What does it take to achieve conservation “at scale”? Last September, many partners, including The Nature Conservancy, gathered to celebrate a remarkable achievement: the completion of the largest oyster reef restoration on the planet. Less than a decade earlier, managers considered forgoing restoration and introducing a non-native oyster to the Chesapeake in an attempt to recover historically low populations. What changed, and how did it happen? Join us to hear Mark Bryer, director of The Nature Conservancy’s Chesapeake Bay Program, describe the twists and turns of this saga, what we learned from it, and how we can apply those lessons to meet other challenges—pollution, loss of critical habitats, and rising seas—facing the Chesapeake and other waterbodies around the world.

SERC's evening lectures are free and open to all! Lectures run the third Tuesday of every month, from March to November. Lectures take place in the Schmidt Conference Center from 7-8pm unless otherwise noted. Doors open at 6:30.