Faces of Conservation

Lois Davis

Jurassic Beach

The horseshoe crab predates dinosaurs by more than 100 million years. Now a die-hard group of volunteers is helping to ensure a future for this living fossil. Read the story in Nature Conservancy magazine and see a slideshow!

Lois Davis receiving Governor’s Outstanding Volunteer Award.

Lois Davis:
Office and Horseshoe Crab Count Coordinator extraordinaire

Lois Davis could write a check every month as a way of giving to the Conservancy’s Delaware chapter. However, the amount payable would have to be enormous to rival what she’s given in time as the chapter’s volunteer Horseshoe Crab Count Coordinator. That’s why it’s not surprising that she recently received the Governor’s Outstanding Volunteer Award.

“Lois thought she would only help out during her lunch hour,” jokes Roger Jones, State Director for the Conservancy’s Delaware chapter.

Several years later, Lois Davis finds herself counting horseshoe crabs on the shores of the Delaware Bay every spring, during high tide ... in the wee hours of the night.

“I never thought I’d end up recruiting volunteers for the annual crab count,” says Davis. “However, once I learned more, it was hard to pass up doing something for these age-old creatures.”

Lois’s role keeps her busy each spring, beginning in March when the Conservancy’s stewardship staff checks in with tidal schedules. That’s when she begins contacting past volunteers, and others who’ve indicated an interest through the Conservancy’s web-based volunteer form. In April, she retrieves recording tools stored at the local fire house and trains new volunteers. By May and June, Davis has coordinated hundreds of volunteers to count crabs at the Milford Neck Preserve’s Big Stone Beach and the adjoining Bennett’s Beach. In addition to increasing enthusiasm for horseshoe crabs, the efforts yield data that influences annual harvesting levels for the Delaware Bay’s horseshoe crab sanctuary.

Adds Davis, “By the end of summer, I’m back to helping the Conservancy in other ways.”

The things we do for the crabs.