Community volunteers, a $50,000 grant and oyster 'gardens' aim to improve Flagler County waterways

Chuck Lickman, a retired fishing guide who helped start a local vertical oyster garden initiative, said the project has grown from a kitchen-table idea into a volunteer network that has deployed “somewhere north of 1,200” VOGs in the area.

Organizers say VOGs are strings of oyster shells suspended from docks where oyster larvae (spat) can attach and grow. “A mature oyster filters about 50 gallons of water a day,” Lickman said, describing the ecological rationale behind the effort. The project’s volunteers say VOGs also create habitat for shrimp and crabs and attract small predatory fish such as sheepshead.

The initiative began after organizers read a 2024 Florida Sportsman Magazine article on vertical oyster gardens and consulted marine scientists and conservation groups, Lickman said. He told Flagler in Focus the group reached out to Whitney Lab, Tampa Bay Watch and the Coastal Conservation Association (CCA) to confirm the approach would work on Florida’s east coast.

Brian Hilgers, a resident and early organizer, said the CCA provided a $50,000 grant that covers oyster shells and most materials for kits, leaving participants responsible only for the food and venue at build events. “The grant pays for virtually everything that we use except for the food,” Hilgers said. Organizers said CCA collects restaurant shells, ages them in Wayland for months to ensure they are clean, and supplies them to build workshops.

Workshops assemble VOG kits in community 'bag-building' events that organizers say can be run by homeowners’ associations, yacht clubs or civic groups. Lickman described the assembly as a stationed workflow — volunteers punch holes in shells, cut and knot lines, assemble the strings and bag finished kits. He said typical events produce between about 150 and 500 VOGs; the group cited one build that produced roughly 245–250 VOGs for 78 docks in Grand Haven.

Organizers gave practical installation guidance: VOGs require roughly 2 feet of water and adequate flow and can be tied to most docks without touching the bottom. “You don’t need a permit to do this,” Hilgers said during the interview; Lickman affirmed that characterization. The organizers presented that as their operating understanding; the podcast did not cite a permitting authority or local code.

On timing and maintenance, speakers said oysters typically take about 12–18 months to grow from spat to a size that meaningfully filters water, and VOGs generally require little upkeep beyond occasional inspections. Lickman said the group is beginning to see early biological signs of success — one VOG pulled from Grand Haven had about 20 small oysters — but he emphasized that many more VOGs will be needed before any measurable water-quality improvements can be expected.

The project’s outreach relies heavily on word-of-mouth, social media and in-person demonstration booths. Organizers identified their contact points as oystersformyneighborhood on Facebook, oystersformyneighborhood.com and info@oystersformyneighborhood.com and invited homeowners and organizations with docks (including Flagler County neighborhoods) to request kits or host workshops.

Organizers also cautioned that VOG oysters are not for eating. Lickman said commercial oyster farms are regulated and monitored for food safety, but VOGs placed on private docks are not subject to the same oversight and local water conditions can make harvested shellfish unsafe for consumption.

Next steps, organizers said, are to expand build workshops into more Flagler County communities, secure more dock locations, and work with partners to monitor VOGs for oyster growth and habitat effects. “We need a lot more bogs in the water to make an impact,” Lickman said.

Contact: oystersformyneighborhood.com; email info@oystersformyneighborhood.com.