The Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources expects to begin work this summer on restoring the shoreline at the Ragged Island wildlife management area in Isle of Wight County at the southern bank of the James River.

The DWR will host a June 3 public meeting on the project at the Carrollton branch of the Blackwater Regional Library from 5:30-7:30 p.m.

The DWR has received a federal grant to fund the work, which will be performed by Ducks Unlimited, a nonprofit wetlands conservation organization.

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, also known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, established a Transformational Habitat Restoration and Coastal Resilience Grant administered through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA.

The Ragged Island restoration was one of two Virginia projects to receive funding through the program. The other, awarded directly to Ducks Unlimited, will restore Swan Cove, the southernmost impoundment at Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge on Assateague Island.

The $8 million award for Ragged Island will fund a series of low breakwaters. The partially submerged embankments made from rip rap are intended to protect eroding marshes.

Each breakwater will have an oyster castle, a battlement-shaped cinderblock habitat intended to create artificial oyster reefs. They help purify the water when the shellfish feed off organic material that finds its way into the river.

David Norris, a DWR regional wildlife manager, said the shoreline at Ragged Island has been eroding three to five feet per year. The park’s boardwalk used to extend 100 feet farther than it does now.

Norris said bids have been solicited for the materials.

The library is located at 14362 New Towne Haven Lane. Representatives from DWR, Ducks Unlimited, Christopher Newport University and NOAA will be present to share information and answer questions.

Isle of Wight County has seen success with oyster castles before. In 2021, volunteers with the Virginia Master naturalists and Smithfield Foods planted over 1,000 plugs of native grasses and erected oyster castles at an area of Windsor Castle Park in Smithfield bordering Cypress Creek, which prior to the work had seen frequent erosion from passing boat traffic. That project, which is much smaller in scope than the more than 1 mile of work proposed at Ragged Island, was funded with a grant the James River Association received from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation as one of three demonstration sites for living shorelines in Isle of Wight, Surry and Prince George counties.