I am pleased to present for the General Assembly's consideration the FY 2007 Capital Budget request for the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. The Center has one item in the Capital Budget this year, $391,000 for design of an Oyster Production Facility at our Horn Point Laboratory in Cambridge. Oyster Cultivation Facility (RB34A). Design funds are requested in addition to the $467,000 appropriated last year. The total cost of the project is expected to be $8.9 million. The project is expected to be completed in fiscal 2009. The Oyster Cultivation Facility is intended to assist the State’s efforts to restore native oyster populations to the Chesapeake Bay. In 2004 the Department of Natural Resources approached UMCES with the proposal to build a facility designed to substantially increase the production of oyster spat on shell at the Center’s Horn Point Laboratory. With the Aquaculture and Restoration Ecology Laboratory coming on line at Horn Point, we have greatly expanded capacity of producing oyster larvae. The limiting factor for use of these larvae in oyster restoration efforts is the facilities available for setting these larvae on shells, supporting their growth through critical young stages, and handling the large quantity of oyster spat for deployment to planting sites throughout the State’s waters. This facility, to be built on a pier near the Aquaculture and Restoration Ecology Laboratory, is being designed to alleviate that bottleneck, allowing the annual production of spat to grow from 200 million last year to eventually as many as 2 billion. Because the facility is to be located on property of the University System of Maryland, the Office of Budget and Management determined that this request should be included in the USM Capital Budget request. Thus, this project should more appropriately be considered a partnership contribution to the State’s Chesapeake Bay restoration efforts rather than primarily a critical capital need for the USM itself. We have nearly completed obtaining the necessary state and federal permits and expect to have architectural design underway in the coming weeks. For over 80 years now, the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science has been dedicated to advancing the understanding of Chesapeake Bay living resources and using that knowledge for conservation and enhancement of these resources. We are pleased to be a key part of this important initiative for native oyster restoration. 
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