September 2019 Volume 29 Number 6

Scientists fear steep loss of Bay grasses lies ahead ≈ Preliminary findings suggest some of the Chesapeake’s underwater grass beds were hurt by heavy rains, heat By Karl Blankenship Portions of the Chesapeake Bay’s underwater grass meadows appear to be headed for steep declines this year, a delayed response to the torrential rains that poured vast amounts of water-fouling sediments and nutrients into the estuary during 2018. Initial reviews of this year’s aerial survey show significant losses of under- water grass beds in parts of the Mid Bay, where the bulk of the Chesapeake’s underwater grass beds are located. At the same time, preliminary reviews of the aerial images show that portions of the Upper Bay survived last year’s deluge of muddy water surprisingly well, with Throngs of volunteers plant trees along a stream in Lancaster County, PA. If the fanfare and involvement doesn’t also grass beds even expanding in some areas. include maintenance beyond the initial planting days, the project could ultimately fail. (Allyson Wells) “It’s going to be a mixed story, as it always is,” said Bob Orth, the Virginia Institute of Marine Science researcher who has been overseeing the aerial survey Cruel world awaits neglected streamside buffers since its inception in 1984. ≈ Without maintenance, site, an essential practice to combat Another tube had fallen to an The full analysis of this year’s survey, tree plantings fall victim to problems with invasive plants. No awkward angle, which will likely which is still under way, won’t be avail- herbicide had been sprayed around cause the tree, if it survives, to be able until early next year. But the broad rodents, invasive species – the plastic tubes that shelter the trees, misshapen. Some pieces of netting, picture is starting to emerge as Orth and even outgrown tubes once equally important to allow sunlight initially placed on top of the tubes to others pore over the hundreds of aerial meant to protect them to reach under the tubes and prevent keep out birds, had not been removed images gathered thus far. By Ad Crable the growth of low greenery that and the trees inside were entangled Underwater grasses are one of the The “green” plan for the new attracts tree-girdling rodents. and corkscrewing downward. Bay’s most critical habitats, providing shopping center carved from a Japanese hops, a highly invasive Davis said the scene is too often food for waterfowl, juvenile blue crabs historic farm in Lancaster County, climbing vine that can grow 35 the norm after streamside buffers and many types of fish. Because they PA, looked impressive on paper and feet in a single growing season, are planted with much fanfare. And require clear water to survive, they are in the newspaper: hundreds of native was already climbing one of the it’s happening as buffers are being a closely watched indicator of the Bay’s trees and shrubs would be planted tubes, bent on destruction. Invasive hailed as an affordable, effective way health. along a stream to benefit water qual- canary grass had started growing to help Bay states meet their lagging Grass beds had been steadily expand- ity and wildlife. inside another tube, outcompeting goals to reduce nutrient pollution. ing in recent years. They covered 104,843 But on a hot summer day only a the young pin oak there. “This one Davis claims to have seen “hun- acres in 2017, which was the largest few months after the vegetation had doesn’t have much of a chance,” dreds” of riparian buffer failures amount observed since Bay cleanup been embedded into the ground, muttered Davis, who manages a tree- throughout the years when landown- efforts began in the mid 1980s. Ryan Davis walked among the plant- planting and forest health initiative ers or other project partners didn’t Last year, scientists say the Bay ings and shook his head in disgust. for the nonprofit Alliance for the grasses may have surpassed that level No mowing had taken place on the Chesapeake Bay. Buffers continues on page 20 SAV continues on page 23 2 Bay Journal • September 2019

BAY JOURNAL is published by Bay Journal Media to inform Editor’s Note the public about ecological, scientific, historic and cultural issues and events related to the Chesapeake Bay. The Bay Journal, 2019 survey is your chance to tell us what you think circulation 35,000, is published monthly except in midsummer and midwinter. It is distributed free of charge. Bundles are available One of information. for distribution. Material may be reproduced, with permission the most For instance, we were surprised and attribution. Publication is made possible by grants through important and pleased to learn that such a the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Chesapeake Bay things any large portion of our readers take Program Office, the Campbell Foundation, the National Oceanic publication action based on what they read in and Atmospheric Administration’s Chesapeake Bay Office, the can do is the Bay Journal, whether planning Sumner T. McKnight Foundation, the Rauch Foundation, the to better for a trip, speaking up about issues or Fair Play Foundation, the Shared Earth Foundation, the Virginia understand volunteering. Environmental Endowment, anonymous donors, and by reader its audience. Understanding where people first contributions. Views expressed in the Bay Journal do not At the Bay learned about the Bay Journal is also necessarily represent those of any funding agency or organization. Journal, we’re useful because it helps us plan how to making a reach new readers. For mailing list additions/changes, please use the form on this concerted A lot of readers indicated they’d page or contact: Bay Journal, P.O. Box 222, Jacobus, PA 17407-0222 effort to do just that. like to see more coverage of issues E-mail: [email protected] Last year, we mailed a survey for farther upstream in the watershed, BAY JOURNAL MEDIA the first time to all of our readers — and we’ve been working to improve and we were overwhelmed by the that. Bay Journal Media is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization with response. More than 3,500 people Quite a few people also indicated a mission to further public education and awareness of issues replied. that they didn’t fully understand affecting the Chesapeake Bay and the mid-Atlantic environment It was such a large response that it the scope of our operation or what by creating and distributing journalistic products. In addition took a while for us to even figure out it means to be a nonprofit news to producing the Bay Journal, Bay Journal Media operates how to handle it. And a surprising organization. So, this year, we mailed the Bay Journal News Service, which distributes Bay Journal number of people had specific out our first-ever annual report to articles and original op-eds about the Chesapeake Bay or regional requests or questions. (I’m sorry I readers. environmental issues to more than 400 newspapers in the region, could not respond to each of them.) In the 2019 survey, we’re asking reaching several million readers each month. This year, we’re doing it again. some questions similar to those from All but the most recent subscribers last year, but are designed to get a bit Karl Blankenship, Executive Director should soon be receiving their 2019 more detailed information. And, we’re Andrew Nolan, CPA, Chief Financial Officer survey in the mail, and we’d greatly asking some altogether new ones. STAFF appreciate your taking a few minutes We’re hard at work trying to build to fill it out. (We’re better prepared to a better product for the future, both Editor: Karl Blankenship ([email protected]) handle the response this year!) in print and online. Your feedback is Managing Editor: Lara Lutz ([email protected]) Our budget is limited, so we can’t invaluable as we move forward. Associate Editor/Projects: Timothy B. Wheeler ([email protected]) do (or cover) everything. But reader As journalists, we’re often focused CONTACT US Bay Journal News Service Editor: Tim Sayles ([email protected]) feedback can be helpful in informing on reporting what other people are by mail: Copy/Design Editor: Kathleen A. Gaskell ([email protected]) our decisions about topics to pursue. doing. This is our chance to get The Bay Journal Staff Writer: Jeremy Cox ([email protected]) Survey results are helpful in feedback about what we’re doing. It is 619 Oakwood Drive Staff Writer: Ad Crable ([email protected]) other ways, as well. They help us greatly appreciated. Seven Valleys, PA Staff Writer: Whitney Pipkin ([email protected]) better understand how many people 17360-9395 Photographer: Dave Harp ([email protected]) we reach and how people use our — Karl Blankenship ADVERTISING by phone: Marketing & Advertising Director: Jacqui Caine ([email protected]) 717-428-2819 Sign Up for the Bay Journal or Change your Address BOARD OF DIRECTORS TheBay Journal is distributed FREE by Bay Journal Media, Inc. If you would like to be added to its mailing list or need to change your present address, please fill out this form To inquire about Mary Barber, President advertising, contact Bill Eichbaum, Vice-President and mail it to Bay Journal, P.O. Box 222, Jacobus, PA 17407-0222. Karl Blankenship, Secretary o o Jacqui Caine at Check One: New Subscription Change of Address Frank Felbaum, Treasurer 540-903-9298 o Please remove my name from your mailing list Donald Boesch Please note that it may take up to two issues for changes to become effective. Kim Coble Tom Lewis Name: Address: City: State: Corrections Zip: A photo in the July-August issue In the July August-Chesapeake Chal- Optional: Enclosed is a donation to the Bay Journal Fund for $ misidentified Baltimore Mayor Bernard lenge’s Paddling list/puzzle, the letter “A” C. “Jack” Young in a photo with Baltimore was used to represent both the letter “C” o From time to time, the Bay Journal includes a list of its supporters in the City students after signing the Children’s and the letter “R.” print edition. Please check here if you would like your gift to remain anonymous and Outdoor Bill of Rights. He is the man in not be recognized in the Bay Journal. the center wearing a blue blazer. The Bay Journal regrets the errors. Bay Journal • September 2019 3

Clockwise from left: Tom Perry, owner of White Stone Oyster Co., examines float- ing cages of oysters in Bay waters off the tip of Virginia’s Northern Neck. Harvesting out in the open, Perry thinks, produces better tasting oysters. See article on page 11. (Whitney Pipkin)

The freshwater marshes of Cat Point Creek, a tributary of the Rappahannock River in Virginia offer paddlers a glimpse of past landscapes. See article on page 24. (Dave Harp)

Each spring, a youth fishing derby is held along Mill Creek in WHAT’S INSIDE Lancaster County, PA, to help a Plain News 19 Neighborly approach to stream buffers has ripple effect Sect watershed group educate neighbors among Amish • Plain Sect watershed group earns community about the need to 5 Scientists seek to elevate rare frosted elfin butterfly’s trust, aided by nongovernmental help for dam removal, fish numbers • Stabilizing the population is key to avoiding the restore the stream habitat and streambank stabilization projects in their midst. See endangered species list article on page 19. 8 Shoreline industry poses hazards as sea level, floods 22 Lower milk prices, demand taking toll on region’s dairy (Myrna Smucker) increase • Study says vulnerable communities are especially farmers • Many, struggling to stay afloat, cannot afford to at risk of exposure to toxics participate in conservation programs 9 Report: ‘Sunny day’ floods a rising threat in Chesapeake Travel • Communities are already experiencing record region 24 Paddle through past landscapes along remote Cat Point Creek numbers of deluges and frequency is expected to increase in years ahead 26 Ponder history, explore trails at Maryland’s Fort Frederick 10 Options to rebuild oyster population in MD draw Columns criticism • Watermen unhappy about proposed harvest limits while others say state is not moving fast enough 4 Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay • Alliance honors environmental champions at Taste of the Chesapeake 11 Open-water sites producing oysters with Bay’s briny sweetness • Bivalve farmers weather the storms of wind and 39 On the Wing • One last look is rewarded with an waves instead of those from landowner opposition unexpected blue-headed vireo 13 PA power plant to stop coal ash pollution, pay $1 million fine • 40 Bay Naturalist • Look up, look down: September’s changes Brunner Island plant near Harrisburg, long-criticized for pollution are all around problems, will excavate landfill, stop leaks at 7 other sites Puzzles & Events 14 Low salinity suspected for poor crab harvest in Upper Chesapeake • Good news from winter survey is not a sure 28 Chesapeake Challenge • Words for the Wise sign of the catch to come 28 Bay Buddies • Name Game! 16 Shad restoration efforts around the Bay a mixed bag 35 Bulletin Board • Volunteer Opportunities • Workshops • WE’RE JUST in 2019 • PA hatchery releases smallest number of fish in Events • Programs • Resources A CLICK AWAY history and spawning runs on James were worst ever, while MD and DE fared better and Potomac run set a record Forum Visit us online: bayjournal.com 17 Chesapeake tributary flows free in wake of dam removal • Commentary • Letters • Perspectives Like us on FaceBook: Chesapeake Bay Journal Spawning fish have already moved upstream after the 32 Promise to protect fully Rappahannock site still a cliffhanger removal of Bloede Dam on Maryland’s Patapsco River or send us a Tweet: 33 Chesapeake Born • Chesapeake continues to be a classroom @ChesBayJournal 18 VA researcher wants to turn nest-building fish into rock for its retired iconic educator stars • Using their mouths, tiny male fish build elaborate stone structures to attract females 34 Delmarva Oasis protects what we see, what we may yet see 4 Bay Journal • September 2019 Alliance honors environmental champions at Taste of the Chesapeake By Kate Fritz efforts — along with the efforts of the rest of the Stormwater Disciples — the For the last 48 years, the Alliance has church’s stream and wetland restoration believed that the best results come from project protects the cultural and natural bringing people together to find common resources that are so very important to her ground, then working to deploy “boots on community and the region. The Alliance is the ground” to bring clean water projects honored to be celebrating Kimberly as one to fruition. Building partnerships is in our of our 2019 Watershed Champions! DNA. We are privileged to honor four The Rev. Patrica Gould-Champ of incredible champions this year at our 14th Faith Community Baptist Church has been Annual Taste of the Chesapeake, Sept. 26 a driving force behind an extraordinary in Annapolis. Clockwise from far project that quickly outgrew the initial Each year, the Alliance selects an left, John Cox will concept and soon became something much individual to recognize with our Frances receive the Frances H. more important. In 2016, the Alliance H. Flanigan Environmental Leadership Flanigan Environmen- received funding from the National Fish Award. This award was established in tal Leadership Award. and Wildlife Foundation to form partner- 2001 in honor of Flanigan’s 23-year career Katherine Antos, ships with the faith community to engage of leadership and partnership-building Kimberly Hickey congregants in our RiverWise program in throughout the watershed as executive and the Rev. Patrica Virginia. The program’s goal was to link director of the Alliance. The award Gould-Champ are creation care with stormwater pollution recognizes a person whose longstand- the 2019 Watershed reduction on church properties with hopes ing commitment to the restoration and Champions. that congregants would carry the ideas protection of the Chesapeake reflects the (Submitted photos) and principles of these practices into their Alliance’s mission of fostering diverse personal lives and begin making changes partnerships and building local action to conservation actions — leadership John at home. inspire environmental stewardship. has been vocal in helping to replicate in But when the Alliance began working This year, we are honored to present the other CEOs and businesses. Turkey Hill with the Rev. Gould-Champ and Faith 2019 Flanigan award to John Cox, former has made information about their practices Community Baptist Church, something CEO and chairman of the board of Turkey freely available to motivate other busi- much more powerful began to take place. Hill Dairy. nesses to adopt similar approaches. As the watershed restoration. Rather than just installing stormwater In partnership with the Alliance and the partnership has grown, its successes have Katherine is the branch chief for the practices, the Alliance’s funding was able Maryland Virginia Milk Producers’ Coop- shown that the effort is replicable in other DC Department of Energy and Environ- to help support Faith Community’s larger erative Association (MDVA), John was a agricultural industries. ment “Partnering and Environmental goal of addressing food justice issues in driving force in building the Turkey Hill The Alliance is proud to honor John Conservation Branch,” which brings the East End of Richmond. Faith Com- Clean Water Partnership. The partnership with the Fran Flanigan Leadership Award together District and federal agencies, munity installed a solar-powered rainwater was created to support efforts by farmers for his significant strides in creating nongovernmental organizations, busi- harvesting system, fruit trees, a berry patch, in Pennsylvania’s Lancaster County to innovative public-private partnerships nesses and residents to restore and a native plant and meditation labyrinth, six improve the health of Lancaster’s rivers that make a big impact on the land and preserve the District’s waterways. She raised gardens in which eggplant, squash, and streams. Through this initiative, water in the Lancaster area as well as the works to improve water quality, manage zucchini, cucumbers, tomatoes, basil Turkey Hill is leading the way for the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Thank you, stormwater, reduce litter and enhance and other vegetables are planted, and an private sector to do its part for clean local John, for your leadership in the restoration the District’s resilience. The Alliance is African keyhole composting garden. These streams and rivers in the Lancaster area. movement! thrilled to be honoring Katherine as a gardens, named the Garden of Hope by the In 2018, the Alliance met John at a The Alliance will also honor three Watershed Champion at this year’s Taste congregation, became the beginning of a Businesses for the Bay networking forum Watershed Champions at our Taste celebra- for her work to activate District residents much larger effort to create a local farmer’s that we hosted in coordination with tion for their outstanding contributions to the in environmental projects and enhancing market in the heart of a community with the Lancaster Chamber of Commerce. Chesapeake watershed through innovative community resilience. high impervious cover, and little access to Our Pennsylvania state director, Jenna thinking, initiative, and the development Kimberly Hickey, one of the founding affordable fresh locally grown food. Mitchell, asked him how many of the of inspiring and impactful partnerships to members and leaders of the Stormwater The Alliance is excited about the direc- farmers supplying milk to Turkey Hill had advance stewardship in the region. Disciples at Asbury Broadneck United tion that this project is headed, and would conservation plans. He took that question Katherine Antos had an impressive Methodist Church, was the backbone like to honor the Rev. Gould-Champ, and back to Turkey Hill, then worked with start to her career at the U.S. Environ- and driver of an extraordinary effort the entire congregation of Faith Commu- their dairy supplier, MDVA, to include mental Protection Agency’s Chesapeake that brought together watershed groups, nity Baptist Church, for their inspirational financial incentives. Turkey Hill pays Bay Program, where she crafted a government agencies and practitioners to leadership in creating a sustainable and farmers a premium for their milk once 15-year plan in partnership with the six address the severe flooding issues at the healthy community. they come into compliance with conserva- Bay states, the District of Columbia, church’s hallowed and historical cemetery. Our environmental award winners tion plans. and the federal government that was Throughout the project, Kimberly col- are representative of many others whose The Alliance has helped leverage instrumental in establishing a road laborated with both internal and external dedication inspires all of us every day. about $1.5 million in funding from the map for pollution reduction goals in the partners to facilitate discussions around We invite you to join us at our 2019 Natural Resource Conservation Service Chesapeake Bay for 2025. the issues, brainstorm solutions and Taste of the Chesapeake on Sept. 26 in and National Fish and Wildlife Foundation In addition, as an ambassador for shepherd a stream and wetland restoration Annapolis to celebrate these inspiring to help MDVA farmers providing milk to the Anacostia River under the Urban project from conception to completion. She environmental leaders and champions, and Turkey Hill with implementing practices Waters Federal Partnership, Katherine even spearheaded a community volunteer to support the Alliance’s critical work to on the ground. With more than 140 farm- worked with government, watershed and day to install plants in the wetland portion bring together communities, companies ers participating, this partnership, driven community-based organizations to restore of the project. and conservationists to improve the lands by Cox’s vision and energy, is driving the river and enhance opportunities and Kimberly serves as the treasurer for and waters of the Chesapeake Bay. For major improvements to local water quality access for underserved neighborhoods. Asbury Broadneck United Methodist information about our Taste, please visit in Lancaster County. She aspired to deepen community orga- Church and is an Anne Arundel County allianceforthebay.org/taste. This project demonstrates that leader- nizations’ engagement around the future Watershed Steward (class of 2017). Kate Fritz is the executive director of ship in the private sector can accelerate of Anacostia Park, climate adaptation and Because of Kimberly’s championship the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay. Bay Journal • September 2019 5 Scientists seek to elevate rare frosted elfin butterfly’s numbers ≈ Stabilizing the population is and Wildlife Why so much fuss over a relatively key to avoiding the endangered Service this unremarkable butterfly? Protecting species list year dispatched elfins, conservationists say, would go survey teams a long way toward preserving their By Jeremy Cox across its range preferred landscape. The species dwells Frosted elfin butterflies aren’t much to shed more in sunny savannas and pine barrens. to look at. Their 1-inch wingspan and light on its Those habitats are rare because they brownish-gray wings give them the status. rely on regular doses of fire, mowing or appearance more of a moth than a The agency some other type of human hand to keep majestic monarch butterfly. is set to decide from getting overgrown and shaded. Jennifer Selfridge doesn’t see them whether to list Scientists say the loss of such land- that way, though. Thirteen years after the species in scapes to overgrowth and development her first glimpse of the species on the site 2023. In the has not only lowered the frosted elfin of a recently cleared Maryland forest, her meantime, butterfly’s numbers but also those of voice still crackles with excitement. officials are the eastern hognose snake, the Karner “It was fantastic,” said Selfridge, an collaborating blue butterfly and two types of birds, invertebrate ecologist with the state’s with local the whip-poor-will and eastern towhee. Department of Natural Resources. “A governments Making certain forests more hospi- lot of times when you go out to find a and nonprofits table to elfins has a multiplying effect species that is rare, you’re lucky to see to improve con- across the ecosystem, Selfridge said. one or two — and on this day, I saw ditions so that “If you put the time in to manage the dozens of them. I lost track of time and elfins don’t need habitat, it can restore the species,” she got a really bad sunburn.” to be listed. said. “It’s just having the will to do that.” Selfridge — part butterfly hunter, part “Right now, Elfins can be found in 25 states, researcher — has channeled that energy there’s a lack largely in a belt from eastern Texas to into studying the elfin’s mysterious life Chris Guy, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist, and Jennifer of informa- Massachusetts. They don’t appear just cycle and coordinating Maryland’s efforts Selfridge, a Maryland Department of Natural Resources invertebrate tion about the anywhere in those states, though. They to restore leafy havens for the species. But ecologist, check for frosted elfin butterfly caterpillars on a yellow wild population,” feed on only two types of plants — habitat loss throughout its eastern U.S. indigo bush at a state-owned forest in Worcester County. (Dave Harp) said Kathy lupine and wild indigo — and gener- range and the butterfly’s own selective Reshetiloff of ally don’t flutter far from them. diet have all but grounded scientists’ not by the federal government. After the USFWS’ Chesapeake Bay office in Scientists have counted nearly 400 hopes of elevating its numbers. a 2018 species assessment raised as Annapolis. “We’re trying to get ahead elfin clusters across its U.S. range. The butterfly is listed as endangered many questions as answers about the of the ball, so we don’t have to list the or threatened by a dozen states — but elfin population’s health, the U.S. Fish species.” Elfin continues on page 6

Celebrating Nature, Art and Heritage of the Eastern Shore TICKETS · World-class artists, small-town feel * · Shore sporting & hunting traditions $15FOR ALL · Regional music, food, wine and beer tastings THREE DAYS · Outdoor activities All Festival proceeds benefi t Waterfowl Chesapeake’s *Ticket price is $20 restoration and conservation efforts in the region. after Oct. 31

49TH ANNUAL WATERFOWL NOVEMBER 8-10, 2019 ® FESTIVAL Featured Art Piece “Podgin’ for Oysters” by Nancy Tankersley In Historic Easton, Maryland

PREMIERE NIGHT PARTY Join us for great atmosphere, delicious food, drink, fabulous art and an exciting auction! THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 7 | VIP PACKAGES AVAILABLE. WATERFOWLFESTIVAL.ORG | 410.822.4567 6 Bay Journal • September 2019

Elfin from page 5 sand dune. Today, it’s mostly covered in oak trees, pines, blueberry bushes But according to the 2018 Fish and and goldenrod. Wildlife assessment, which was based Clad in long sleeves and pants on existing scientific literature and against the mosquitoes and ticks, input from experts like Selfridge, the the pack trudged up a sandy track condition of more than four out of five that used to serve as a logging road. of those populations is unknown. Suddenly, the dense canopy gave way As they prepare their species deter- on one side of the path to a bowl of mination, USFWS officials would like sunshine, where loggers clear cut about to know how many elfins there really 60 acres earlier this year. That should are, where they currently live, what provide fresh habitat for the sun-loving threats they face and whether more lupines and indigo that elfins rely on, suitable habitat exists. The agency hired Selfridge said. survey crews to fan out across the but- She knelt beside an indigo bush on terfly’s range this spring and summer to the side of the road and began examining help answer those questions. its tear-shaped leaves and yellow flowers To understand the plight of the as if she were paging through a book. frosted elfin butterfly, follow Selfridge “Oh, and we’ve got a caterpillar,” into the field with a group of graduate Selfridge announced. A green, slug- students and Fish and Wildlife officials. like blob was just barely visible on one The setting: early summer on the of the stems. It often takes a trained eye to spot elfins. To most observers, their only distinguishing characteristic is the frosted-looking tips A frosted elfin butterfly has a wingspan of only about an inch. It is distinguishable of their wings. by the dappled, “ frosted” look along the edge of its wings. (Submitted by Harvey Elfins spend Tomlinson) no more than two to three weeks as some researchers had speculated. She Any question about the site’s adult butterflies. In also has shown that the butterflies tend ecological importance is answered the mid-Atlantic, to spend their pupa stage just above the by the pair of electrified yellow wires typically from late soil surface, suggesting that land man- that surround it. The wires have kept April to mid-June. agers ought to be careful with how and hungry deer at bay for seven years, That short window when they conduct prescribed burns. Selfridge said. She and some col- is given over to a In the Chesapeake basin, elfins are leagues had once tried transplanting The frosted elfin butterfly feeds on only two types of plants: frenzy of feeding, classified as endangered in Delaware some lupine elsewhere on the property lupine and wild indigo. This caterpillar is feeding on a mating and, in the and Maryland and threatened in New to expand the habitat, but it died after yellow wild indigo. (Dave Harp) female’s case, find- York. In Maryland, they are found in their first winter. ing wild indigo or one cluster in Garrett County on the After walking the width of the same property where Selfridge spotted lupines on which to deposit eggs. far western side of the state and in four protected area, Selfridge turned back her first elfins. The 600-acre tract has For the next generation, the life or five clusters on the Eastern Shore, down the logging road. She is opti- since been sold and is now managed cycle goes on: An elfin spends about Selfridge said. mistic that elfins can avoid the federal as part of the Pocomoke State Forest. one week as an egg, five to six weeks The centerpiece of Maryland’s elfin endangered species list. The site is about 30 miles southwest of as a caterpillar and the rest of the year collection is that 5-acre plot at the end “I’m hopeful we can find more Ocean City and a world away from its and the first few months of the next of the Pocomoke forest logging road populations, figure out the distribution neon lights and tacky T-shirt shops. inside a chrysalis. where Selfridge had first gone looking and do the work we need to do to keep The terrain gently climbs and falls Selfridge’s research has revealed that for the species all those years ago. For the population stable and increase the — unusual for the otherwise flat-as-a- elfins that feed on lupines are the same some reason, lupines and indigo sprang distribution,” she said. “If it’s off the griddle Eastern Shore. This, Selfridge subspecies as the ones whose diets up here after one particular tree-clearing list, that means it’s doing better, and pointed out, was once a prehistoric consist of indigo — contrary to what operation, and elfins weren’t far behind. that’s what everyone wants to see.” Annapolis Canoe and Kayak

✦ Canoes ✦ Kayaks

Rentals & Sales ✦ SUPs WE PROTECT AND RESTORE WATERSHEDS. 311 Third St., Suite B Annapolis, MD 21402 DESIGN | BUILD | INSPECT | MAINTAIN | SURVEY (410) 263–2303 www.annapoliscanoeandkayak.com Paddle to the Bay from our Store! MDSWM.com Bay Journal • September 2019 7 MAJOR FALL EVENTS IN ST. MARY’S COUNTY ST. MARY’S COUNTY IS CHOCK FULL OF GREAT, UNIQUE EVENTS THROUGHOUT THE FALL. YOU WON’T WANT TO MISS THEM!

