The Urbanna Oyster Festival Foundation has named 100-year-old Russ Russell of Urbanna as captain of the 69th annual Urbanna Oyster Festival set for Friday and Saturday, Nov. 6 and 7.
Urbanna Oyster Festival Foundation (UOFF) official Joe Heyman announced the centenarian’s selection last week. He said Russell was a pioneer in efforts to Restore Urbanna Creek and set an example for later environmental efforts to clean up the creek.
During the 1980s and 1990s, Russell was president of the Friends of Urbanna Creek, a group that no longer exists. The group monitored water quality in the creek once a week for 10 years as part of the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay Citizens Monitoring Program.
Russell and his wife, the late Pat Garnett Russell, moved to Urbanna in 1981 on Russ’s retirement as a captain in the United States Naval Reserves and a long career in the Federal Aviation Administration. They purchased the George property near Urbanna and built a new home on the creek. The Russells were honored by UOFF in 2018 when they were named grand marshals of the Oyster Festival Parade.
“Friends of Urbanna Creek brought legitimacy to water quality concerns on the creek,” said Heyman. “Later, when Restore Urbanna Creek was founded, the work Russ and others did early on with Friends of Urbanna Creek helped us better understand the issues.”
Urbanna Creek has been condemned for the harvesting of edible shellfish for years. In the late 1960s, the Town of Urbanna installed a sewage treatment plant, today owned by Hampton Roads Sanitation Department (HRSD), which discharges treated sewage into the creek.
There is also a sewage treatment system discharging into the creek from the Middle Peninsula Regional Security Center and courthouse complex in Saluda.
Restore Urbanna Creek has constructed two oyster reefs inside the creek and planted tons of shell on those reefs to create cultch on which oyster spat can attach and grow. Known as “God’s natural vacuum cleaners,” oysters are highly efficient filter feeders that can clean up to 50 gallons of water per day. The bi-valves use tiny hair-like structures called cilia on their gills to draw surrounding seawater into their shells.
The Restore Urbanna Creek group is also focused on providing environmental information so people who live on the Chesapeake Bay understand the watershed better, said Heyman.
“It is about people understanding that a healthy watershed ups the quality of life for all of us,” he said. “Russ Russell was a pioneer in that effort.”
Russell will be honored at the festival by riding in the two parades, the Fireman’s Parade on Friday night and the main parade on Saturday, and he will be recognized at various UOFF functions leading up to the festival weekend.