their part in protecting our ecosystems from stormwater pollution,” says Jessica Brown, stormwater specialist for Marine Extension and Georgia Sea Grant.

Brown will lead activities that encourage participants to think critically about impacts of runoff in coastal Georgia by discussing the types of pollutants entering Georgia’s waterways and the paths they take to get there.

“A lot of people don’t realize that neighborhood storm drains flow directly into tidal creeks and marshes,” says Brown.

Participants will have the opportunity to design a stormwater management system for a neighborhood or residence using different control measures, such as a rain garden or permeable pavement. As part of the exercise, they will calculate the amount of potential runoff at the property, determine the size and shape of the low impact development practice they want to apply, select vegetation and produce a maintenance plan.

“Our goal is participants will leave the workshop with enough information and skills to start considering solutions they could implement at home or in their community,” says Brown.

This workshop is offered as part of UGA Marine Extension and Georgia Sea Grant’s coastal stewards program, a series of environmental workshops designed to engage adults in activities that improve their knowledge of coastal ecosystems, enhance understanding of issues impacting coastal communities, and inspire stewardship of natural resources. Each workshop contains a mixture of lecture, lab and field activities using scientific and recreational equipment.

Cost of the workshop is $100 and includes dinner Friday night and lunch on Saturday. Registration is required. Contact Kayla Clark at 912-598-3345 or kayla270@uga.edu. More information is available here https://gacoast.uga.edu/events