SEPTEMBER GET YOUR ROCKABILLY ON ALONG THE POTOMAC LIVE ROCKABILLY MUSIC • VINTAGE VENDORS 28 HOT ROD & CLASSIC CARS PIN UP PHOTO CONTEST PINEY POINT LIGHTHOUSE FOOD TRUCKS & BEER WAGON MUSEUM on the Potomac

TOURS OF ST. CLEMENTS ISLAND, BLACKISTONE OCTOBER LIGHTHOUSE & ST. CLEMENT’S ISLAND MUSEUM LIVE ENTERTAINMENT • FREE BOAT EXCURSIONS LOCAL SOMD FOOD, ART & CRAFT VENDORS 5 - 6 BLESSING CEREMONY • SUNDAY PARADE ST. CLEMENT’S EVENING CONCERT • FIREWORKS ISLAND MUSEUM CHILDREN’S ACTIVITIES

WINERIES SHARING THEIR BEST VINO OCTOBER CRAFT BEER ON TAP IN THE BEER CAVE TALENTED MUSICIANS ARTIST SELLING AMAZING CREATIONS 5 - 6 FOOD VENDORS HISTORIC 1703 MANOR HOUSE MINI TOURS SOTTERLEY THE COLONIAL REVIVAL GARDEN TOURS

53RD ANNUAL U.S. NATIONAL OYSTER SHUCKING OCTOBER CHAMPIONSHIP NATIONAL OYSTER COOK-OFF 19 - 20 OYSTERS SERVED UP RAW • SCALDED • GRILLED ST. MARY’S ON BREAD • ON THE HALF SHELL • STEWED COUNTY U.S. OYSTER NUDE • COOKED IN SAVORY SAUCES FAIRGROUNDS FESTIVAL IN SALADS • EVEN IN DESSERTS

BLESSING OF THE FLEET RETRO FEST ON THE POTOMAC FACEBOOK.COM/BLESSINGOFTHEFLEETSOMD FACEBOOK.COM/1836LIGHT U.S. OYSTER FESTIVAL RIVERSIDE WINEFEST AT SOTTERLEY WWW.USOYSTERFEST.COM WWW.SOTTERLEY.ORG 8 Bay Journal • September 2019 Shoreline industry poses hazards as sea level, floods increase ≈ Study says vulnerable powdered pesti- communities are especially at cides outdoors.” risk of exposure to toxics Such potential hazards are By Sarah Vogelsong “commonplace, Throughout history, wherever there and they’re right has been industry, there has been a next to residen- waterway. tial neighbor- Whether river, sea or ocean, these hoods,” he said. bodies of water have long appealed to But it is not businesses, which have harnessed their all doom and flow to generate power, cool machines gloom: The and technology, and ship their goods report asserts all over the world. that the harms Without the Merrimack and the from climate- Concord, Lowell would never have driven chemical become the hub of textile manufac- disasters can be turing. Without the Monongahela, reduced. Pittsburgh steel would never have In that effort, forged the modern world. Without the Sachs and Detroit River, the Motor City would Flores are clear never have attained its global fame. that private But with the Earth warming and sea industry should level rising, many riverside clusters “bear most of of industry are ground zero for rising the burden of waters — posing a new risk for the preventing toxic environment and those living nearby. floodwaters,” but In a report issued this spring, the that government Center for Progressive Reform finds must also assume that almost 1,100 industrial facilities Dominion’s Chesterfield Power Station is located on the James River, VA. (James River Association) a more forceful in Virginia’s James River watershed stance to hold that use state or federally regulated ing toxic or hazardous chemicals in pits, which contain toxic substances companies accountable. chemicals are exposed to both Hampton Roads, Hopewell, Richmond like arsenic, lead and mercury, are one Sharing information is a key part of potential flooding and projected sea and Lynchburg. possible threat. Another is agricultural this charge. level rise. Worse, they are located in Second, Tidewater Virginia is expe- waste. The federal Emergency Planning socially vulnerable communities where riencing the second most rapid rate of The scale of the impact of agricul- and Community-Right-to-Know Act residents have the fewest resources to sea level rise in the nation, behind only tural waste was illustrated by Hur- of 1986 requires states to disclose escape a disaster’s effects. the Gulf of Mexico region. And that rise, ricane Florence in 2018, when more data about any federally recognized The Toxic Floodwaters report, pro- Sachs said, will affect not only coastal than 100 lagoons containing hog waste hazardous chemicals that are stored duced in partnership with the James areas, but regions inland along the river in North Carolina either overflowed or or released by facilities within their River Association and Chesapeake — “upstream all the way to Richmond, breached their walls, causing exten- borders. But Sachs said that the Commons, contends that severe floods every inlet, every part of the estuary, sive water contamination. Nearly 20 Virginia Department of Environmental aren’t the only concern. Just one foot every tributary that has tidal waters.” years earlier, Hurricane Floyd caused Quality has recently restricted access of sea level rise will flood 91 of these The watershed is also highly popu- identical impacts, which officials told to information about the types of facilities, while 234 will be flooded by lated, home to an estimated 2.9 million the New York Times “might have been chemicals being stored and their sea level rise of 1–5 feet. people. Of those, almost half a million averted.” locations. (The DEQ does annually “We’ve had several wake-up calls are defined as “socially vulnerable,” a These are only a handful of prec- make public Virginia’s Toxics Release about the extent of contamination that term used by the Centers for Disease edents cited in Toxic Floodwaters as Inventory, which details all significant can happen from floodwaters,” said Control and Prevention to measure evidence that the report’s headline chemical releases in the state.) Noah Sachs, one of the report’s authors a community’s resilience to external issue is not just a potential problem, “DEQ should immediately reverse and a professor at the University stresses on human health, natural or but a pattern already unfolding. its recent policy on public disclosures of Richmond. “So why is it that human-caused disasters, or disease In Virginia, the chronicle of of Tier II data and should make this we sometimes focus on preventing outbreaks. disasters includes the Election Day hazardous chemical storage data freely a one-in-a-million increased risk “In the event of climate and Flood of 1985, in which pesticide spills accessible to residents through online of cancer with our environmental chemical disaster, a household without led to cattle deaths; flash flooding in access, as other states, such as Illinois, laws? … I think that we’re ignoring reliable transportation to evacuate may Covington in 2016 that knocked over have already done,” the report urges. a much, much bigger danger to our be immobilized in their homes and oil drums, causing an environmental Other key recommendations include communities.” exposed to toxic contamination from hazard; and numerous wastewater establishing new regulations to oversee “Toxic floodwaters,” a term coined floodwaters,” the report finds. Such a overflows and landfill washouts in above-the-ground storage tanks as well by Sachs and co-author David Flores, household might also not have access large-scale storms such as hurricanes. as containing coal ash waste in land- a policy analyst with the Center for to temporary housing or lack the The toppling of the Covington oil fills that are not exposed to flooding Progressive Reform, are the contami- means to fully address the contamina- drums reveals that, when it comes to under current or future projections. nated waters that are discharged from tion in and around their homes, leading floodwaters, environmental risks can Both Flores and Sachs emphasized industrial facilities during floods. to longer exposure. assume many guises. the value of a statewide analysis of The James River watershed is Urban areas are more likely to be “This isn’t just an issue for the chemical flood risks, which Flores particularly vulnerable to this danger affected by toxic floodwaters because chemical industry,” Sachs said. “It’s called “totally necessary and justified.” because of two factors. First, it is of their high concentrations of industry large– and small-scale manufacturing. “We have every intention and desire heavily industrialized, with major and denser populations, but rural areas It can be an agricultural supply center. to export this analysis to other water- agglomerations of facilities contain- are also vulnerable. Coal ash storage It could be a company that is storing sheds,” he said. Bay Journal • September 2019 9 Report: ‘Sunny day’ floods a rising threat in Chesapeake region ≈ Communities are already disrupting traffic, exacerbating beach experiencing record numbers of erosion and lowering property values, deluges and frequency is expected according to the report’s authors. Another consequence they point to to increase in years ahead cites Saltwater intrusion laying waste By Jeremy Cox to Delmarva farms as sea level rises, a As floodwaters rose last year, so did March 2019 article Bay Journal, which records across the Chesapeake region. described how high-tide flooding is A new National Oceanic and contributing to saltwater intrusion on Atmospheric Administration report, cropland on the Delmarva Peninsula. shows that rising seas are inducing a “Once communities realize they are particular type of increased flooding susceptible to high-tide flooding, they around the country. The phenomenon, need to begin to address the impacts, known as high-tide or “sunny day” which can become chronic rather flooding because of the absence of quickly,” said William Sweet, a NOAA rainfall as a trigger, struck a median of oceanographer and lead author of the five days last year at nearly 100 coastal report. “Communities find themselves locations, tying the record set in 2015. not knowing what to expect next year The “median” is the level at which and the decades to come, which makes there are as many occurrences below High-tide or sunny-day flooding strikes in Cambridge, MD. (Dave Harp) planning difficult. Our high-tide projec- the value as above it. tions can play a vital role in helping them The problem was worse in the flooding records, NOAA said. ing, up 140% from 2000. plan mitigation and other remedies.” Northeast, which includes the Chesa- Don’t expect to dry out anytime soon. New records for such flooding are The evolution of high-tide flooding peake watershed. The report, released This year is projected to be another expected to be set next year and “for at Sewell’s Point, near the mouth of on July 10, showed this region with a higher-than-normal year for 40 locations years and decades to come” as seas the Chesapeake in Virginia, offers a median of 10 days of high-tide flood- around the nation as a minor El Nino, the continue to rise, according to the glimpse of what many area communi- ing. These following Chesapeake area periodic phenomenon that brings more report. The number of high-tide days ties have seen — and can expect to see cities carved out new records: rain to much of the United States, lingers is predicted to reach a national median in the future. ≈ Washington, DC, 22 days into early next year, researchers said. of 25–75 days by 2050, depending on In 2000, Sewell’s Point recorded ≈ Lewisetta, VA, 15 days The national median frequency of high- how much action is taken to reduce five high-tide days. Last year, it saw ≈ Annapolis, MD, 12 days tide flooding is expected to be twice as global emissions of greenhouse gases 10. And this year, NOAA is calling for ≈ Baltimore, 12 days high as it was in 2000. such as carbon dioxide. 10–15 such days. By 2050, that number Overall, a dozen locations nation- The Northeast Atlantic is forecast to High-tide flooding is already could soar to as much as 170 if carbon wide broke or tied their high-tide have a median of eight days of flood- wreaking havoc across the country, dioxide emissions remain high. Restoring the native balance

ernstseed.com [email protected] 800-873-3321 10 Bay Journal • September 2019 Options to rebuild oyster population in MD draw criticism ≈ Watermen unhappy about “spiral” management process of annually proposed harvest limits while tweaking its regulations and assessing others say state is not moving fast whether the population responds. He said regulators took a similar approach to enough stabilizing and rebuilding the Bay’s blue By Timothy B. Wheeler crab population, a pillar of the region’s Maryland watermen face potential seafood industry once also in trouble cutbacks in their wild Chesapeake Bay from overharvesting. oyster harvest starting this fall, as the Ann Swanson, executive director of state eyes new regulations aimed at the Chesapeake Bay Commission, who eventually making the troubled fishery had been involved in the bi-state crab sustainable. But critics question whether management overhaul, challenged that the state is serious about ending over- assertion, saying that biologists from harvesting, and lawmakers could order a Maryland and Virginia had developed a do-over. goal for restoration of the crab population Officials with the Department of early on. Natural Resources told their Oyster After the meeting, Swanson said, “I Advisory Commission in August that can understand if they wanted to start they were considering reductions of up to with some initial restrictions. We know 20% in the daily harvest limits and set- that we are overfishing now, and we need ting a shorter season, which has tradition- to at least begin trying to manage it. And ally run from Oct. 1 through March 31. I get that… But you should be focused They also suggested they might close on developing a target so you know your some areas of the Bay to wild harvest goal and you can be communicating that for the coming season if available data to all of your stakeholders.” indicates oysters are unusually scarce Watermen, meanwhile, viewed the there or the areas were being heavily Scott Kettering and Robbie Tolson tong for oysters aboard the Miss Robyn on harvest reduction options warily because overharvested. Broad Creek, a tributary of the Choptank River. (2013 / Dave Harp) they could come after five straight years DNR officials even indicated they of declining harvests. were mulling steps to curtail the rec- effectiveness. And they questioned how abundance after decades of overharvest- “We’re talking about another reduc- reational harvest of oysters, though it’s the DNR would know whether it was ing, habitat loss and disease. tion for the industry, another cut,” said unclear how meaningful that would be. making progress because the state hasn’t With harvests continuing to decline Charles County waterman Bill Kilinski, The changes are being considered in set a target for optimal oyster abundance in recent years, watermen have pushed a commission member, “and there’s response to a scientific assessment last to maintain the population. to reopen some of the extensive oyster nothing we’re going to get in return out year of the state’s oyster stock, which “I feel like we’re being put in a box sanctuaries established by the state in of this.” found the number of market-size bivalves here,” said Allison Colden, Maryland 2010, arguing without evidence that “Please don’t put me out of business,” had fallen by half since 1999 and that fisheries scientist with the nonprofit oysters thrive best on reefs that experi- pleaded Bob Whaples, president of the more than half of the areas open to wild Chesapeake Bay Foundation and a com- ence some harvest. Gov. Larry Hogan’s Dorchester County Seafood Heritage harvest have been overharvested. mission member. She questioned whether administration proposed to do just that, Association, who spoke up from the Bill Anderson, an assistant DNR sec- state officials were committed to ending but the General Assembly blocked the audience. retary serving as acting fisheries director, the overharvesting found in last year’s move and instead ordered the DNR to The DNR could be forced to go said the department has yet to decide stock assessment. One of the options, for conduct its first-ever scientific assessment back to the drawing table next year. which, if any, of the changes to make. instance, called for closing areas only of the state’s oyster stock. Earlier this year, the General Assembly He said new rules would be announced when the harvest reaches a level nearly That review found that the number overwhelmingly approved legislation before Oct. 1, using the authority under twice what scientists consider excessive. of market-size adult oysters waxed and requiring the DNR to revamp its Oyster its new oyster management plan to adjust In an email after the meeting, Colden waned but had declined by 50% from Advisory Commission and develop its fishery regulations by public notice, with called the options discussion “a complete 1999. It also found that overfishing was management plan by seeking consensus 48 hours of lead time before they would farce.” She noted that information occurring in 19 of 36 areas of Maryland’s among often-disputing conservationists take effect. presented to the commission previously portion of the Bay and its tributaries. and watermen. In the past, changes to fishery regula- had shown that relatively few watermen The DNR plan, unveiled last winter, Hogan vetoed the legislation, accus- tions had to go through a more protracted catch their daily limit of oysters now, lays out 22 strategies and 82 different ing lawmakers of making an “end run” process, which could take several weeks and that most go out for no more than actions for managing the wild fishery on his administration’s “thoughtful and to months. half the season. The regulatory options and aquaculture operations while also science-based” efforts to manage oysters. “We wanted to get things in place the DNR floated “are not likely to have restoring the oyster population for its But legislative leaders have vowed to quickly,” Anderson said, “so we wouldn’t any impact,” she said, adding that she ecological benefits as water filterers and vote to override the veto when they meet waste another year on moving us forward suspected that was the DNR’s intent — aquatic habitat. again in January. on our new enhanced plan.” to present paper reductions that wouldn’t But the DNR’s oyster management In another sign of the deep divide in DNR officials say that with the really affect watermen. plan has proven controversial, as conser- Maryland over oyster management, the management plan they drew up earlier “Natural resources management deci- vation groups have complained it doesn’t Oyster Advisory Commission also split this year, and which recently cleared sions are not a popularity contest,” she go far enough. in August over whether to seek federal legislative review, they aim to make the said. “It’s up to the department to do their “You can end overfishing right now. permits to dredge buried oyster shells wild oyster fishery sustainable in eight to job to use the best available science to You do not need eight to 10 years,” from the Upper Bay and use them to 10 years. produce a sustainable fishery. And I think Colden said. “What you may need is replenish dwindling habitat for newly DNR officials asked their advisory they have totally and knowingly failed.” eight to 10 years to rebuild the stock, but spawned bivalves. commission to indicate which changes Conservationists and seafood industry you can’t do that because we don’t have Robert T. Brown, president of the they support for the upcoming season. representatives have been at odds for an abundance target.” Maryland Waterman’s Association, But some members complained the years about how to manage oysters, Anderson said DNR officials expect called for the DNR to seek the permits department didn’t provide any informa- which scientists estimate have declined that goal will become apparent over tion by which to evaluate the measures’ to 1% or less of their historic Baywide the years as the state goes through a Plan continues on page 12 Bay Journal • September 2019 11 Open-water sites producing oysters with Bay’s briny sweetness ≈ Bivalve farmers weather Bay has ballooned over the the storms of wind and waves last decade. In Virginia, which instead of those from landowner leads the East Coast in eastern oyster production, the number opposition of oysters planted for cultiva- By Whitney Pipkin tion has grown from a few When Tom Perry set out to start an million in 2005 to 135 million oyster farm at the age of 26, he wasn’t a decade later, according to an interested in doing it the easy way. annual survey conducted by the He might have opted to raise oysters Virginia Institute of Marine Sci- in a cage on a patch of leased bottom ence. The most recent of those near the shore of Virginia’s Northern surveys found that shellfish Neck. Instead, the crew from his White aquaculture in the state brought Stone Oyster Co. pilots a workboat each in $53.4 million for farms in morning out of the safety of Antipoison 2017. Hard clams represented Creek and into the wide, sometimes about 70% of those sales, but blustery waters of the Chesapeake Bay. oysters are the industry’s fastest There, the Crassostrea virginica growing sector. oysters grow in mesh bags inside cages With the surge in produc- hovering just below the surface of the tion, more growers are looking water. The plastic floaties that support to differentiate their products them bob like decoys in the distance. and test the potential of new If that sounds peaceful, wait until the growing spaces. Commercial wind kicks up and the boat — which oyster production can take many the captain is trying to guide between Tom Perry, owner of White Stone Oyster Co., pulls a floating cage out of Bay waters off the forms, depending on the type unwieldy rows of cages and lines — tip of Virginia’s Northern Neck. Harvesting out in the open, rather than in a river, can be of lease a grower pursues, and starts rocking, too. more difficult for the crew, but Perry thinks the oyster’s flavor and shape benefits from the oysters can be ready for harvest “You can see some of the headaches wilder, brinier waves. (Whitney Pipkin) year-round. They can be grown you have to deal with out here,” Perry to market size in bags or cages, said, after the boat’s propeller got the things that don’t directly give you job easier. Instead, he said, “I spent a sunk to the river bottom or floating near caught in an underwater line he was more oysters.” lot of time trying to understand what the top of the water column. Raising just saying needs to be removed. It’s not But when Perry, now 31, decided an oyster really wants and then worked oysters in floats on the surface — where the first time it’s gotten in the way, but to grow oysters in this open-water back from there.” “it just never makes a lot of sense to do location, he wasn’t focused making the Oyster aquaculture in the Chesapeake Open continues on page 12 Using Nature to Restore Nature

www.ecotoneinc.com 410.420.2600 12 Bay Journal • September 2019

Plan from page 10 dredging should only be considered as its efforts to rebuild the oyster population. Public Works has yet to even discuss part of a larger restoration plan using The DNR already has a permit from whether to approve the controversial as a way to offset the current shortage in both shell and alternate substrate, such the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to project, a necessary final step. hatchery-raised oyster larvae. as granite or concrete. And they elicited dredge up to 5 million bushels of old By a narrow majority of those present, Brown and others said that if there an acknowledgement from the DNR shells from a large reef outside the 8 to 7 with one abstention, the oyster were more reefs built up with shell, that federal fish and wildlife authorities mouth of the Patapsco River known as advisory commission urged the DNR in natural oyster reproduction would had questioned the proposed dredging Man O’ War Shoal. Though strongly August to seek the new dredging permits. more than make up for the shortfall, because the sites are in waters where supported by many watermen, it’s But Swanson said the real importance of which is believed to stem mainly from striped bass, another troubled species, opposed by environmentalists, rec- the vote was that it showed how divided extremely low salinity this year that spawn every spring. reational anglers and even Baltimore the group remains. caused larvae to die off. Brown pressed the case, saying that County watermen, who have planted “That’s no way to manage a fishery,” Conservationists argued that the the state must act to avoid losing a year in some oysters there. The state Board of she said.

Open from page 11 formly, receive a steady flow of plankton at the top of the water column. An added food is plentiful enough to bring bivalves advantage, Horzesky said, is that growers to market-size faster — is a small but can periodically flip the cages over — so growing practice. But it’s not without the pontoons are on the bottom and the challenges. Leaving cages floating at the cage is exposed to the open air — allow- surface, particularly near the shore, can ing their shells to dry for several hours make them a lightning rod for opposi- and kill off microorganisms that compete tion from landowners who’d rather see with oysters for food. their waters left open for the view or A study by Woods Hole Sea Grant for recreation. Strong storms could also in Massachusetts found that oysters in rip cages left at the surface from their floating cages had a higher survival rate moorings and leave behind debris. and faster daily growth rate than those But today, advancements in the gear grown with bottom gear. A study in that supports floating cages makes them Canada had similar findings. The Massa- able to withstand increasingly severe chusetts study did advise growers to test weather in waters farther from the shore. new gear on a small scale to determine if Better systems also are addressing some it’s the best fit for a certain locale and to of the other factors that make this brand research whether local permitting allows of oyster farming so inherently difficult. For White Stone Oyster Co., daily beatings from waves buffet the bivalves into for various gear types. But what the open-water location more uniform shapes, developing deeper cups ideal for holding thick, juicy meat. Both Perry and Hickey said they were lacks in ease, Perry said, it makes up for (Whitney Pipkin) breaking new ground with the Virginia by producing a superior oyster: Faster- Marine Resources Commission, which flowing waters carry more nutrients to Jeremiah Langhorne, executive had come until he returned. manages oyster growing leases, when the budding bivalves, their cages moored chef of The Dabney in the District of White Stone’s oysters were featured they asked about growing oysters in the in place by a system of underwater lines. Columbia, told Bon Appétit that White in a New York Times magazine article Bay’s open water. Constant friction from waves create a Stone oysters taste as if “a very talented that questioned whether farmed oysters Perry found his ideal spot by referring smoother, deeper-cupped shell. And, chef opened the top, seasoned the oyster are becoming so uniform and balanced to the VMRC’s online map of available far from the rivers’ sometimes mucky perfectly and put the lid back down.” that they are more like “a designed oyster leasing sites while paddling his waters, increased salinity affords the Martha Stewart Living said oysters from object” than wild oysters. But Perry — kayak around the Northern Neck, depth oyster meat a pleasant, briny-sweet flavor the Tangier Island company taste “like who lives in Richmond with his wife and finder and salinity meter in hand. Taking not unlike that of West Coast oysters. that first whiff of sea on a spring morn- two children younger than 3 — said all aquaculture into “uncharted” waters Harvesting from neat rows of oyster ing,” describing a balance of salty and he did was pick a spot that does the work has allowed him to avoid conflicts with cages under a rising sun in the open sweet, earthy and mineral flavors. for him. shoreline homeowners and spread the waters of Fleets Bay, Perry admitted, the In the case of both farms, the oysters’ While many near-shore aquaculture water filtration benefits of oysters to new view isn’t so bad either. But, on a windy clean flavor comes from their locale, operations run their oysters through a portions of the Bay. day, or in the thick of winter, the job can which is far from the sediment of river tumbling machine to help buffet them White Stone was one of four oyster be downright harrowing. bottoms where most Bay oysters are into tidier shapes, daily beatings from farms that The Nature Conservancy “That’s where having a Tangier grown. Increased salinity in Bay waters waves perform this task on open-water recently studied to better understand the waterman on that boat comes in handy,” also lends a brinier flavor to the bivalves, oysters. The steady pressure forces the potential water quality and ecosystem said Tim Hickey, cofounder of the Tangier something that appeals to Americans shells to clamp down, developing deeper benefits of aquaculture. The report, Island Oyster Co., which also farms the who are more likely weaned on West cups ideal for holding thick, juicy meat conducted with the Virginia Institute of open waters in the center of the Chesa- Coast varieties. and smoothing the shell’s pearlescent Marine Science, confirmed that oyster peake Bay. “Those guys are thinking “The techniques that Tom and them exterior. farming — in contrast with other forms about time, wind direction, approach. If I are using are really setting the standard “By using a heavy-duty cage and of animal production that can generate were behind the wheel, I’d be a mess.” now for aquaculture,” said Devin Rose, being in the open water, these oysters water pollution — removes from the Hickey and his partners founded the chef and proprietor of Adrift, a restau- are tumbling themselves, and they tend water up to 370 pounds of nitrogen and company in 2014 in part to bring the rant in White Stone, VA. “In a sense, it’s to grow at the same level,” said Myron nearly 50 pounds of phosphorous from economic benefits of oyster farming to a totally different product.” Horzesky, chief operations officer of each mid-size farm per year. erosion-prone Tangier Island. Now, the Rose, who grew up on the Northern Massachusetts-based Ketcham Supply Perry said the farm’s unique location crew harvests about 1 million oysters a Neck before working at Michelin-starred Co., which sells Flow N Grow floats resonates with customers, but its success year, some of which sell for $3 apiece on restaurants in Virginia and California, and cages used by open-water farmers. still comes down to whether the oysters the half-shell at restaurants such as Fiola said having access to seafood products “When you see these oysters, it looks taste good. Mare in the District of Columbia, where like White Stone’s is part of what like a cookie cutter has been stamping “We’ve gone up to countless chefs’ Hickey lives. brought him back. He remembers eating them out.” back doors, just following the grease If the way chefs rave over these open- wild Chesapeake oysters while growing These oysters, suspended in bags marks and knocking on the door,” Perry water oysters is any indication, they up, before Virginia aquaculture took off, spaced across the cage’s compartments said. “Most chefs are crazy busy, but could be a wave of the future. and didn’t realize how far the industry that allow room for them to grow uni- they’re open to trying an oyster any day.” Bay Journal • September 2019 13 PA power plant to stop coal ash pollution, pay $1 million fine ≈ Brunner Island plant near bottom ash left over from DEP renewed Brunner Island’s discharge Harrisburg, long-criticized for burning coal, boiler slag and permit in 2018. pollution problems, will excavate flue gas materials. “We are pleased to have reached The environmental groups agreement and appreciate the hard work landfill, stop leaks at 7 other sites contend that 367 acres of coal and collaborative efforts [of the various By Ad Crable ash storage sites have leaked groups] to resolve this matter,” Talen said In a consent decree with four environ- arsenic, boron, lithium, in a statement. mental groups, a large central Pennsylva- chlorine, phosphorus and “Talen is committed to complying nia power plant has agreed to stop tainted suspended solids into the with all environmental regulations and water in its coal ash disposal sites from Susquehanna and two of its will continue to focus on the safe, efficient leaking into the Susquehanna River. tributaries for at least the last and reliable operation of our plants,” said The Brunner Island Generating five years — a problem they Talen spokesperson Debra Raggio. Station, located on the Susquehanna just say threatens fish and aquatic Talen noted that it inherited the coal south of Harrisburg, has agreed to close species and puts kayakers, ash issues when it purchased the plant. and excavate one of its active but leaking anglers, birdwatchers and “The projects funded by this settle- coal ash landfills and address leaks at local business owners at ment will help ensure we are leaving the seven other sites. The Brunner Island Generating Station, located risk. The landfills cited as Lower Susquehanna River in better shape The plant also will be fined $1 on the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania, will be problems include six closed for future generations,” said Ted Evgenia- million by the state Department of addressing leakage from several coal ash disposal but unlined pits, one active dis, the Lower Susquehanna Riverkeeper. Environmental Protection, according to sites that environmental groups allege is contaminat- unlined pit and one active “And those of us who enjoy the Lower the consent decree filed July 31 in U.S. ing the river. (Dan Blood) lined pit. Susquehanna River can rest easier tonight District Court in Harrisburg. The fine is The landfills are often knowing that concrete measures and the largest involving coal ash disposal in burned coal to generate enough electricity saturated with water, and toxic material timelines are in place to reduce toxic Pennsylvania. to continuously power 1 million homes. escapes through springs, seeps and over- pollution in the river.” The consent decree involves Brun- Beginning in 2016, the plant began flows, according to the groups’ lawsuit, Mary Greene of the Environmental ner Island owner Talen Energy and the producing some power with natural gas. which was filed simultaneously with the Integrity Project said Talen Energy environmental groups Environmental As part of another lawsuit and consent consent decree. deserves credit “for stepping up to the Integrity Project, the Lower Susquehanna decree in 2018 with the Sierra Club, The groups criticized the state Depart- plate and agreeing to measures that Riverkeeper Association, PennEnviron- which had alleged air and water pollution, ment of Environmental Protection and the should significantly reduce pollution.” ment and the Waterkeeper Alliance. the plant is to phase out coal power by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency The Brunner Island plant has been A consent decree is a legal agreement end of 2028. for not prosecuting Brunner Island and long-criticized for generating air pollu- that solves a dispute between two parties The legacy of toxic coal ash stored correcting the leaks, which they say tion, fined for fish kills and lambasted without the accused party admitting guilt. around the plant is the basis for the latest violate the federal Clean Water Act and for closing fishing areas once open to For 58 years, Brunner Island has litigation. Coal ash includes fly ash and Pennsylvania’s Clean Streams Law. The the public. Want a diversified investment portfolio with a low carbon footprint? Your Money, Your Values.

Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) investment strategies allow investors to put their money into corporations that are working towards:

• Reducing carbon emissions • Respecting human rights • Harnessing renewable energy • Demonstrating accountability • Taking measures to reduce pollution …and much more.

Contact our advisors to get more information about ESG investment options and to see where your current financial plan can be aligned with your personal values to make greater impact on the future. 410.810.0800 www.valliantwealth.com

Bruce & Mary Ellen Valliant, Registered Principals, RJFS, Inc. 110 S. Queen Street | Chestertown, MD | 21620 3033 Kent Narrows Way, S. | Suite 5 | Grasonville, MD | 21638

Valliant Wealth Strategies is not a registered broker/dealer and is independent of Raymond James Financial Services, Inc. Securities offered through Raymond James Financial Services, Inc., member FINRA / SIPC. Investment advisory services offered through RJFS Advisors, Inc. 14 Bay Journal • September 2019 Low salinity suspected for poor crab harvest in Upper Chesapeake ≈ Good news from winter Bay did report seeing survey is not a sure sign large numbers of small of the catch to come crabs. But some in the Upper Bay and its By Timothy B. Wheeler rivers said they didn’t At the beginning of July, media see many of any size. across Maryland delivered good news Some watermen for those planning a traditional feast also speculated that of Chesapeake Bay blue crabs on the record freshwater Independence Day. flows from last year’s Baltimore TV station WJZ, for heavy rains may have instance, touted a new report that the driven crabs down Bay’s crab population had increased the Bay, which might 60% percent since 2018 — “meaning explain their scarcity you can dig into 60% more crabs over in the northern half. Fourth of July weekend!” the station McClair said that enthused. this year’s survey “The survey is in,” echoed WMAR, found crabs more another Baltimore station, “and it concentrated in the comes with great news for Maryland southern end of the crab lovers!” Bay than in previous Someone apparently forgot to tell years when the the crabs, at least in the Upper Bay. overall abundance While supplies were generally ample was similar in 2010 in the Lower Bay through spring into and 2012. But the summer, crabbers in other places distribution wasn’t had a hard time finding enough of dramatically different the crustaceans to satisfy their crab- than the year before. craving customers. McClair cautioned “In 43 years of crab potting, that the survey is this has been the worst I’ve seen,” like a snapshot. Once Charles County waterman Billy Rice the water warmed complained shortly after the holiday Crabs are netted from a trotline in Maryland’s Little Choptank River. (2009 / Dave Harp) and crabs got active, weekend. Though his catch was the unusually low starting to improve by mid-July, Rice, some watermen’s skepticism about the of how that year’s harvest will go. But salinity levels that persisted from who crabs in the Potomac River, said reliability of fisheries science. Others finding a lot of crabs over the winter spring through most of the summer the first half of the season had been say the problem isn’t with the survey, doesn’t mean there’ll be plenty when could have prompted them to move so bad that he’d begun working fewer but in how the findings are portrayed people want them, or that prices will elsewhere. pots because there were so few crabs to the public. drop. And sometimes, the survey and “Crabs can physically stay in low to be found in them. Maryland and Virginia have been harvest diverge. In the 2017–18 survey, salinities,” she said, “but they’re not The TV stations weren’t reporting running a winter survey since 1990, for example, scientists saw an 18% going to stay in that if there’s nothing fake news. A winter survey by jointly dredging 1,500 sites around decline in overall abundance, but the to eat.” Adult male crabs tend to prefer Maryland and Virginia scientists the Bay to see how many crabs they Baywide commercial harvest in the salinity ranging from 3 to 15 parts per released in early May did find the can find buried in the mud when summer of 2018 hit 55 million pounds, thousand, she said, but the levels in Bay’s crab population had soared cold weather renders them immobile. slightly better than 2017. Maryland’s tributaries were unusually 60% over the previous year — to Experts consider the survey a highly This year, said Genine McClair, low, stemming from the persistent an estimated 594 million crabs, the reliable year-to-year gauge of the the DNR crab program manager, rainfall the last two years. highest number since 2012. Chesapeake’s crab population. “Considering what the survey said, Typically, early-season harvests are But the strong growth in the Bay’s Fisheries managers have used it to we would expect to have a pretty strongest down the Bay, where the water crab population seen in the winter adjust crabbing regulations annually to decent year.” warms up sooner in the spring and crabs survey was no guarantee that there ensure a sustainable harvest. But she said there are a number of first begin moving about. Salinity levels would be higher harvests everywhere But the survey’s findings are often reasons why the harvest had been so there also tend to be higher. in the Bay, and there weren’t — at treated by the news media as a forecast spotty around the Bay through the first J. C. Hudgins, president of the least not through the first half of the of the crabbing season just starting, half of the season. Virginia Waterman’s Association, said commercial crabbing season. The and agency press releases at times First of all, she noted, while the crabbing started slowly for him — the season runs March 17 through Nov. 30 have hyped results that way. In early winter survey did find an abundance of crabs he’d seen in the winter while in Virginia and April 1 through Dec. July, for instance, an email to reporters crabs, 60% of them were juveniles — oystering up the Rappahannock River 15 in Maryland. from the Chesapeake Bay Program too small to be legally harvested until weren’t there by spring. But his harvest While Virginia watermen were about a scientific status report on crabs late this season or possibly next year, picked up after he began potting a said to be pulling in more crabs than carried a subject line stating “there’s depending on how fast they grow. little farther south, nearer his home in last year, some Maryland watermen 60% more crabs to eat over the Fourth The adult male crabs that were large Mathews. By mid-August, he figured were left struggling during spring and of July,” even though the report itself enough to be harvested through the his catch was running 20–25% ahead summer holidays trying to explain to didn’t make such a prediction. first half of the season are a “carry- of last year. frustrated customers why they couldn’t As a result, the public — and over from last year,” McClair said. “Everybody I know is pretty much find the crab bounty that scientists had watermen — looked for a bountiful Last year’s survey found that the male doing better than last year,” he said. described. blue crab season that didn’t play out population had decreased by 23%, so So much better, it would seem, that The seeming disconnect between the way they expected it to. that, she suggested, could help explain the market is glutted. Hudgins said the survey results and the first half Fisheries scientists say the survey lower early harvests. of the harvest season has reinforced has generally been a reliable indicator Watermen in various parts of the Cr abs continues on page 15 Bay Journal • September 2019 15

Cr abs from page 14 the Dorchester group that to prevent overharvesting they’d have to accept that “we’re getting really record low some other catch rule being tightened prices, lower than we’ve got in five or in exchange. They balked at the trade- six years.” off, and the rule remained, but Davis At the beginning of the season, he lost her job after the Dorchester group said, a waterman could get $120 per complained to Hogan. bushel for large male crabs, known as Crabbers in other parts of the Bay No. 1 Jimmies. The price had dropped to have opposed relaxing the rule, with $70 in August, he said, and there aren’t some raising economic concerns and that many of them, at least in his part of others conservation issues. While the Bay. He said he’d made $30 a bushel Dorchester crabbers can sell smaller in early August for some female crabs, crabs to the picking houses that are typically sold to processors to pick for their main market, other crabbers crab meat, but some watermen reported say they won’t earn as much selling getting half to a third that much. smaller animals for steaming. So, despite catching more crabs, And this year, at a late July Hudgins figured he’s netted less money meeting, a few members of the DNR’s through mid-August because prices are Tidal Fisheries Advisory Commission so much lower. said they worried that the change could Some Maryland crabbers also remove a greater share of male crabs reported doing well the first half of from the Bay than scientists have said the season, particularly from the is sustainable, which might prompt Nanticoke River south along the regulators to impose catch limits on Eastern Shore, according to McClair. A hard crab is measured to determine if it can be legally harvested in Tangier male crabs for the first time. Some watermen from farther up the Sound. (Dave Harp) “You risk going over the trigger Bay, where crabbing typically is slow point,” said crab retailer Gail Sindorf of in spring, journeyed south to take The crab drought in the Potomac prompted Dorchester County watermen the Kent Island Crab Co. in Pasadena. advantage of the reported abundance. may be due to more than salinity, said to renew a longstanding campaign She called it a “dangerous” move. Talbot County waterman Jeff the DNR’s McClair. Surveys haven’t to get Maryland to relax a crabbing The advisory commission voted Harrison, meanwhile, said he’d had found many crabs there for several regulation that dictates a midseason in late July to urge the DNR to work a “great year” so far crabbing in the years, she said, suggesting that may increase in the minimum catchable size. with the crab industry on weighing Choptank River. stem from the introduction of blue Crabbers may keep any crabs at least “science-based management options” “We caught crabs right off,” he said, catfish, a large non-native predator that 5 inches across until July 15, when the for the male crab fishery, specifically noting that the mild winter had helped eats crabs as well as smaller fish. threshold goes up to 5.25 inches. dealing with minimum size limits and more adults survive the winter, “and In late July, Robert T. Brown, Dorchester watermen said the possible changes to the season. Any the price was good.” He also said he’d president of the Maryland Watermen’s increase in minimum size forced them proposed changes for next year would seen a lot of little crabs. Association, said the overall harvest to throw back the bulk of the crabs have to come back before the advisory The catch wasn’t nearly as good was “getting a little bit better” and that they caught after mid-July. They want commission. to the north, McClair said, where the more small crabs were showing up in the DNR to consider delaying the size Meanwhile, CBF’s Colden said DNR summer trawl survey found state waters. change by two weeks. agencies might want to consider few crabs in the Chester River or in Whether they’ll grow to marketable “We only ask for two weeks,” said altering the way they report the winter Eastern Bay. size by late summer or fall depends Dorchester crabber Bubby Powley. dredge survey results. The news media Crabs were elusive along much of on whether they survive and how “With everybody in the Lower have been conditioned to treat the the Western Shore as well, at least quickly they grow. And that depends Bay [crabbing], it’s killing us.” He survey as a prognosticator of harvest, early in the season. largely on food availability and water suggested the extension should be tried she said, when it’s not that simple. Allison Colden, Maryland fisheries temperature, McClair said. as an experiment. Charles County waterman Billy scientist for the Chesapeake Bay Rice said his harvest picked up Dorchester crabbers have tried Rice agreed. Foundation, said salinity appeared a little in July, but even if it fully without success for years to end or “I think it would be great if they to be a major factor in the variability rebounds by fall, he doubts it will relax the minimum size increase. Their broke the details down and actually of the crab harvests from one place recoup the lost income from earlier in bid to ease the rule two years ago led informed the public how things are,” to another. But, she added, “I’m not the season, because prices for crabs to the Hogan administration firing he said. “We’re tired of people telling convinced that’s the only thing driving drop after the Fourth of July. Brenda Davis, the DNR’s veteran crab us ‘I don’t understand why you’re not where they are.” The surfeit of small crabs has manager at the time. Davis had told catching crabs.’ ” We’re proud to bring you trusted, fact-based, independent journalism. Please pass it on!

