November 2018 Volume 28 Number 8

Gone with the waves: Storms, rising waters threaten pieces of past ≈ Archaeologists scramble to recover, study artifacts before they wash away from Chesapeake shorelines By Whitney Pipkin Climate change and erosion are taking steady punches at shorelines in the Chesapeake Bay region, slashing away soil and threatening the structures that stand on it. But resources buried within the land are at risk, too. Archae- ologists in Maryland and Virginia are racing to recover artifacts from Bay area shorelines before they are gone for good. The archaeologists worry that cen- turies of the history they’re hunting can disappear with the next big storm. And, more often, places rich with records of the region’s American Indian and colonial past are slipping away one inch at a time, lost to the gradual but quicken- ing impact of erosion and rising seas. It’s no coincidence that many of the region’s most precious archaeological sites are also located precariously on the shores of rivers, creeks and the sprawling Bay. That, said archaeologist Martin Gallivan, is where people have always liked living. “Throughout human history, the water’s edge has been an inviting place to settle,” said Gallivan, a professor at the College of William & Mary whose U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service biologist Fred Pinkney tosses a fish trap into the Anacostia River as technician Tanner work focuses on Powhatan sites on the Stoker holds the boat steady. (Dave Harp) James and York rivers. “Specifically for native history in Tidewater Virginia, the water’s edge is the location of a Toxics, long-ignored, once again on cleanup radar majority of significant sites.” ≈ After being on back District of Columbia and put wire the bodies of these fish during their One of the places at risk is the first burner behind nutrients and mesh traps in a cove near the site of a lives in the Anacostia River. And permanent English settlement in North demolished Pepco power plant. They so Pinkney’s catch was sacrificed to America at Jamestown, VA, where site sediment, PCBs are getting baited the traps with open tins of science — sent to a laboratory for managers now factor in elevation and more attention. salmon-flavored cat food. tissue analysis. water levels when considering where to By Timothy B. Wheeler Pinkney, a senior biologist with the Pinkney is specifically tracking work next on a site that is increasingly Fred Pinkney went fishing this U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, wanted levels of polychlorinated biphenyls, inundated with water. Also threatened fall on the Anacostia River, but fish the small denizens of the aquatic or PCBs, present in the tissue of the throughout the region are countless shell weren’t the real quarry. world that anglers would ignore, small forage fish. PCBs — a family middens — long-buried heaps of dis- One drippy morning in October, including finger-size mummichogs of chemicals once widely used in carded oyster shells and other items, some Pinkney and his helper, Tanner and banded killifish, which spend industry and commerce — were thousands of years old, full of clues about Stoker, seined the shallows off a their lives in one area of the river. banned in 1979 because they caused how the region’s early residents lived. sandbar near Bladensburg, MD. But his chief target were the toxic Then they boated downriver into the chemicals that may have built up in PCBs continues on page 18 Artifacts continues on page 16 2 Bay Journal • November 2018

Editor’s Note BAY JOURNAL is published by Bay Journal Media to inform the public about ecological, scientific, historic and cultural issues Thank you to all who responded to our reader survey and events related to the Chesapeake Bay. The Bay Journal, circulation 35,000, is published monthly except in midsummer The word that most the Midwest, the Bay Journal helps her and midwinter. It is distributed free of charge. Bundles are available sums up the results of children learn about the Chesapeake. A for distribution. Material may be reproduced, with permission the survey we mailed to few said they wished a similar paper was and attribution. Publication is made possible by grants through readers last summer is published where they live. the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Chesapeake Bay “Wow!” I am still stunned Wherever they reside, readers told us Program Office, the Campbell Foundation, the National Oceanic by the overwhelming they appreciate that articles are based on and Atmospheric Administration’s Chesapeake Bay Office, the 1number of results (which facts and science. “It is not ‘fake’ news!” Sumner T. McKnight Foundation, the Rauch Foundation, the are still trickling in). several wrote. Fair Play Foundation, the Shared Earth Foundation, the Virginia Approximately 3,500 of you responded While people like the Bay Journal, Environmental Endowment, anonymous donors, and by reader — way more than we expected. We’re still they also suggested some tweaks. For contributions. Views expressed in the Bay Journal do not going through the results, but one thing is instance, we clearly heard a call to bolster necessarily represent those of any funding agency or organization. clear: Readers overwhelmingly are happy our Virginia coverage, particularly in the with the Bay Journal. Richmond-Hampton Roads corridor. A lot For mailing list additions/changes, please use the form on this Many, in fact, said that they pass their of people would like to see us add a history page or contact: Bay Journal, P.O. Box 222, Jacobus, PA 17407-0222 copy on to friends or colleagues. Hundreds column, and a number said they would like E-mail: [email protected] asked us to send sample copies to friends to see more coverage of headwater areas BAY JOURNAL MEDIA (we’re in the process of doing that). And and climate change issues. many asked us to increase distribution in Some found areas they thought we Bay Journal Media is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization with areas where they live — “they all disappear could improve. A number of respondents a mission to further public education and awareness of issues each month,” one reader said of bundles thought agricultural coverage was too affecting the Chesapeake Bay and the mid-Atlantic environment delivered to her local library. negative. That is, admittedly, a balancing by creating and distributing journalistic products. In addition One of the top reasons people said they act. We certainly try to have a mix of to producing the Bay Journal, Bay Journal Media operates the read the Bay Journal is that it provides a stories that capture the complexities Bay Journal News Service, which distributes Bay Journal watershedwide perspective on issues. “I like of farming in the Bay region, and the articles and original op-eds about the Chesapeake Bay or regional the way that you cover why a multi-state difficulty of trying to produce more food environmental issues to more than 400 newspapers in the region, effort is necessary to keep the Bay healthy,” while simultaneously trying to reduce reaching several million readers each month. one wrote. runoff — a challenging issue here, and The overwhelming majority of readers globally. Karl Blankenship, Executive Director said they take some sort of action based Nearly half of the readers said they Andrew Nolan, CPA, Chief Financial Officer on what they read in the Bay Journal — or would be interested in attending a Bay STAFF that it inspires them to go outside and Journal event, so we may schedule some enjoy the region’s natural bounty. “It things next year that allow readers and Editor: Karl Blankenship ([email protected]) reminds or informs me about natural our staff to get together. That will give Managing Editor: Lara Lutz ([email protected]) resources I should make a point of seeing us — and you — a chance to talk about CONTACT US Associate Editor/Projects: Timothy B. Wheeler ([email protected]) and enjoying,” one said. these issues in greater detail. by mail: Bay Journal News Service Editor: Tim Sayles ([email protected]) Interestingly, we got replies from all We’ll continue analyzing the The Bay Journal Copy/Design Editor: Kathleen A. Gaskell ([email protected]) over the country. Many people who have information and passing on what we glean. 619 Oakwood Drive Staff Writer: Jeremy Cox ([email protected]) moved away said the paper helps them Meanwhile, thanks to all those who shared Seven Valleys, PA Staff Writer: Donna Morelli ([email protected]) stay connected to Bay issues. One reader their thoughts. 17360-9395 Staff Writer: Whitney Pipkin ([email protected]) told us that although she now lives in — Karl Blankenship Photographer: Dave Harp ([email protected]) by phone: ADVERTISING 717-428-2819 Sign Up for the Bay Journal or Change your Address Marketing & Advertising Director: Jacqui Caine ([email protected]) TheBay Journal is distributed FREE by Bay Journal Media, Inc. If you would like to BOARD OF DIRECTORS be added to its mailing list or need to change your present address, please fill out this form To inquire about Tom Lewis advertising, contact , President and mail it to Bay Journal, P.O. Box 222, Jacobus, PA 17407-0222. Mary Barber, Vice-President o o Jacqui Caine at Check One: New Subscription Change of Address Karl Blankenship, Secretary 540-903-9298 o Please remove my name from your mailing list Frank Felbaum, Treasurer Please note that it may take up to two issues for changes to become effective. Bill Eichbaum Name: Address: Correction City: State: The mussel photo that appeared on Zip: page 17 of the October 2018 issue of the Optional: Enclosed is a donation to the Bay Journal Fund for $ Bay Journal should have been credited to Whitney Pipkin. The Bay Journal o Bay Journal regrets the error. From time to time, the includes a list of its supporters in the print edition. Please check here if you would like your gift to remain anonymous and not be recognized in the Bay Journal. Bay Journal • November 2018 3

