At 18, this Virginia teen helped 70 young volunteers to restore the Chesapeake Bay. They removed nearly 5,000 pounds of debris in a year

Recycling at home or participating in the occasional clean-up are two ways that many teenagers can contribute to environmental protection. James Hemphill, a youngster from Virginia, turned it into a six-year campaign that involved oyster reefs, muddy creeks, abandoned tyres, and scores of other youthful volunteers. The organisation he co-founded had cleared about 5,000 pounds of trash from marshes and streams in a single year by the time he was eighteen. Continue reading for more information.

How teens ended up cleaning tons of trash from the sea

Hemphill started working on environmental issues years before he was acknowledged nationally. He planned a tidal creek cleanup close to his Virginia Beach school when he was still in middle school. According to the Gloria Barron Prize for Young Heroes, Hemphill and his classmates eliminated nearly 6,000 pounds of pollutants from that stream over the course of three years.

Eventually, the experience expanded into something far more significant. As a seventh-grader, Hemphill, with the help of local elders, co-founded Project Green Teens. Nearly 70 teens were employed by the organisation by 2015 to preserve and repair the Chesapeake Bay in the Tidewater region of Virginia.

Teenagers removed nearly 5,000 pounds of debris

The group's work went beyond picking up rubbish. Hemphill helped organise marsh restoration, beach clean-ups, dolphin counts, public education programmes and even “dumpster dive” waste audits. In one year alone, Project Green Teens removed nearly 5,000 pounds of debris from waterways and marshes. The teenager explained his motivation simply: “I decided to protect what I loved.” That commitment earned Hemphill recognition as one of the 2015 Gloria Barron Prize for Young Heroes winners.

The bigger idea: restoring an oyster reef

When Hemphill was awarded the Barron Prize, the organisation believed it would grow into the biggest oyster reef in the world built entirely by youngsters. According to plans, the finished reef could serve as a habitat for over 200 species and filter about three million gallons of water every day. Because they filter suspended matter from the water and their reefs provide habitat for other organisms, oysters are especially important to the restoration of the Chesapeake Bay.

Chesapeake Bay still faces environmental pressure

Years later, the teen's effort tackled an issue that still exists. With a watershed that extends to six states and Washington, DC, the Chesapeake Bay is the biggest estuary in the country. Although the Bay's long-term health trend has improved during the 1980s, the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science awarded it a C grade in 2025. Regional restoration initiatives, such as gains in dissolved oxygen and aquatic grasses and decreases in nutrients, were acknowledged by scientists.

One teenager, thousands of pounds of waste

Hemphill's story is now more than a decade old, but the scale of what he accomplished as a teenager remains striking. What started with cleaning a creek beside a middle school eventually grew into nearly 70 young people restoring marshes, removing tonnes of pollution and attempting to rebuild oyster habitat. Sometimes, it starts with a teenager noticing rubbish in the creek next to his school and deciding to pull it out.