SUBSCRIPTIONS ARE ALWAYS FREE… in print or online. Visit www.BayJournal.com/subscription 16 Bay Journal • September 2019 Shad restoration efforts around the Bay a mixed bag in 2019 ≈ PA hatchery releases smallest number of fish in history and spawning runs on James were worst ever, while MD and DE fared better and Potomac run set a record By Karl Blankenship A year ago, Pennsylvania’s shad hatchery — the largest in the Chesapeake Bay watershed — was These spared the budget-cutting ax. But it shad were still took a toll on American shad caught stocking efforts on the Susquehanna on the River. Potomac The state’s Van Dyke Research River in Station released just 830,000 shad 2009. larvae into the Bay’s largest tributary The river this year, the smallest number in the maintains hatchery’s 43-year history. Uncertainty one of the over funding kept contracts from being healthiest completed for egg collections on the stocks of Potomac River, the largest source for shad on the hatchery. the East Instead, the hatchery had to rely Coast. on eggs collected at Conowingo Dam (Dave near the mouth of the Susquehanna, Harp) where production is always less than the Potomac. Commission. The river maintains one of which began operating in 1977. Its future than 800,000 larval shad were stocked Biologists from Maryland the healthiest stocks on the East Coast. was called into question last year when in the Nanticoke — “well above our Department of Natural Resources and “The Potomac is amazing,” said the state Fish and Boat Commission average” — and approached the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service donated Chuck Stence, a biologist with the threatened to close it and two other record of just more than a million some of the eggs they collected from Maryland DNR who collects shad eggs hatcheries as part of a budget-cutting stocked in 2017. the Potomac to help out. Otherwise, on the river each year for the state’s move. Although the commission is an The shad population on the production would have fallen to hatchery operation. independent agency, license fee increases Nanticoke remains “relatively low” 557,000. Monitoring by the Virginia Institute have to be approved by the legislature, despite stocking efforts launched in “That definitely helped this of Marine Science also showed shad and they haven’t risen since 2005. 2000, Moore said, but he added that year,” said Josh Tryninewski, spawning runs ticked up a bit on the The threatened cut angered law- “without our efforts, I think it would the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat York River, but runs were below recent makers, and the commission’s execu- be a lot worse than it is right now.” Commission biologist who operates levels on the Rappahannock. tive director, John Arway, ultimately Shad have proven difficult to the hatchery. Shad are an anadromous species, resigned. Lawmakers said they would recover in most rivers, and many The Van Dyke situation contributed which means they spawn in freshwater take up legislation to allow a fee biologists say efforts to rebuild the to what was, overall, a mixed year for rivers but spend most of their lives increase, but that still hasn’t happened. stock will likely take decades. shad restoration efforts around the Bay. in the ocean until they return to their Nonetheless, commission The problem, at least in part, is that While shad stocking fared better native river to reproduce, usually start- spokesman Mike Parker said the shad produce far fewer eggs than many in Maryland and Delaware, the ing when they are around 5 years old. agency is “committed to keeping Van other species, such as striped bass, so production loss in Pennsylvania They were once hugely abundant Dyke operations as normal.” He said it can be harder for them to bounce accelerated a downward trend in shad in the Chesapeake watershed, and funding is in place to continue egg back when their populations are low. stocking around the Bay. The effort their massive upstream migrations in collection at Conowingo next year. Many of the Chesapeake region’s peaked nearly 20 years ago when the spring once supplied an important And, he said, “we are still working rivers depend heavily on stocking to hatcheries were rearing and releasing food source for native people and then on and optimistic that Potomac egg make up for that lost reproduction 25 million shad or more a year into colonists living far up the region’s collection will be funded as well.” and maintain shad populations. On rivers from New York to Virginia. This rivers. With habitat connections to The Van Dyke hatchery alone once the James River, Patrick McGrath, year, fewer than 5 million shad will be both the Bay and its headwater areas, routinely churned out more than 10 a VIMS biologist who works on stocked throughout the Bay region. shad is a priority species for the state- million shad a year for stocking around its annual shad survey, said their Shad spawning runs were the federal Chesapeake Bay Program. the Susquehanna basin, though in more data suggest that the strength of the worst-ever on the James, and the But decades of overfishing, pollution recent years its production has been in spawning run is closely tied to the number of shad passed by the fish lift and dam construction have left the the 3 million to 4 million range. number of hatchery fish released five at Conowingo Dam — 4,787 — was spawning runs from most rivers along Stocking efforts in Maryland and or six years earlier. the lowest since it went into operation the East Coast near historic lows. To Delaware fared better this year. That connection could bode poorly in 1997 and a fraction of its peak of help the fish rebound in the Bay region, In Maryland, DNR biologists for the future, as Virginia last year 193,574 in 2001. Biologists said high states for decades have worked to stocked an above-average 2.4 million stopped funding the U.S. Fish and river flows during the spawning run improve fish passage, stocked millions shad larvae and another 465,000 Wildlife Service to rear shad for contributed to the poor performance. of hatchery-reared shad and monitored juveniles, 30-40 days old, into the release in its rivers. Officials cited But all of the news wasn’t bad. The annual spawning runs. Choptank, Stence said. costs and concerns that many shad spawning run on the Potomac River The largest of the hatchery operations In Delaware, Johnny Moore, a are being harvested as bycatch in the racked up another record year, averaging was historically the Van Dyke facility fisheries biologist with the state’s ocean by fisheries targeting other 48.9 per net in surveys on the river, on the Juniata River, a major tributary Department of Natural Resources species, something that has been a according to the Potomac River Fisheries of the Susquehanna in Pennsylvania, and Environmental Control, said more concern of many shad biologists. Bay Journal • September 2019 17 Chesapeake tributary flows free in wake of dam removal ≈ Spawning fish have already covers 32 miles moved upstream after the of the river’s length. removal of Bloede Dam on Other trails Maryland’s Patapsco River are still being By Timothy B. Wheeler rebuilt after Maryland’s Bloede Dam is no more. being washed out Fish and people alike have wasted little by the flash flood time taking advantage of the newly lib- of May 27, 2018, erated 8.4-mile stretch of the Patapsco Vogelpohl said. River, which now flows unhindered for Kayakers the first time in more than a century. have already State and federal officials and the taken advantage nonprofit American Rivers announced of the dam’s in August that the weather-challenged removal, though project to remove the 112-year-old dam the American is officially complete, and the riverside Whitewater trail in Patapsco Valley State Park that website urges had been closed for the demolition has paddlers to “be reopened to a steady stream of hikers careful” because and bicyclists. the river is “con- “The Patapsco River is free, after stantly chang- years of hard work by so many,” said ing” as it adapts Serena McClain, river restoration to its unimpeded director for American Rivers and flow. manager of the dam removal project. Some fish “It’s wonderful to see the Patapsco also responded rushing back to life and to watch park quickly. DNR visitors discover and enjoy the free- staff conducting flowing river.” the Maryland Built in 1906-07 to supply electric- Biological ity to the nearby communities of Trees and shrubs were planted on the regraded riverbank where Bloede Dam once stood on the Patapsco Stream Survey Catonsville and Ellicott City, Bloede River near Baltimore. (Timothy B. Wheeler) collected white Dam stretched 230 feet across the river perch and and stood 26.5 feet high. But it stopped cantly more than we anticipated.” ing how it’s changed.” gizzard shad this spring more than 8 generating power in 1924. Even so, she added, “I think every- The river flows clear this time of miles upriver just below Daniels Dam, The dam continued to stop spawn- one was generally pleased.” year. On a recent Saturday morning, the last major blockage on the Patap- ing fish and eels from getting more As part of the long-running a gaggle of resident Canada geese sco, said the DNR’s Jim Thompson. than 9 miles up the Patapsco, which campaign to free the Patapsco’s flow, paddled around in its shallows, while And at least a few river herring may flows roughly 38 miles around Balti- Bloede is the third large fish barrier two young men dove and swam in a have made their way upriver to Daniels more’s western outskirts before reach- to go. Union bend where the Dam, according to Matthew Ogburn, ing the Chesapeake Bay. Moreover, Dam upriver channel deepens. an ecologist with the Smithsonian it became a dangerous attraction for was taken out The stretch Environmental Research Center in people — the Maryland Department in 2010, fol- Bloede’s removal restores where the dam Edgewater, MD. of Natural Resources has tallied nine lowed by nearby a total of 65 miles of the river once stood had Obgurn, who’s been monitoring drowning deaths there since the 1980s. Simkins Dam in to be cleared of the Patapsco for spawning runs in Beginning more than a decade 2011. Advocates and its tributaries trees so heavy recent years, said his research team ago, pressure built to remove the dam. say Bloede’s equipment could this spring spotted what they thought American Rivers joined the effort with removal restores to spawning blueback herring, get to the site were a couple of herring just upriver state and federal agencies, includ- a total of 65 alewife, American shad, hickory and relocate the of the former site of Bloede Dam. ing the DNR, U.S. Fish and Wildlife miles of the river sewer line. The They didn’t catch them, though, so Service and National Oceanic and and its tributar- shad and American eels. gently sloping identification is unconfirmed. But they Atmospheric Administration. ies to spawn- rebuilt river- did find circumstantial evidence of Preliminary work on the dam’s ing blueback bank has been herring making it upriver this year; removal was disrupted by a cata- herring, alewife, American shad and replanted with hundreds of saplings water samples collected at four sites strophic flood in May 2018. The actual hickory shad, and more than 183 miles and shrubs. upstream of Bloede contained “envi- demolition finally began in September of habitat for American eels, though “It looks different,” acknowledged ronmental DNA,” or genetic material, but was dogged throughout the fall and ecological conditions to support fish Ranger Joe Vogelpohl, assistant specific to herring, Ogburn said. winter by heavy rains. The job, which remain fair to poor in significant por- manager of the park. “It doesn’t seem like they wasted also required moving a major sani- tions of the watershed. The Grist Mill Trail, a portion of any time at all,” Ogburn said. His team tary sewer line, proved a bit tougher Beyond a historical marker on the which had to be closed for the demoli- is still analyzing all of their water sam- and more expensive than originally Grist Mill Trail near the dam’s loca- tion, has also been rebuilt and was ples to see if they can determine how planned, coming in at $900,000 over tion, there’s no sign or remnant left of reopened in June. Hikers — solo, in many fish might have made it upriver the original estimate of $17 million. Bloede. A pile of boulders on one bank pairs and groups, at times with leashed and whether spawning actually took “Once we actually began excavating marks where blasting took out one end dogs — strolled by on a recent morning, place. But he said the DNA detected down to replace the Baltimore County of the dam. There are plans to install occasionally stopping where the dam so far is “pretty clear evidence” that sanitary line,” McClain explained, “the new interpretive signage. used to be. Others branched off into herring “took their opportunity and volume of rock at the exact alignment “The site looks awesome, American the woods on some of the 220 miles of cruised on upstream — at least some we needed the pipe to be was signifi- Rivers’ McClain said, ”It’s just amaz- trail that wend through the park, which of them.” 18 Bay Journal • September 2019 VA researcher wants to turn nest-building fish into rock stars ≈ Using their mouths, tiny He is working with male fish build elaborate stone Maurakis on the docu- structures to attract females mentary, which will use choreographed routines By Whitney Pipkin as well as underwater “Nest builder, nest builder, build video to portray the me a nest,” Eugene Maurakis hummed fish’s intricate mating unselfconsciously, replacing the lyrics of dance. a familiar Fiddler on the Roof tune with “We tend to think his own while arranging river-smoothed of pregnant women rocks into a neat mound on a dry path. ‘nesting,’ ” he said, but, A stone’s throw away, just under the with these fish, the surface of the Rapidan River in Virginia, males are “building a a male bluehead chub had painstakingly nest to welcome that constructed a heap just like this, called connection. It’s really a nest, by moving dozens of rocks into quite lovely.” place, one at a time, with his jaws. The As romantic as the mouth-made nests serve as spawning notion sounds, the fish grounds and temporary homes to fertil- are not monogamous. ized eggs and tiny larvae — and they are Though one male builds the inspiration for the name of a captivat- the nest, several males ing category of fish species: nest builders. and females typically These fish only exist in Eastern and use it for spawning, and Central North America and represent just Bluehead chubs are shown swimming over a nest one of the males had constructed. Other fish, called some species expand 8% of minnows in the region. Out of 19 nest associates, congregate near these piles of rocks to also use them as spawning grounds or to eat their mounds as they go species of nest builders, seven live in the the eggs. (Eugene Maurakis) until they reach up to Chesapeake Bay watershed, dispersed two meters across. among rock-bottomed streams connecting has keratin on the outside of its chin and fussing over their arrangements, some- While the relatively small fish might to rivers like the Rappahannock, James, lower jaw instead. times swimming several meters away to be hard to distinguish from others, their Potomac and Susquehanna. Most of the “We hypothesize that it serves as gather just the right stone as the females freshly constructed nests are easy to spot nest builders are small, with males typi- protection, almost like a callus,” Maura- wait and watch nearby. in the clear, shallow waters of a Virginia cally maxing out at 6–8 inches in length. kis said. In the end, the female decides stream. Though they can be flattened by Virginia, with land that drains to both Unlike the freshwater species with whether to spawn with a male. Her deci- logs or swimmers, the mounds of rocks the Chesapeake and the Tennessee River, which most fishermen are familiar — sion could be based on his nest-making stand out for weeks after the spring spawn is home to nine nest-building species such as the trout that flutter their fins and abilities, but researchers think is more against an otherwise algae-covered in all. The state has been the site for bodies to shape gravelly nests — these likely based on his size. substrate. more than three decades of research by fish function as architects of their nurser- “It’s an interesting irony in terms of Maurakis was thumbing through Maurakis, a professor at the University ies. Depending on the species, the fish gender roles for human beings,” said his field notes, which record the 3,500 of Richmond and a retired chief scientist can carry stones that range in size from Scott Putnam, an associate professor in miles he’s driven just in Virginia so far from the Science Museum of Virginia pea-size pebbles to several centimeters Virginia Commonwealth University’s this year — between Bath County and who can replicate each genus’ intricate across. Some males spend up to 36 hours department of dance and choreography. Blacksburg — when his wife spotted nest from blueprints in his mind. unexpected movement in a nearby stream. His work will culminate in a “You’ve got an active nest down here,” documentary slated for release next said Penelope, a preschool teacher who year, a collaboration with the film sometimes joins her husband on research and art departments from other trips during the summer. “I just saw a fish universities. with a rock in its mouth.” “The only place these fish appear It was an early July day, weeks after on Earth is right here in this part of spawning should have wrapped up in an America,” Maurakis said. “When unspoiled stretch of the Middle River in you think of it, there’re 31,000 fish Madison County, but water temperatures species and counting on Earth — and had cooled enough to lengthen the season there’s just a handful that do this.” for some newly matured males. Sure All members of the Cyprinidae enough, a bluehead chub was hovering family of fish, these nest-builders around a freshly formed pile of rocks. include the bluehead chub, bull “Get out!” Maurakis said in disbelief, chub, river chub, creek chub, cutlips donning his hip waders and camera to get minnow and fallfish. Though there’s a better look. some debate over the inclusion of a In all, about a dozen nests were fish that pushes rather than picks up clearly visible — even to the untrained its rocks, the central stoneroller could eye — from a bridge that crossed the also be considered a nest builder. river there. The bluehead chub, or All of the active nest builders, Nocomis leptocephalus, is also rela- excluding the stoneroller, have tively easy to spot, named for its stocky keratin — the protein that forms body and the distinctive hue of its head, fingernails — on the inside of their Eugene Maurakis stands in a stretch of the Middle River in Madison County, VA, where which is covered in white tubercles that mouths. The females and immature small fish had built about a dozen rocky nests, like the one pictured in the foreground. look like tiny horns — they also are males do not build nests, so they do Though many people think of the small fish as little more than bait, Maurakis wants to not have keratin, and the stoneroller spread the word about the important work of the nest builders. (Whitney Pipkin) Nest continues on page 22 Bay Journal • September 2019 19 Neighborly approach to stream buffers has ripple effect among Amish ≈ Plain Sect watershed group to make Mill Creek better. earns community trust, aided by Smucker, too, once thought nongovernmental help for dam nothing of letting his cows hang out removal, fish habitat and stream in the stream on his farm. But he got to thinking. “A lot of us living bank stabilization projects down here just saw the eroding By Ad Crable and devastation of the creek in its Each spring after the fertile fields present form. We just began to talk have been planted in Lancaster about how we can fix this,” he said. County, PA, more than 400 Plain Sect He and several other concerned children and their families gather on farmers held a meeting on an a restored section of Mill Creek, a Amish farm in 2004 to gauge stream that flows through an area with interest in forming a group to take the highest concentration of dairy action. The interest was there, cows in Pennsylvania. though one farmer spoke up that it It’s a wonderful display of com- was his land and he had a God- munity as the delighted youths pluck given right to let his cows cool off more than 400 recently stocked trout in Mill Creek in July and August. out of the water. The fishing derby and The group started slowly. Money the togetherness it brings for neighbors for projects was routed through the linked by a stream also is the face of the Lancaster County Conservation Mill Creek Preservation Association, District and a local chapter of the the only Plain Sect watershed group in Izaak Walton League, an early sup- the Chesapeake Bay watershed. porter. The group American Rivers It’s a small group. There’s a core helped with a project to remove an group of about six people and five of old low-head dam that was blocking them are Amish. There are no members fish migration and damming silt. per se and no dues, though seasonal As support grew, the association newsletters are mailed out to 440. From left, John Smucker, Henry Esh and Henry Beiler are members of the nearly became an official nonprofit and The group’s tactics are simple, all-Amish Mill Creek Preservation Association. The men, shown here on a section of the started getting direct grants from direct and effective: Its leaders walk Lancaster County, PA, stream they are helping to restore, is the only Plain Sect water- government agencies impressed down the lanes of their neighbors, shed group in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. (Ad Crable) with work being done in places they point out the evident erosion problems had not made inroads. Restoration in the stream and urge them to get up pasture and accept government “In my younger years, after two floods projects took place on the campus of a their cows out of the water and give up financial assistance has been a hard about a week apart, it was going to put Mennonite high school and in com- a small part of their fields to allow, for sell. The Chesapeake Bay cleanup has this bridge in the middle of the creek. munity parks. More Amish farmers are free, restoration work. little motivational power, because few Dad came down here and said we’ve got seeing the differences on their neigh- The nonprofit has been doing this have ever laid eyes on it. And they tend to do something.” bor’s land. The annual fishing derbies for 15 years with steady success. Only to use every inch of available land for The association, with a grant are an educational tour de force. counting projects with assistance from pasture or crops. from a natural gas pipeline company, “They galvanize the community,” the Lancaster County Conservation “The Plain Sect community can contracted to have the stream narrowed said Matt Koffroth, watershed specialist District, nearly 5.5 miles of Mill Creek be somewhat isolated at times here,” while the steep banks were leveled so with the Lancaster County Conserva- have been restored, a stream that once said Jeff Swinehart of the Lancaster that floodwaters can overflow into the tion District. “They’re the ones on had one of the highest concentrations Farmland Trust, which has worked floodplain. Sediment is now filtered by the ground with these people 9 to 5. of nutrients in Pennsylvania. The with the association on outreach for a vegetative buffer. They’re the ones knocking on the doors. stream is one of the main tributaries to its projects. “Here, it’s their neighbors Log structures placed in the stream It puts a local face on it and allows us the Conestoga River, itself a degraded and family members and they see each bank deflect the force of high water and other agencies to go out and get waterway heavy with nutrients that other in church. They can develop and improve fish habitat. Esh dreams things done.” flows into the Susquehanna. that dialogue with their peers to really of catching trout in his section of the Many concerns about government More than 6 miles of stream bank encourage them to make a change. It’s newly improved stream and has been intrusion have faded away. The hardest fencing have been erected to keep cows a great demonstration of community taking water temperatures near spring- thing often is to get farmers to give up from lolling in the water, several low- conservation.” fed tributaries to see if the fish might more than 10 or 15 feet to plant filtering head dams have been removed, 35 acres The group’s movers and shakers are survive hot summer water. His hopes grasses and trees. Part of the chal- of streamside buffers have grown up mostly farmers who themselves once rose when a recent stream survey of lenge is that on small Amish farms, all and hundreds of bank stabilization and allowed their cows to cool off in Mill three restored farm properties turned up available ground is needed to squeeze a fish habitat structures were embedded Creek and gave little thought to what several trout nearby — likely escapees living from the land. But there is also a within the stream. that meant for those downstream. from the nearby fishing derby. long-entrenched feeling that overgrown These improvements would likely “Any more, we realize that the folks Asked if he had any complaints land is unsightly and reflects poorly on not have happened if a government downstream are really affected by what about the stream work on his farm, a landowner. agency or another private group had I do,” said 79-year-old Henry Beiler, a Esh laughed, “About the only bummer “We meet so many farmers who say come knocking. board member. was last year we could not once go this looks hairy,” noted Beiler, point- “The government would not have Fellow board member Henry Esh swimming because it never grew warm ing to grasses waving in the wind on a been able to come in and do this. also came to see things very differently enough. At least it’s much cleaner than restored stream section of Mill Creek. Nobody would have opened up,” said over time. it used to be. The farmland is filtered “To me this looks good.” John Smucker, a local businessman Mill Creek forms a wide S-curve before it gets to the creek. That’s one of About all that’s holding the group and farmer who is the only non-Amish through his pasture. Floods smashing the number ones.” back now is a need for more money. member of the group. against banks kept eroding his fields Now, Esh is one of those walking “We’re just committed because we see Though trends are changing, getting and the land around a bridge used to down lanes and knocking on his neigh- how much good it’s done,” Smucker Plain Sect farmers to agree to give get farm equipment across the stream. bors’ doors, asking them to do their part said. “We want to do more of it.” 20 Bay Journal • September 2019 Lower milk prices, demand taking toll on region’s dairy farmers ≈ Many, struggling to stay that it’s driven down the value, whether County alone. Because land values for farmland afloat, cannot afford to they are sold for meat or milk. The prices The financial stress on dairy farm- remained high, farmers were able to participate in conservation are so low that it’s actually cheaper to ers is having a chilling effect on efforts borrow against that equity. But now, buy cows or heifers for milk production to enlist them for on-the-farm conser- with millions invested in those expan- programs than raising them on the farm. vation practices. Even with cost-share sions, there is no profit to pay off the By Ad Crable Many times, especially with Plain projects, the farmer usually has to pay investments. For many dairy farmers in Chesa- Sects, neighbors band together and buy for some portion of the improvements. Compounding the problem, feed peake Bay states, the financial screws a few cows each. “Many cost-share programs are prices in the Northeast are among the keep tightening. Other dairy farmers are shutting reimbursements,” noted Ryan Davis of highest in the nation, further cutting While grain farmers can be hurt down and selling everything. Each the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay. into the chance for profits. by disastrous years such as 2018 when weekly issue of Lancaster Farming, a “A producer will likely to have to take “These guys have ridden the wave water-soaked fields resulted in zero trade newspaper serving Bay states, out a loan to pay the upfront cost. This longer than any other segment of agri- yields for some, they are backed by crop lists a handful of farm auctions. But may be fine in a normal ag economy, culture. I think the people in the dairy insurance programs that help get them many also are sold privately to other but at this point, many farmers can’t industry never thought the economy through year-to-year market fluctua- farmers or family members. take on the additional debt.” would catch up with them like it has,” tions. Last year, Beiler-Campbell Realty, “In good times, dairy farmers are Mattilio said. But for dairy farmers, a decade of which sells farms in 30 Pennsylvania usually stretched to come up with their But it has, and banks, though low milk prices brought on by oversup- and northern Maryland counties, did a contribution, but they do it,” added overall working patiently with ply and falling demand is taking a toll. record $100 million in farm sales. By Lamonte Garber of the Stroud Water their longtime customers, are Some ag lenders and those in the farm the end of June this year, their farm Research Center. “With years of low required to deal with what they call real estate business foresee a wave of banks shutting down credit for strug- gling dairy farmers this fall or winter, expediting a steady several-year stream of farmers leaving the business. “What I’m seeing out there now is we’re in uncharted waters with the dairy industry because some of these folks aren’t sure where to turn to. Some of these farmers are in survival mode,” said John Mattilio, who sells farms in central Pennsylvania with Farm and Land Realty. “I can walk onto a farm, and I can see the signs and symptoms of financial problems. These guys have a stack of bills on the kitchen table, and they’re trying to figure out which ones to pay this month.” The face of dairy farms is already changing as proud farmers try to hang on to their land, which has often been in families for generations. Some are renting out their fields so they can continue to live on the farm. Others are supplementing income by growing goats, produce, tobacco or raw milk and cheese. Some hope that growing hemp will save them. Others are selling timber or equipment to stay afloat, or add repair shops. Some have become truck drivers or have spouses going back to school to become teachers. Farmers at a 2018 auction in Lancaster County, PA, bid on cows and milking equipment of an Amish dairy farmer reluctantly get- And some farmers are buying time ting out of the business. The 28-year-old farmer instead took a job off the farm building sheds. (Ad Crable) by reorganizing under bankruptcy or refinancing, or jumping around sales already totaled $68 million. prices for [milk], even modest projects “nonperforming” loans. between suppliers, maxing out credit Many of the farms are being bought are out of reach unless they’re 100% Many ag lenders said they now require for feed for their cows. They skip by other area farmers with larger funded, or nearly so.” farmers to draw up monthly budgets and veterinary care for their animals and operations instead of being sold to To be sure, the seemingly endless report cash flows more frequently. don’t buy needed tractor parts or fix developers. tough times are taking an emotional That’s a positive thing, according the barn roof. The Chesapeake Bay watershed is toll. One agriculture writer in Penn- to Mike Peachey, an accountant with And some are selling their dairy home to 571,000 dairy cows, according sylvania knew three dairymen in three Pennsylvania-based Acuity Ag Advi- herds and equipment. “There are a to the federal 2017 agricultural census. states who committed suicide in 2018. sors, who works with dairy farmers. number of empty barns around right But that number is down 3% from the She knows others whose marriages “You have to know what the future’s now,” noted Lowell Fry, vice president 2012 census. have shattered. going to look like, whether you’re dig- at Fulton Bank, the largest ag lender Every Bay state that has significant The low milk prices that have ging a hole, treading water or making in Pennsylvania and a major lender in milk production saw the number of prompted the current downsizing progress.” Maryland, Delaware and Virginia. cows decline. About two-thirds of followed a relatively profitable period But banks do not want to be in the But it’s an awful time to liquidate the drop in cow numbers came from in the 1990s when many dairy farmers one’s herd. So many cows are being sold Pennsylvania — 20% in Lancaster expanded their facilities and herds. Farms continues on page 22 Bay Journal • September 2019 21

Buffers from page 1 limiting factors.” Certainly, Roger Rohrer, keep up with maintenance in the a poultry farmer in Lancaster crucial first years after plantings. “It’s County, PA, had no idea what been a problem really for the last 10 he was signing up for when years,” he said. “Everyone has known he agreed to a CREP buffer what we have to do, but we still haven’t along a stream in 2001. At been able to crack this maintenance that time, CREP did not even problem.” allow landowners to mow or Buffer managers with other groups use herbicides on a buffer. echo his lament. That, along with two “I’m sure anyone in this work has droughts, caused about 750 horror stories. It’s a challenge,” said planted trees to fail, he said. Amber Ellis, senior watershed restora- “Tubes were swallowed by tion manager for the James River invasives. It was an eyesore Association in Richmond. and a bad billboard for the “We have had similar experiences,” whole concept.” added Lydia Brinkley, the buffer coor- Still, after learning about dinator for the Upper Susquehanna the environmental benefits Coalition in New York and a small of buffers and the effects portion of Pennsylvania. that stormwater runoff from “I have seen many planting proj- Lancaster County was having ects fail due to lack of maintenance on the Bay, Rohrer signed up and many plantings succeed due to for another buffer on his land diligence in implementing mainte- Ryan Davis of the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay inspects the status of a tree growing in a in 2010 and a third in 2016. nance practices,” said Craig Highfield, tube shelter on a riparian buffer near Lititz, PA. The buffer is mowed regularly but invasive Spraying and mowing director of the Alliance’s Chesapeake canary grass quickly grows waist-high between mowings and would swarm plantings without was now allowed. He Forests program. maintenance. (Ad Crable) learned by doing. He discov- Concerns over failed buffers ered the hard way how to fix recently reached the halls of Congress. CREP, as it is known, provides an annual it. If they’re looking out the window and dislodged tubes after storms. U.S. Sen. Bob Casey of Pennsyl- payment to landowners, usually farmers, see the buffer, they will do it, but if it’s “Nobody knew about the mainte- vania successfully added related who agree to take land along rivers and out of sight and out of mind, it’s a little nance but we figured it out as we went,” amendments to the 2018 Farm Bill. streams out of production in order to easier for time to get away from you.” he said. “That one– to seven-year In addition to increasing money to plant forested or grassy buffers. The burden is on landowners, say period is critical, and there’s a lot of expand forested riparian buffers in That fee is supposed to cover main- federal officials who administer CREP. work to be done. I’m not sure the indus- Bay states, money would be allotted to tenance and protection of the buffer for Part of the annual payment is for try understands that. In my 18 years of groups and government agencies to do as long as it takes to get established. But, maintenance, said Alexis Tirado, buffers, I’m in there every week with “burdensome” maintenance on behalf too often, environmental groups say, the federal Farm Service Agency’s pro- a spot sprayer controlling invasives… of landowners. the needed information and technical gram manager for CREP in Pennsyl- I tell farmers who come to look at my “Planting the tree is the easiest guidance is not vania. “It’s your buffers that it’s like a seven-year crop part. Getting the tree to survive the communicated responsibility. and you have to stay with it.” first 5 years is the hardest part,” said to the landowner You committed Some environmental groups are taking Lamonte Garber, watershed restora- and buffers fall to that when matters into their own hands, and state tion coordinator for the Stroud Water into disrepair. you signed the and federal agencies are meting out more Research Center, whose studies into It’s tempting contract. You money to bolster maintenance, or “estab- more effective techniques for estab- to bash the land- don’t enroll in lishment” as it’s called by managers. lishing buffers have become industry owner who is the program and In Pennsylvania, Davis related an standards. taking taxpayer forget about the experience that he called a “wake-up “Awareness and understanding in money, but Ellis land you just call.” Three new buffers subsidized by science around this issue has definitely said the problem enrolled. But for the state were planted in the spring of evolved and improved, so we’re in a is not clear-cut. multiple reasons, 2018 to launch a new streamside buffer much better place than we were 20 “Especially for not everyone program. Even though the program years ago,” Garber maintained. “That landowners understands it in includes maintenance provided by the said, there are plenty of projects that who have a pile that way,” Tirado Alliance, when the sites were checked go in that there’s not a solid plan for of other work said. again in late summer, record wet weather establishment, and those buffers can or a full-time But once a had killed trees. Floodwaters and debris go off the rails very quickly.” job,” she said. landowner sends had knocked over tubes and shorted out The problem was highlighted in “If they are an notification an electric fence, allowing cows to run recent years as Bay states reported active farmer, that the buffer roughshod over the plantings. nutrient reductions from buffers, they’re working A tree planted in a tube shelter for a is complete, Davis put out the word to a network claiming credit toward meeting their who knows how riparian buffer makes contact with a net the regulations of volunteers and quickly assembled cleanup goals. But when managers went many hours a designed to keep birds out of tubes. If the only require that a Riparian Ranger program. The vol- out to inspect and verify the buffers, an week. Maintain- netting is not removed, trees can get tangled someone from the unteer “rangers” pledge to go out once unsettling number had languished. ing a buffer is and start to grow downward. (Ad Crable) federal Natural a month during the growing season Why? just another Resources Con- to check for fallen tubes, ensure that In many cases where buffers fail thing.” servation Service check the buffer for mowing and spraying have been done or replantings have to be done, it’s a Holly May, who works on establish- compliance once within five years. and look for dead trees or shrubs. matter of the landowner not following ing forested buffers for the Alliance for Tirado emphasized that every Already, Riparian Rangers have through. the Chesapeake Bay in West Virginia, county office of NRCS operates dif- signed up for all 30 sites established in The largest-scale buffer program in said “With at least CREP, the mainte- ferently and more frequent monitoring three Pennsylvania counties. Many are the Bay watershed is the federal Conser- nance payments just aren’t enough to may happen. “It depends on work- vation Reserve Enhancement Program. motivate [landowners] to make them do load,” he said. “That’s one of the main Buffers continues on page 23 22 Bay Journal • September 2019