Clockwise, from left Passengers on the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad will find themselves riding parallel to the Great Allegheny Passage, a hiking and biking trail between Pittsburgh and Washington, DC. See article on page 22. (Western MD Scenic Railroad) Steve Strano, left, a biologist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, and Brian Jennings, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist, walk along a breach completed in 2016 on the Pocomoke River. The depression allows the river’s water to TRAVEL spill over its banks WHAT’S INSIDE more frequently into 22 Western Maryland railroad turns on the charm at every its floodplain. See 5 States seek to fix environmental wrongs with rights bend article on page 6. (Dave Harp) amendments • MD, NY bills based on PA’s constitution, 24 ‘Dig a little deeper’ at the Norfolk Botanical Garden which includes right to clean air, pure water Josh Frye, a West FEATURES Virginia farmer, 6 Pocomoke River ‘replumbing’ to ditch 20th-century ag 4 Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay • Foresters’ conflicted takes a whiff of • Breaches will help to restore floodplain and reduce love for red maple highlights its various roles the biochar he channels made recently. The pollution entering the Chesapeake without reducing cropland 34 Bulletin Board • Volunteer Opportunities • Workshops • charcoal-like product 8 Land trusts in 2 PA counties may join forces to Events • Programs • Resources consists of cooked 38 Chesapeake Challenge • Take this otterly fun quiz poultry manure and preserve farmland • Private land trust could reach out even smells like a to those not accepted by government program 38 Bay Buddies • Otter Adaptations! fresh bag of Kings- ford charcoal. 10 To save farmland in Cumberland County, PA, 39 On the Wing • Downy woodpecker chips out its own niche in It can avian world serve many purposes, officials look to Lancaster • Private partnership could from improving soil reach out to those unable to work with government programs 40 Bay Naturalist • Bee grateful this Thanksgiving for native health to sponging pollinators up nutrients from 11 Tangier Island prepares for long-awaited jetty FORUM stormwater runoff. construction • Project will keep channel open and protect Commentary • Letters • Perspectives See article on page harbor but won’t help much to offset seal level rise 14. (Jeremy Cox) 30 State pollution-permitting must be reformed to adapt to climate 12 Bay scientists: Stream restoration benefits not clear change cut • Habitat studies show that some projects may help the What on Earth led to the failure of Chesapeake but the science is still evolving 31 Chesapeake Born: environmental ethics? WE’RE JUST 13 Striped bass reproduction above average in MD, VA • 32 Chesapeake Bay Program fueled by science, driven by A CLICK AWAY Upward trend over the last few years bodes well for popular partnership visit us online: fish’s future bayjournal.com 14 Biochar could be the hot new thing in addressing like us on FaceBook: Bay’s poultry litter • Baked manure better for the Chesapeake Bay Journal or send us a Tweet: environment and bottom line but lacks industry standards @ChesBayJournal 26 Lafayette River oyster reefs reach habitat restoration milestone • Waterway, once one of the dirtiest in VA, is the first to count toward state’s goal in Bay agreement. www.bayjournal.com 4 Bay Journal • November 2018 Foresters’ conflicted love for red maple highlights its various roles By Craig Highfield was to see the crimson buds of the red maple swelling early in a canopy of Over the many years that I have gray stupor. been interacting with our region’s Red maple flowers are set soon forest practitioners and enthusiasts, I after bud break and typically before have observed that many of us harbor a it unfurls its leaves. Although these profound and deep emotional relation- flowers are generally wind-pollinated, ship to particular tree species. they provide a vital early food source These emotions run the gamut for various pollinators like bees. from effusive adoration to downright Red maple trees are also tapped for animosity. Some species are almost maple syrup production. Sugar maple, unanimous in the passions that they obviously, is the gold standard in invoke; from the pleasing attributes of maple syrup production because of the the stately white oak to the displeasing higher sugar content in its sap, but the attributes of the noxious tree-of- red maple ultimately supplements the heaven. Some species are subtler, and amount of syrup being produced each our sentiments are derived by how we year. It may play a more prominent personally value specific qualities. role in the industry as species shift and Sweetgum is a good example. If you sugar maple becomes less abundant in are a birder, you may love to see this our region. tree prevail on your land because it Red maple is a viable wood product can be an important avian food source; as well. Although its value pales in providing seeds during fall and winter comparison to other hardwoods in our and attracting many species of butter- region like oaks and black cherry, red flies and moths during the spring and maple is readily harvested as sawtim- summer. Sweetgum does not provide ber and pulpwood and used to make a quality food source for most game such things as furniture and cabinets. species, so a sweetgum-dominated Maple, including red, is a tone wood landscape may cause ire to landowners and is often used by North American looking to attract game. Sweetgum’s luthiers in the production of guitars brilliant autumn foliage is aesthetically and other fine, stringed instruments. pleasing for folks but at the same time With its ability to thrive on various its nefariously spiked seedpods are sites, red maple is a valuable tree to potential hazards to partially clad feet. incorporate in forest restoration and We are complex organisms, so our riparian buffer plantings. emotions about a species may not be There will probably be several so fixed. Black locust…anyone? How people reading this who are wondering about American beech? why on Earth would I want to plant The tree that I seem to have the more red maple when I just empha- most complicated relationship with sized that their numbers are already is the ubiquitous red maple (Acer exploding. I know — great question. rubrum). Red maple, by far, is the most Remember, I am conflicted here. We abundant and widely distributed tree The red maple grows quickly and is a great species to plant when one needs to get do incorporate a high diversity of species in eastern North America with trees established quickly. (Mike Land) trees in our plantings, especially oaks. a native range from Newfoundland Sometimes on certain sites we just to Florida. In our Chesapeake region, red maple establishment and prolifera- need to get trees established quickly to according to U.S. Forest Service Forest tion, especially in our oak-dominated reduce competition and, as mentioned Inventory Analysis data, it is three forests. The thinner barked maples are earlier, red maple is really good at times more abundant than the second highly susceptible to even low-grade doing that. It is reassuring to see trees most numerous species, loblolly pine. surface fire. growing out of 5-foot shelters after just You probably don’t need FIA data early settlers. Red maple’s proliferation throughout one growing season. to tell you that red maple grows almost Red maple has increased exponen- Eastern forests is changing the ecology This has been my arboreal confes- everywhere. You can find it growing tially on the landscape for a variety of of our forests now and for the foresee- sion concerning a common and valued along dry ridges of our mountains all reasons beyond its ability to tolerate able future and displacing tree species tree in our Chesapeake forests. We all the way down to the poorly drained a wide range of site conditions and that often have a higher ecological and know trees provide us all with benefits, edges of our tidal wetlands and climates. They can produce flowers in economic value. I am not trying put but our woodlands are not static and throughout our urban and suburban as little as four years and are prolific all of this ecological discord on the will change whether we plan for it or areas. It is a super generalist in its seeders, often producing bumper crops red maple. We humans are, obviously, not. The science of silviculture and resources needs and therefore can every two years. These seeds, which the cause of the drastic changes to our its forestry practices were developed be found in a variety of soil types, are produced early in the spring, ger- forests (development, high grading, out of our need to sustain our wood- climates and elevations. minate soon after hitting the ground, invasive species, air pollution, deer, etc.). lands, propagate them and enhance Red maple, despite its abundance and new seedlings take advantage of a Therefore, I remain conflicted about my the myriad values they provide. It is today, is estimated to only have made longer growing season. perceptions of red maple, the tree. important (and fun) to learn about the up 5 percent of the forest area in North Both natural and anthropogenic To be honest, it is an awesome attributes of trees. You may discover America when Europeans first arrived. disturbances over the years have cre- tree with attributes we all can value. appreciations or connections you never Although still widely distributed ated gaps in our forests and given red Red maple is one of the first decidu- realized you had. geographically at that time, they were maple an opportunity to spread into ous trees to break dormancy during Craig Highfield is director of mainly found in riparian areas, thus new sites. Suppressing fire from the winter. Think about the long winter Chesapeake Forests for the Alliance earning the name swamp maple by landscape, too, has aided the success of we endured this year and what a joy it for the Chesapeake Bay. Bay Journal • November 2018 5 States seek to fix environmental wrongs with rights amendments ≈ MD, NY bills based on PA’s recently, it proved pretty Bill of Rights. She added that Maryland’s constitution, which includes toothless, defanged by a 1973 bill has both the language and placement Commonwealth Court ruling needed to be effective. right to clean air, pure water. that applied a circuitous logic At a hearing on Maryland’s proposed By Donna Morelli to its meaning. Then, in 2013, amendment, van Rossum and religious Pennsylvania residents have something nine municipalities and van leaders from Baltimore and the sur- their neighboring states lack: an amend- Rossum used the amend- rounding areas spoke in favor of it. Kobe ment in their state constitution declaring ment to win a case in the Little, the political action chairman for the their right to clean air and pure water. A Pennsylvania Supreme Court Maryland NAACP Conference, also testi- movement is under way to pass similar that affirmed the right of fied at the hearing. “I’ve been testifying legislation in Maryland and New York. communities to define where for a number of hearings for bills in the In Maryland, a fledgling coalition fracking may or may not House and the Senate that claw at parts of of religious, health and environmental occur within their boundaries. what this legislation would make happen leaders stand behind Sen. Bobby Zirkin, The case created a precedent automatically,” Little said. “It almost D-Baltimore County, who introduced Delaware Riverkeeper Maya van Rossum speaks to the New for using the amendment as a seems like common sense that if we have legislation for an amendment called the York State Bar Association about Pennsylvania’s Environ- legal argument. The Pennsyl- the right to the pursuit of happiness that Right to Healthy Environment and Com- mental Rights Amendment of 1971. (DE Riverkeeper Network) vania Environmental Defense we’d have the right to clean air and clean munities, in March. No action has been Foundation did so again in water — and an environment free of the taken on the bill so far, save for a hearing right to vote or practice religion. 2017, when the state Supreme Court ruled willful degradation by people who seek to in the senate’s Education, Health and “We already have legislation that is that Pennsylvania could only use revenue place profit over people. This will protect Environmental Affairs Committee. not protecting our air, our environment,” from oil and gas leases in state forests for all Marylanders, and especially the most In New York, advocates working with she said. “There are about three dozen conservation projects and not for plugging vulnerable Marylanders.” residents of Hoosick Falls, the village of states that talk about the environment in a hole in the general fund. The effort in New York began in late 3,000 who, unknowingly, had been drink- their constitutions, but that is not a green The success of these two cases, based 2016 when van Rossum got a call from ing contaminated tap water for decades, amendment. It’s just good public policy on the environmental rights amendment, Peter Iwanowicz, executive director of the vow to lobby for another introduction of and a lot of pretty words.” spread far in legal, political and environ- Environmental Advocates of New York. environmental rights legislation after a About two dozen states have some mental circles. The idea is catching on, The state assembly proposed the legisla- 2017 attempt died in committee. language in their constitution, but they van Rossum said. “I’ve been talking to tion in late 2017 and passed it with a vote Maya K. van Rossum, leader of the lack the punch of Pennsylvania’s, van people from Florida, Oregon and Mas- of 113 to 26, Iwanowicz said, but it died in Delaware Riverkeeper Network and Rossum said, because they are not sachusetts … When I speak about it, the the senate. author of the book, The Green Amend- included in the state’s Bill of Rights, like room is electric. People get very excited.” “The clock starts all over again,” ment, said that such amendments are those in Pennsylvania and Montana. When drafting the amendment, she Iwanowicz said. “If the question was pre- needed because they put the right to a Pennsylvania’s environmental rights said, it’s important to use strong, clear sented to the voters, we probably would healthy environment on par with the amendment was passed in 1971 but, until language and place it within the state’s have seen an overwhelming yes vote.” 6 Bay Journal • November 2018 Pocomoke River ‘replumbing’ to ditch 20th-century ag channels ≈ Breaches will help to restore ence once the work floodplain and reduce pollution is done, said Steve Strano, a Maryland- entering Chesapeake without based biologist with reducing cropland. the U.S. Department of By Jeremy Cox Agriculture’s Natural As far as local farmers were Resources Conserva- concerned during the early 1900s, the tion Service. All of sluggish and meandering Pocomoke the areas that will River was a threat to their way of life. once again serve as an “The flat farmland in this area must active flood plain are be drained by ditches which empty wooded; no cropland into the Pocomoke River,” a newspaper should was taken out announcement proclaimed at the time. of production, he said. “After hard rains the water backed up “You have hundreds into the drainage ditches, and fields were of acres on each side of sodden for days, making the ground the river that are there barren and unprofitable as farmland.” for use [for capturing In 1939, 200 workers with the floodwater], but they’re Civilian Conservation Corps began not being flooded,” converting the upper end of the river on Strano said. The NRCS Maryland’s Eastern Shore from sinuous is one of the project’s to straight. By the time the work was leaders. done eight years later, the waterway’s Instead of shunting 18-mile course toward the Chesapeake the water down the Bay had been shortened by 4 miles, and channelized river as a makeshift levee frowned down from quickly as possible, both sides of its banks. the new system will But success for the 1940s farmers Steve Strano, left, a biologist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conser- collect some of the triggered problems for the Pocomoke’s vation Service, and Brian Jennings, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist, walk along a breach flow in its floodplain. ecosystem. Now, an effort that has completed in 2016 on the Pocomoke River. The depression allows the river’s water to spill over its That brings an added been decades in the making is trying banks more frequently into its floodplain. (Dave Harp) benefit, Strano said. to undo the damage. With less water gush- Backhoes and bulldozers are the Pocomoke, we’re going to see a create oxygen-starved “dead zones” that ing down the river in high doses, there carving more than 100 breaches in pretty important impact in the Chesa- are nearly devoid of life. And, excess should be less flooding downstream. the levees along a 9-mile stretch of peake Bay.” sediment turns the water cloudy, block- A flood gauge near the northern ter- the river just south of Route 50 near The Chesapeake has been over- ing the sunlight to underwater grasses, minus of the current project area tells the Wicomico-Worcester county line. loaded with sediment and nutrients for which are important habitat for young the story. Strano’s research shows the Then, they’re rolling into the sur- decades, leading to a federally driven fish and blue crabs. Pocomoke rose at least 6 inches above rounding farmland, plugging scores of cleanup campaign with a 2025 deadline. The Pocomoke River rises in the level of its floodplain 4.3 times a ditches that were dug to ferry storm- The nutrients spawn algae blooms that southern Delaware from the Great year from 1997–2016. But since that water away as quickly as possible. Cypress Swamp, home to some of the flow was hemmed in by levees, the A coalition of state and federal northernmost stands of bald cypress river typically only escaped its channel agencies has been collaborating with trees in the country. From there, its about once a year. The Nature Conservancy on the Poco- black-tinged waters travel about 70 In that regard, the river’s chan- moke River restoration since 2015. miles to the south, then southwest, nelization was a smashing success. Work is expected to be completed emptying into the Chesapeake near the The Pocomoke River Swamp was once by the end of the year on the current Maryland-Virginia border. considered an “almost impenetrable phase of the project, which extends About one-third of the river’s wilderness” akin to the vast Dismal from Porters Crossing Road north to watershed consists of agricultural Swamp of Virginia and North Caro- U.S. Route 50. In the coming years, fields. Scientists determined that nutri- lina, according to a pre-channelization the group plans to restore the segment ents from that cropland were at least description. The channel reduced stretching from that point north to the partially to blame for an outbreak of the floodplain’s width by half — and Delaware state line. Pfiesteria piscicida on the lower part in some parts, two-thirds — of its The nearly $4 million project, of the river in the late 1990s, when the original size. By the 21st century, funded by government and nonprofit microscopic organisms was blamed for much of the upper portion of the river sources, is designed to slow the water killing countless fish and devastating was flanked by a floodplain measuring down, officials said. The breaches will the local seafood industry. little more than 1,000 feet, the U.S. allow the river to spill more often onto The outbreak prompted a raft of Geological Survey found. 4,000 acres of its historic floodplain, state legislation aimed at curbing nutri- While the change gave neighboring diverting tons of nutrients and sediment ent pollution on farms and in cities. farmers a wider berth for planting that would otherwise gush downstream Little was done afterward to improve crops, it robbed the Chesapeake Bay and enter the Chesapeake Bay. the Pocomoke River itself until the of one of nature’s most potent filters. “It’s a key location where we conservancy stepped in to restore its When the river’s water would spill into can make significant water quality floodplain. the floodplain, it stayed put for several improvements,” said Amy Jacobs, As for the impact to drainage — days, if not weeks, Strano said. That agricultural program director for The the raison d’être of the Pocomoke’s was time enough for much of the float- Nature Conservancy in Maryland and A bald cypress emerges from a 2016 channelization — properties abutting Washington, DC. “Anything we do in breach. (Dave Harp) the project area should see no differ- Pocomoke continues on page 7 Bay Journal • November 2018 7

Pocomoke from page 6 can to open up these floodplains.” Each of the breaches stretches along ing sediment to settle onto the land and 100 feet of shoreline and measure for wetlands plants and trees to soak anywhere from 2–5 feet below the up excess nutrients. height of the adjoining levee. The Pocomoke’s wetlands also are a Strano and Brian Jennings, an resting spot for migrating birds, ducks Annapolis-based Fish and Wildlife and other waterfowl, so enhancing biologist, recently visited a breach off that habitat became another goal for Whiton Crossing Road on an overcast the restoration effort. The flocks can but steamy morning. grow so dense above the river corridor About 100 yards to the west, the that they register as clouds on weather old Pocomoke River trickled beneath radar equipment, said Rich Mason, a a road culvert and curved its way wildlife biologist with the U.S. Fish through the forest. It is one of several and Wildlife Service’s Chesapeake stretches where the old riverbed Bay Field Office in Annapolis. remains; elsewhere, it has been “As these flood plains cleanse obliterated by the channel. But back water and you get cleaner water to the east, where Strano and Jennings flowing downstream, that will had pulled off the road in their pickup benefit submerged aquatic grass in trucks, the channel was straight all of the ecosystem,” Mason said. “Those the way to the horizon. grasses are important for the ducks, so They tromped a little ways along it’s sort of all connected. Sometimes, Brian Jennings, left, and Steve Strano check on a recently dug breach along the the shoreline to a breach dug in we look at things with tunnel vision, upper reaches of Maryland’s Pocomoke River. Officials hope the breaches will 2016. As agreed to by the restoration but it’s going to have broader benefits allow sediment and nutrients to be filtered from stormwater before reaching the partners, no maintenance had been downstream.” Chesapeake Bay. (Dave Harp) performed in the interim. The restoration partners are striving Strano and Jennings found a lush, to return the river to its natural course could receive about $2,000 per acre Another obstacle was the scale of green meadow of wool grass and soft to the extent financially and logisti- for permanent easements under the the work itself. From the start, the rush. But they were most excited to cally possible. NRCS’s Wetlands Reserve Program or conservancy and its partners decided spot tree seedlings. Most were no more The biggest hurdle: Nearly two- $250 per acre for 10-year agreements against leveling the entire 28-mile than a few feet high, but there they thirds of the land needed for the with the Conservancy. system of levees. were — oaks, willows, bald cypress. initial phase of restoration was in Many of the landowners in the “In an ideal situation, we would take “This is what I envisioned would private hands, Strano said. So, The rural area have used their riverfront all the dirt piles and remove all of it and happen,” Strano said. Nature Conservancy negotiated with properties in the past for hunting, and get it all out of there,” Jacobs said. “But Nature, it seems, is coming back. It landowners to voluntarily provide they can continue to do so under the economically, that isn’t feasible. So, just needed time and a flood of support easements. The property owners easements, Jacobs said. we’re creating as large of a breach as we from humans. Tell YOUR Story

