H. Ward Slacum, Jr., after serving as Oyster Recovery Partnership director of Operations since 2014, was officially named its new executive director Tuesday, Jan. 7 following a two-month search.
The ORP is an Annapolis-based non-profit that manages much of the state’s oyster restoration work, including a multi-year strategy to restore oyster populations in five Chesapeake Bay tributaries and replanting public oyster reefs available for commercial harvest.
“Oysters play a vital role in the bay and regionally they are big for the economy,” said Slacum. “For the ecological processes they provide, they are extremely important for the recovery of the Chesapeake Bay waters. As an organism that occurs within the bay naturally, they assimilate nitrogen and phosphorus, which are some of the biggest pollutants in that body of water.”
Since being established in 1994, the organization has planted 8.5 billion juvenile oysters in Maryland waters and reclaimed more than 200,000 bushels of oyster shell from its Shell Recycling Alliance.
Additionally, the organization supports Maryland’s fast-growing oyster aquaculture industry and operates a number of community-based oyster projects, including local grass roots Build-a-Reef campaigns and the Marylanders Grow Oysters program.
During his 20 year career, Slacum has worked in research and program outreach efforts with waterman and, prior to joining the ORP, managed the Versar Inc. Coastal Services division providing solutions to environmental compliance requirements for federal and state agencies.
The Stevensville resident also holds a master’s degree in fisheries science from the University of Maryland’s Eastern Shore’s Marine-Estuarine-Environmental Science Program.
“Balancing conservation and industry has always been a complex balance, but ORP has always supported a well-managed public fishery,” said Slacum. “We promote the removal of some oysters as that removes some nitrogen and phosphorous from the bay. We also replenish the waters by putting shells back to for their reuse by juvenile oysters.”
Slacum hopes to continue restoration efforts in the bay in his new position as well as expanding aquaculture and connect it with cleanup efforts. The credits for oysters program also represents a payday for Eastern Shore restaurants who assist in the reusing shells in the bay.
Slacum looks forward to incorporating new technology to increase restoration efforts.
“We have two premier programs with the public. They are oyster shell reuse and many of the shells have been lost when it goes to processing and it ends up in a landfill. So we work with businesses to get them before that. Then we help those on the water to grow their own beds,” Slacum said.
Those beds are transplanted to oyster bed sanctuaries that are protected from harvest and serve ecosystem services.
This article is a reprint courtesy of Kristian Jaime of the Bay Times and Queen Anne’s County Record-Observer and Kent County News.