Buffers from page 21 fers by 2025. NEST from page 18 Virginia is trying to Master Naturalists, Master Gardeners boost flatlined buffer called “horny heads.” and others wanting to make a difference. plantings by increasing “It blows my mind when we come to A Pennsylvania nonprofit, the the state match for CREP a stream and he can identify basically ClearWater Conservancy, has initiated projects. The state wants anything that we see,” Penelope said. a similar program in which volunteer to double its acreage of “Unless they have a giant blue head, I Habitat Stewards perform maintenance grass buffers over the next don’t know what it is.” on existing buffers. six years and substantially Maurakis and his collaborators, In Virginia, the James River boost forested buffers. including Emmanuel Frimpong, an Association, in partnership with the Maryland also wants associate professor of fish and wildlife state Department of Forestry, started a to increase the rate of conservation at Virginia Tech University, new riparian buffer program in which plantings for forested and hope to get more people hooked on these maintenance is built in for three years. grass buffers. fish that many know so little about. The Department of Forestry also sends In New York, state Because most nest builders are no more foresters out to each CREP buffer environmental officials than 8 inches long, the general public project until it is deemed established. want to double both the thinks of them as little more than bait. In both Maryland and Virginia, the amount of forested and “People say, ‘Oh, it’s just minnows. Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay has grass buffers by 2025. I fish for bass,’” Maurakis said. “But started a Healthy Streams Farm Stew- West Virginia, even we’re hypothesizing that — once they ardship program in which landowners though it has already met understand that there are these gorgeous, who engage in buffer projects are its cleanup goals, also fascinating fish in this stream by this park handed financial vouchers they can use has streambank restora- over there — that they’ll begin to consider for maintenance needs. In Virginia, tion as a priority action. changing their behavior.” buffer programs through the Alliance Much of those lofty When people throw old tires or oil into also come with maintenance provided. goals will depend on a backwoods waterway, Maurakis said, In a New York pilot program, buffer maintenance. they don’t realize that it could impact the supported by federal funding from the This is Davis’ plea: entire ecosystem that supports these fish. National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, “Just give us three or Maurakis, who lives in Midlothian, the Upper Susquehanna Coalition is four years of tender, knows firsthand that pollution continues performing maintenance work on buf- loving care, mowing and to threaten these fish that thrive in cool, fers, no matter who started them. spraying a couple times a Lack of maintenance on this buffer project has allowed pristine waters. He once found a pool of Such new and needed emphasis on year, and it’ll last for 300 invasive Japanese hops to gain a stranglehold on a dead fish in a stream near his house that helping new buffers to ward off the years.” tube shelter. (Ad Crable) was later traced to someone draining their many threats they encounter comes at A young tree grows chlorine-rich swimming pool into the a time when Bay states are pushing for in a biodegradable nearest waterway. even more buffers. The state-federal tube shelter on a Nest builders, like many other fresh- Chesapeake Bay Program has a goal riparian buffer water fish in suburban and rural areas, are of adding buffers to 900 miles of streams project in Lancaster sensitive to a suite of pollutants, whether each year, though the totals have nowhere they wash off fertilized lawns or farm approached that goal in recent years. County, PA. An fields. More than 700 of the 1,200 species Buffers have been a tool in the Bay res- herbicide has been of freshwater fish in North America are toration since 1994. They continue to play sprayed in a circle considered imperiled by the American an important role in the draft Bay cleanup around the base of Fisheries Society, meaning they are plans that Bay states and the District of the tube to allow vulnerable to becoming endangered or Columbia submitted to the U.S. Environ- sunlight to reach extinct. Of those, 25% are minnows and mental Protection Agency in April. under the tube and chubs, a group that includes nest builders. Pennsylvania is calling for $41 to keep tree- After studying these fish for more than million to be spent on forested buffers girdling rodents at 30 years and writing, with colleagues, and another $9 million on grass buf- bay. (Ad Crable) some 35 peer-reviewed studies about the creatures, Maurakis now wants to better understand what people know about Farms from page 20 than we’ve ever seen. It just keeps on no longer makes sense,” he said. them and what they don’t. A press release lingering and lingering.” Mattilio, who grew up on a dairy announcing a grant Maurakis received real estate business. And they fear that Where will it end? farm and spent 14 years as an ag from the Virginia Academy of Science a mass exit from farming would drive Some dairy farmers are embracing lender, predicts two trends. In one, to carry out this new phase of research down farm values and make it difficult several months of a slight uptick in dairy farms will be bought by larger stated that people today are more likely to to recover their investments. milk prices as hope that, just maybe, operations, meaning fewer but larger know about wildlife in Africa than about “Banks will take steps so there is not better times are around the corner. farms of 500 cows or more. Existing environments in which they live. a mushroom exodus. We get hurt, too, But few in the financial side of the farms that survive will be smaller ones That’s something he’d like to see if all farmers sell at once,” said Fulton industry share that optimism. that can be run by a family without change, and he thinks the nest builders Bank’s Fry. “I don’t think that we’re Fry sees reductions in the numbers outside labor. That’s especially the will make good torch bearers for the going to see a mushroom cloud of this of dairy farms in Bay states continuing case with Plain Sect farms. cause. After tagging along for a few nest- because everybody is working so hard. to dwindle. “I think the industry will “What we know to be true and spotting trips this summer, his wife has But we’re not extending credit.” figure out how it will work,” he said. reasonable in the dairy industry is become the most recent convert. Added Dale Hershey, an ag lender “They will find a way to increase cash gone,” he said. “The situation is dire “I feel a certain sense of excitement with Univest Bank & Trust, which flow to a point that they can manage and folks who think it is going to come when I go to a stream and see that pile of serves Pennsylvania, “Anytime you that and move on.” back around… These dairy farmers are rocks,” Penelope said. “It kind of gives me get an oversupply [of milk], sooner or Mattilio agreed. “They’re going not used to failing. They’re not used to hope to see that, with so much pollution later something had to happen. But, to have to be creative. They’re hard- not being able to pay the bills. I don’t going on in some areas, there are still man, this has been a long drawn-out working and creative. But some of know where it’s going to take us, but some pristine streams around that are full process. This trough has been deeper them will have to realize what we did it’s going to be different.” of life.” Bay Journal • September 2019 23 SAV from page 1 Freshwater flows into before the weather turned unusually wet in July, resulting in record-set- ting rain for much of the watershed. Bay continue to run Rainfall scours sediment off the landscape along with nutrients that higher than normal spur algae blooms. Carried into ≈ Pollution entering Chesapeake rivers and downstream to the Bay, worsened water quality and led to a the sediment and algae blooms blot large ‘dead zone’ out the sunlight essential for aquatic plants to survive. By Karl Blankenship The unrelenting rain and ensuing The unusually protracted string of higher than muddy water prevented the aerial normal river flows into the Chesapeake Bay has survey from being completed. But continued well into this year, according to figures the 78% of the Chesapeake where from the U.S. Geological Survey. images were gathered contained Altogether, freshwater river flows into the 91,559 acres of underwater grasses. Bay were higher than normal for 13 out of the 15 Had the survey been completed, months from May 2018 through July, according to scientists believe total acreage might USGS data, including five of the first seven months have topped 108,000 acres. of this year. “I think we would have been The pollution carried into the Bay during that well on our way to surpassing the span has led to worse than normal water quality 2017 levels if the last year hadn’t and triggered a large oxygen-starved “dead zone” turned into such a muddy mess,” said Widgeon grass floats on the surface at low tide on the Honga River in in the Bay. Brooke Landry, a biologist with the Dorchester County, MD. Hoopers Island is in the background. (Dave Harp) In July, the USGS reported that the estimated Maryland Department of Natural cumulative flow into the Bay from its nine largest Resources and chair of the state- species of grasses are doing well bed somewhat. Cassie Gurbisz, a rivers — which account for more than 95% of the federal Bay Program’s Submerged in many places this year, including biologist from St. Mary’s College of freshwater entering the Bay — averaged 54,000 Aquatic Vegetation Workgroup. the Choptank, Chester, Severn and Maryland who has been studying cubic feet per second. That was the 15th highest The Bay restoration goal is Magothy rivers, some of which have Susquehanna Flats for years, visited flow on record for the month since the agency 185,000 acres. more underwater beds this year than a number of sites in early August. began tracking river flows into the Bay in 1936. The strongest increases last year they did in 2018, Orth said. While all continued to have grasses, The USGS considers a flow to be above normal if were in the mid– and high-salinity “Everyone was concerned about she said many seemed patchier than it is among the top 25% for a given month. regions of the Bay. Those areas turbidity from this vast amount of they did before last year’s high flows, High freshwater flows are typically bad news for showed significant increases, mainly freshwater that we had last year, but her analysis was still under way. Bay water quality because they carry large amounts because of the expansion of widgeon but it seems to have had a positive A major concern involves the fate of water-fouling nutrients and sediments, which are grass, which showed up in some impact on the freshwater plants, and of eelgrass, at the opposite end of the flushed off the landscape and into the Chesapeake. areas where it had never been previ- they seem to be not nearly as affected Bay. In the Bay, nutrients fuel algae blooms that cloud ously reported. by the turbid water as the Lower Bay Eelgrass is the dominant under- the water. As the blooms die and decompose, they “Baywide, the story [was] really plants,” Orth said. water grass found in high-salinity are consumed by bacteria in a process that depletes the huge expansion we’ve had in Many of the freshwater grass areas. Last year’s survey found water of oxygen. Sediment also clouds the water widgeon grass,” said Dave Wilcox, species form canopies that reach to robust beds in the Lower Bay, but hot and smothers bottom habitats. a VIMS scientist who works on the the water surface which may have temperatures last summer — pos- Earlier this year, scientists predicted that the survey. “That’s what is driving our helped to protect them from the sibly compounded by an influx of huge influx of nutrients would lead to a greatly numbers in the last several years.” murky conditions, he said. low-salinity water — caused mass expanded dead zone. In July, the Maryland Depart- Widgeon grass is the most Images show the large bed at defoliation later in the fall. Orth said ment of Natural Resources confirmed that the area abundant underwater grass species in Susquehanna Flats, near the mouth it appears that high temperatures this of low oxygen, or hypoxic, water was significantly the Bay, but it is notorious for being of the Bay’s largest tributary, year are taking a toll again. worse than average. a boom-and-bust species that can appears to have survived largely “It’s a concern, and part of the In early July, the DNR reported a dead zone quickly disappear when water quality intact even though it was subjected climate change scenario,” he said. of 1.92 cubic miles in the Maryland portion of declines. to months of high river flows and That could leave large areas of the the Bay, compared with an average of 1.36 cubic And, Orth said, this year’s survey muddy water. Lower Bay, where beds are espe- miles. In late July, scientists found 2.01 cubic miles is showing that many of the widgeon “It’s resilience at work,” Landry cially important for juvenile crabs, of low-oxygen water, compared with the late July grass-dominated areas of the Mid said. “We had gotten to a point where denuded of vegetation. average of 1.34 cubic miles. Bay and some areas of the Lower Bay we had a lot of nice, dense grass The need to restore underwater Along with pollution, high flows added a surge appear to have suffered significant beds, and we put them through the grass habitat is one reason that the of freshwater to the Bay that kept salinity low near losses, which likely means overall wringer last year. I think we’ll see Bay cleanup effort aims to reduce the surface, causing strong stratification between Bay acreage will be down sharply some loss this summer, but it appears nutrient and sediment pollution, the surface and higher-salinity bottom waters. when this year’s survey is completed. as though we have gotten them to as water clouded by sediment or That made oxygen conditions worse by essentially Places like the Honga River and some point of resilience where they nutrient-fueled algae blooms can trapping oxygen-starved water on the bottom and around Smith and Tangier islands had do withstand more stress.” be lethal. Like all green plants, preventing it from mixing with the oxygen-rich “luxuriant beds” in 2018, Orth said, Indeed, satellite images from submerged grassed need sunlight to surface water. “but it’s a different story this year.” last fall showed that muddy water survive. DNR scientists said conditions were also aggra- Also, poor conditions and warm pouring out of the Susquehanna Grass beds are also a critical vated by temperatures that warmed Bay waters to water also appear to have taken a toll was not penetrating to the interior component of the Bay ecosystem in nearly 90 degrees. Warmer water holds less oxygen on eelgrass beds in the Lower Bay, of the Susquehanna Flats grass bed. their own right. In addition to provid- than cool water. Orth said. “The numbers, I hate to Instead, the dense grass growth was ing food for waterfowl and shelter The flow data is found on the recently updated say, I think are going to be really low shunting chocolate brown water to for fish and crabs, they pump oxygen USGS Chesapeake Bay website, in those areas,” he said. either side of the bed. into the water, trap sediment and usgs.gov/centers/cba. But the news isn’t bad every- Still, the final analysis will likely buffer shorelines from the erosive The DNR’s hypoxia reports are found at dnr.mary- where. Farther up the Bay, freshwater show the high flows diminished the impact of waves. land.gov/waters/bay/Pages/Hypoxia-Reports.aspx 24 Bay Journal l Tr avel l September 2019

Paddle through past landscapes along remote Cat Point Creek wharf at the end of a “rolling road,” where large casks of tobacco were rolled downhill to waiting ships. The road is still evident as a deep depression alongside the path to the launch site. Cat Point Creek stretches 19 sinuous miles, roughly north to south, across almost the entire width of Virginia’s Northern Neck. And although the creek is a Rappahan- nock tributary, its headwaters are just a half-mile shy of the Potomac River. A satellite image of this portion of “the Neck” shows the dendritic tendrils of Cat Point and other creeks that empty into the Rappahannock. They cut into sediment laid down eons ago, giving way to modest escarpments above which Native Americans and then colonists established settle- ments. Now covered in forest, they flank either side of Cat Point Creek at the far edges of the wide, watery valley. As we paddled upstream from Menokin Bay, the creek was narrow and boggy. Here and there, a thin white PVC pipe marked possible channels, but at times the waterway got so narrow we were forced to back out and try another route. I’d been told that during the high tide — and after a lot of rain — we might be able to paddle another 5 miles upstream if we were willing to navigate downed trees and an uncertain pathway through dense wetlands. That kind of adventure would have to wait for another day. After a slow mile upstream, stopping to admire the blooms of Virginia sweetspire and the delicate evening primrose, we headed back to Menokin Bay. It was only on the return trip that I saw a single house in the distance. I wanted to see the downstream stretch of the creek, too, as it winds its way to the Rappahannock. On a differ- From a launch site onto Menokin Early morning light beckoned me upstream ent day, after setting up a return shuttle, I launched from Bay in Virginia, paddlers can explore into the green, marshy world of Cat Point Creek, Menokin during a slight drizzle. Cat Point Creek’s protected upstream The creek’s serpentine curves became more obvious as reaches or head downstream toward a tributary of Virginia’s Rappahannock River. I paddled. Each was bounded by solid, tree-covered banks the Rappahannock River. I paddled the creek’s narrow path through pastures of pockmarked by dark holes where kingfishers and other arrow arum, past tight fists of yellow pond lilies that had animals burrowed. begun their spring unfurling. Blue flag irises were emerg- Scraggy roots of mountain azalea clung to the bare soil ing from ferns that had found a toehold in boggy soil of these north-facing cliffs, refuge pockets for plants more By Leslie Middleton amongst the roots of a small, red maple. commonly found in Virginia’s higher elevations. Every so often, a large splash roiled the water nearby, possibly Photos by Dave Harp The rhythmic swirl of water eddied off the paddles, -oc casionally interrupted by sounds from the marsh: The slap a blue catfish or gar. An immature bald eagle followed us of a beaver marking its territory before sliding, unseen, downriver, stopping on tree snags along the way. beneath the flatwater to the tangled woodwork of its den. The cry of a pileated woodpecker on its trajectory through the creek’s forested valley. Cat Point Creek offered such a complete feeling of remoteness that I felt I must be close to experiencing the land — and waterway — much as it had been before Eng- lish settlers came to the area. I’d set off that morning from a launch downstream at the historic site of Menokin, the 1769 home of Francis Lightfoot Lee, who signed the Declaration of Indepen- dence. The grounds include a recently improved launch site for canoes and kayaks. My paddling companion was Alice French, the Menokin Foundation’s educator, whose job includes taking visitors onto Cat Point Creek from spring to fall. Menokin offers the only public boat launch on Cat Point Creek, so paddlers are often found heading down the hill behind the remains of the Lee family’s house, now undergoing restoration to showcase Colonial building methods. The road descends through towering tulip trees The freshwater marshes of Cat Point Creek, a tributary of that date to the early 1800s. the Rappahannock River in Virginia, offer perfect habitat The launch site itself was once the plantation’s bustling for largemouth bass, crappie, rockfish and catfish. 25 Bay Journal l Tr avel l September 2019

Long before Cat Point Creek became one of several designated “water trails” on Virginia’s Northern Neck, it was for eons one of many watery pathways integral to the lives of the local indigenous peoples. In 1608, Capt. John Smith recorded 14 Rappahannock Indian settlements on the north side of the river and its tributaries. The lands surrounding Cat Point Creek offered superior soils for small-scale agriculture and pot- tery making. These same rich soils and elevated plateaus were attractive to English settlers, too. By the late 1600s, the Rappahannock had been mostly dis- placed from their homeland. The enokM in plantation was not the only large farm along Cat Point Creek during the colonial era. Just downstream from Menokin is Mt. Airy, owned by the Tayloe family for more than 250 years. Tenth genera- tion Tayloe Emery lives there today with his wife and two children, who are growing up, like their forebears, with a close relationship to the creek. “We have some old letters between John Tayloe and George Washington, talking about duck hunting,” Emery told me. “I like to think of the creek as where George Washington used to Above: A kayaker enjoys a serene paddle on Cat Point shoot his dinner.” Creek in Virginia through the early morning mist. Emery has a conservation ease- Right: A delicate web weaves through bare branches along ment on much of his property, ensur- the creek’s shore. More than 10% of the its watershed is ing protection into perpetuity. protected by public and private conservation easements — In all, more than 10% of the 48,000 many adjacent to the creek itself — that help protect water acres of the creek’s watershed is quality and wildlife into the future. protected by easements. The Tayloe Tract, close to the mouth of the creek, edges of the marsh everywhere — The stretch of was the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service’s so many that we often have to stop the creek from first acquisition of the Rappahannock the boat to make an accurate count,” Menokin Bay River Valley National Wildlife Refuge. he said. south to the Rap- Today, the agency manages several Portlock attributes this to the wide pahannock River parcels along the creek set aside for variety of life found in the creek’s eco- is crossed by two wetlands, water quality, wildlife and system and said the diversity is driven low bridges, lim- especially waterfowl. Headed down in part by its location. iting power boat the creek toward the river, we passed “Cat Point Creek is located right traffico t those multiple duck blinds perched on the at the cusp where the salt wedge well-timed to the edge of the creek. coming up the Rappahannock from tides. “It’s ideal for kayaks and other No matter when, I’m reasonably After several days of rain, the the Chesapeake Bay runs under the small watercraft,” he said. confident this unique and highly creek’s downstream flow matched the fresh water coming downstream,” he The wind picked up as we paddled protected landscape will have tidal current headed upstream, and explained. The upwelling is the source under Newland Road, the second changed little. the wind was thankfully behind us. of biological productivity in the river of these bridges, right as Cat Point Bill Crouch, assistant manager for There was no one else on the water — and the creek. Creek widens onto the river. It took the Rappahannock River Valley ref- not unusual, according to those who Richard Moncure, tidal river stew- some work to paddle upriver to our uge, puts it this way: “Cat Point Creek frequent the creek. But we continued ard for Friends of the Rappahannock, take-out at Naylor’s Beach Camp- comes very close to the character of to be followed by a mature bald eagle, has spent much of his life on the Rap- ground. The Rappahannock is a cou- wilderness that so many of us seek … pahannock and often leads education- who was joined from time to time by ple of miles wide here, and I missed untrammeled, and mostly unaltered an immature eagle. al trips on Cat Point Creek. the intimacy of the creek’s marshy, by man.” Bill Portlock, senior educator for “The creek is like a microcosm serpentine channel. the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, of the entire Rappahannock River: Another day — another season — The paddle launch and kayak rent- has paddled here in every season for brackish at its mouth, becoming I’ll return. Maybe in the late summer, als are available at Menokin during many years, often as part of the an- fresher the farther upstream you go. when the arrow arum’s dark sticky daylight hours. Visit menokin.org or nual winter bald eagle survey con- It’s a great place for teaching about seeds are forming the winter food for call 804-333-1776. ducted by the College of William and watersheds, and it’s still relatively ducks, or in the fall, when the wild For a digital map of the water Mary. It’s not uncommon, he said, to pristine,” he said. rice lets loose on the water. Maybe trails on the Northern Neck of Virgin- find eagles there in large numbers. And, according to Moncure, it is next spring, as the green of the fresh- ia, including Cat Point Creek, visit “There are eagles perched on the “perfectly underutilized.” water marsh is just emerging. virginiawatertrails.org. 26 Bay Journal l Tr avel l September 2019

Ponder history, explore trails at Maryland’s Fort Frederick also taking a breather — outdoorsy 30-something women and three beautiful, happy, goofy Labradoodles named Moe, Larry and Curly (The Three Stooges live on!). From nearby Shepherdstown, WV, and regulars on the area’s trails, they told me that if I had instead headed down- river from Fort Frederick, I’d have found a much quieter stretch of the towpath. “Quieter how?” I asked. And then, as if on cue, a tractor-trailer’s engine brake burped rudely though the woods — no doubt from Interstate 70, just a quarter-mile away. “Quieter than that,” said one of the women, nodding toward the sound. “If you go the other way from the fort, the highway gets farther away.” I filed away that intel for further investigation, perhaps in the afternoon or perhaps on another day. Back at the fort grounds, the 25th annual Market Fair was under way and bustling. White tents sprawled for acres, some of them large framed affairs holding rows of display tables, mixed with more modest setups and simple lean-tos or blankets on the ground. And all were open for business, selling Colonial wares and trinkets and products of every imagining. There were tri-corner hats, coonskin caps, buckskin clothing, handmade pot- tery, miniature wooden muskets, actual muskets, pow- der horns, wrought-iron hardware, native crafts, period maps, silver steins, copper pots, iron skillets, petticoats and bodices and bonnets, shoes and boots and stockings, and even animal pelts. Built near a bend in the Potomac I have formed three distinctly different I only saw pelts briefly, through the swarm of breeches River in 1756–58, under the watchful impressions of Fort Frederick, the 1756 and petticoats passing on the thoroughfare — a small pile eye of Maryland’s colonial governor, of former animals at the feet of a rugged-looking trapper- Horatio Sharpe, Fort Frederick stone fort that is now the centerpiece of a like man, dressed head to toe in buckskin. Before I could conforms to a design developed in 585-acre state park in Western Maryland. get a closer look, I was distracted by a passing forma- the early 1700s by French military tion of a dozen or so Colonial soldiers. They had come engineer Sebastien de Vauban. There’s the Market Fair experience every year in late marching out of the fort’s gateless sallyport with a fife and April, when acres and acres of white tents sprout in the drum in front, setting the pace. They turned down the fields around the fort and literally thousands of people — thoroughfare, trailed by half a dozen boys, convincingly easily half of them dressed for the 1700s — spend four dressed as period ragamuffins and shouldering wooden days buying and selling all manner of Colonial era prod- muskets. By T. F. Sayles ucts and demonstrating those ways of life. From there I set off on a merchandise meander: period Photos by Dave Harp Then hert e’s the spartan, Colonial-frontier feel inside footwear at (Daniel) Boone Shoe Co., est. 1778; bonnets the fort, where I can easily imagine how safe it must have galore at Flying Heart Millinery; pewter and silver galore felt to an English settler inside those massive, 18-foot-high at House of Shine; Wm. Rudolph, Purveyor of Maps and walls during the French and Indian War, which included Mathematical Instruments; coins, medallions and miscel- more than a few civilian casualties. And finally, there’s down the slope of the fort grounds into the woodsy Potomac River bottomland and what feels like the very bosom of nature. Here you’ll find the C&O Canal trail and the narrow strip of thin, second-growth forest that the former towpath runs through, skirting the south edge of Fort Frederick State Park for a mile or so. Big Pool, a long narrow lake, parallels the river. In the canal’s heyday, the pool served as both a turning basin and a semi-natural mile-and-a-half of the canal itself. On a spring visit, I also found carpets of bluebells and the perfect, ineffable green of mayapple and wild ginger as well as brand-new river birch leaves. It was lush and green, so I struck out on the towpath, upriver. I made a pretty good jaunt of it, nearly 2 miles, past the upper end of Big Pool. There I came to a low steel railroad bridge, carrying what appeared to be active tracks over the towpath and then, my iPhone map revealed, over the Potomac River into West Virginia. Seasonal park ranger Sterling Ambrose takes a seat in the Resting on a patch of grass near the steel bridge, I guard room of the west barrack in Fort Frederick, which is struck up a conversation with a pair of hikers who were furnished to appear as it would have in the late 1750s. 27 Bay Journal l Tr avel l September 2019 lany at Three River Trade Co., and much more. After a few hours, I de- cided to explore the site’s historical centerpiece. The 263-year-old fort has a truly interesting history, both in terms of how it was built and used (briefly, four times) and saved for poster- ity — nearly 100 years ago as Maryland’s first state park. The walls of the fort enclose a square area of roughly 1.4 acres, with outsized arrow- head-shaped bastions at every corner. It was built between 1756 and 1758 (the early years of the French and Indian Above: In the spring, Virginia bluebells adorn the forest floor along War, also known as the Fort Frederick’s Plantation Trail and along the C&O Canal trail, Seven Years War) under which follows the Potomac River half a mile south of the fort. the direction, often in Right: Geese make themselves at home in a wooded wetland at the person, of Maryland east end of Big Pool, which also parallels the river near the fort. Gov. Horatio Sharpe. In late 1758, British forces captured Fort Duquesne (now Pitts- the fort. Those included a superinten- photos and burgh), pushing the war much farther dent’s residence, now the park’s gift large displays into the frontier and making Fort shop; and the original visitors center, covering the Frederick all but unnecessary, except now a CCC museum telling the story fort’s history. as a supply depot and staging area. of the fort’s restoration. If I’d It didn’t stay unnecessary for long. Two re-created barrack-style known the In 1763, the same year the French and buildings inside the fort were open many layers Indian War ended, a native uprising during my visit, offering a deep dive of landscape known as Pontiac’s War (or Rebellion) into what life was like there in the and history that awaited me, I’d have Daughters of the American Revolu- forced Sharpe to reopen Fort Fred- given myself two full days to explore tion. Also, less than a mile from the 1700s. They were built in the 1970s on the park and fort, especially during fort’s entrance, is the eastern termi- erick. About 700 British settlers took foundations unearthed four decades refuge there during the three-year the Market Fair. Unchecked items on nus of the 28-mile Western Maryland earlier by the CCC, and many of the my to-do list included not only the Rail Trail. conflict that killed many hundreds of rooms are furnished to reflect the soldiers, militiamen, natives and set- gift shop and CCC Museum, but also But there’s always a next time. period: enlisted quarters, officers’ the park’s modern-day visitors center Having survived nearly three cen- tlers, and altogether displaced around quarters, mess hall, armory, hospital, 2,000 of the latter. The fort then fell and its mile-long Plantation Trail, turies, Fort Frederick isn’t going store rooms, etc. Other rooms hold dormant again until 1777, when it which wanders through trees planted anywhere. became a prison camp for British sol- modern-day exhibits with maps, in the 1920s and ‘30s by the Maryland diers captured during the Revolution. After that it lay fallow for approxi- Fort Frederick State Park mately 150 years, except for a brief occupation by Union troops during Fort Frederick, 18 miles west of Hager- the Civil War. Fallow may be the stown, MD, just off I-70, is open daily wrong word, actually, because from year-round: 8 a.m. to dark April through 1860 to 1911 the fort and its sur- October, and 10 a.m. to dark November rounding acreage was part of a large through March. For information, call and prosperous farm founded by a free African American named Nathan 301-842-2155, visit dnr.maryland.gov and Williams. In 1911, Williams’s descen- search under “Parks,” or visit the Friends dants sold the property to a private of Fort Frederick Facebook page. owner, who in turn sold it to the state in 1922 — at which point, according Special events this fall include a Pro- to Park Service literature, it became vincial Muster weekend Sept. 14–15, a Maryland’s first state park. Militia Muster weekend Sept. 28–29, and Enter the Civilian Conservation an artillery and musketry demonstration Corps in 1934, which repaired the Oct. 12–13. In observance of Veterans Day stone walls, sections of which had weekend, Nov. 9–10, the park will host crumbled or been torn down to adapt part of the fort for farm use. The “One Fort: Three Wars,” examining Fort industrious CCC also turned the site Frederick’s role in the French & Indian, Fort Frederick’s towering walls rise above the park’s southern slope, into a proper park, building several of Revolutionary and Civil wars. which leads to the Potomac River and C&O Canal Trail. its trademark log structures outside 28 Bay Journal • September 2019