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·Message Development ·Press Releases Contact us: ·Press Connections ·Pitching Stories [email protected] ·Securing Media ·Media Training (703)623-3834 ·Speechwriting ·Events 8 Bay Journal • November 2018 Fones Cliffs: One parcel might be conserved, another faces legal challenges ≈ One tract is headed for wildlife Jeff Howeth, a profes- refuge instead of condominiums sional engineer based in Tappahannock, VA, hired while VA attorney general sues by Virginia True to get the over unpermitted tree-cutting on site back into compliance, neighboring site. said he has been submitting weekly reports to the agency By Whitney Pipkin and was surprised by the The future of a pair of properties that decision to refer the case to both seemed destined for development the attorney general. The along the Rappahannock River’s Fones DEQ has the option to refer Cliffs diverged last month. serious environmental viola- Terrell Bowers, the owner of a 250- tions to the Virginia attorney acre parcel who has oscillated for more general or the U.S. attorney than a decade between preserving and on a case-by-case basis. developing the property, finally placed Howeth said in late it under contract with The Conservation September that heavy rain Fund in October. If plans go smoothly, throughout the summer the land eventually will be preserved as made the work more difficult part of a national wildlife refuge. but that the cleared land was Meanwhile, the Virginia attorney growing grass and mostly general is suing the owners of an adjacent stabilized. 1,000-acre property over environmental “We’ve done — barring damages resulting from the unpermitted bad weather, which has been clearing of more than 12 acres at the end pretty horrendous — every- of 2017. The property’s owner, Virginia thing they’ve asked us to do True Corp., intends to capitalize on The Virginia Attorney General is suing the owners of a 1,000-acre Fones Cliff property over along the way,” Howeth said. cliffside views by building a luxury golf environmental damages resulting from the unpermitted clearing of more than 12 acres at the Howeth said Virginia resort and homes on the site. end of 2017. (Chesapeake Conservancy) True could go back to the Attorney General Mark Herring said county as early as November in a statement on Oct. 10 that he will seek action against violations along the Virginia True to seek approval for changes to the the maximum allowable penalties for already erosion-prone cliffs. They also The Bowers conservation announce- development, which currently focuses “significant and repeated environmental seem more hopeful now that at least the ment came a few days after the case on single-family homes and a lodge sur- violations” at the Virginia True property, Bowers property is on its way to becom- involving Virginia True was referred to rounding a golf course. The company is which could run up to $32,500 per day ing a publicly accessible wildlife refuge the attorney general’s office for poten- considering building luxury condomini- for each violation. rather than a private enclave of homes. tial legal action. ums instead “to lessen the footprint” of Conservation organizations have “The fact that it’s finally under con- The owners of the property cleared the project. spent more than a decade trying to tract is the culmination of a lot of effort more than a dozen acres of trees along Advocates that oppose development protect land along the 4-mile stretch by a lot of people,” said Joe McCauley, the cliffs late last fall. The firm’s Vir- of the Virginia True property have kept of cliffs, which has remained largely who began working with Bowers while ginia-based lawyer at the time claimed a close eye on construction and lobbied undeveloped for 400 years. The land at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that he wasn’t aware of the need for state regulators to take any violations along the cliffs hosts a high concentra- before joining the effort as a fellow at the certain permits before beginning the seriously. They applauded the attorney tion of eagles and is significant to the Chesapeake Conservancy. “I hope … that work. But individuals who had opposed general’s decision to sue the property Rappahannock Tribe, which received we can find a way to work with the other the development and its promises to owner over what Herring called in a federal recognition in 2018 and had a Fones landowners to really conserve the complete an “environmentally sensitive statement “significant and repeated historic presence along Fones Cliffs. whole feature.” project” said the missteps made their environmental violations.” The cliffs were the site of an encounter Bowers said in an early October press fears about the project’s impacts come The suit, filed in Richmond County in 1608 between the Rappahannock release that “an incredible twist of fate” to fruition. Circuit Court, alleges 17 counts of illegal people and English explorers led by led him to pivot toward conservation In the spring, heavy rain contributed actions by Virginia True at Fones Cliffs. Capt. John Smith. and away from development, including to erosion on the newly cleared land and “Today’s news from the attorney The Rappahannock Tribe’s Chief a pending attempt to construct 10-story was linked to a landslide in late May on general’s office makes me hopeful that Anne Richardson wrote in a recent letter condominiums on the river’s edge. the edge of the Virginia True property. we won’t have to say, ‘If only we had to the editor in the Fredericksburg Free- Heather Richards, The Conservation By that time, the company had tried a little harder to stop the damage,’” Lance Star that the tribe wants to see all Fund’s Virginia director and program already received two notices of viola- wrote Kathleen C. Harrigan, executive of the land along Fones Cliffs preserved. manager, confirmed that the Bowers tion and would receive a third from the director of Friends of the Rappahan- She wrote that the land “is sacred property is under contract, with a state Department of Environmental nock, in a statement the day the filing to the tribe as it was once our home closing date tentatively scheduled for Quality for lacking the proper permits was announced. and today is home to the bald eagle, a December. But she remained cautious, while prepping the land for develop- symbol of our spirituality.” because these purchases are subject to ment. A consent order issued by state About face A Richmond County board rezoned acquiring federal funding. regulators and signed by Virginia Next door to Virginia True, Bowers the pair of properties in 2012 and “It’s not done until it’s closed,” she True’s executive vice president, Howard seemed in recent years to be inching 2015 to allow for increased density as said, but “it is under contract, and we do Kleinhendler, at the end of May details away from preservation and toward requested by the property owners. expect to close by the end of this year.” violations at the site that resulted in a developing his property beyond his A Richmond County board rezoned The Conservation Fund plans to $42,000 fine. The order also required own partially constructed home, the the pair of properties in 2012 and 2015 to sell the property to the U.S. Fish and the company to submit weekly reports only one that exists on the site. allow for increased density as requested Wildlife Service so it can be added to to the DEQ on their progress toward Bowers, who resides in South Caro- by the property owners. the more than 9,000-acre Rappahannock stabilizing erosion at the site and lina, began building the house after he Those watching the projects were River Valley National Wildlife Refuge, implementing a stormwater manage- encouraged to see the state taking strong Richards confirmed. ment plan. Fones continues on page 9 Bay Journal • November 2018 9

Fones from page 8 Deane, to accept The Conservation Fund’s offer. Deane Bowers, an environ- bought the riverside property as a week- mental folk artist, has wanted the see the end getaway for his family in 2002. But property conserved for years, Bowers he stopped construction when he began said. getting offers from both developers and “She helped me see that even though conservation groups amid a white-hot the number was considerably less than real estate market in the early 2000s. what Virginia True had it contracted for McCauley said conservation groups last year, it was close enough.” He wrote. have appraised his property three times “In the big scheme of things, it was the over the years, but none of the offers right thing to do.” made to Bowers were accepted. In 2015, Conservation groups that have lobbied Richmond County officials granted for more than a decade to see portions of Bowers’ request to rezone the property to Fones Cliffs preserved lauded the freshly allow for a 45-home “conservation com- minted deal. munity” on the property. Bowers also has “It’s welcome news that a 250- entertained offers from Virginia True, acre section of Fones Cliffs could be looking to add his land to their project. preserved, given that a neighboring During the Bay Journal’s visit to the 1,000-acre parcel continues to be under Bowers property earlier this year, Bowers threat from development violations said he would be ready to make a deal by a different owner,” wrote Rebecca soon. Tomazin, Virginia executive director “I guess at this point, I want to sell of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, in and move on,” said Bowers, who said he This is the view of the Rappahannock and Fones Cliff from the 250-acre parcel a statement. “We’re glad that Terrell felt ostracized by residents who opposed Terrell Bowers has agreed to sell for conservation purposes. (Wbitney Pipkin) Bowers has agreed to sell a portion of his project during the rezoning process. the cliffs for conservation and hope for a “My druthers would be for it to be con- Bowers was scheduled to go before in South Carolina. She was trying to get smooth transfer by the end of the year.” served, but I am not an anti-development the Richmond County Planning Com- out of the expected path of Hurricane For now, McCauley said he is pleased person. I’m sensitive to the environment, mission on Sept. 10 to present his Florence, scheduled to bear down on the that Bowers has signed on the dotted line but I don’t think putting 22 houses on this conceptual plan for rezoning his “Rap- region that weekend, and her car had and hopes that the property will become cliff is going to destroy the river or the pahannock Cliffs” development to allow broken down. a public place where visitors can connect Chesapeake Bay.” four 10-story condominiums along the “I could either stay put and go to the with both nature and the past. What changed his mind? Bowers cliffs instead of single-family homes. planning commission and head home “This spot,” he said, “looks very wrote that a series of unexpected events A few days before the meeting, The Tuesday, or rescue the damsel in dis- much the same as it did 400 years ago. — including Hurricane Florence and a Conservation Fund made a proposal to tress,” Bowers wrote. And that should be an inspiration to us nearly stranded wife — contributed to purchase his property for an undisclosed He headed to South Carolina and, to work together to make other places the decision. sum. Then, he got a call from his wife over the weekend, decided with his wife, that vibrant and accessible for people.”

FLOODED ROADS? BLOCKED CULVERTS? DAMAGED TREES? SOUNDS LIKE A BEAVER PROBLEM.

