Indian River Lagoon Oyster Reef Project to Get a Boost from Disney

This key conservation project is one of five kids can vote on, with a potential prize of $100,000 to help restore an essential habitat for many animals

ALTAMONTE SPRINGS, FL | March 19, 2010

The Nature Conservancy’s Communities Helping Restore Oyster Reefs program in Florida has been selected by The Walt Disney Company as a recipient of funding through Disney’s Friends for Change: Project Green. The amount of the funding will be determined by the online votes of kids.

Communities Helping Restore Oyster Reefs is among the five programs that have been chosen for their habitat-restoration efforts.

Disney’s Friends for Change: Project Green helps kids help the planet. Kids are encouraged to join and pledge to take simple everyday actions that help the planet at Disney.com/projectgreen.

Beginning today, kids can vote on the Friends for Change Web site to help Disney decide how the fourth installment of its $1 million in donations will be distributed among the five “habitat” programs. Communities Helping Restore Oyster Reefs will receive a portion of this installment. The amount depends on the percentage of votes earned—first place gets $100,000.

Through the Communities Helping Restore Oyster Reefs program, citizen volunteers help restore and learn first-hand about one of the world’s most valuable natural resources—the oyster-reef system in Florida’s Indian River Lagoon.

Oyster reefs provide essential habitat for wildlife, including fish, crabs and shrimp. They also supply food for different types of protected birds, including the American oyster catcher, American bald eagle, osprey and brown pelican and help filter water and protect the shoreline.

The time to save oyster reefs is now: A recent global assessment showed that 85 percent of the world’s oyster reefs have been lost.

About Disney’s Friends for Change: Project Green
Disney's Friends for Change: Project Green is a multiplatform initiative that helps kids help the planet. Through the program, kids can learn practical ways to help the environment, get their friends involved, track their collective impact and have the opportunity to help Disney decide how $1 million in donations to various environmental causes will be made over the course of a year. Kids can join online at www.Disney.com/projectgreen, where they'll pledge to take simple everyday actions, such as turning off the lights and switching to reusable water bottles, and find out more about why these actions matter.

The Nature Conservancy is a leading conservation organization working around the world to protect ecologically important lands and waters for nature and people. The Conservancy and its more than 1 million members have protected nearly 120 million acres worldwide. Visit The Nature Conservancy on the Web at www.nature.org.