bib. It eats seeds year-round and adds wings ranging from approximately 1 amusing. This small, pale orange to pale insects to its diet in the breeding season. inch to 1.5 inches long. It is found in yellow mushroom has yellow/orange Come fall, they gather in flocks that can clearings or edge habitat, where it sips hairs at the bottom of its brown stalk. It number in the thousands while migrat- nectar from flowers such as common starts out as a cap mushroom, but the Bay Buddies ing and that can grow to the millions milkweed and blackberry flowers. Its outside of the cap gets larger as it ages once they reach their wintering grounds. caterpillars eat grasses, especially panic and creates a depression in the center. In Name Game grasses and bluegrasses. a wet season, this fungus can completely 3. This is another word for tadpole, cover a tree stump. the larval stage of a toad or frog. In this 5. This hardy killifish, also known as a mud minnow, can tolerate pollution, low 8. This tree bears one of the largest Learning is fun! Here are the names stage, they are roundish with gills and a oxygen, and temperature and salinities. edible fruits in North America. Usually of some plants and animals that are fun tail. After a while, their bodies lengthen, It can eat 2,000 mosquito larvae in one found in wetter habitats, this understory to say out loud. Match them with their the tail shortens to a nub, and lungs and day and is used to control mosquitos in tree can grow up to 25 feet high with description. Answers are on page 34. tiny feet have developed. Their diet also switches from algae and plants to insects ditches and ponds. Hundreds of these dark shiny leaves up to a foot long. DICKCISSEL and small crustaceans, and they are able fish can gather together in schools. Its The applelike, yellow-brown fruit can FUZZY FOOT to leave the water. They are then called name is the Native American word for grow up to 6 inches long and weigh a HAIRY BEARDTONGUE toadlets or froglets until they become “going in crowds.” pound. People who are lucky enough HOBOMOK adults. 6. Is it a groundhog? Woodchuck? to pick one before wildlife get to it say KATYDID the creamy-textured fruit tastes like a 4. This is a member of the skipper Marmot? This is yet another name for MEGALOPS combination of banana, pineapple and family, which is usually classified as a this large rodent that can swim and MUMMICHOG mango. butterfly, but is more of a cross between easily climbs trees to get food or escape POLLIWOG butterflies (active during the day) and predators. 9. This lizard has a cone-shaped PAWPAW moths (heavier bodies). This black and 7. Even the Latin name for this spe- heads, thick neck and small feet. It moves SKINK orange skipper has rounded, triangular cies, which means “little dry navel,” is like snakes and is often mistaken for one. WHISTLEPIG It eat plants and small animals and has 1. This plant has tubular pinkish to strong jaws that can crack the shells of pale-violet flowers that grow in clusters at beetles and snails. When an animal tries the top of its hairy stem. A fuzzy stamen to eat it, its tails breaks off and continues sticks out of the lower lip of the flower, to wiggle, which distracts the predator. which is how it got its name. It has 2– to Juvenile tails are bright blue. 4-inch, lance-shaped leaves growing 10. This is the second larval stage of opposite of each other on a hairy stalk. the blue crab. At this stage, the crab’s Plant specialists have created many abdomen is getting longer, and the legs varieties of this wildflower that are found and other abdominal appendages are in nurseries. It not only attracts bees, but- present. The eyes are large. terflies and hummingbirds, but is shade– 11. This grasshopper cousin looks and drought-tolerant. It grows well in like a green leaf, which makes it hard rock gardens and cottage gardens. for predators to find it. This insect is 2. This midsize, stocky bird roams nocturnal and often hangs out in trees grasslands and pastures. It is shaped — eating leaves and dead insects — like a sparrow and sings its own name. which also makes it hard for us to see The male has a dark gray back and them. We can hear it and its kin, though. head with rusty shoulder patches, a When it rubs its two forewings together, bright eyebrow and breast, and a black it makes a sound that resembles its v-shaped bib. The female is similar to I am a photo of clue #9. I was discovered when photographer Dave Harp picked name. the male, but paler and without the up a board at a former home near the Nanticoke River in Maryland. (Dave Harp) — Kathleen A. Gaskell Words for the Wise during research for other are called. It is derived an 4. This is the yellow which turns leaves fiery of the youngsters survives. Challenges over the years old French word meaning pigment in leaves. It is red. 9. This is when a plant but never made it into a nest. usually concealed by 7. This is a term for holds onto dead parts column. Match them with chlorophyll, which is “Anyone who stops 2. This is the term for when one animal steals that are usually shed. This their definitions. Answers when a plant or animal green. When trees stop food that has been killed, is often seen in oak and learning is old, whether are on page 34. making chlorophyll in at 20 or 80. Anyone intentionally sheds a gathered or stashed by beech trees when a few part of itself. Trees shed the autumn, the yellow is another. The bald eagle is branches hold onto their who keeps learning stays ABSCISSION visible. young. The greatest thing ANTHOCYANIN leaves. Plants shed seeds. known for doing this, and dead leaves until spring. Some lizards shed tails 5. This is the term to it was one of the reasons in life is to keep your CREPUSCULAR 10. This word is related to escape capture. Some describe animals that are that Ben Franklin opposed mind young.” EYASES to a bone found in the naming it our national KLEPTOPARISITE starfish shed an arm to active at dawn and dusk. — Henry Ford avoid overheating when bird. mouths of most verte- MARCESCENCE 6. This sugar-related brates. It also describes You’re never too old their environment is too pigment makes plants 8. This word refers SIBLICIDE warm. rows of pointed, paired to learn new words. And VOMERINE red, purple, blue or to the killing of a young teeth growing out of the if Ford is right, you’ll be XANTHOPHYLL 3. This is the first larval black. If there is the right animal (usually a bird) roof of a frog’s mouth that much younger when you ZOEAE stage of the blue crab. It combination of sunny by its fellow nestlings. It hold onto prey while the finish this quiz. Here’s a is free-swimming with a days and cool nights frequently occurs when frog swallows it whole. list of out-of-the-ordinary 1. This is what osprey spiny shell and early-stage in autumn, some trees food resources are scarce terms that popped up and other hawk nestlings legs. produce this pigment, and ensures that the fittest — Kathleen A. Gaskell Bay Journal • September 2019 29 Thank you for helping us report about the Chesapeake, its beauty Nancy Roisum Norman & Karen Meadow There’s no greater Salisbury, MD Cockeysville, MD sign of the Bay Journal’s Susan Able Rita Mhley success than the compli- Annapolis, MD Easton, MD ments and donations Bill Ackerman Janet Michael received from readers Clifton, VA Mystic, CT like you. Your gifts to Shelton Alley Ted & Denise Munns, Jr. the Bay Journal Fund Cape Charles, VA Irvington, VA continue to make our Mr. & Mrs. Leon E. App Sarah W. Pearre work possible, from cov- Sandston, VA Union Bridge, MD erage of the Bay restora- Richard & Susan Batiuk Delphine Peck tion and the health of its Annapolis, MD Easton, MD Doug Rogers rivers, to the impacts of In Memory of Joyce Flowers Locust Grove, VA climate change, toxics, from George Beston Bill Semenuk growth and invasive Greensboro, MD Annapolis, MD species on the region’s Franklin Birdsall William Smyth ecosystem. Our staff White Stone, VA Powhatan, VA works every day to bring Dick Brown John Vail you the best reporting on Lebanon, PA Worton, MD environmental issues in Thomas Burger Gregory L. Van Blargan the Bay region. We are Essex, MD Montgomery Village, MD grateful for your dona- Nick & Margaret Carter Supporter Greensboro, MD Robert & Lucia Bragan tions. Please continue to Bethesda, MD support our success! Brett Clifford Baltimore, MD Kathleen Baldwin Annapolis, MD Champion Kathy Cornell Bill Matuszeski & Mary Procter Nathalie, VA John D. Beck Washington, DC Tickseed sunflowers bloom in a Dorchester County, MD, marsh. (Dave Harp) Towson, MD Richard Cox Glenn D. McLean Winter Haven, FL Bernard & Josephine Bodt Great Falls, VA Churchville, MD In Memory Sylvester J. Bollinger John McGinniss David & Linda Davidson of Randy Webb York, PA Michael & Linda Bossert Booster Glen Burnie, MD King George, VA Souderton, PA Christopher F. Dungan from Randall Webb Melissa Talley & Chris Naughten Polly Heninger Trappe, MD Ann Arbor, MI Tom Straehle Baltimore, MD Joseph & Deborah Buppert Colesville, MD Westminster, MD Marriottsville, MD Shari Wilson Benefactor Robert Hirsch Washington, DC Richard I. Crawford William Johnson Washington, DC Mr. & Mrs. Eli Robert E. Cook Townsend, DE & Valerie C. Chase Drannon Buskirk, Jr. Arnold, MD Richard & Sue Hu Advocate Ken Domina Parkton, MD Harrisburg, PA Jeff Eberly Solomons, MD Janet Davis Edgewater, MD Kate Naughten & Samora Jczyk James & Mary Campbell Castleton, VA Lancaster, PA Annapolis, MD Walter & Marie Hussey Centreville, MD Harry & Jane Wells Paul A. Frick Bob Ensor Palmyra, VA Manchester, MD Edson Crafts III Irvington, VA Nottingham, NH Sponsor Roberton C. Williams Huntingdon, PA W. C. Dickinson Kathleen Long Joseph Francis Robert & Laurie Bokulic & Jane C. Hilder Wilmington, DE Columbia, MD Thomas DeKornfeld Alexandria, VA Takoma Park, MD Alexandria, VA Annapolis, MD William Eberhardt Richard Masland Michelle Frank Judy Wink Robert H. Jenks Ethel Dutky Northumberland, PA Weston, MA Lititz, PA Grasonville, MD Easton, MD Greenbelt, MD John F. Fox & M. Cedar Dvorin Ann & Eric Swanson Margaret R. Freeman Eric Ruark Susan Kidwell Robert A. Fenimore Alexandria, VA Annapolis, MD Richmond, VA Galesville, MD Chicago, IL Hockessin, DE Nancy & William Powell Frederic & Suzanne Berry Matt Krafft Mr. & Mrs. Harry J. Warthen Steve Kover Ruann Newcomer George Chestertown, MD Charlottesville, VA Bethesda, MD Manakin Sabot, VA Silver Spring, MD Boonsboro, MD Norman Hines, Sr. Kensington, MD I want to help the Bay Journal maintain and expand coverage  $15–$49 Friend Dee Hockman of issues related to the Chesapeake Bay and its watershed. Strasburg, VA Yes!  $50–$99 Supporter Harry Iredale Enclosed is my tax-deductible gift of $  $100–$149 Sponsor Fairfax Station, VA  David Jones My check made payable to “Bay Journal Fund” is enclosed. Reston, VA   $150–$249 Benefactor Charge my Visa/MasterCard/Discover/AMEX. Lloyd Lewis Card # _____ Expires: Security Code:  $250–$499 Advocate Edgewater, MD  Karin E. Limburg Name(s): $500–$999 Booster & Dennis P. Swaney  $1,000–$2,499 Champion Syracuse, NY Address: Larry Lubbers  $2,500–$4,999 Guarantor Annapolis, MD City, State, Zip Code: Margaret & Erney Maher  $5,000 & Up Philanthropist Chestertown, MD Is this a memorial? Write name here: John Merriner Beaufort, NC Is this in someone’s honor? Write name here: Steve Patten Annapolis, MD  From time to time, the Bay Journal may include a list of its supporters in the print edition. Please check here James & Elizabeth Pettibone if you would like your gift to remain anonymous and not be recognized in the Bay Journal. Flagler Beach, FL Please mail your donations to The Bay Journal Fund, P.O. Box 222, Jacobus, PA 17407-0222 Robert E. Pickett The Bay Journal Fund does not share the names of its donors or their addresses with other organizations. Reedville, VA Continued on page 30 30 Bay Journal • September 2019

ontinued from 29 Theodore Ringer, Jr. & William & Linda Colvin C Rebecca A. Ripley Dunkirk, MD Thomas & Sally Price Columbia, MD Wayne Davis Sperryville, VA William Short, Jr. Springfield, VA Ed Rhodes Wilmington, DE Joe & Kim Fehrer Richmond, VA Jim & Linda Smiley Cape Charles, VA Frank Sharpe Essex, MD John & Susan Ford Burtonsville, MD Karna Sparks Maryland, NY Ellen Smith Colonial Beach, VA Johnson Fortenbaugh Glenville, PA Anthony Stancato Chestertown, MD R. Jean Sonntag West Chester, PA Kathy & David Halle Lancaster, PA Darcel Stephan Pikesville, MD Fred Stockman Virginia Beach, VA Tim Harvey Milford, CT Frank Stewart Montgomery Village, MD Gerald Wiggen Quakertown, PA Mr. & Mrs. Marc Imlay Mechanicsville, MD Henry Stromberger Bryans Road, MD Barry Williams Middle River, MD Thomas H. Jeffries Pasadena, MD James Stultz Loganton, PA Glenn & Trish Guy Charlottesville, VA Mr. & Mrs. William Killen Leonardtown, MD Charles Sydnor Church Hill, TN Frances A. Borlie Heathsville, VA Thomas Klein Loretto, PA Sara Szczurko Pasadena, MD James J. Hearn Salisbury, MD John W. Koontz Severna Park, MD Sarah Taylor-Rogers Davidsonville, MD Frank Mastro Baltimore, MD Dudley Lindsley North Abington Township, PA Ronald Teller California, MD Ted & Doris McGwire Perry Hall, MD Derek McGuirk Cornwall, PA The Charitable Gift Fund Bel Air, MD Steve Williams Cincinnati, OH Kimberly A. McHugh Towson, MD Edwin & Anne Thomas Williamsburg, VA Doug & Sandra Clow Pasadena, MD S. Ridgely Morison Solomons, MD G. Tornell Delmar, MD Clarence Tignor Port Republic, MD John Munroe Silver Spring, MD David Trubey Baltimore, MD Peter M. Aigner Baltimore, MD William A. Prince Duncansville, PA David Trubey North Chesterfield, VA Richard Anderson Baltimore, MD Becky & Don Reed Baldwin, MD Tracey & George Waite Fredericksburg, VA Priscilla Arenas Bel Air, MD Paul Sanborn Kensington, MD Diana K. Weatherby Berwyn, PA Mr. & Mrs. James O. Armacost Silver Spring, MD Don & Elizabeth Snyder Baltimore, MD Andrew Wiest North East, MD William J. Baker Vienna, VA David Sorflaten Manassas, VA Sassafras Riverkeeper Zack Kelleher removes invasive water chestnut plants from Rock Hall, MD Gilchrest Cove, a tidal pond adjacent to the river. (Dave Harp) Maureen Wilkerson Paul & Susan Battistoni Bethesda, MD Mike Topper Pocomoke City, MD Terry Winter Manchester, PA John Beach Timothy P. Dillingham Kevin Heanue Judith H. McAloon Baltimore, MD Hopewell, NJ Alexandria, VA Springfield, VA L. T. & Dottie Truslow Chesapeake Beach, MD J. Wright Witcher Hague, VA Linda Beck Julie Dunlap Robert & Marjorie Hobbs Lee Miller & Leslie Erickson Columbia, MD Hagerstown, MD Woodbine, MD Bob & Susie Woods Port Penn, DE Jarrettsville, MD Havre de Grace, MD David Berzellini Teresa Dutton Diane Hoffman Ronald & Catherine Miller Kyle Woodley Baltimore, MD Annandale, VA Jacobus, PA Eugene Albrycht Baltimore, MD Gaithersburg, MD Englewood, FL Kimberly Biedrzycki William & Sara Edinger John & Padi Hollowell William Miller Lawrence C. Zacharias Baltimore, MD Port Republic, MD Cochranville, PA Hank Arthor Catonsville, MD Richmond, VA Nottingham, MD Stephen Blakely Lyle & Dorothy Feisel Joseph Homburger David Moulsby Martin Zahn Chestertown, MD Cooperstown, NY Baltimore, MD Michael Gardner Arlington, VA Williamsburg, VA Harrisonburg, VA In Memory Katherine Garbacik Tom Horton Jim & Anni Naylor Sally Zaino Berwick, PA Salisbury, MD Westminster, MD Carolyn Gleason of Justin Lee Howard Hummelstown, PA Washington, DC from Mike Brindock Joseph Gillis Joseph Humerik Nickolas Otte Ruther Glen, VA North East, MD Dumfries, VA Essex, MD Mitch Graham Friend Baltimore, MD Jack & Audrey Buck Martin Gleason David Hutton Joyce G. Ponsell Charles Howes North East, MD Grasonville, MD Catonsville, MD Frederick, MD Dunkirk, MD Bill Hughes Lewes, DE Anne Burch Marcy Goldberg Douglas Irvin Potapskut Sailing Association Ivor Knight Richmond, VA Reading, PA Easton, MD Pasadena, MD Hagerstown, MD Bill Kerns Hagerstown, MD Judith Burns Ken Goldsmith Stephen Jackson Roseanne Price Steve Lay Salisbury, MD Williamsburg, VA Red Lion, PA Silver Spring, MD Havre De Grace, MD Anthony Lame Wynnewood, PA Linda & Chuck Carlisle Robert Greenfield Barbara & Peter Kauneckas Ruth R. Rich Brian MacElroy Denver, CO Annapolis, MD Kilmarnock, VA Pylesville, MD Pottstown, PA Robin Lane Townsend, DE Tom & Vickie Carter Guy Griffin Ronald J. Klauda James E. Rogers Donald & Cynthia Piercy Newark, DE Princess Anne, MD Prince Frederick, MD Richmond, VA Yorktown, VA Joyce & David LeGrande Moseley, VA Clay Coupland Dwayne Haines & Edie Holton Orrin Kline James & Christine Ryan Eric Wissel Norfolk, VA Gaithersburg, MD Manassas, VA Nottingham, PA Ellicott City, MD Mr. & Mrs. Wallace Lippincott, Jr. Baltimore, MD Timothy Cunningham Peter & Susan Hale Charlie Knoeller Fred C. Saylor Philip Barber Towson, MD Stevensville, MD Montross, VA Waldorf, MD McLean, VA Paul Mitchell Midlothian, VA Leslie Delagran Barbara Hale Margaret L’Hommedieu Raymond & Virginia Scher Jack & Audrey Buck Washington, DC Cambridge, MD Deale, MD Ruther Glen, VA North East, MD Patrick F. Morris & Carola G. Honodel Frank Diller Catherine Harold Edward Lumsden George H. Schmidt Glenn Carlson Upper Marlboro, MD Baltimore, MD Richmond, VA Sykesville, MD Chesapeake Beach, MD Silver Spring, MD Paul W. Dillingham, Jr. Stephan Harper Robert & Marilyn Mason Marietta M. Schreiber Carol Casperson Rock Hall, MD Rockville, MD Easton, MD Annapolis, MD Washington, DC Continued on page 31 Bay Journal • September 2019 31

ontinued from 30 James H. Culp Craig & Susan Grube C Chestertown, MD Virginia Beach, VA Glenn Morrson Betty DeColigny David S. Gussman Quarryville, PA Hanover, PA Toano, VA Kent Murray William & Patricia DenHerder Jerry Guterl Vienna, VA Bivalve, MD Annapolis, MD John Pjura Catherine Devito Janet Hammed Towson, MD Glen Burnie, MD Bozman, MD Peter Powell Stewart Doetzer Mike Hart Pasadena, MD Goochland, VA Cologne, VA William Pratt Deloris Donnelly Ebbe Hassl Virginia Beach, VA Fort Myers, FL Manassas, VA Edward Ruskowsky David Dressel Jay Heefner Hollywood, MD Keedysville, MD Waynesboro, PA John Sheridan Robert Dunn In Memory Lexington, VA Columbia, MD of Joan Roy Dyson from Gene Hicks Phil & Anne Townsend Bel Air, MD Virginia Beach, VA Great Mills, MD Susan B. Eley Viktoria Hochschwender In Memory Tyaskin, MD of Andy Gene Anderson Mathews, VA from Jo Anne Anderson David B. Ellenberg David Hoff Chester, VA Lancaster, PA Chestertown, MD Wellis Balliet Barbara Ellis Phil Holzinger Nescopeck, PA Virginia Beach, VA Lancaster, PA Joseph Baranowski Byron Firestone Barry Hornberger Dundalk, MD Mechanicsburg, PA Wyomissing, PA Bowers Publishing Wayne & Cheryl Fisher Spencer Hunt Street, MD A showy lotus blossoms on Turner’s Creek, a tributary of the Sassafras River near Milton, DE Owego, NY John Buchleitner Kennedyville, MD. (Dave Harp) Art Fletcher Peter Inskip Severna Park, MD Georgetown, DE Rockville, MD Janet & Harold Butler Colby Rucker Philip Anderson Caroline Cardullo Charlene & George Flick Jack Janos North East, MD Arnold, MD Church Creek, MD Rockville, MD Blacksburg, VA Phoenix, MD Juanita Culver Brian & Laurel Sadler Bill Arnold Mr. & Mrs. John M. Carlock Terri Foss Ashley Jeffress Salisbury, MD Laurel, MD Lancaster, VA Virginia Beach, VA Norfolk, VA Bethesda, MD Tom & Nancy Dorman Andrew Scheld Muhammad Ashraf Frank Carollo Helen Foster Nizer John Berlin, MD Williamsburg, VA Silver Spring, MD Saint Michaels, MD Saint Paul, MN Centreville, MD Diane Dunlap Donald Sexton John Ausema Ron & Sheila Cassidy Wayne E. Frey Kari Johnson Ellicott City, MD Springfield, VA Greenbelt, MD Jarrettsville, MD Lititz, PA Los Angeles, CA Lew Gross Thomas & Janet Slaby Zaven Ayanian Arnold Ching Donald & Roberta Gallagher Kenneth Johnston Owings Mills, MD Beltsville, MD Rockville, MD Mechanicsville, MD Lititz, PA Chesapeake Beach, MD Terry Haydon Linda Starling Alice Baker Kathleen Chow Bill Garren Karen A. Jones Lancaster, VA Cambridge, MD Catonsville, MD Owings, MD Greenbelt, MD Baltimore, MD Elaine Hendricks William Story Gene Baldwin Tom Clark Larry Garrett Barbara Jones Greenbelt, MD Hudgins, VA Pasadena, MD Tappahannock, VA Midlothian, VA Exton, PA Joan Jones Leon L. Thompson Bruce Blanchard & Mary Josie Lynda Clary Robert Geisler C. G. Keesee, Jr. Baltimore, MD Wilmington, DE Washington, DC Tangier, VA Woolford, MD Glen Allen, VA Richard C. Karney John G. Tracey Cindy Blankenship Mr. & Mrs. William P. Cleveland Robert Gerhard Robert F. Kies Vineyard Haven, MA Gettysburg, PA Virginia Beach, VA Alexandria, VA Glenside, PA Virginia Beach, VA James Klapka Dean & Peggy Troyer Mary Blayney Bill Cole William M. Giese, Jr. David Kirby Baltimore, MD Norfolk, VA Port Republic, MD Fredericksburg, VA Cambridge, MD Montross, VA Dave Klapka Mr. & Mrs. Lee Weaver George & Peggy Bogdan Troy Cowan James B. Godwin John P. Kirby Baltimore, MD East Springfield, PA Baltimore, MD Lexington Park, MD Reedville, VA Parkville, MD Blaine Leidy Nancy Zearfoss Warren Lee Brown Joseph M. Crabtree Howard Gordon Jerome Klasmeier Glen Arm, MD Bushwood, MD Annapolis, MD Fredericksburg, VA Bowie, MD Crownsville, MD John Myers Linda Adler & Steven Fischer Marilyn Brown Robert & Mary Crafton John Grauer Bernard & Mary Jo Kobosko Baltimore, MD North Bethesda, MD Pensacola, FL Grasonville, MD Middle River, MD Reisterstown, MD Fred Neighoff M. Stephen Ailstock Paul Brown Ellen Crenson Joseph Griffith James Kopf Ellicott City, MD Arnold, MD Pittsburgh, PA White Hall, MD Joppa, MD Lancaster, PA LeMaine Payne Ann Allen Clyde Bruce Claudia Crusan Jerry Griswold Andy & Jackie Korosec Chesapeake Beach, MD Hagerstown, MD Dublin, VA Baltimore, MD Madison, WI Blairstown, NJ Harold Robinson Dennis Allison Sandra Canepa Cathy Crymes William Grove Donald Kress Cambridge, MD Hampton, VA Hampton, VA Ithaca, NY Fawn Grove, PA Frederick, MD Thank You To These Philanthropic Donors The Curtis and Edith Munson Foundation 32 Bay Journal • September 2019

Commentary • Letters • Perspectives Promiseorum to protect fully Rappahannock site still a cliffhanger By JoeF McCauley I first saw Fones Cliffs in spring 1997. I was in the company of the renowned author and naturalist John Page Williams, and I was there to help celebrate the establishment of the Rappahannock River Valley National Wildlife Refuge. The Fones Cliffs formation stretches along 4 miles of the river’s shore, reaching heights of more than 100 feet. In the late afternoon sun, the cliff face sparkles from diatomaceous Former earth (fossilized remains of marine refuge phytoplankton) deposited millions of manager years ago. Joe That day a seed was planted in me, McCauley somewhere in my heart, my soul — or with maybe my left pinkie — I’m not sure. Heather But it stayed with me, somewhat Richards dormant, until June 2000, when my of the dream of becoming the manager of Conserva- this new refuge on the Rappahannock tion Fund River became a reality. look out At that point, the conservation from of Fones Cliffs grew into a personal Fones commitment. The cliffs were then — Cliffs in and are today — ranked among the May 2019. highest priorities for land conservation (Dave in the refuge’s Land Protection Plan, Harp) confirming my marching orders. Back then, I was only aware of members as friends and co-warriors in Fellow for the Conservancy, and taking views, to relish the sights and the wildlife values of the cliffs: the the fight to conserve Fones Cliffs. to my delight, they have made the sounds of bald eagles, and to reflect spectacular concentration of bald During my 10 years as refuge man- conservation of Fones Cliffs the on the environmental changes in the eagles, the nesting and migrating ager (2000–2010) and then as the U.S. centerpiece of their land conservation past 400-plus years while standing in a songbirds — many of conservation Fish and Wildlife Service’s Regional work in the Chesapeake Bay place that has changed little. concern and therefore a priority — and Realty Officer (2010–2015), I tried, watershed. So is that it? Am I done? Have I the rafts of waterfowl that find optimal really tried, to put the pieces together to Along with dozens of government fulfilled my promise? Short answer: habitat in the river and protected acquire any and all of the three major and nonprofit partners, and with no. Sadly, the adjoining property of marshes across from Fones Cliffs. tracts that make up the cliffs. The tremendous bipartisan political support, 968 acres has also been rezoned and Those values, and my commitment USFWS and its nonprofit partners — the Conservancy helped spearhead is the proposed site for an 18-hole golf to protect them, were significantly The Nature Conservancy, The Trust the Rivers of the Chesapeake Land course, more than 700 housing units, augmented with the establishment of for Public Land and The Conserva- and Water Conservation Fund Col- a lodge, a restaurant and more. As the Captain John Smith Chesapeake tion Fund — met with landowners, laborative Landscape proposals that I write, the company has been cited National Historic Trail by the National conducted several appraisals and made delivered more than $30 million to the by the Virginia Attorney General for Park Service. During the planning stages offers to purchase land. Chesapeake Bay region from 2015–18, environmental violations. While it is of the trail, I became aware of the people We came tantalizingly close but including $3.6 million to Rappahannock too early to know for certain what that who share their name with this remark- ultimately fell flat, mostly because of River Valley Refuge and more than $6 means for the proposed development, able river, the Rappahannock Tribe. a period of market volatility during million to the Chesapeake Trail. it is certain that continued vigilance is As I did more research, I found that which the appraisals were not in sync Finally, in 2019, The Conservation required. the tribe not only inhabited most of the with rapidly escalating land values and Fund had a breakthrough with one Fortunately, the Chesapeake land within the refuge boundary at the lack of appropriations from the federal of the landowners. They purchased a Conservancy, USFWS and the many time of Smith’s explorations but had Land and Water Conservation Fund. 252-acre property in the heart of the individuals and organizations who a noteworthy encounter with Smith When I retired in 2015, I stated Fones Cliffs formation that had been have persistently waged the campaign and his men right below the cliffs in publicly that I would not rest until Fones rezoned in 2015 and slated for a 47-unit to save Fones Cliffs remain as August 1608. Cliffs was protected. That was perhaps housing development. In May 2019, committed as I. To all the partners, I I was fascinated, not only to learn a bold statement from an aging wildlife the USFWS purchased the property say “thank you” for helping me keep about the history of the places I was biologist and refuge manager. from The Conservation Fund, adding my promise. managing, but to realize that the tribe Fortunately, the Chesapeake it to the refuge, and relegating that Joe McCauley is retired from the persists despite a concerted attempt Conservancy came into my life and particular housing development to a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and to legislate them out of existence by provided a means to uphold my fast-fading memory. is currently a Chesapeake Fellow Virginia’s Racial Integrity Act of promise. Since retirement, I have had The refuge is already making plans with the nonprofit Chesapeake 1924. Today, I gratefully count tribal the privilege to serve as Chesapeake to invite visitors to witness the breath- Conservancy. Bay Journal • September 2019 33