Let Ecotone provide a humane and cost-effective alternative to trapping. Call us today for a FREE consultation! www.ecotoneinc.com 410.420.2600 10 Bay Journal • November 2018 To save farmland in Cumberland County, PA, officials look to Lancaster ≈ Private land trust could reach 18 acres. It was built in 2010 just out to those not accepted by outside the county seat of Carlisle. Citizens have expressed anger at government program. the continued construction of ware- By Donna Morelli houses along Interstate 81, dubbing Farmland preservation has become the large structures “monster” an increasing priority in Cumberland warehouses, posting yard signs and County, PA, where residential and arranging protests. commercial development — especially Conservation debates also for large warehouses — is putting steady heated up over the county’s recent pressure on what’s left of the rural proposal to use eminent domain to landscape. The drive to pick up the pace take a privately owned, 116-acre of farmland preservation has led to a historic farmstead — which has budding partnership between the Cum- been protected since 1986 through berland County Department of Planning an easement with a private land trust and the neighboring county’s Lancaster — to construct a school. Crowds Farmland Trust to see if the nonprofit filled the school district’s meetings organization might extend its work into in opposition. The county indicated Cumberland County. that it would withdraw its plans after “There is definitely a need,” said Jeff the state legislature passed a bill in Swinehart, deputy director of the trust. June that made it harder for public “We heard from the community that the entities to use eminent domain on warehouse development is a concern of preserved properties. some farmers. They are worried about the Along with addressing citizen growth pressures and what happens to Jeffery Swinehart, (left) deputy director of the Lancaster County Farmland Trust, talks concerns, protecting farmland can these lands around intersections and exits to Jeff Graybill of Penn State Extension. The land trust is considering an expansion of its benefit the environment. That’s as they convert to industrial and com- farmland preservation work to Cumberland County. (Dave Harp) because the preservation agreement mercial uses.” can require the use of conservation Protecting more farmland in Cum- ria to qualify for the program: Applicants community’s interest in working with a practices that promote water quality in berland County could also be good for are ranked by soil type, acreage and prox- private land trust. local creeks, the Susquehanna River the Susquehanna River and Chesapeake imity to other preserved farms. The county The trust expects to finish its study in and downstream in the Chesapeake Bay because environmental stewardship accepts about five to eight farms from an early 2019. Based on its findings, the trust Bay. Farms preserved with state funds, practices can be required as part of the average of 25 applications each year. will then determine whether it can justify for example, must have a current con- preservation agreement. Stephanie Williams, county coordina- expanding services into Cumberland servation plan — a road map to needed Cumberland County is located directly tor for the program, said that extra help County, about an hour’s drive from its improvements on the farm to protect soil across the Susquehanna River from Har- may be needed. headquarters. and water quality. Cumberland County risburg. According to the data center at “We wanted to see how we could pre- “We are excited about the possibility,” takes that one step further by requiring Penn State University, it’s been the fastest serve more farmland by means that work Swinehart said. “We have really started plans that detail manure management and growing county in Pennsylvania for two outside of the state program,” Williams ramping up our outreach. We are looking erosion control. years. Its commissioners attribute the said. “There are farms in the county that at where the opportunities are to raise Agriculture is the top contributor of growth to a high median income and low don’t rank well in the state program and dollars and to identify the highly visible nutrient and sediment pollution to the taxes, the attractions of approximately there are farmers, particularly in the Plain leaders in the agricultural community.” Chesapeake. According to the Penn- 55,000 acres of state parks and forests Sect community, with a desire to preserve So far, Swinehart said, the response sylvania Department of Environmental and a setting that includes approximately their farms but who are not comfortable has been positive. He spoke to farmers Protection, Cumberland County is one of 154,000 acres of farmland. working within a government program.” who prefer to work with a private group five south-central counties that together The county’s rich limestone soil hosts Private land trusts are funded through rather than a government agency and was contribute about 25 percent of the state’s productive farms, most of which are grants and private donations, and they can surprised when one enthusiastic farmer nutrient pollution load to the Bay. The cradled between the Yellow Breeches be more flexible in deciding which farms was ready to donate an easement. Most others are Lebanon, Centre, Bedford and and Conodoguinet creeks on relatively they accept into their program. So farms of the county’s 33 municipalities are on Franklin. flat, well-drained land. Plain Sect farms, that didn’t make it into the state-county board. County residents as a whole have “When we’re helping the farmer, including Amish and Mennonite, are program could be candidates for an ease- also expressed support for farmland we’re also helping our waterways and the common in the western part of the ment with a land trust. preservation. A 2017 survey showed that Chesapeake Bay,” said Kirk Stoner, direc- county. The state Department of Agricul- The county approached the Lancaster 67 percent of residents ranked farmland tor of the county planning department, ture reports that one out of six jobs in the Farmland Trust because of its recognized protection as “extremely important.” The where the farmland protection program county is in agriculture or a business that success in protecting farmland, including survey was completed by nearly 3,000 is located. “If they are going to use public supports it. agreements with the Plain Sect. The trust people as part of an update to the county’s dollars to preserve their farms, they also So far, approximately 19,000 acres of was founded in 1980 from a similar need comprehensive plan. need to be good stewards of the land and farmland have been preserved by a state- to expand the efforts of the Lancaster Residents are especially concerned water on that farm.” county program, funded by both sources County Agricultural Preservation Board. with the boom in large warehouse Owners of preserved farmland can and coordinated locally by the Cumberland Since then, the organization has con- construction that has been transforming also get priority consideration for funds County Agricultural Land Preservation served 29,000 acres of farmland. the landscape for years. Located within a that help put conservation practices in the Board. The program buys the development Armed with a $50,000 grant from the few hours’ drive of five ports and bisected ground. The state Department of Agri- rights to the farm at an average price of National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, by Interstates 81 and 76, the county has culture’s Farmland Preservation Bureau $2,500 per acre, and the landowner signs the trust is exploring opportunities in become a transportation hub for com- recently signed a five-year $6.3 million a conservation agreement — a legal docu- Cumberland County by meeting with mercial goods. cooperative agreement with the U.S. ment attached to the land’s deed stating landowners and businesses, as well as This is especially true in the western Environmental Protection Agency to help that the property must be used solely for municipal and county officials. They part of the county, where open farmland pay for agricultural practices on preserved agriculture in perpetuity. are looking to measure both potential makes for efficient construction sites. farms in six southcentral Pennsylvania But farms have to meet stringent crite- financial support and the agricultural There, Amazon’s warehouse alone covers counties, including Cumberland. Bay Journal • November 2018 11 Tangier Island prepares for long-awaited jetty construction ≈ Project will keep channel open Army Corps study. and protect harbor but won’t Many of Tangier’s residents — with roots going back multiple generations help much to offset sea level rise. on the island — are deeply skeptical of By Jeremy Cox climate change science and blame erosion Tangier Island is getting some state for its shrinking size. After a CNN report and federal help in its long-running battle about the island last year, President against the Bay’s punishing waves. But Trump, who has often called climate officials said that it won’t be much help change a “hoax,” phoned the town’s with a larger problem: sea level rise. mayor, James “Ooker” Eskridge, and told The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers him he had nothing to worry about. and Virginia Marine Resources Com- The jetty is set to start at the south- mission announced in late September an western tip of Uppards Island, a formerly agreement to construct a nearly 500-foot- inhabited island just north of Tangier, and long stone jetty just off the island’s extend south into the navigational chan- western shore. nel, officials said. Although it will protect The $2.6 million project is designed the channel, the barrier isn’t expected to to keep the community’s navigational Rising seas, land subsidence and erosion have claimed approximately two-thirds provide any relief to the land from sea channel open and protect its commercial of the Tangier Island system’s land mass since 1850. (Dave Harp) level rise, Strickler said. harbor from waves and future storm The sea is rising in the Bay at a rate surges, said Virginia Secretary of Natural state is picking up the rest. study the potential for a jetty. A lack of of three-quarters of a foot every 50 years Resources Matthew Strickler. Tangier Island’s economy is closely funding and the need for further studies and accelerating, according to the 2015 “They’ve got some significant chal- tied to the water. Its shores are lined with led to repeated delays. Army Corps study. It predicted that lenges with their harbor from a safety docks, deadrise work boats and “shedding In the meantime, the low-lying island Goose Island, one of Tangier’s three main perspective, and there’s some shoaling houses,” shacks used for processing soft has more recently played a role in the islands, will be underwater by 2050, and with sediment getting in,” he said. “It’s crabs. national debate over climate change. all will become inundated by 2106. not protected from some of the winds, “A clear and open navigation channel Tangier’s 400 residents live along three The jetty project, though, “gives so the jetty will be a buffer for that and is key for public safety and for the local ridges on an island measuring 5 miles our island and residents, young and improve access.” economy, which counts the Chesapeake long and 1.5 miles wide with no access to old, renewed hope that we can save our The agreement paves the way for Bay and tourism among its central the mainland except by boat or air. homes and our way of life,” Eskridge said design work and construction to begin assets,” Gov. Ralph Northam said in a Rising seas, land subsidence and in a statement. “This is the way that good later this year and be completed in 2019, statement. erosion have claimed approximately government should work. This is a great officials said. The federal government is The project dates to 1994, when two-thirds of the island system’s land example of true partnership between shouldering 80 percent of the cost; the Congress authorized the Army Corps to mass since 1850, according to a 2015 state and federal governments.” 12 Bay Journal • November 2018 Bay scientists: Stream restoration benefits not clear cut ≈ States and local governments worms and maggots, Pond said. are investing millions of dollars in Again, the issue seems to be the low amount of oxygen in some restored restoration but the science is still streams, he said. “The thing with dissolved evolving. oxygen is it’s a kill switch. You get below By Jeremy Cox 2 milligrams [per liter], you get a lot of Erik Michelsen stopped his county- death with macroinvertebrates that may issued white Jeep Cherokee on the side have colonized,” Pond said during a recent of the road in a leafy neighborhood south conference call with the Chesapeake Bay of Annapolis, then plodded down into a Program stream health panel. ravine. He followed a trail through a tunnel Underwood was listening, growing of oak trees and rare Atlantic white cedars. frustrated. In an interview later, he called it The air was heavy with the scent of dew. unfair for scientists to evaluate all restored At the bottom, Michelsen emerged in a pic- streams with the same criteria when turesque scene: a babbling stream slightly great variations exist among them. Truly too wide to leap across that was strewn “restored” streams, known in the industry with rocks, ranging in size from golf balls as regenerative stormwater conveyances, to microwaves. or RSCs, re-establish hydrologic connec- If it seemed too natural to be natural, tions between channels, their floodplains it was. In 2005, the state of Maryland and the groundwater, he said. and Anne Arundel County collaborated “You saw that our detractors were call- on a nearly $1 million project that Erik Michelsen, head of Anne Arundel County’s watershed restoration program, ing a lot of things RSC that were not RSC,” transformed two failing stormwater stands near the base of a restored stream that flows into the South River. (Jeremy Cox) Underwood said. In one case, he added, ponds into “Wilelinor Stream,” named “they were studying bugs at the outfall after the adjoining subdivision. Bulldoz- 40 percent in sediment. Joe Arrowsmith, water resources pipe from the Annapolis Mall.” ers reshaped the land, workers sowed Some stream restoration projects curb engineer with Straughan Environmental in Ground zero for the debate is Mary- underwater grass beds and dump trucks more pollution and others less, given the Columbia, MD, said it’s time for the field to land’s highly developed Western Shore. hauled in tons of sandstone boulders and variations in construction methods and evolve. “We have reached our base goals, Three out of every five miles of streams river rock. local topography, Filoso said. But she and now it’s time to reach higher goals,” recommended for restoration across the “It’s essentially creating systems that and other researchers studying projects Arrowsmith said. Chesapeake’s six-state watershed are in slow the water down through the valley, across the mid-Atlantic have collected Restored streams only get better Maryland cities and towns. stack the water up, provide an opportunity enough evidence to suggest that stream with time, proponents say, as the scars As he drove to another stream restora- for it to be processed and slowly released restoration alone can’t solve the region’s of construction heal and nature reasserts tion site a couple of miles away from down to tidewater at Church Creek and the runoff problem. “We are trying to solve itself. But one improvement is obvious Wilelinor Stream, Michelsen explained South River,” said Michelsen, administra- a big problem … with a solution that isn’t almost immediately: Water travels through why the technology has caught on there. tor for Anne Arundel’s watershed protec- sufficient,” Filoso said. “The solution being the channels more slowly. That leads to Anne Arundel’s landscape, he said, unites tion and restoration program. implemented doesn’t match the magnitude less streambank erosion and less sediment two disparate features: loose, sandy soils Facing a 2025 deadline to clean up the of the problem.” being transported downstream. Phospho- and a Piedmont-like terrain. During heavy Chesapeake Bay, officials in urban and Since 2010, when the EPA and Bay rus, another problem nutrient, clings to rains, that combination often leads to suburban areas are spending millions of states agreed to their most rigorous sediment. So it ends up staying put rather torrents of erosion that have scoured small dollars on stream restoration projects. The restoration plan to date, the amount of than being flushed into the Chesapeake. streams and detached them from natural six states in the estuary’s watershed, along nitrogen running off urban areas into But there can be downsides, scientists floodplains. with the District of Columbia, have told the Chesapeake has increased from caution. For instance, portions of restored He stepped over the curb at the edge of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency 39.7 million pounds a year to 41.3 streams can turn into “dead zones” a half-empty park-and-ride lot and tromped that they plan to restore a total of 655 million pounds, according to the federal themselves, Filoso said. a few dozen yards to where a grassy miles of streams. The projects operate on agency’s latest computer models. This is One of the main methods that contrac- margin fell away into a gently sloping a theory that converting upstream waters despite an overall 11 percent reduction in tors use to slow floodwater is creating a wetland. In 2016, the State Highway from stormwater superhighways to slow nitrogen from all sources, fueled largely chain of pools separated by rock weirs; Administration rehabilitated the channel, lanes would decrease erosion and encour- by cuts to pollution from farms and they’re embedded in a slope so that one which flows into Broad Creek. age more water to soak into the ground, wastewater treatment plants. trickles into the next. In warm weather, Just about everything about the original reducing the amount of nutrients and sedi- Nitrogen triggers algae blooms that decaying plants trapped in the slow- headwaters channel was unnatural, ment heading into the Bay. Now, there is a cloud Bay waters, causing underwater moving water can use up its oxygen. including its very existence; it was carved growing scientific consensus that stream grass beds to die back and rob the water When water turns anoxic, or lacking in by gushing waters turned loose by a dam restoration isn’t improving water quality of oxygen as they die, creating “dead oxygen, it can flip that lingering phospho- break in the 1980s, Michelsen said. By the and aquatic habitats as much as was once zones” nearly devoid of fish and crabs. rus from a positive story to a negative one. 21st century, the uncontrolled water had hoped in a highly urbanized area. Efforts to reduce nitrogen fell short of A chemical reaction unglues the nutrient scoured a channel as deep as 6 feet. “It’s not a waste of money,” said the Bay cleanup midpoint reduction goal, from the sediment, transforming it into a The entire restoration area measures Solange Filoso, a biogeochemist with registering a 30 percent decrease instead fertilizer for algae blooms, Filoso said. a handful of acres and is responsible for the University of Maryland Center for of 60 percent. “All the restorations have trade-offs,” the drainage of a watershed spread across Environmental Science. “But the return on Proponents of stream restoration say she added. 250 acres – roughly half of it consisting investment is not as high as we thought it that its benefits haven’t fully come to light There is disagreement over whether the of impervious cover, such as parking lots, would be.” because the practice remains in its infancy. re-engineered streams are providing better highways and buildings. Filoso has been monitoring the “I would tell you ecological restora- habitat for insects, frogs and other wildlife. Still, the wetland seemed to teem Wilelinor and several other reconstructed tion is not yet a science,” said Keith Studying more than a dozen stream sites in with life. On Michelsen’s approach, a streams for about a decade. At first, she Underwood, an Annapolis-based Maryland, EPA researchers Rebecca Cope snowy egret and green heron took flight. was confident she would see significant contractor who was one of the region’s and Greg Pond found that restored streams Pointing out the birds, he said that their improvement in water quality. What she pioneers in the field, starting his first weren’t improving aquatic life and, in presence suggests the wetland is prob- found was much more modest: an average projects in the mid-1990s. “It’s still very some cases, were leading to less diversity. reduction of 5–15 percent in nitrogen and much in the era of an art.” All that could be found in some were Projects continues on page 13 Bay Journal • November 2018 13

