It all began with a conversation around a fire in photographer Rinne Allen’s backyard.
Nik Heynen, Distinguished Research Professor of geography in the University of Georgia’s Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, was talking with his friends Tyler Leslie and Hunt Revell, who both had worked at the popular downtown Athens seafood restaurant, Seabear.
Working at an oyster bar, Leslie and Revell were aware of the high volume of empty oyster shells accumulated every night. They began discussing a way to repurpose the shells to cut down on waste. They traveled with Heynen to Sapelo Island to do farm work. Not long after, during a conversation with Maurice Bailey—who lives in the Gullah Geechee community of Hogg Hummock on Sapelo Island—they realized, with the help of UGA College of Engineering Professor Brock Woodson, that the shells could be used to help restore coastal ecosystems.
Sapelo Island—home to several UGA research programs, including the Cornelia Walker Bailey Program on Land, Sea, and Agriculture, which Heynen co-directs with Bailey—was the perfect place to start.
“We realized that sea level rise is starting to inundate some of the fields we work in and recognized that these oyster shells could be used to try and push that water off the land,” Heynen said.
Out of that fireside chat, and with additional effort by Leslie and Revell, and the addition of other leadership team members Malcolm Provost, Erin Wilson and Jennifer Heynen, came Shell to Shore, a nonprofit organization that collects oyster shells from throughout Georgia and transfers them to Sapelo Island to help rebuild oyster habitats and mitigate against sea level rise.
What started with one local restaurant has grown to 28 over the last four years, collecting shells from Athens, Atlanta, Augusta, Savannah, and soon Brunswick.
In addition, UGA and Georgia State University students can apply for a paid internship with the program, integrating environmental stewardship and community engagement. Heynen said students from different disciplines come together for the project, from arts to ecology.
It was also the first project to receive funding from the Birkley Heynen Environmental Foundation, a small grants program founded by Heynen and named in honor of his son that supports environmental initiatives along the Georgia coast.
“There’s a lot of people coming together because they see the value of reducing waste and creating a flow of something that can help solve problems,” Heynen said. “For me, being able to experience this with students and bring worlds together feels very exciting.”
Explore the images above to learn how oyster shells make their journey from restaurant plates to restored reefs along Georgia’s coast.