Commentary • Letters • Perspectives Chesapeakeorum continues to be a classroom for its retired iconic educator ByF Tom Horton mussels all summer. Our next stop, It was the best day I would spend Aisquith Creek, is a in a “classroom,” drifting through straight-up success the summer wetlands of the Patuxent story — where a River as the “professor” stood tall sanctuary oyster reef in his canoe, informing his floating built on concrete gaggle of schoolchildren about plank- rubble now sports ton, fish and the food web; of birds masses of bivalves, that had flown across the continent some to 6 inches. to harvest the swelling crops of seed And what looks from the tidal marsh; and the joy and like a pollution wonder of how it all fit into the greater slick in the shallows Chesapeake ecosystem. between the reef and That was some 40 years ago, and the shore turns out John Page Williams was already the to be underwater iconic educator for the Chesapeake meadows of native Bay Foundation. The methods he per- Bay grasses so fected in those old aluminum canoes thick they calm the are still emulated throughout the Bay choppy waters above region and beyond. them to a smooth “He was hands-on — on the water, sheen. Redhead in the water, in small boats,” recalled grass, wigeon grass, Don Baugh, who would later lead pondweed — we the foundation’s outdoor programs. counted five species. “All that became a standard that was “In my 46 years, replicated around the Bay and eventu- John Page Williams shows off the abundance of aquatic grasses in Maryland’s Severn River. (Dave Harp) the river’s come a ally incorporated in national programs, long way back,” like NOAA’s Meaningful Watershed destination in mind, and a quick trip John Page said. “The late 1970s and Educational Experiences.” was not our intention.” early 1980s were not a happy time. We That day on the Patuxent, John Page He also advised readers to “pick one couldn’t catch fish anywhere below a was also training a young educator not area and spend some time exploring few feet. The grasses were gone.” long out of college, Cindy Dunn. “He it.” And he has done just that for 46 The Severn is all but entirely hemmed taught me [that] ‘being a girl’ was no years now, progging about this roughly in by suburbs, so septic tanks and excuse for not loading 75-pound canoes 5-mile stretch of the Severn near his stormwater runoff make water quality onto the trailer,” said Dunn, who is now home. No fish or great blue heron is improvements an uphill battle. But in Pennsylvania’s Secretary of Conserva- more intimate here. recent decades, he said, better runoff tion and Natural Resources and is still We cruised over catfish on the controls and development restrictions, paddling her native Susquehanna. depth finder, which soon showed a mostly under Maryland’s Critical Area When I heard John Page would be little “lump” that John Page discovered Act of 1984, are boosting a comeback. retiring, I suggested an interview at his years ago, a slight rise in the bottom “Within a hundred yards I can show office at the Bay Foundation’s head- Chesapeake Born 25 feet down. On a hunch, he got the you things out here that make you quarters. Silly thought. Bay Foundation to partner with other smile and clap your hands, also things “Meet me at the boat ramp,” he said. just north of the U.S. 50 bridge. John groups to place concrete “reef balls” that make you cry,” he said. “And that It’s been nearly half a century since Page was towing the same 17-foot on the lump — which was always is the story. The Clean Water Blueprint the young Princeton graduate from Whaler he’s used since 1993 to explore plagued by low-oxygen water in the [for restoring the Chesapeake] is work- Virginia got a $10 membership in virtually every river and creek of the summer but can yield big, 13– to ing, but we’ve got systemic problems the foundation for a birthday present. Chesapeake. 14-inch white perch when fall tempera- and a long way to go.” Environmental education wasn’t the He loaded aboard rods and reels, tures bring better water quality. A thunderstorm chased us off the first direction he’d considered back nets, oxygen meters and more, tools to He knew another deep spot where river before we could cast a line. But as then. He did a couple years in a semi- see the Severn through many lenses, sunken railroad timbers down by the U.S. the Bay’s master educator once wrote: nary after college. “But I just couldn’t in search of everything from white Naval Academy create enough turbulence “Our excuse to the world was that stay off the water,” he said. perch to dead zones. Half an hour as the tide moves in and out to oxygenate we were fishing, but we were looking By 1973, he’d been hired as the later the boat was still on the ramp as the bottom — at nearly three times the [at] tides, temperature, salinity, birds, foundation’s first environmental educa- its captain prowled the shoreline for level found on the upper lump. plankton … plugging ourselves into tor. The nonprofit organization, begun grass shrimp, poking at the gravelly The reef balls might do the same, the system, ready to be grateful for in 1967, had only a couple of thousand bottom and marshy fringes, all along he thought. For good measure they whatever it had to offer us.” members then (compared with more commenting on the state of the river were “set” with oyster spat. It’s been Amen. than 200,000 now) and didn’t own a (underwater grasses good, pickerel a mixed success, he told me. There’s Tom Horton has written about the vehicle, so John Page hauled its eight terrible, oysters — it depends). still too little oxygen, and the oysters Chesapeake Bay for more than 40 canoes in his own pickup, reimbursed I expected no less from a man failed to get a foothold. “[But] we’ve got years, including eight books. He lives at 10 cents a mile. who opened his lovely 1993 book, live bottom,” he said, always quick to in Salisbury, MD, where he is also a On a sultry morning this summer, Exploring the Chesapeake in Small accentuate the positive. The lump, he professor of environmental studies at we met at a creek of the Severn River Boats, with this: “[W]e did not have a said, now has worms and two species of Salisbury University. 34 Bay Journal • September 2019 orum Commentary • Letters • Perspectives DelmarvaF Oasis protects what we see, what we may yet see By Rob Etgen While in the stream looking for the mussels during a tour of the property I spent my childhood in and around last spring, I noticed some small rib- the Bay wading in our creek to catch bonlike creatures displaying obvious soft crabs, trying to dip net yellow spawning behavior: raking the gravel, perch on their spring run, catching a making egg deposits and milking. At mess of perch on peelers and paper- first, I had thought they were eels but shells, and lazing around summer then recalled that the eel native to this afternoons while swimming or floating area spawns in the Sargasso Sea in the down the river. I thought there was South Atlantic Ocean. nothing in the Chesapeake Bay that I These shoelace-like creatures had not seen, sought, munched or been were brook lampreys — a native of scraped by — until this year. the Bay that has a mildly parasitic In late August, the Eastern Shore relationship with rockfish and other Land Conservancy purchased a large semi-anadromous fish, as well as a tract (1,172-acres) in Queen Anne’s potentially symbiotic relationship with County, MD, with more than 700 dwarf wedge mussels. acres of prime farmland and beautiful My experience highlights the rambling forests. enormity of what we don’t know about Protecting this farm had been a the Bay or the lands and waters right priority for the conservancy for more here in our backyards on the Delmarva than two decades, mostly because it was Peninsula. one of the largest remaining unpro- E. O. Wilson, the planet’s preemi- tected farms on the Eastern Shore. It is nent ecologist, in his most urgent book also a large part of the headwaters of to date, Half-Earth: Our Planet’s Fight Southeast Creek and precisely in a band for Life, calls for everyone to work of habitat uniquely suited for federally together to save 50% of the planet’s endangered dwarf wedge mussels. Over lands and waters as the necessary the last 10 years, the conservancy has infrastructure for life. Wilson figures been protecting land and encouraging that protecting 50% of the planet is buffers and soil conservation on the equal to protecting 85% of its species farms along these headwater streams to — including ourselves. protect the mussels. Much of the concern lies not with the species we see going extinct, but with the immensity of species that are yet undiscovered. In 2015, the number Chesapeake Challenge of known species surpassed 2 million, Answers to yet some scientists estimate that more Words for the Wise than 100 million species exist today. on page 28. After more than 30 years of prog- Southeast Creek flows through a wooded wetland on a farm in Queen Anne’s County, MD, ress cleaning up the Bay and saving that has recently been protected by the Eastern Shore Land Conservancy. (Dave Harp) 1. Eyases 2. Abscission our lands and waters on the Eastern 3. Zoeae 4. Xanthophyll Shore, the Eastern Shore Land Con- combined with an expected retreat in The conservancy’s new Delmarva 5. Crepuscular 6. Anthocyanin servancy has made incredible strides federal support for conservation while Oasis initiative, with its goal to protect 7. Kleptoparisite 8. Siblicide forward. our climate changes at an accelerating 50% of the entire Delmarva Peninsula, 9. Marcescence 10. Vomerine But with a new Bay Bridge and pace, we must do more and we must is a critical next step for conservation. other road-building on the horizon, act quickly. Saving 50% of this portion of the Delmarva means saving not only 85% Bay Buddies of its species — known and unknown — but also its food-producing fertile Answers to Let Us Know soils, beautiful landscapes, small Name Game The Bay Journal welcomes letters pertaining to Chesapeake Bay towns and our high quality of life. on page 28. issues. Letters should be no more than 400 words. Send letters to: Editor, Saving land for the future is the Bay Journal, 619 Oakwood Drive, Seven Valleys, PA 17360-9395. most enduring gift we can give to our 1. Hairy Beardtongue 2. Dickcis- E-mail letters to: [email protected] children. As Joni Mitchell reminds us sel 3. Polliwog 4. Hobomok 5. Letter writers should include a phone number where they can be in Big Yellow Taxi: “…don’t it always Mummichog 6. Whistlepig 7. reached. Longer commentaries should be arranged in advance with the seem to go that you don’t know what editor. Call: 717-428-2819. you’ve got ’til it’s gone. They paved Fuzzy Foot 8. Pawpaw 9. Skink Views expressed are those of the writers and do not necessarily reflect paradise and put up a parking lot.” 10. Megalops 11. Katydid those of the Bay Journal or Bay Journal Media. Rob Etgen is president of the Eastern Shore Land Conservancy. Bay Journal • September 2019 35

parking lot. Registration not required. Info: [email protected], 301-283-0808, Info: [email protected]. (301-442-5657 day of event). Carpoolers ≈ Trail Guide Training: 10 a.m.–1 p.m. WorkdayMake sure that when Wisdom you participate meet at the Sierra Club MD Chapter Sept. 11 (Marshy Point Nature Center); in cleanup or invasive plant removal office at 9 a.m. and return at 5 p.m. Sept. 12 (Cromwell Valley Park) & workdays to protect the Chesapeake Carpool contact: 301-277-7111. Sept. 13 (Hampton National Historic Bay watershed and its resources that you also protect yourself. Organizers Site). Adults. Learn how to help with of almost every workday strongly urge Thomas Point Shoal Lighthouse programs, special events as well as the their volunteers to wear long pants, The National Historic Landmark, Volunteer Opportunities ecology of Cromwell Valley and Marshy long-sleeved shirts, socks and closed- Thomas Point Shoal Lighthouse, Point. New subjects, techniques taught toe shoes (hiking or waterproof). This restored by the U.S. Lighthouse Howard County Conservancy each day. Snacks, coffee provided 9/11 helps to minimize skin exposure to Society, which operates tours in The Howard County Conservancy & 9/12. Bring a lunch, drinks 9/13 for poison ivy and ticks, which might be partnership with the Annapolis needs leaders for elementary and carpool trip to Hampton NHS. New found at the site. Light-colored clothing Maritime Museum, needs volunteers. secondary school hikes. No experience guides pay a $5 tuition fee. also makes it easier to spot ticks. Hats Info: [email protected]. is necessary. Volunteers choose which ≈ Drop-in Gardening: 9 a.m.–12 p.m. are strongly recommended. Although hikes they would like to do. There is no Sept. 14 & 28. Individuals/families, ages some events provide work gloves, not all do; ask when registering. Events near Magruder Woods minimum or maximum requirement. 13+ Gloves, tools, water. Bring a hat, water require closed-toe shoes and Help Friends of Magruder Woods Volunteers are also needed for various sunscreen. No registration. clothing that can get wet or muddy. 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. the third Saturday in events. Info: Carole at 410-465-8877, ≈ Citizen Science / Hawk Watch Always bring water, sunscreen and an September, October and November [email protected]. Weekend: 9 a.m. Sept. 14 & 15. Willow insect repellent designed to repel both remove invasive plants in the forested Grove Hawk Watch Site. All ages. Help deer ticks and mosquitoes help. swamp in Hyattsville, MD. Meet at the Bear Creek stream cleanup count broad-winged hawks migrating Lastly, most organizers ask that farthest end of the parking lot. Info: The organization, Clean Bread and through the valley. No registration. volunteers register ahead of time. 301-283-0808, Marc.Imlay@pgparks. Cheese Creek, needs volunteers of all Knowing how many people are going com, (301-442-5657 the day of event); ages and abilities to help remove trash to show up ensures that they will have or Colleen Aistis at 301-985-5057. MD Volunteer Angler Survey enough tools and supervisors. They can and log jams from the mouth of Bear Anglers of all ages can become also give directions to the site or offer Creek 9 a.m.–2 p.m. Sept. 28. Meet at citizen scientists by helping the Maryland any suggestions for apparel or gear not Become a VA Master Naturalist Bear Creek Park in Dundalk, MD. Trash Department of Natural Resources collect mentioned here. Virginia Master Naturalists are a bags, gloves, snacks, water, and lunch scientific data through the Volunteer corps of volunteers that help manage will be provided. A limited number of Angler Survey. Anglers record information and protect natural areas through plant tools are available for loan; participants from their catch such as species, participating in fundraising events and animal surveys, stream monitoring, are asked to bring their own if possible. location and size directly to the survey and behind-the-scenes operations, trail rehabilitation and teaching in Registration opens at 8 a.m. Service on their smartphone. Biologists use this website development, writing for nature centers. Basic training covers learning and community service hours data to develop, plan and implement newsletters and events, developing ecology, geology, soils, native flora and are available for students. Info: 410-285- management strategies. The artificial reef photo archives and supporting office fauna, and habitat management. Info: 1202, [email protected]. initiative, blue crab, freshwater fisheries, staff. Volunteers donating more than virginiamasternaturalist.org. muskie, shad and striped bass programs 100 hours of service per year receive Anita Leight Estuary Center have upgraded to mobile-friendly a complimentary one-year family Adopt-a-Stream program Anita C. Leight Estuary Center in methods. Participants are eligible to win membership to CBEC. The Prince William Soil & Water Abingdon, MD, needs volunteers, ages quarterly prizes. Info: dnr.maryland.gov/ Info: volunteercoordinator@ Conservation District in Manassas, VA, 14 & older, for its Invasinators Workday Fisheries/Pages/survey/index.aspx. bayrestoration.org. wants to ensure that stream cleanup 2–4 p.m. Sept. 29, weather permitting. volunteers have all of the support and Participants will remove invasive Severn River Association CBL Visitor Center supplies they need for trash removal species and install native plants around The Severn River Association in Volunteers, ages 16 & older, are projects. Participating groups receive the center. Wear sturdy shoes, long Annapolis needs volunteers to join a needed at the Chesapeake Biological an Adopt-A-Stream sign in recognition sleeves and work gloves. Registration is team of citizen scientists monitoring Laboratory’s Visitor Center on Solomons of their efforts. For info, to adopt a required: 410-612-1688, 410-879-2000 water quality on the Severn and Island, MD. Volunteers must commit to stream or get a proposed site, visit x1688, otterpointcreek.org. its creeks. Weekly tours take place a minimum of two, 3– to 4-hour shifts [email protected]. Groups can Wednesday and Thursday mornings and each month in the spring, summer and register their events at trashnetwork. Irvine weed warriors last roughly four hours. The season goes fall. Training sessions are required. Info: fergusonfoundation.org. Irvine Nature Center in Owings Mills, to October. Volunteers can sign up for as [email protected]. MD, needs Weekend Weed Warriors, many tours as they’d like. Info: American Chestnut Land Trust ages 14 & older, 11 a.m.–4 p.m. Sept. 21 [email protected], 443-569-3556, Little Paint Branch Park The American Chestnut Land to remove invasive oriental bittersweet [email protected] Help the Maryland-National Capital Trust in Prince Frederick, MD, needs and multiflora rose near the Woodland Park and Planning Commission remove volunteers for invasive plant removal Garden and Native American sites. Volunteer at CBEC invasive species 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. the workdays 9–11 a.m. Thursdays and 10 Training and tools are provided. Wear The Chesapeake Bay Environmental last Saturday in September, October and a.m. to 12 p.m. Wednesdays. All ages sturdy shoes that can get wet/muddy; Center in Grasonville, MD, has November at Little Paint Branch Park in (16 & younger w/adult) are welcome. bring water and a non-refrigerated volunteer openings for those who Beltsville. Learn about native plants. Sign Training, tools and water are provided. snacks/lunch. Info: Ben Fertig: only want to drop in a few times in for a safety orientation. Gloves and Registration is required. Info: 410-414- [email protected]. a month to assist with a project or tools are provided. Info: 301-442-5657, 3400, [email protected], event, or help out on a more regular [email protected]. acltweb.org. Cromwell Valley Park basis. Openings include: helping Volunteer opportunities at Cromwell with educational programs; guiding Ruth Swann Park Creek Critters app Valley Park in Parkville, MD, include: kayak trips or hikes; staffing the front Help the Maryland Native Plant Audubon Naturalist’s Creek Critters ≈ Habitat Restoration Team / Weed desk; maintaining trails, landscapes Society, Sierra Club and Chapman app lets people check their local streams’ Warrior Days: 2–4 p.m. Sept. 28; Oct. and the Pollinator Garden; feeding Forest Foundation 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. the health through finding and identifying 12 & 26; and Nov. 2 & 23. All ages or handling captive birds of prey; second Saturday in September, October small organisms that live in freshwater, (12 & younger w/adult). Help remove maintaining birds’ living quarters; and and November remove invasive plants then generating health reports based invasive species, install native ones participating in CBEC’s team of wood at Ruth Swann Park in Bryans Road. on what they find. The free app can and maintain habitat. Service hours are duck box monitors or other wildlife Meet at Ruth Swann Park-Potomac available. Meet at Sherwood House initiatives. Other opportunities include Branch Library parking lot. Bring lunch. Bulletin continues on page 36 36 Bay Journal • September 2019

Finance Center, the course offers local leaders ways to integrate green infrastructure into community capital New Submission Guidelines projects such as road construction The Bay Journal regrets it is not must be sent either as a Word or and school and park improvements. always able to print every notice it Pages document, or as simple text Interactive lessons, videos and receives because of space limitations. in the body of an e-mail. PDFs, Priority is given to events or programs newsletters or other formats may be knowledge checks in a user-friendly that most closely relate to the considered if there is space and if format provide communities with tools preservation and appreciation of the information can be easily extracted. Bulletin from page 35 to better communicate about, build and Bay, its watershed and resources. ≈ Programs must contain all of enhance local stormwater programs. Guidelines: the following information: a phone be downloaded from the App Store Info: mostcenter.org. ≈ Send notices to number (include the area code) or and Google Play. Info: anshome.org/ [email protected]. Items sent e-mail address of a contact person; creek-critters. To learn about partnerships Learn if your yard is Bay-Wise to other addresses are not always the title, time (online calendar or host a Creek Critters event: Master Gardeners in Prince George’s forwarded before the deadline. requires an end time as well as a [email protected]. County (MD) takes part in Bay-Wise, a ≈ Bulletin Board contains events start time), date and place of the program that offers free consultations on that take place (or have registration event or program. Submissions must deadlines) on or after the 11th of the state if the program is free, requires Irvine Nature Center sound environmental practices to county month in which the item is published a fee, has age requirements, has a The Nature Center in Owings Mills, residents to help certify their landscapes through the 11th of the next month. registration deadline or welcomes MD, needs volunteers, ages 14 & older, as Bay-Wise. They look for healthy Deadlines run at least two months in drop-ins. for its Weekend Weed Warriors Workday lawn maintenance, efficient watering advance. See below. ≈ October issue: September 11 11 a.m.–4 p.m. Sept. 21. Help remove and pest control, and native trees and ≈ Submissions to Bulletin Board ≈ November issue: October 11 oriental bittersweet and multiflora rose. plants that provide shelter and habitat for Training and tools are provided. Wear wildlife as well as suggest approaches sturdy shoes that can get wet/muddy; to reduce pollution. Bay-Wise signs are Branch Library in Harford County. The of trees. More than 70 vendors will bring water, nonrefrigerated snacks/ given to homeowners who demonstrate goal is to foster the next generation offer healthy, local and sustainable lunch. Meet at the main entrance. these practices. Homeowners can of anglers by cultivating a passion for products and services. Throughout Registration required: 443-738-9230, also evaluate their property online outdoor recreation and nature. The the year, the group will emphasize the [email protected]. using the MD Yardstick, which tallies libraries, which are close to public fishing role of trees in the environment. Info: their pollution-reducing gardening and areas, have partnered with local fishing lynnhavenrivernow.org, facebook.com/ Marine mammals, sea turtles landscaping practices. To have a yard clubs to ensure inventory levels and LynnhavenRiverNOW. The Maryland Department of certified, though, homeowners need maintenance of the equipment. Natural Resources asks anyone who to have the Master Gardeners visit and Horn Point Lab Open House has seen a marine mammal or sea turtle evaluate their landscape. Info: Esther Baltimore Biodiversity Toolkit The University of Maryland Center in Maryland waters to report it to the Mitchell: [email protected], or visit There is a well-known need for for Estuarine Studies Horn Point state Marine Mammal and Sea Turtle extension.umd.edu/baywise/program- high-quality and accessible green Laboratory in Cambridge, MD, invites Stranding program at 1-800-628-9944. certification. Click on “download the space in Baltimore, not only for native the public to its open house 11 a.m.–4 Anyone who finds a stranded marine yardstick” to evaluate a landscape and/or plants and animals, but for residents as p.m. Oct. 12. Learn about cutting-edge mammal, alive or dead, should follow vegetable garden. well. The Baltimore Biodiversity Toolkit research by its faculty and graduate these steps: Do not touch the animal; helps communities accomplish this by students through exhibits, presentations record the location using latitude/ Turf / lawn programs identifying ambassador animals that and hands-on activities. Board the longitude, street address, and/or For information on the Prince William represent habitat types within, and research vessel Rachel Carson to description with landmarks; estimate (VA) Soil & Water Conservation District’s historic to, this area; sharing resources explore aquaculture and the boat basin. and record the length, size, color, 12 Steps to a Greener Lawn / Building for supporting specific wildlife needs; Visit the East Coast’s largest oyster noticeable body parts, and movements Environmental Sustainable Turf BEST monitoring and encouraging the hatchery. Visitors can: fly a drone over (if alive); take photos; keep a safe Lawns programs, low-cost, research- collection of citizen science data; and a digital Chesapeake map; play in a distance until stranding staff arrive. based programs for lawn education, developing a culture of conservation digital sand box to create shorelines Marine mammals are protected by the contact: 703-792-4037, and stewardship of community land. and model weather’s impact around federal Marine Mammal Protection Act. [email protected]. The toolkit contains 20 ambassador the Bay; watch an animation of oyster In addition, sea turtles and whales are wildlife species representing four larvae moving from the reef where protected under the 1973 Endangered Floatable monitoring program habitats. These animals represent a they spawned to a permanent home Species Act. It is illegal to harass, capture The Prince William Soil & Water variety of conditions that are present reef; match up a DNA sequence to or collect these marine species, alive or Conservation District in Manassas, VA, in high-quality environments for microscopic creatures in a food chain; dead, including bones or body parts. needs volunteers to help assess and human, plant and animal health. The learn about sturgeon; and build a trace trash in streams as part of an effort multi-platform toolkit will help partners healthy marsh while learning who are Resources to reduce nonpoint source pollutants prioritize community greening projects our best partners in this effort. Activities in urbanized and industrialized areas based on representative species, citizen in the children’s booth include creating Wetlands Work website in relation to the County’s Municipal science data and spatial analysis that eco-friendly marine animals; games The Chesapeake Bay Program’s Separate Storm Sewers (MS4) permit. includes social, economic and ecological that teach fun facts about the Bay; a website, Wetlands Work, Cleanup supplies are provided. Info: indicators. Info: fws.gov. scavenger hunt through the exhibits wetlandswork.org, helps to connect [email protected]. to learn how the Bay’s lasting health agricultural landowners with people Events / Programs starts with everyone making a cleaner and programs that can support 5 MD libraries offer fishing gear environment. The event is free and wetland development and restoration The Maryland Department of Natural Lynnhaven River festival takes place rain or shine. Directions: on their land. Resources’ Aquatic Resources Education Lynnhaven River Now’s Annual Fall umces.edu/directions-horn-point-lab. Program is providing rods and reels, Festival takes place 11 a.m.–3 p.m. Oct. Info: Carin Starr 410-221-8408 or Stormwater class tackle and fishing books geared toward 12 at Mount Trashmore Park in Virginia [email protected]. The Alliance for the Chesapeake children to the Eastport-Annapolis Beach. This year’s festival kicks off LRN’s Bay has released the online Municipal Neck Community and Mountain Road Planting for the Future tree campaign. MD bird stamp design contest Online Stormwater Training Center’s Dig Community libraries in Anne Arundel This free family-friendly event includes The Maryland Department of Once Course. Developed by the Local County; Westminster Branch Library educational exhibits, workshops, live Natural Resources invites artists to Government Programs staff and the in Carroll County; Brunswick Branch music and children’s activities, many University of Maryland’s Environmental Library in Frederick County; and Joppa of them focused on the importance Bulletin continues on page 37 Bay Journal • September 2019 37