Wilelinor Stream was restored in Striped bass reproduction 2015 after a pair of neighborhood above average in MD, VA ponds began ≈ Upward trend over the last to fail south few years bodes well for popular of Annapolis. Workers fish’s future. added rocks By Karl Blankenship and plants to This year’s heavy rainfall did not the streambed seem to hurt spawning striped bass, as hoping to scientists in both Maryland and Virginia slow down reported that reproduction for the prized water flows fish was bit above average. during strong It was the second straight year when storms. the closely watched striped bass index (Jeremy Cox) was above average in Maryland. It was also the sixth straight year when Projects from page 12 seepage, and installing rain gardens to reproduction was at, or above, average in filter stormwater at its sources. Virginia. ably full of insects as well. One of the best hopes for answering Though striped bass migrate along the Michelsen, another participant in the questions about stream restoration lies Atlantic Coast, about three-quarters of Seine survey chief scientist Brian Gal- panel phone call, took the criticisms in with Muddy Creek, a tributary of the them spawn in Maryland waterways, and lagher counts juvenile striped bass and stride. “I think the field is still so young, Rhode River in Edgewater, which is also the success of reproduction there — or other organisms following a seine haul on every project is sort of its own experiment.” in Anne Arundel County. It is one of the lack thereof —has historically been a the James River. (© D. Malmquist/VIMS) Anne Arundel is home to dozens of only sites where scientists studied a chan- predictor of future coastwide abundance. stream restoration projects, dating back nel before the work crews arrived and “Consecutive years of healthy repro- have been near average in recent years more than 15 years, and officials there and after they left — a key to sorting out what duction are a great sign for the future of suggests that the abundance of juvenile elsewhere in Maryland appear undeterred impacts can be ascribed to restoration. this iconic species,” said David Blazer, striped bass has been stable. by their middling results. Gov. Larry Workers used sand and wood chips the Maryland Department of Natural Striped bass play an important role Hogan’s administration recently awarded to raise the streambed, which had fallen Resources’ director of fishing and boat- as a top predator in the Chesapeake Bay $22 million to 18 projects designed to 12 feet below the surrounding land. They ing services. ecosystem and are a valuable recreational improve the health of waterways. At least installed small berms across the width The DNR reported its 2018 young- and commercial species. The population 14 involve restoring urban streams or using of the channel at certain points to check of-year index — based on the number in the Bay hit historic lows in the late similar techniques to capture and store the flow of water. Where once there was of juvenile fish captured during summer 1970s, prompting a fishing moratorium in stormwater. a deep ditch, water can now overflow the seine net surveys — was 14.8, a bit above the mid-to-late 1980s. It has since recov- To government officials, stream resto- banks into a surrounding marsh. the 65-year average of 11.8. It has been ered, but remains closely monitored. ration is a relatively simple, inexpensive The $1 million project caused a “pro- above average for three of the last four The Maryland index represents the solution to a complex problem, said found change” to the ecosystem, said Tom years. average number of fish less than 1 year Mike Lovegreen, stream team leader Jordan, a senior scientist with the Smith- A similar survey conducted by the old captured in 132 samples collected at with the Upper Susquehanna Coalition sonian Environmental Research Center. Virginia Institute of Marine Science 22 survey sites in four major spawning in New York. In contrast, reconstruct- He collected data on Muddy Creek’s water recorded a mean value of 10.72 fish per areas — the Choptank, Potomac and ing drainage systems at the source of quality for one year before and two years seine haul in that state’s major rivers. Nanticoke rivers, and the Upper Bay. the problem — usually in decades-old after the restoration. That was a bit above the historic average DNR biologists have been conducting developments on private land — is a Almost immediately, he noticed an of 7.77 fish per seine haul and similar to the survey since 1954. much larger and more complicated fix, influx of wood ducks, salamanders and indices observed during the previous five Meanwhile, the Virginia survey involving logistical problems, disruption frogs. The water table rose, making the years. samples 18 sites in the Rappahannock, of neighborhoods and a lot more money. bank inhospitable to tulip poplars, and they Reproductive success can vary York and James river watersheds and has “It’s not a real popular sale,” said soon died. But his water samples showed widely from year-to-year because of been conducted since 1967. Lovegreen, who is also a member of the the stream performing as promised in weather and other factors. Mary Fabrizio, Juvenile fish “recruited” into the Bay Program’s stream health panel. some ways, particularly in its ability to the VIMS scientist who oversees the population this year will be large enough On one hand, it makes sense to con- sponge up phosphorus. Nitrogen levels Virginia survey, said the fact that indices for anglers to catch in three to five years. centrate restoration efforts on headwaters were down by only “marginal” levels. streams because they collect stormwater The restoration had another unexpected from such vast areas, Filoso said. On the effect — and not for the better. Portions other, the premise relies on extracting of the stream have turned a rusty color, a herculean amount of water-quality a symptom of iron leaching out of the improvement from a relatively small rehydrated soil around it. The iron oxidizes project footprint. For that reason, she refers when it comes in contact with the air at the to the re-engineered wetlands as “water- water’s surface. The bacteria that feed on treatment plants.” the iron deplete the oxygen in the water. “Usually they restore a 100 or 200 For Jordan, Maryland’s experiences meters of stream length,” Filoso said. “It’s with stream restoration present a larger a very small reach to take care of all the question: Should streams suffer so that the problems with pollution that are accumu- Bay may live? lating in the watershed.” “It’s some kind of urban runoff treat- She recommends that states and local ment system, and it doesn’t seem right,” he governments invest more in a holistic said. “It seems like we should design urban approach that includes replacing impervi- development to protect the streams and not ous surfaces with those that enable water the other way around.” 14 Bay Journal • November 2018 Biochar could be the hot new thing in addressing Bay’s poultry litter ≈ Baked manure better for Josh Frye environment and bottom line installed this gasifier but lacks industry standards. on his West By Jeremy Cox Virginia West Virginia farmer Josh Frye chicken raises chickens for a meat processor farm about a and sells most of their manure to decade ago, nearby crop growers for use as fertil- becoming a izer. But what he does with the rest of pioneer in the manure could help tackle two big the produc- environmental problems: cutting back tion of nutrient pollution in the Chesapeake biochar in Bay and reducing carbon emissions the Chesa- that accelerate global warming. peake Bay A bus-size contraption next to Frye’s watershed. three chicken houses bakes mounds The gasifier of chicken litter — the mixture of bakes manure, feathers and bedding materials poultry litter, that cover the houses’ floors — at producing temperatures up to 1,300 degrees. The the carbon- result is biochar, a black powdery rich biochar, substance that Frye said can serve many which can purposes, from improving soil health to be used sponging up nutrients from stormwater as a soil runoff. amendment. “Why can’t you take a pollutant out (Jeremy Cox) of the Chesapeake watershed and use it for a benefit?” asked Frye, whose farm is Cornell University. absorb. The excess nutrients wash into Installed nearly two years ago, it perched just inside the western edge of When he and other researchers the Bay, fueling algae blooms that lead looks like just another patch of grass. the Bay’s drainage area, near Wardens- released their findings about the “black to oxygen-starved “dead zones” all but But according to Ridges to Reef’s pre- ville, WV, and the Cacapon River. soil” in the early 2000s, it kindled a devoid of marine life. construction estimates, the bioreactor A NASA scientist has dubbed wildfire of scientific and entrepre- Despite improved science and should be removing up to 90 percent biochar an “environmental superstar.” neurial interest in the substance. What management strategies, agriculture, of the nitrates and 60 percent of the Al Gore has called the carbon-rich often gets lost in the telling of that in general, remains the Bay’s largest phosphorus from the stormwater that substance “one of the most exciting moment, Lehmann said, is that no one single source of nutrients. passes through it. new strategies” for reducing green- could say for sure whether the Indians Enter biochar. Lehmann said raw The group collected water samples house gas emissions. had produced the biochar intentionally manure contains about 2–3 percent over the summer at the Talbot County What’s more, making biochar can or were just burning debris. phosphorus, one of the nutrients farm, and the results should be avail- be lucrative, bringing in up to $2,000 “To say we’re rediscovering an fouling the Bay. Converting manure to able in the coming months, said Julie per ton rather than the $10 per ton they ancient wisdom from the Amazon is biochar boosts the phosphorus content Chang, a restoration ecologist with get for raw poultry litter, Frye said. a nice story, but I’m not sure we will to about 15 percent, putting it on par Ridges to Reefs, which is based in So why is Frye one of the relatively ever be able to say that conclusively with commercial-grade fertilizers. Sykesville, MD. few poultry farmers making and 100 percent,” he said. Farmers wouldn’t have to apply nearly “It’s not going to be the silver selling biochar in the Chesapeake’s Today, more than 100 U.S. com- as much of it and could target only bullet,” she said. But because bioreac- 64,000-square-mile watershed — or panies produce biochar, according the spots that most need the nutrient, tors can be installed without reducing a elsewhere, for that matter? The answer, to International Biochar Initiative Lehmann said. farm’s cropland acreage, Chang added, biochar companies say, boils down to surveys. About 45,000 tons are made Scientists also have found that bio- “theoretically there shouldn’t be an a lack of industry standards and the each year, and almost all of it is char can grip onto nitrate in the soil — issue to implementing it everywhere.” stubborn persistence of a marketplace derived from wood waste, Miles said. a leading theory is that it’s negatively that is either unaware of biochar’s Sawmills in the South cook sawdust charged surface attracts the positively Char troubles potential benefits or skeptical of them. in large gasifiers to produce biochar charged nutrients — and prevent it Miles, the biochar industry con- “Everything eventually ends up and methane, which they use to heat from leaching into nearby waters. sultant, is an optimist. But even he having its own operational value — what the kilns that dry their lumber. In the The charred material also is porous, concedes that the economic deck they’re willing to pay for a material,” West, urban landscaping debris is which helps it absorb and retain storm- remains stacked against biochar. said Tom Miles, an Oregon-based fed into biomass boilers that generate water. A budding industry is mixing “You could turn the clock back 30 biomass energy consultant and board electricity and biochar. biochar into “bioreactors,” which act years and be describing the compost- member with the International Biochar In the mid-Atlantic, biochar usage like large water filters at the edges ing industry,” he said. “A big differ- Initiative, which promotes the technol- has spread little beyond the academic of farm fields and urban spaces. Not ence is with compost, [a company ogy. “That just hasn’t happened yet for world. But advocates say the technol- only does biochar hold onto the water can] get paid to convert the residue to biochar.” ogy is on the verge of breaking into the longer, it also soaks up its nutrients. a product and with biochar, no one’s mainstream. The nonprofit Ridges to Reefs paying you.” Something old, something new Millions of chickens are produced is working with a grain farmer on With compost, municipalities pay a Biochar is rooted in a natural each year in the Chesapeake water- Maryland’s Eastern Shore to test the “tipping fee” to the facilities that convert process; it can be produced in a forest shed, particularly on the Delmarva use of biochar as a nutrient sponge. the material into energy, Miles said. fire. But the earliest known human- Peninsula. Farmers use the chicken The bioreactor used in that project The nascent biochar industry has made biochar dates back hundreds manure to fertilize crops on nearby consists of a 100-foot-by-30-foot patch also been challenged by an identity of years to Amazon Indians, said fields, but the rate of application is of wood chips and biochar buried Johannes Lehmann, a soil scientist at sometimes higher than crops can along a drainage ditch. Biochar continues on page 15 Bay Journal • November 2018 15

Biochar from page 14 $600,000 gasifier assembled next to crisis. Biochar can be derived from his chicken houses a host of organic source materials, in 2007. It sprouts a including: wood, coffee husks, coconut conveyor belt on one shells, cow manure and poultry litter. side, supports a ladder As a result, different recipes in the rear and has a bearing the same “biochar” label may cavernous oven in the yield widely divergent amounts of middle. carbon and nutrients. For example, The gasifier doesn’t carbon makes up about 70–80 percent incinerate the poultry of wood-based biochar but only 10–34 litter. Rather, it heats percent of poultry litter-based char. the litter at high “When you’re buying Cheerios, temperatures in a low- you’re buying Cheerios,” said Joe oxygen environment Berg, a restoration ecologist with to trigger a process Biohabitats, a Baltimore-based called pyrolysis. conservation planning and ecological There is virtually no restoration firm. “When you’re buying smoke or smell. biochar, you don’t want to be buying “The material, six different types of biochar. If there when it’s in [there], it are six, they need to be labeled.” looks like the end of a If the labeling problem could be cigarette butt. It’s not fixed, biochar companies would still fire, it’s smoldering,” face another hurdle: overcoming Frye said. scientific uncertainty about biochar’s Because of a ability to lock carbon in the ground. In design flaw, Frye’s recent years, soil scientists have been Josh Frye stands inside the fabric-covered hoop building where he stores poultry manure from his hopes of heating his feverishly working to provide scholarly farm until he’s ready to cook it inside his gasifier, turning it into carbon-rich biochar. (Jeremy Cox) chicken houses with perspectives on boosters’ claims. A the gasifier never fully search of the term “biochar” in a major materialized. Only one of the houses electronic academic database shows was ever hooked into the system. nearly 3,500 results over the last five But the biochar output exceeded his years compared with just shy of 700 wildest expectations. Frye can produce the previous 10 years. 1,000 pounds of biochar per hour, and Some studies have suggested that he stores the material in tarp-covered biochar can keep carbon from being mounds until he can find a buyer. released into the atmosphere for He sells the biochar primarily to thousands of years. Normally, when golf courses, which mix it with soil to plants decay, carbon dioxide is emitted improve turf growth, and scientists, into the air. Biochar, however, converts who use it in their research. But his carbon into a more-stable form that profits are limited by the lack of a decays over millennia instead of larger market. months, researchers say. “I can’t take these groups out to That has led advocates to push wine and dine them to get them to try for a marketplace in which biochar- my product,” Frye said. producing companies sell “credits” to A coalition of agricultural extension industries that release carbon to offset agents and wood industry leaders, those releases. known as the Mid-Atlantic Biochar But those hopes were dealt a huge When poultry manure is “cooked” at temperatures reaching as high as 800 Working Group, is trying to help blow in 2015 when the American degrees, the result is carbon-rich biochar, which resembles smashed charcoal. producers like Frye overcome such Carbon Registry, a nonprofit that sets It can serve many purposes, from improving soil health to sponging up nutrients hurdles. It helped him, for example, carbon-trading standards, declined from stormwater runoff. (Jeremy Cox) acquire $10,000 from a West Virginia to endorse the International Biochar economic development organization a Initiative’s protocol for biochar uncertainty over its ability to trap as he ran his blackened hands together. couple years ago to repair some of his credits. The scientific literature “did carbon. Frye never expected to become gasifier’s failing parts. not provide sufficient evidence of the a biochar pioneer. He is the latest of One of the coalition’s goals is to stability of soil carbon sequestration” ‘Why isn’t this happening now?’ several generations of farmers in his create a regional processing facility, in treated farm fields, the registry’s At a recent biochar conference in family and raises 800,000 chickens where several chicken farmers can reviewers said. Wilmington, DE, a speaker asked a a year in three long, metal buildings have their litter turned into biochar, The trade group is unlikely to take room filled with dozens of industry on their old homestead nestled in a said Tina Metzer, executive director of up the effort again anytime soon, members and scientists to raise their mountain valley. the Eastern West Virginia Community Miles said. hands if they were involved in turning Winters are long and cold in this and Technical College’s business A lack of scientific consensus animal manure into biochar. A lone part of Appalachia, and his heating startup arm and an organizer with the also led to a bleak assessment of hand shot up into the air from the far costs just kept rising. In 2007, he heard biochar working group. biochar in a 2011 U.S. Government end of the front row. about a technology that promised to She still recalls her reaction when Accountability Office report on A few weeks later and 200 miles help keep more money in his pocket. Frye first gave her a tour of his farm, potential climate engineering to the west, Josh Frye extended the Like the big power plants out West, its unusual piece of machinery and technologies. On a “technology same hand to show off the powdery he could use poultry litter to generate even more unusual product. readiness level” scale of 1 to 9, biochar evidence. energy. “We were like Josh — ‘It’s a no- received a 2, owing to a lack of plans “The way to tell if your carbon is With the help of state and federal brainer. Why isn’t it happening now?’” for large-scale implementation and good is if it wipes off easy,” Frye said agricultural grants, Frye had a Metzer said. 16 Bay Journal • November 2018

Artifacts from page 1 Virginia archaeologist Mike Barber of the state Department of A survey conducted by Virginia’s Historic Resources said the data from Longwood University found that 28 out of Longwood’s work revealed 25 sites on 313 historic sites on the commonwealth’s Virginia’s Eastern Shore alone that will shorelines would likely be gone within 50 wash away in the next 25 years. The next years. Remnants of settlements, cemeter- step is to identify how far those sites ies or shell deposits in erosion-prone areas extend inland and which are the most such as the Bay’s Eastern Shore or on significant. Barber explained that an private property could be especially archaeological site is more significant if hard to access before they disappear. its artifacts can still be discovered in an “These sites are washing away environment that’s largely undisturbed. every day, and there’s only so much “What we want to know is whether money going around to save them,” said the material is undisturbed the way the Stephanie Sperling, an archaeologist natives or colonials or whomever left with Maryland-National Capital Park it,” he said. “If we find a pile of bricks and Planning Commission’s natural and on a beach, that doesn’t tell anything. historical resources division. But if we find that they are part of a Until last year, Sperling spent a well that’s still intact on land, we can decade working as a consultant for determine more about the site.” Maryland’s Anne Arundel County, That means that, in some cases, sites which received an influx of federal and that have already experienced significant state funding for shoreline archaeology deterioration might not be as important as after 2012’s Hurricane Sandy. A two-year those that are still untouched but at risk study in the county, which has about 500 of eroding a few years from now. Barber miles of shoreline, showed that a quarter said his department is looking for other of its 1,600 archaeological sites could be groups to conduct additional research lost in the coming years — and kicked and, in the meantime, chipping away at off an invigorated season of excavation. sites the state has deemed a priority. About 80 percent of the endangered Virginia is one of a few states that sites are related to past Indian com- has a “threatened sites fund” estab- munities. Others are the locations of lished by the General Assembly in watermen’s homes, Colonial era towns 1985, that provides about $50,000 a year and plantations, and Bay beach resorts for pressing archaeological work. that bustled with visitors in the late “The amount of money has fluctu- 1800s through the mid-1900s. ated and has been higher on occasion, The Lost Towns Project, a nonprofit Archaeologists David K. Hazzard and Michael J. Madden work along the water to but we’re very happy to get what composed of scholars and organizations sift through potential findings on the shores at Savage Neck on Virginia’s Eastern we get,” Barber said. “We use it as interested in uncovering the region’s past, Shore. (Provided by Mike Barber) judiciously as we can.” provided additional funding to excavate Oyster middens, Historic research on the fingerlike five of the sites, “to get what we could like this one sliver of land that is Virginia’s portion before it went away,” Sperling said. on Maryland’s of the Eastern Shore has been a priority Archaeologists say that funding to Eastern Shore, for decades, at least since archaeologist excavate sites — even those predicted are long- Darrin Lowry completed sweeping sur- to wash away soon — can be difficult buried heaps veys of resources there around 2000 for to come by because there are so many of discarded the state. Some of the sites and artifacts projects vying for limited dollars. oyster shells are thought to date to the Paleo-Indian Maryland and Virginia have each and other items, era, when the people first migrated to set aside state funds for preservation some thousands North and South America, and could be efforts, but the last flurry of federal of years old, as old as 17,000 years. funding came to this region through that contain “That whole area extended to the recovery grants after Hurricane Sandy. clues about the edge of the continental shelf when there The Anne Arundel initiative took region’s early was no Chesapeake Bay,” Barber said. shape when that the state was dedicating human resi- The Eastern Shore “would be the last funds to infrastructure being threatened dents. land mass left from that time period.” by climate change, and archaeologists (Dave Harp) “There are resources that are going were at the table discussing the impacts. to be disappearing, and we need to Maryland has a historic preserva- Located in south-central Virginia, onto maps of historic sites in the state. save those now,” he said. tion specialist who monitors forecast Longwood University completed a The results could help researchers At a site on the shore called Savage changes and advises local governments survey last year for the Virginia Depart- prioritize which locations they tackle Neck, near Eastville in Virginia’s on how to prioritize projects. ment of Historic Resources to assess the first in a landscape where many could be Northampton County, researchers and The increase of superstorms has impact of changing shorelines on cul- at risk of washing away every year. volunteers discovered a midden full of continued to stir conversations about tural resources in four counties. When Bates said students found the work oyster shells, ceramics and some stone the impact of weather on infrastructure asked why their far-from-the-shore “utterly relevant,” because it showed artifacts dating back to between AD and cultural resources. university was a good fit for the project, them how urgent the art of archaeologi- 300 and 700. At Church Neck, also in “Now,” Sperling said, “it’s normal to Longwood professor of anthropology cal discovery can be. Northampton County, crews “managed talk about this. It’s a topic of conversa- Brian Bates said, half-joking, “We “Climate change is something our to salvage a portion” of a thin shell tion at every [archaeology] conference, actually expect to be beachfront in 100 students grew up hearing about, but it’s midden that dates back to a time near because we’re losing so many sites.” years, so we’re just thinking ahead.” not something the average undergrad is 3,000 BC when its residents appeared Shifting sands can reveal new Archaeology undergraduate students able to do something about,” said Bates, to move around more frequently. archaeological opportunities, even as at the university used predictive soft- who’s also executive director of Long- others are being washed away. ware to overlay future shoreline changes wood’s Institute of Archaeology. Artifacts continues on page 17 Bay Journal • November 2018 17

Artifacts from page 16 In other places, archaeological work on the shorelines is showing how much history has already been lost to time and tide. Kirsti Uunila, historic preservation planner for Calvert County, MD, said recent underwater topography studies show how much has been lost at the site of a historic town near the mouth of Battle Creek. First established as the county seat of Calverton, and also known as “Battle Town” or “Calvert Towne,” it was the second colonial town in Mary- land. The studies revealed that 130 feet of its historic footprint — and the remains of significant buildings — are now underwater. Some of the work was conducted with the help of the Maryland Historical Trust’s underwater archaeologist, Susan Workers screen through carefully Langley, who dives beneath the water’s excavated soil to search for artifacts surface to see pieces of the past that along a rapidly eroding shoreline have already gone under. in southern Anne Arundel County, “At some point, where we’re work- MD. Known by archaeologists as ing now will be lost as well. That’s the the Aldridge site, the Bayfront land urgency,” said Uunila, who estimates probably served as a seasonal base the site has lost about 15 feet of ground camp for Native people between 1250 since she began observing it about 20 BC and AD 50. Thick shell middens years ago. “I’ve documented some of the have been discovered on site. (Anne features eroding out of the bank as they Arundel County Cultural Resources go, but I know there are many more.” Division and the Lost Towns Project) A few years ago, the county began cataloguing its historic resources, “It’s complicated, so I try not to say, “is kind of like a wet sock hanging past as archaeologists would like. noting which are at risk of disappearing ‘We’re going to lose so many.’ But it’s between the Patuxtent River and the Sperling said she’s had a similar and which are worth attempting to save. certainly enough to say there’s an issue Bay, and every wrinkle in that sock experience in Anne Arundel County Uunila said the work revealed that a 2-foot here,” she said. is a creek. It’s what’s made it a great and in her current work as she tries to coastal flood — less than what portions Many Calvert County sites, including place to live for 12,000 years.” spread the word among residents on an of North Carolina saw under Hurricane the historic county seat, are located on Those who now live along the increasingly populated shore. Florence in September — would damage private property. Crews looking to exca- county’s creeks were recently invited “Making people aware of the fact 44 archaeological sites in the county. vate them must not only find the funding to a program on shoreline erosion that so much is at stake,” Sperling said, But, Uunila said, water doesn’t often rise but also secure permission from landown- where they were asked to keep an eye “that the erosion and sea level rise and evenly on the shore like it would in a bath ers — who often discover buried artifacts out for historic resources. Attendance storm surge that people see on their tub, and a significant storm surge could as an eroding shoreline reveals them. was good, but probably not enough to piers and in their yards impacts history, impact closer to 100 archaeological sites. “Calvert County,” Uunila said, save as many pieces of the county’s too — that’s important to get across.”

Rising waters made excavating the Aldridge site, located along Herring Bay in Anne Arundel County, MD, a challenge. At least 200 feet of shoreline have been washed away in the last 48 years. Archaeologists worked directly along the water’s edge and in excavation pits that sometimes filled with water. (Anne Arundel County Cultural Resources Division & the Lost Towns Project) 18 Bay Journal • November 2018