Dee of St. Mary’s public sails Bay’s restoration. The evening includes games, crafts. The Calvert Marine Museum is Chesapeake-inspired food and drink, ≈ Owl & Kestrel: 12:15–12:45 p.m. offering two-hour public sails aboard live music, raffles and a silent auction. Sept. 14 [C] All ages. Learn about the the historic skipjack Dee of St. Mary’s, Tickets are $125. Proceeds from acrobatic American kestrel, the stealthy departing from the museum dock at the fundraiser support the Alliance’s eastern screech owl. 2:30 p.m. Sept. 15 and 28. Tickets are work across the watershed. Info, ≈ Early Fall Walk: 10 a.m.–2 p.m. $25/ages 13+ and $15/ages 5–12. No including sponsorship opportunities: Sept. 21 [T] Learn about trees, plants children younger than 5 permitted. allianceforthebay.org. important to the fall season. Bulletin from page 36 Advance reservations are taken at ≈ Friends of Patuxent Pollinator bit.ly/DeeOfStMarysCruises by noon the Thomas Point Shoal Lighthouse Festival: 10 a.m.–2 p.m. Sept. 21.[N] submit their original works for the 46th Friday prior to the sail. Remaining tickets The Annapolis Maritime Museum All ages. Children’s games, nature Annual Migratory Game Bird Stamp are sold at the admissions desk the day is offering tours of the Thomas Point walks, monarch tagging will highlight Design Contest by Nov. 1. The winning of the sail. Info: Melissa McCormick Shoal Lighthouse 9–11 a.m. & 12–2 the annual 3,000-mile migration of the entry will appear on the 2020–21 at 410-326-2042 x41, melissa. p.m. Sept. 28 and Oct. 5. The tour monarch butterfly. Milkweed seeds will Migratory Game Bird Stamp hunters [email protected]. include 30-minute boat rides to and be given out while supplies last. purchase to hunt migratory game birds from the lighthouse, with opportunities ≈ Bird Walk: 8–10:30 a.m. Sept. 22 in Maryland. This year, the contest will Ladew Gardens to photograph it from every angle, and [C] All ages. Look for fall migrants. Bring be held in conjunction with the 49th Upcoming events at Ladew Gardens a one-hour interior tour, where visitors, binoculars, good walking shoes, water. Annual Waterfowl Festival in Easton, in Monkton, MD, include: who must be 12 & older, learn about ≈ Nature Tots / Wonderful Wetlands: Nov. 8-10. The festival’s People’s ≈ 20th Anniversary of the Nature the light’s history, the life of a keeper 10:30–11:30 a.m. Sept. 24 [C] Ages 3-4. Choice Award lets attendees vote for Walk: 11 a.m.–3 p.m. Sept. 14. To and the role of the U.S. Coast Guard. Learn why wetlands are an important their favorite entry. The department celebrate the Nature Walk’s 20 years, Tours require some physical exertion. habitat. Registration required. selects the winner at noon on Nov. 10. Ladew commissioned an entrance Tickets are $80 and help to fund the ≈ Federal Duck Stamp Competition: Each contestant may submit up to three gate, developed new family-friendly lighthouse’s restoration. Info: 10 a.m. Sept. 27 &28 [C] All ages. See entries for a fee of $15 for one entry, educational and informative signage, amaritime.org, uslhs.org. this year’s entries. Activities for all ages. $20 for two entries, and $30 for three constructed a new bird watching blind, All programs are free; donations entries. Proceeds help fund game bird added floating wetlands and upgraded Manada Conservancy are appreciated. Except where noted, and waterfowl research and projects. the boardwalk through the forest. The Manada Conservancy invites the events do not require registration. All entries must be original works, event includes guest speakers, art, music public to these events: Programs are designed for individuals neither copied nor duplicated from and environmental learning stations ≈ Owl Pellet Lab: 10a.m.–12 p.m. and/or families. Let the refuge know if any previously published paintings, featuring live animals. The celebration Sept. 21. Camp Catherine in Hershey, there are any special needs that need drawings, prints or photographs. is included in general admission: $13/ PA. Middle school students. Dissect owl to be accommodated. Info: 301-497- Contestants must mail their designs adults; $10/ages 62+ & students; $4/ages pellets, learn about owls, food webs, 5887, fws.gov/refuge/Patuxent/visit/ with required fees and forms by Nov. 12 & younger. Info: Rachelle Fowler at animal anatomy. Free. Registration PublicPrograms.html. 1. Info: dnr.maryland.gov/wildlife/ [email protected], 410-557- required. Info; 717-566-4122, Documents/DuckStampContest.pdf. 9570 x225. [email protected]. Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum ≈ Evening Lecture & Dinner / ≈ Third Annual Walk in Penn’s Upcoming offerings at the Mt. Harmon Plantation Monarchs & Milkweed: 6:45 p.m. Woods: 1–3 p.m. Oct. 6. Ibberson Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in Mt. Harmon Plantation in Earleville, (dinner) & 7–8 p.m. (lecture) Sept. 19. Conservation Area (East) in Powell’s St. Michaels, MD, include: MD, invites the public to its National Anurag Agrawal, of the Department of Valley, Halifax, PA. 1.5-mile walk is ≈ Open Boat Shop: 5:30-8:30 p.m. Revolutionary War Reenactment & Ecology & Evolutionary Biology at Cornell over uneven terrain and not suitable for Sept. 12, Oct. 17, Nov. 14 and Dec. 12. Colonial Festival 10 a.m.–4 p.m. Oct. University, will discuss how the monarch wheelchairs or strollers. Register by Oct. Novice woodworkers, who can bring a 12 & 10 a.m.–3 p.m. Oct. 13. The butterfly has evolved closely alongside 3. Info: [email protected], 717-566- small woodworking project or ideas for event features British and Revolutionary milkweed over the millennia, how plant 4122. Directions & details: manada.org. a future project, will receive guidance encampments; battle re-enactment, poisons have not only shaped monarch- ≈ Watershed Health: 1-3 p.m. Oct. from an experienced shipwright and colonial marketplace, hearth cooking, milkweed interactions but also been 6 & 7–8 p.m. Oct. 10. South Hanover woodworker, along with assistance camp tours, children’s musket drill, culturally important. Fee: $50. Tickets: Township Building, Hershey, PA. Learn with CBMM’s machinery and tools. and local food and beverage vendors ladewgardens.com/education/Adult- how to protect local watersheds. Free; Participants must be 16+ unless Admission is $5. Info: mountharmon.org, Education/Lecture-Series registration appreciated. Info: 717-566- accompanied by an adult. Fee: $35 per [email protected]. 4122, [email protected]. session. Preregistration required: MD youth fishing rodeo cbmm.org/shipyardprograms. MD Lighthouse Challenge The MD DNR Fishing & Boating Patuxent Research Refuge ≈ Ninth annual Elf Classic Yacht Chesapeake Chapter’s 2019 Services and Baltimore City Parks & Upcoming programs at the Patuxent Race: 11 a.m. till finish Sept. 28 on Maryland Lighthouse Challenge takes Recreation invite children, ages 3–15, to Research Refuge’s North Tract [T] and the Miles River. This traditional yacht place 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sept. 21–22. a free Youth Fishing Rodeo at Baltimore’s National Wildlife Visitors Center [C] in race, jointly sponsored by CBMM and Participants can visit any of the Patterson Park. Participants learn basic Laurel, MD, include: the Classic Yacht Restoration Guild, lighthouses/lightship on the Challenge angling skills; develop an understanding ≈ Forest Discovery Tram Tour: includes a 19th century traditional yacht route — Concord Point, Seven Foot of the environment and natural 11:30 a.m., 1 p.m. & 2 p.m. Saturdays racing start: captains meet on land, Knoll, Lightship Chesapeake, Hooper resources; and have an experience and 1 p.m., 2 p.m. Sundays [C] All ages. a cannon booms, captains dash to a Strait*, Choptank River Replica*, Drum that fosters interest in conservation and 45-minute ride highlights how a forest is tied-up dinghy or tender to row out to Point, Cove Point, Piney Point, Point fishing. Because of space limitations, an interconnected community of plants, their moored vessels and waiting crews, Lookout, Fort Washington, Sandy would-be attendees should call Bob animals. Stops will discuss wildlife then race to CBMM’s Fogg’s Cove, Point Shoal Lighthouse* — to collect Wall at 410-245-0854. encountered on the trail. Although the where the captains row to shore to sign a souvenir from each. (Starred lights ride is free, tickets are required and are the race log. Winners are announced can be visited on Sept. 20.) Those Taste of the Chesapeake available on a first-come, first-served at a post-race reception later. (CBMM who visit all of the sites will collect The Alliance for the Chesapeake basis. will offer a spectator cruise aboard its the challenge’s “completion” souvenir. Bay’s annual gala, Taste of the ≈ Family Fun / Ducks! Drop in: 10 1920 buyboat Winnie Estelle 10:30 Two bonus lights — Millers Island Chesapeake, takes place 6–9 p.m. Sept. a.m. –1 p.m. Sept. 13 & 14 [C] All ages. a.m.–12:30 p.m., with limited boarding Lighthouse and Blackistone Lighthouse 26 at the Crowne Plaza in Annapolis. Patuxent, an important stopover for and advanced registration at Replica — offer souvenirs but do not During the event, the Alliance migratory ducks, is hosting the Federal cbmm.org/elfcruise). Entrance to watch count toward the challenge. Info: Cory recognizes its environmental leadership Duck Stamp Art Contest. Learn about Talbott, [email protected] award winners and showcases the ducks through hands-on activities, Bulletin continues on page 38 38 Bay Journal • September 2019

Legend & Science of Psychedelic squeezing cider at an apple press, use Sept. 30 and Oct. 7, 14, 21 & 28 and Mushrooms: 7–9 p.m. Sept. 14. apples to make a hand-printed craft. Nov. 4. Ages 0–5. Stories, songs, simple Presented by William Needham, Fee: $5. crafts, discovery outings highlight a president of the Mycological Association ≈ Fall Harvest Festival: 10 a.m. Oct. daily theme. Topics: spiders, migration, of Washington. Fee: $15. 12 (rain date Oct. 13) at Willow Grove leaves, bats, deer, seeds. Fee for series: ≈ Bird Banding: 4–6 p.m. Sept. 17; Farm. All ages. Pony & hay rides, music, $42 per child. 7:30–9:30 a.m. Oct. 15. See birds up earth oven cooking, apple pressing, apple ≈ Nature Tots: 11 a.m.–12 p.m. Sept. close. Free; donation of $5 suggested butter making, beekeeping, family games 30 and Oct. 7, 14, 21 & 28, Nov. 4. Bulletin from page 37 to cover material costs. Banding is & crafts, Native American activities, food, Ages 2–3. Stories, songs, simple crafts, cancelled if there is rain or temperatures 4-H animals. No registration. Suggested discovery outings will highlight each the race on land is included with are above 90 or below 50. donation: $5 per car. day’s theme. Topics: spiders, migration, CBMM’s regular two-day admission. ≈ Speaker Series / Discover Ages 12 & younger must be leaves, bats, deer, seeds. Fee: For race registration information, visit Maryland’s Bird Sanctuaries: From accompanied by an adult. Except $42 per child. cyrg.org or contact CYRG’s Rick Carrion Mountains to Saltmarsh: 7-9 p.m. Oct. where noted, programs are free but Ages 12 & younger must be at [email protected] or 443-566- 3. Presented by Marcia Watson of the require registration. Info: 410-887- accompanied by an adult for all 2212. The racing fleet is limited, with Maryland Ornithological Society. 2503, info@cromwellvalleypark. programs. Events meet at the center and registration required by Sept. 15, and Fee: $15. org, cromwellvalleypark.org. Online require registration unless otherwise preference is given to wooden, classic, ≈ Wee Naturalist / Bats: 9:30–11 a.m. registration: cromwellvalleypark. noted. Payment is due at time of and traditional yachts. Race proceeds Oct. 9. Ages 3–5 w/adult. Music, games, campbrainregistration.com. For disability- registration. Info: 410-612-1688, 410- benefit CYRG and CBMM. crafts. Fee: $10. related accommodations, call 410-887- 879-2000 x1688, otterpointcreek.org. ≈ Build Your Own Kayak: Nine-day Preregistration is required for all 5370 or 410-887-5319 (TTY), giving as workshop meets 8:30 a.m.–6 p.m. Sept. events. Info: Bronwyn Mitchell-Strong much notice as possible. Irvine Nature Center 28–Oct. 6. Participants build a modern at [email protected], Upcoming events at Irvine Nature adaptation of traditional skin-on-frame 443-955-4761, marylandnature.org. Anita Leight Estuary Center Center in Owings Mills, MD, include: kayaks using red cedar and bamboo, Upcoming programs at the Anita C. ≈ Tales & Tails: 10–11 a.m. Fridays. “skinned” with nylon and nontoxic Cromwell Valley Park Leight Estuary Center in Abingdon, MD, All ages. Story, songs, puppet show, polyurethane. Techniques, from Upcoming programs at Cromwell include: animal friend. Free. traditional qayaq communities across Valley Park’s Willow Grove Nature ≈ Critter Dinner Time: 10:30 a.m. ≈ Butterfly Week:Sept. 7–15. All the Arctic, include lashing, joinery, Center in Parkville, MD, include: Sept. 14. All ages. Learn about turtles, ages. Lepidopterologists (butterfly steam bending using only a few hand ≈ Bird Walks: 8–10 a.m. Sept. 21, 28; fish, snakes while watching them eat. enthusiasts) can celebrate the extended tools. No woodworking or kayaking Oct. 5, 19 & 26 and Nov. 2 & 9. Meet Free. No registration. hours in the butterfly house. Free. experience is necessary. Session ends at Willow Grove Farm Gravel Parking ≈ Fall Scavenger Hunt Kayak: 10:30 ≈ Natural World of Science Drop-in with a group paddle on the Miles Lot. Bring binoculars if possible. No a.m.–1 p.m. Sept. 14. Ages 8+ Look for Programs: 10 a.m.–12 p.m. Sept. 14 River. Fee of $2,100 includes materials. registration. plants and animals on a list. First boat to (Nature Bingo); Oct. 6 (Pumpkins Preregistration required: workshops@ ≈ Counting on Nature: 1–3 p.m. find all them all wins a prize. Fee. $12. Galore). All ages. Mostly self-guided, seawolfkayak.com, (mention CBMM). Sept. 21. Ages 2–5 w/adult. Learn about ≈ Magnificent Monarchs: 3–4:30 p.m. programs may include crafts, hands-on Info: cbmm.org or seawolfkayak.com. numbers, animals. Non-mobile siblings Sept. 14. Ages 6+ Learn about monarch exhibits. Free. ≈ Lighthouse Overnight Adventures only, adult is an active participant. butterflies, their migration, how to help ≈ Day-off Camps: 8:30 a.m.–4 for Youths Groups: Select Fridays Fee: $4. this creature thrive. Fee: $5. p.m. Sept. 30 (Nature Photography); & Saturdays, Aug. 30– Oct. 26. ≈ Tour the Sherwood House: 1–2 ≈ Children’s Garden Club: 10:30– Oct. 9 (Stewards of the Earth). Ages Participants, ages 8–12 w/chaperone, p.m. Sept. 22. Meet at Sherwood House. 11:30 a.m. Sept. 21. Ages 5–8. Cook, 5–10. When school is out, explore learn about the life of a late 19th- Adults. Behind-the-scenes tour. Fee: $4. create, explore while learning how a the outdoors at Irvine: trail walks, century keeper and Bay lighthouses ≈ Polliwog Preschool Club: 10:30– garden is connected to humans, the wild nature games, crafts, stories, animal through games, activities, historic 11:30 a.m. Tuesdays, Sept. 24–Oct. world. Fee: $5/child. encounters. Wear nature-friendly objects while spending the night in 29 or Wednesdays, Sept. 25–Oct. 30. ≈ Tails & Tots: 12:30 p.m. Sept. clothing, bring a lunch. Fee: $85 the 1879 Hooper Strait Lighthouse at Ages 2–5 w/adult. Hands-on activities, 22. Ages 0–6 w/adult. Stories, songs, (Aftercare, 4–6 p.m., is an additional CBMM. The experience can be used nature play, stories, crafts explore the movement. Free. No registration. fee). Info: explorenature.org. toward earning badges for Brownie, natural world. Non-mobile siblings only, ≈ Rumsey Island Kayak Adventure: ≈ Owl Prowl: 7:30-9 p.m. Sept. 27. Junior and Cadette Girl Scouts. Fee: adult is an active participant. Dress 10:30 a.m.–2:30 p.m. Sept. 21. Meet All ages. Search for owls on the trails. $40 with a 12-person minimum, for outdoors. Fee: $80 for 6 sessions. at Mariner Point Park. Experienced Meet the center’s owls. Fee: $10. 18-person maximum. Groups may Register only at cromwellvalleypark. kayakers, ages 12+ (16 & younger w/ ≈ Family Movie Night / The Lorax: choose to add a cruise aboard the campbrainregistration.com. adult). 5-mile round trip paddle explores 7–9 p.m. Sept. 29. All ages. Outdoor 1920 buyboat Winnie Estelle, subject ≈ Autumn Solstice Bonfire & Smores: section of Gunpowder River. Fee: $13. theater. Free; concessions available for to seasonal availability. Overnights are 7:30–9 p.m. Sept. 27. Ages 5+ Fee: $5. ≈ Birding By Boat: 8:30–10 a.m. Sept. purchase. reserved on a first-come, first-served ≈ The Ancient Atlatl: 1–3 p.m. Sept. 28. Ages 8+ Search for early migratory ≈ Pumpkinfest: 12–7 p.m. Oct. 12. basis, with a $100 deposit needed. 29. Meet at Primitive Tech Laboratory. birds. Fee: $10. Celebrate autumn with music, food, Info: cbmm.org/lighthouseovernights. Ages 13+ Make a simple atlatl from ≈ Down by the Bay / National hayrides, alpacas, jugglers, face painting. Info: cbmm.org, 410-745-2916. branches, feathered dart. Bring a Estuaries Day: 12:30–2 p.m. Sept. 28. All Fee includes all activities: $5/ adults; nonserrated pocket knife, if possible. ages. Hike along the edge of Otter Point $15/ child; free/ages 2 & younger. Natural History Society of MD F e e: $7. Creek, a Bay tributary. Search for plants, ≈ Animal Caretakers Drop-off Upcoming programs offered by ≈ Night Out with Nature / For animals; catch fish using a 100-foot Program: 10 a.m.–12 p.m. Sept. 21 & the The Natural History Society of Goodness’ Snakes! 7–9 p.m. Oct. 4. seine net. Fee: $3. Oct. 5. Ages 5–10. Help animal care Maryland in Baltimore include: Sherwood House. Adults. Kerry Wixted ≈ Spectacular Sunset Canoe: 5–7:30 naturalists take care of Irvine’s creatures. ≈ Family Science Workshop/ an education and outreach specialist for p.m. Sept. 28. Ages 8+ Otter Point Fee: $25 per session. Shellebrate Shells: 1–3 p.m. Sept. 14. the Maryland Department of Natural Creek. Bring a camera. Fee: $12. ≈ Eat, Drink & Learn/ Downies, Bring in shells to learn what animal Resources Wildlife and Heritage ≈ iNaturalist Trek: 1–2 p.m. Sept. Hairies & Maraschino Cherries: created or used them, how shells are Service, will discuss state species, snake 29. All ages. Search for plants, animals 6:30–9 p.m. Sept. 19. Adults. Learn made, why animals use shells, which biology, why we should care about using the iNaturalist app. Help to collect about Maryland’s seven woodpecker are most common in the mid-Atlantic, snakes. Fee: $10. information for the center’s biodiversity species, why they are extremely what role shells play in the environment. ≈ Apple Press & Prints: 1–2:30 p.m. data, learn how to use this program on important to a healthy ecosystem. Family fee: $20. Oct. 5. Ages 2–10 w/adult. Learn the other hikes. Free. Dinner, drinks are provided. Fee: $60. ≈ Speaker Series / The History, true story of Johnny Appleseed, try ≈ Nature Playgroup: 9:30–10:30 a.m. Info for programs: explorenature.org. Bay Journal • September 2019 39 One last look is rewarded with an unexpected blue-headed vireo By Mike Burke

The sun was finally low enough that the heat of the day was starting to ease. We were just about to head home after a pleasant afternoon at the always popular Lake Artemesia Park in College Park, MD. There had been resident Canada geese and migratory pied-billed grebes on the water. A great blue heron was looking for dinner near the shoreline. Swirling masses of tree swallows ignored the noisy Metro trains racing by. The usual assortment of blue jays and crows were raising a racket. Nothing out of the ordinary, and all of it wonderful. Just before my wife, Pat, and I hit the road, I noticed a skulking bird in a nearby hedgerow. It was small, but bulky with a big head. Its bold white spectacles told me immediately that I was looking at a blue-headed vireo (Vireo solatarius). The eponymous head was blue- gray with a thick black bill. A white horizontal streak atop the bill connected to white eye rings, giving the impression that the bird was wearing funky white-framed glasses. The white of its chin extended underneath all the way to the tail. It had a mossy green back and two white bars on black wings. The sides were faintly yellow. Males and females look similar, The blue-headed vireo (Vireo solatarius) passes through the Chesapeake region during its annual migration. It can be spotted although the females tend to be a bit through October. (Brian McClure / CC BY-SA 2.0) duller overall. Blue-headed vireos don’t live overnight hours. When the eggs hatch plumages, as well as critical DNA around here. The bird was just passing about two weeks later, the chicks are evidence, led to the split. The blue through on its annual migration. They helpless. Oddly, the male then takes head kept the scientific name for the tend to migrate south a bit later than over. He alone will feed his offspring species, solitarius, while the other white-eyed vireos. Like red-eyed during the next two weeks before the species were given new names. vireos, you can find blue heads in the nestlings are ready to fledge. Luckily, the nearly identical Chesapeake region well into October. Food during the summer is almost Cassin’s vireo does not overlap with These vireos overwinter in a wide exclusively animal, mostly insects. the blue head’s range. coastal area that starts around Norfolk They also eat spiders and snails. The The bird I saw at Lake Artemesia and extends through the Carolinas protein in this food is critical to the was on its way south. Just like spring, and into the Gulf states, Mexico and growth of the chicks and to prepare the the fall sees migrating blue heads Central America. adults for the long journey home at the spread across the watershed as they In early spring, these medium- end of summer. make their way to their other habitats. distance migrants begin to appear in These birds forage for insects While migrating, the blue-headed the Appalachian forests of Georgia. and their larvae in the top half of a vireo is less selective about the They quickly disperse across the tree’s branches. It slowly moves along landscape. It still prefers forest to field, eastern United States, including all of a branch, carefully inspecting for but expansive tracts aren’t necessary. the Chesapeake watershed. possible prey after every step. After a As I had just witnessed, sometimes From June through late August, On their breeding grounds, male short hop or flight to a nearby branch, trees aren’t even needed: A hedgerow though, they can only be found reliably blue heads pick out a nesting site, the methodical gleaning continues. will occasionally suffice. in the mountains of western Virginia, usually 5–15 feet above ground. His Although insects make up 95% It had been a lovely afternoon, and I Maryland and West Virginia. Farther mate will quickly join him in nest of the blue-headed vireo’s summer had been deeply contented. And then, north, the breeding zone expands to construction before she takes over diet, fruits may account for 50% of its when I least expected it, there was this include most of Pennsylvania and New entirely to put on the finishing touches: winter food. wonderful surprise: a final surfeit of York and up through the majority of lichen, spider webs and rootlets as a The blue head is closely related beauty. Canada. soft nest lining. to three sister species: the Cassin’s, Sometimes the gifts of nature seem In Canada, blue-headed vireos They will produce a single brood Plumbeous and Bell’s vireos. All were boundless. This was one of those usually nest in coniferous forests; each year of three to six eggs (usually once considered a single species called times. farther south they also use deciduous four). Both parents incubate, although the solitary vireo. Clearer delineation Mike Burke, an amateur naturalist, forests. the female appears to take all the of geographic separation and varied lives in Mitchellville, MD. September 2019 Volume 29 Number 6 The Bay Journal NONPROFIT ORG. P.O. Box 222 U.S. POSTAGE Jacobus, PA 17407-0222 PAID DULLES VA PERMIT # 234

The Bay Journal is printed on 100% recyclable/recycled paper using vegetable-based inks. www.bayjournal.com

The red-tailed hawk is often found in open areas perched on telephone poles or trees. (Mark Bohn/ U.S. Fish and Wild- life Service) Monarch butterflies, far right, caught on Poplar Island, MD,get tags before they are released to continue their southern migration. (Peter McGowan / USFWS) Look up, look down: September’s changes are all around

By Kathy Reshetiloff anthus spp.) dot the landscape with Although the month of September delicate yellow can still hold some sultry days, wild- flowers. Mean- life throughout the Chesapeake Bay while, the familiar watershed is already receiving signals black-eyed Susan that autumn is coming. (Rudbeckia hirta) Tree leaves have yet to change to creates patches warmer hues, but you’ll catch small and gold and splashes of orange as the monarch brown. Native butterfly, one of the few butterflies that the fall to join the southbound flight. asters (Symphyot- migrates, begins a remarkable journey As they approach the Chesapeake richum spp.) sport south. The monarch, found throughout the Bay from the north, some birds are a range of colors United States and into southern Canada, funneled along the coast while the with their white, is easily recognized by dark orange others are steered along the mountains. blue and purple wings with black veins and white edge Popular spots to see these raptors petals. spots. From September through October, along the coast include Cape May, NJ; Not to be millions of monarchs will flutter south to Cape Henlopen, DE; the barrier islands outdone, native overwinter in the Gulf States and remote of Assateague, MD, and Chincoteague, grasses and mountain valleys of southcentral Mexico. VA; and all points south along the grasslike plants Migrating monarchs often rest beaches to Cape Charles, VA. of freshwater on narrow-leaved trees like willows, To observe hawks flying along a wetlands and maples and pines before crossing bodies mountain passage, travel toward the brackish marshes of water. Because of this, peninsulas are Appalachian or Blue Ridge ranges. are also transition- often good places to see these migrating The west-facing ridges in Pennsylva- ing. As they begin butterflies. Point Lookout, Eastern Neck nia, western Maryland and Virginia to flower, these National Wildlife Refuge and Black provide excellent opportunities to see stands of summer Walnut Point in Maryland as well as the southbound migration. green will change Cape Charles and Kiptopeke in Virginia Maybe not as obvious as migrating to warmer hues of often attract monarchs. butterflies or skies dotted with raptors, gold, orange and Watch the skies and you are likely a more subtle change can be observed reddish brown. to see other migratory wildlife. Rap- in open fields, along roadways and near Kathy Resheti- tors — hawks, falcons and eagles — sunny river banks. Late-blooming wild- loff is with the are also beginning their migration just flowers give us our last splash of color U.S. Fish and prior to the fall foliage color change. and provide a critical nectar source for Wildlife Service’s Juvenile birds lead the way and are pollinators such as butterflies and bees. Chesapeake Bay Seaside goldenrod grows along the Atlantic Coast and in inland beginning to move in September. Many species of native goldenrods Field Office in salt marshes. (R. Harrison Wiegard /Maryland Department of Adult birds generally wait until later in (Solidago spp.) and sunflowers Heli( - Annapolis. Natural Resources)