PCBs from page 1 ing a “PCB consortium” that would How PCBs Contaminate the Bay Ecosystem share information among the states birth defects and cancer in laboratory about how best to rid their waterways of animals and were suspected of causing these persistent contaminants. cancer and other health problems Atmospheric in humans. Their widespread use deposition Up the food chain, unseen was also linked to the decimation of One reason toxics have drawn less eagles, osprey and other large birds of attention, Allen explained, is that prey around the Chesapeake Bay and apart from some tumors and lesions elsewhere. found on fish in a few places like the Though their concentrations in Anacostia, they haven’t triggered water have diminished some since then, Avian many obvious impacts lately on fish PCBs remain among the most insidious predation and wildlife. Toxics once hampered and persistent threats in a toxic mix of the reproduction of eagles and osprey, chemicals that continues to contaminate but those effects have dissipated. And the Bay and its tributaries — including aquatic concentrations are generally mercury, pesticides, pharmaceuticals low — barely detectable in places — and metals. Discharge/ Striped which leads many to think they’re not Eighty percent of the Bay’s tidal runoff Bass a big threat. segments are either fully or partially But what you can’t see can still hurt impaired by toxic contaminants, Bioaccumulation you. Through a process called bioaccu- according to the state-federal Chesa- mulation, PCBs ingested by fish build peake Bay Program that leads the up in their fatty tissues, reaching levels restoration effort. PCBs figure promi- Blue many times higher than what’s found Crab White nently in those impairments. And PCB Perch in water or river sediment. As bigger contamination is the basis for most fish feed on smaller fish, the PCBs of the watershed’s fish consumption Catfish build up in them, too. The same thing advisories. happens as birds and animals — and Anglers are warned in many areas Sediment people — eat the contaminated fish. of Maryland, Virginia and the District The PCBs people may acquire from to limit or avoid eating what they catch Lucidity Information Design, LLC eating contaminated fish aren’t likely or feeding it to pregnant women and to cause immediate or acute health children. The warnings include the problems. But laboratory studies have region’s prized striped bass. And PCBs found that the chronic exposure of ani- are even behind cautions in Maryland PCBs may be present in waterways from past contamination, and they continue to mals to relatively low levels of PCBs against consuming the yellow “mus- wash into the water from land-based sources. PCBs don’t dissolve easily, so most can cause cancer, harm reproduction tard” (part of the digestive system) in attach to bottom sediment, which can get washed downstream. Some work their and development, and affect a variety steamed blue crabs. way back out of the sediment and into the water. Fish ingest PCBs by feeding on of organs and biologic functions. State, federal and local officials the river bottom and through their gills, with levels building up in their tissue over Some studies have found higher working to restore the Chesapeake time. Those PCBs are passed on to people, birds and other animals that eat the incidences of reproductive and have long recognized the need to deal impacted fish. development problems among people with toxic contaminants like PCBs who’ve eaten contaminated fish. because of their impacts on human “free of effects of toxic contaminants Allen, a staffer at the U.S. Environmental And studies of electrical component health, fish and wildlife. They first on living resources and human health.” Protection Agency who chairs the Bay factory workers exposed to high levels pledged to reduce toxics in 1987 And for the first time, they specifically Program’s workgroup on the subject. of PCBs found higher incidences of and have repeated that vow in each proposed to reduce PCBs. “I have to really fight pretty hard to get cancers among them. successive cleanup pact. After initially But even so, it’s been a back-burner commitments and visibility,” he said. Within the Bay region, PCBs were omitting any toxics commitment in commitment compared to the overriding Even most environmental groups, once regarded as a localized problem drafting the 2014 Bay Watershed focus on reducing nutrient and sediment which in the past pressed to make toxics around Baltimore, the District of Agreement, officials ultimately called pollution. Toxic contaminants have part of the Bay cleanup, have lately Columbia and Hampton Roads, but for states to ensure that waters are struggled to gain traction, said Greg made relatively little noise about it. they are now recognized as a wide- Beth McGee, senior water quality sci- spread contaminant. They cling to soil, entist with the Chesapeake Bay Founda- dust and sediment particles, so they’ve tion, said CBF leaders decided to focus spread extensively through air and their efforts on dealing with nutrients water. The result: They’re practically Why PCBs persist and sediment, which they consider to be everywhere — even in the Arctic, PCBs, a group of 209 man- Some equipment containing the more systemic pollutants of the Bay. transported far from civilization by made organic chemicals, were compounds is still in use. And “The risk of trying to do everything wind. widely used beginning in the while the EPA did clamp down is you don’t do anything very well,” “I can take soil from any backyard 1930s as insulators in electrical on the storage and disposal of she said. and analyze it, [and] I’ll find PCBs,” equipment, engine oil, caulk, paint remaining PCBs, many have leaked But attention may be shifting. said Upal Ghosh, professor of environ- and fluorescent lights, among or been unwittingly dumped in Energy has begun to gather around mental engineering at the University other things. sewers or unlined landfills. Used tackling toxic contaminants in the Bay of Maryland-Baltimore County, who’s By the time the United States oil containing the chemicals was and its rivers, with greater efforts to spent two decades researching ways to banned their manufacture in 1979, for a time even sprayed on some track down sources of PCB contamina- reduce aquatic contaminants. nearly 1.5 billion pounds had unpaved roads to control dust. tion in the Anacostia, Baltimore’s Back Still, most government agencies been produced and disseminated The manufacturing ban hasn’t River and elsewhere. The U.S. Geologi- and nonprofit groups in the Bay region nationwide. The same durability been airtight, either — PCBs are cal Survey has hosted two workshops have not prioritized cleaning up PCBs that made them useful in com- still an inadvertent byproduct in on the issue since last year to share the and other toxics. merce and industry has allowed making the yellow paint used to latest science and reports on what other “I’m not trying to downplay it, but them to stick around and spread. mark highways and parking lots. jurisdictions are doing. And Bay Pro- gram managers are looking into form- PCBs continues on page 19 Bay Journal • November 2018 19

PCBs from page 18 complex, said Bill Brown, the depart- ment’s manager overseeing TMDL devel- in terms of big issues and bang for the opment. The DEP does plan, in the near buck — whether you just like a clear future, to require PCB source tracking in Bay or like oysters or rockfish — it 22 municipalities along the river segment wasn’t the number 1, 2 or 3 big issue covered by the one TMDL, he said. behind overfishing, behind habitat “It isn’t that we’re not interested in destruction or overabundance of nutri- it or not willing to focus on it,” Walters ents,” said Rich Batiuk, who retired said. “We are, but there are other earlier this year as associate director issues we need to keep our eye on that for science in the EPA Bay Program are more pressing in the watershed office in Annapolis. [such as] sediment and nutrients.” The “It’s been partly that it’s not an in- state is lagging badly in meeting its your-face issue,” he added. “It’s much sediment and nutrient reduction goals more subtle ... and solutions are that under the Baywide TMDL, which much more difficult to do.” has a deadline of 2025. There are no As a result, it’s been up to the states deadlines in the cleanup agreement for to determine, river by river, creek by dealing with toxics. creek, which are impaired by which In places with PCB reduction goals, contaminant and what to do about the localities bordering impaired it. For PCBs, states have produced waterways are often left figuring out a stack of reports setting pollution how to clean them up. Most haven’t reduction targets. Some localities have gotten much beyond the first step: even drawn up restoration plans, but trying to figure out where the PCBs relatively little has been done to get are coming from. results. Officials say it’s been tough First, they have to find them — no finding out where the PCBs in sedi- easy matter. Concentrations in water ment and fish came from, and tougher are often so low as to be undetect- still to get rid of them. able using traditional tests. A more “It sort of gets second or third shrift sensitive method can pick up ultra-low to [reducing] nutrients and sediment,” levels, but it costs hundreds of dollars said Erik Michelsen, head of watershed more per sample. protection and restoration for Anne Extra-sensitive analysis is important Arundel County, MD. “These nontra- because the water quality criterion ditional pollutants, frankly, haven’t for PCBs set by the EPA is 64 parts gotten the attention and are harder to per quadrillion. That’s the proverbial address.” needle in a haystack, akin to taking a little more than 60 hairs from all ‘Pollution diets’ for PCBs the hair of all the people in the world. In the Chesapeake watershed, state Miniscule though that seems, the EPA and federal regulators have been at has determined that this limit is neces- work for nearly two decades preparing sary to keep the lifetime risk of getting local “total maximum daily loads,” or cancer from eating PCB-contaminated pollution reduction plans, for the various fish at no more than 1 in a million. waterways impaired with PCBs. Like the Baywide TMDL — or pollution diet Better sampling / better solutions — for reducing nutrients and sediment, Mandar Bokare, a graduate research assistant at the University of Maryland- Some of the PCB-tracking efforts these plans rely on a combination of Baltimore County, retrieves a passive sampler put in Back River this summer are benefitting from a new sampling sampling and computer modeling to to measure PCB levels in the water. Local officials hope the sampling will help method, which proponents say estimate the amount of PCBs getting into them track down and remediate sources of the contaminants getting into the Bay promises to reliably measure PCBs sediment and water. They then set a limit tributary. (Dave Harp) at extremely low levels. It involves intended to make it safe to eat fish caught placing treated squares of polyethylene from that area. The reductions required into or the complexities associated say they have 21 more to do to cover all in the water for weeks at a time, tied to reach that limit are quite ambitious, with these TMDLs.” of the state’s impaired waters – includ- to a stake or anchored with a piece of exceeding 90 percent in some cases. Lee Currey, water and science ing analyzing the lower Susquehanna concrete. The plastic absorbs PCBs Virginia has drawn up TMDLs director for the Maryland Department River sediments above Conowingo from the water and, once retrieved, the covering PCB contamination in its of the Environment, said that the Dam. They say they plan to finish all of chemicals are extracted and analyzed. tributaries of the Potomac River and state’s regulators have been working in them in the next 10 years. UMBC’s Upal Ghosh, who has a few other waterways, including the earnest on PCB TMDLs since the late In Pennsylvania, all 490 miles of been using this “passive” sampling Shenandoah. Others are in the works 1990s, but performing the water-quality the Susquehanna and its tributaries to map PCB levels in the Anacostia for the tidal portions of the James and monitoring needed to assess contamina- are impaired with PCBs, said Gary and Baltimore’s Back River, said the Elizabeth rivers. Mountain Run, a tion has been laborious, and the science Walters, an environmental program traditional method of analyzing water small tributary of the Rappahannock behind identifying and dealing with manager in the state’s Department samples can yield varying results, as flowing through Culpeper, is also on impairments has been evolving. of Environmental Protection. The contamination fluctuates with weather the to-do list. “It takes a very little bit to actually state has written a TMDL covering and other factors. Passive sampling “The whole thing’s been a learn- impair a water body,” he said. When an 83-mile stretch of the river in the provides a good measure of PCBs in ing process,” said Mark Richards, an Maryland regulators began the TMDL- middle of the state — the only one water that may be coming out of the environmental scientist with Virginia’s writing process, “we just didn’t know completed for PCBs so far. bottom sediment, as well as gauging Department of Environmental Quality. the level of impact.” Plans are needed to deal with the the concentrations that a fish might “It’s really taken a lot of effort to get Maryland has developed 27 TMDLs impairments in the rest of the river, but ingest through its gills. where we are today…. We didn’t have so far, the most in the watershed. But the DEP lacks the resources and expertise any idea, really, what we were getting the plans take time, and state regulators to undertake something that large and PCBs continues on page 20 20 Bay Journal • November 2018

PCBs from page 19 success will depend on working with Toxics in the Bay and its rivers partners, including the National Park Baltimore County officials are Service, which owns the river bottom working with Ghosh’s laboratory to and parklandLooking along the at it, lower the green river. for PCBs search for possible sources of the PCBs MARYLAND The cleanupand will metals also extends require from help Back River up almost to Aberdeen Proving in Back River’s sediment and water. LIMIT OF from upriver in Maryland, where the “By checking in the water column Baltimore CHESAPEAKE BAY bulk of the Anacostia’sGround in the watershed upper Bay. lies. But there where the [PCB] concentration is highest, WATERSHED Studies by Ghosh’sought to laboratory paint green, have too, in the we can track back upstream to see where tentatively identifiedPiankatank three River of just the south river’s of the it may be coming from,” said Wesley Annapolis DE nine tributaries,Rappahannock most notably River, Lower and then the Schmidt, a natural resources specialist Washington, DC Beaverdam Creekupper inportion Prince of George’sthe York River and with the county’s Department of Envi- County, as significantthe Chickahominy, sources o of thePCBs. James. ronmental Protection and Sustainability. Unless land-based sources of PCBs Schmidt said testing so far has identified can be identified,For "PCBs the andoptions unknown for dealing toxins," one area with slightly elevated levels, but with PCB contaminationthat should be in limited the river to beda little MD no source has been identified. Impairment by: are fairly limited,purple Mikeska touching said. Aberdeen They Proving Po Trevor Needham, a UMBC graduate to are: excavate Ground,contaminated just above sediments the green area. PCBs ma student, found that Baltimore city’s waste- c Ri C and haul them away for incineration or ver h water treatment plant on Back River is a e disposal in a safe landfill; bury them PCBs and metals s The orange color for "PCBs and a surprisingly large PCB conduit, receiving p under a cap ofpriority relatively organics" clean shouldsediment; include PCBs and e about 180 grams of PCBs daily from the a try to treat theBack PCBs River where and thethey Elizabeth are; or River k sewage piped into the plant. unknown toxins e “wait for things to get better.” near Norfolk, which on our map is City officials think they know where VIRGINIA B By collecting stay-at-home min- PCBs and a n incorrectly colored purple - an at least some of those PCBs could be y a nows this fall from 15 different priority organics* e artifact of the color shift. coming from. While they don’t readily VA c spots along the river as well as in the O dissolve in water, PCBs attach them- PCBs, priority c Potomac, the Fish & Wildlife Service’s i The blue we have for "PCBS, priority organics and metals t selves to fat molecules — and fats, oils n Pinkney hopesorganics to help and the metals District is in the la and grease flushed down sinks over the t pin down sourcesPatapsco, of PCBs but we that also can should be color years have built up in the sewer lines. A cleaned up. the Potomac by Washington DC Last year, workers found a congealed “The good news is the river’s not blue, and even a thin blue line for “fatberg” clogging a century-old pipe. 0 20 Miles as contaminated as we thought,” said Baltimore is planning to clean and line Jim Foster, presidentthe Anacostia and upCEO the of eastern the side of Impairments shown in tidal waters only; others exist Norfolk the District, if that's possible. its pipe network as part of a long- farther inland in the watershed. *Priority organics Anacostia Watershed Society, which running effort to curb sewage over- include some industrial chemicals and pesticides, has pressed for a toxics cleanup there. flows, and officials hope the effort will such as chlordane and DDT. PCB levels in the river are a fraction of yield PCB reductions as well. SOURCE: ESRI, based on 2014 data reported to EPA Lucidity Information Design, LLC what’s been measured in other, more industrialized rivers, like New York’s Complicated challenges A couple of years ago, Anne Arun- Guard reported uncovering a previ- Hudson. And there’s been a marked Meanwhile, the Back River treat- del County, MD, submitted a cleanup ously unknown cache of construction decline since the 1990s in skin and ment plant is removing most of the plan for Curtis Bay and Creek, just debris and toxic chemicals, including liver tumors found in brown bullhead PCBs from the sewage, though about off Baltimore Harbor, with a number PCBs, in its Curtis Bay shipyard. catfish in the Anacostia, according to 5 grams get discharged daily into the of industrial sites in the watershed. Pinkney. While those are caused by river, the study found. Most of the The plan called for curtailing PCBs The Anacostia: Help wanted PAHs, research indicates that PCBs PCBs removed wind up in the “bio- by installing stormwater management The Anacostia, which flows from may contribute to their growth and solids,” or sludge collected during the practices, paired with regular street suburban Maryland into the District spread. wastewater during treatment. sweeping and storm drain clean-outs. before meeting the Potomac, may pose Mikeska said she believes stream Some of that sludge gets pelletized But the projected price tag ranged one of the most complex challenges for restorations that the District has under- and burned in a cement factory, while from $23 million cleanup. Besides taken for other reasons have helped. the rest winds up spread on farmland to $34 million. harboring PCBs, But much more is needed. as fertilizer and compost, according Michelsen, Anne “Rather than launch full-fledged the river’s “The long-term goal is to have to Jeff Raymond, spokesman for the Arundel’s water- sediment is no fish advisories,” she said. Given city’s Department of Public Works. shed restoration into a strategy of trying to scrape a tainted with the uncertainties and complexities The levels of contaminants in it are chief, said he’s small amount of PCBs a variety of involved, she said, “It’s almost “well below the limits set by the since asked state pollutants impossible to say when that would be regulators,” he said. regulators for out of stormwater practices, harmful to the case.” But those limits may not be more time to humans and It might not have to take decades. adequate for keeping PCBs out of fish. consider whether why don’t we spend a little wildlife, UMBC’s Ghosh and a colleague, State rules for spreading sludge on there might be additional time investigating including lead, microbiologist Kevin Sowers in farm fields and other land are intended other sources of pesticides and UMBC’s Department of Marine to guard against the polluted runoff PCBs that would where the hot spots are?” polycyclic Biotechnology, have teamed up to of nutrients to nearby streams. But be easier to aromatic develop a pair of methods for treating MDE’s Currey said the UMBC study remove and cost — Erik Michelsen hydrocarbons and immobilizing the PCBs, which showing PCBs in biosolids used for less. Head of watershed protection & restoration (PAHs), a could speed up the process. fertilizer may warrant reviewing those “Rather than Anne Arundel County, MD byproduct of Ghosh has developed a form of safeguards to ensure they’re adequate. launch full- burning fossil activated carbon, called SediMite, that Many officials hope that measures fledged into a fuels, wood and has successfully “locked up” PCBs they’re already taking to reduce strategy of trying to scrape a small garbage that is also linked to cancer. in wetlands and sediments. When nutrient and sediment runoff will yield amount of PCBs out of stormwater Gretchen Mikeska, Anacostia spread on the bottom, the carbon some collateral PCB reductions. But practices,” he said, “why don’t we restoration coordinator for the Dis- captures PCBs in bottom sediment UMBC’s Ghosh suggests it may be spend a little additional time investi- trict’s Department of Energy and that otherwise might dissolve back more effective to track down and go gating where the hot spots are?” He Environment, said the city expects after PCB “hot spots.” noted that earlier this year, the Coast to settle on cleanup goals soon. But PCBs continues on page 21 Bay Journal • November 2018 21

PCBs from page 20 contaminants. It persuaded major wastewater plants and industries to test into the water. their discharges for PCBs. They used Sowers has come up with a com- the more sensitive, expensive test to panion treatment, using naturally spot PCBs and found that the top 10 occurring bacteria to accelerate the dischargers accounted for 90 percent breakdown of PCBs in aquatic set- of all of the contaminants getting into tings. By infusing tainted sediment the river from point-source outfalls; with bacteria mass-produced in runoff was the second biggest source. bioreactors, Sowers said he’s been able Greg Cavallo, a senior geologist to significantly reduce PCB levels in with the commission who worked on months. His first tests used bacteria the effort, said factories and treatment from Baltimore Harbor, he said, but plants undertook a variety of actions he’s since found an even more-potent to get PCBs out of their waste stream, strain in Charleston, SC. including cleaning and removing Working with Ghosh, he’s treated PCB-laden sediment from discharge activated carbon pellets with the pipes and storm drains. They also bacteria to ensure they’ll stay in place, revisited past cleanup sites, because so that PCBs are not only immobilized the PCB levels that were acceptable for but degraded more rapidly than would those projects may not be keeping the occur otherwise. contaminants out of the water. “It’s the best of both worlds,” “Everybody did something Sowers said. Where natural degrada- different,” he said, but it involved “a tion could take decades, seeding lot of detail. We sweated it out.” contaminated sediments with large The results so far have been quantities of the bacteria can break impressive. Between 2005 and 2016, down 80–85 percent of the PCBs, he the flow of PCBs into the river from said, while the rest remain bound up in the top 10 dischargers declined 76 the activated carbon, unable to dissolve percent, Cavallo said. into the water. As a result of declining The scientists’ use of bacteria-laden contamination levels in fish tissues, activated carbon has proven effec- warnings about eating fish from the tive at treating PCB-contaminated river eased somewhat. sediments in relatively small, confined More is needed, Cavallo said, but ecosystems such as ponds, lakes and the Delaware basin’s experience attests wetlands. It hasn’t been tried on a to the value of taking concerted action, broader scale, particularly in more with the commission as the conductor. dynamic water bodies affected by “It’s more difficult to implement “The challenge is, if you can get money to clean up hot spots, will it help fish?” currents or tidal sloshes. something like this across all asks Upal Ghosh, environmental engineering professor at the University of “The challenge is, if you can get jurisdictions without someone taking Maryland-Baltimore County. He displays activated carbon pellets designed to lock money to clean up hot spots, will it the lead,” he said. “When there was a up PCB contaminants in bottom sediment so they don’t get into the water, where help fish?” Ghosh said. meeting, there was one voice, one goal. fish can take them in through their gills. (Timothy B. Wheeler) The answer, if you look at the Dela- That helped in getting the message ware River basin, appears to be yes. across.” authorized the EPA’s Chesapeake the best methods for identifying and Bay Program staff over the next year remediating sources of the chemicals. Progress in Delaware Action in the Bay region to explore the feasibility of forming The EPA’s Greg Allen said the Beginning around 2000, the With the hope of spurring a similar a “PCB consortium.” It would not consortium would be “bringing Delaware River Basin Commission stepped-up effort in the Chesapeake have any authority over states, but everybody together to say, ‘how launched a campaign to address toxic watershed, state officials have would share information and promote can we work together to address the problem as efficiently as we can?’” UMBC The consortium idea, though, microbiologist is on the back burner for the next Kevin Sowers stands several months, at least. State officials with the bioreactor specified that the feasibility study wait in his laboratory until they finish updating nutrient and that he’s used to sediment pollution reduction plans, mass-propagate due in April. PCB-eating bacteria. Nonetheless, Allen and others say He’s seeded it’s time to get serious about tackling SediMite pellets PCBs and other toxic contaminants. with the naturally “Can we do just nutrients and have occurring bacteria a restored Bay? Absolutely not,” Allen and successfully said. A cancer survivor himself, he reduced contaminant expresses a certain passion about it. levels in ponds and “The residents and visitors of wetlands much more this watershed every day have the quickly than would potential to be consuming these toxic otherwise happen. pollutants that in the case of PCBs add (Dave Harp) to our carcinogenic risk,” he added. “That’s happening every day, all across this watershed. We shouldn’t be tolerant of that.”  Bay Journal l Travel l November 2018

Western Maryland railroad turns on charm at every bend the West. A mile or so north of the Narrows, near Corrig- anville, the track hairpins twice before settling into a more or less westerly-then-southerly route, roughly parallel to Maryland Route 36 and Jennings Run the rest of the way to Frostburg. I boarded the Frostburg Flyer with about 50 other passengers on a fall morning at the Cumberland station. Ranging in frequency from two to six days a week, de- pending on the season, the Flyer departs at 11:30 a.m. for the roughly hourlong trip to Frostburg. Our tour guide, speaking to us over the train’s PA system, was an entertainingly chatty gentleman named Bruce Pfeifer — authentically clad in a shirt and tie, denim overalls and a pinstriped railroad cap. As we approached the frst hairpin turn, Pfeifer told us to be on the lookout for the so-called Bone Cave. A minute later it appeared — about 20 feet from the tracks at the foot of a rock wall, a craggy human-sized hole desultorily closed of by a rusty chain-link gate. Rail- road workers discovered the cave a century ago, Pfeifer said, and it turned out to contain some truly remarkable Pleistocene-era fossils, including that of the long-extinct saber-toothed cat. Reconstructed skeletons from the cave have been on exhibit at the Smithsonian Institution since 1974, he said, as part the National Museum of Natural History’s exhibit of ice age mammals. Shortly after the second horseshoe bend, called Helm- stetter’s Curve, a little boy about 5 years old, with exqui- Passengers prepare to board the I’ve always been fascinated by the infuence of sitely shiny black hair, popped up over the seatback in Western Maryland Scenic Railroad, front of me, looked at me for few seconds, then looked out which travels between the town topography on where humans have decided the window and asked, “Why do we keep turning? Are we of Cumberland, located along the to set up camp over the millennia. going back?” Potomac River, and a station in I wasn’t sure if he was asking me or his father, who Frostburg, about an hour’s ride Here in the Chesapeake Bay region, as recently as a few was in the window seat next to him. When the father said to the west. Te Great Allegheny centuries ago, settlements in coastal areas were all about nothing — or nothing I could hear — I said, “You mean Passage, a hiking-biking trail water: Te best place to live was along a navigable river or the train? Why does the train keep turning?” He nodded. I said, “Um, well…” Ten the father said, “No, buddy, we’re between Pittsburgh and Washington, creek, so that canoes and rafts and boats and ships could bring you stuf and people, or take away stuf and people. not going back yet. We just have to go around a lot of DC, parallels the route, and cyclists Farther west in the Appalachian Mountains, though, mountains.” can take their bikes on the train. waterborne transportation is less workable. Te rocky Tat was a good answer. Mine was going to be, “Be- (Western MD Scenic Railroad) rivers, creeks and streams that lead to the Bay have helped cause it has to follow the tracks, and the tracks turn a lot.” shape the land, but the placement of communities — and But dad’s reply was way better; it spoke to the landscape. travel between them — has historically depended more on And it seemed to satisfy the boy, whose name was Taylor, Story & Photos by gaps and passes and hollows and valleys. I learned in a later conversation about bears. (Tey’re Take, for example, the trip from Cumberland to T. F. Sayles Frostburg in Western Maryland. In fact, take a train from Cumberland to Frostburg — on the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad — and you’ll see exactly what I’m talking about. Sure, you can draw a straight east-west line on the map from one town to the other, but out here, where the hills and ridges lie on the landscape like wrinkled sheets, there are precious few straight lines available to the trav- eler. Unless you’re prepared to hike over half a dozen steep ridges, the only way to go is north and around or south and around. Te south-and-around route is via the modern high- way — taking Interstate-68 (US 40) out of Cumberland, through the hollow below La Vale, across the valley that gives La Vale its name, then through the Braddock Run gap between the steep ridges west of Frostburg. Te Western Maryland Scenic Railroad, in contrast, goes north and around, chugging out of Cumberland along Wills Creek, a tributary of the North Branch of the Excursions on the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad are a Potomac River that carves a dramatic gap through the popular way to enjoy fall colors along mountain towns and ridge just west of town. Tis is called the Narrows — or, if Potomac River headwaters. Be sure to reserve your seat in you’re inclined to match nature’s drama, the Gateway to in advance. (Western MD Scenic Railroad) 23 Bay Journal l Travel l November 2018

A conductor chats with guests on a holiday ride on the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad. A variety of dining options and diferent themed tours are available throughout most of the year. (Western MD Scenic Railroad) out there, he told me, but, according B&O and fnally CSX. to his dad, “Tey’re way back in the Ten, in 1988, came woods and won’t bother anyone.”) the Western Maryland After Helmstetter’s Curve, where Scenic Railroad, which farm felds sprawl on both sides of has operated the Cum- A train on the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad travels through the snow-covered landscape the track, we dove back into the berland-to-Frostburg of Allegany County. (Western MD Scenic Railroad) woods for about 2.5 miles — passing excursion ever since. through a nearly 1,000-foot tunnel Tis stretch of right-of-way also ac- passengers calls for it, by a recently bends from Cumberland to Frostburg along the way. When we emerged commodates more than trains. Just as acquired second diesel. But for most and back again, demonstrating to from the woods near the town of I had begun to wonder why we were of the Western Maryland Scenic all that out here, where the land was Barrelville, roughly the halfway mark seeing so many hikers and bicyclists Railroad’s 30 years, the star of the long ago shaped by winding, gravity- to Frostburg, Pfeifer pointed out a along the tracks, Pfeifer answered the show had been its century-old steam driven water, there are precious few long procession of wind turbines on question. For most of its 16 miles, the locomotive, No. 734, nicknamed straight lines. a mountain ridge of to the north- railbed doubles as the Great Allegh- Mountain Tunder. Built in 1916 for west. Tey seemed enormous, even eny Passage — the 150-mile trail that, a Michigan railroad, Mountain Tun- though they were actually 3.5 miles combined with the 185-mile C&O der was acquired in 1991, when the Hills and hollows and away, across the state line in Somerset Canal trail, makes it possible to walk excursion tours were brand new, and County, PA. or pedal from Washington, DC, to served the line for nearly 25 years. horseshoe bends After another dip and hairpin Pittsburgh. In April 2016, the engine had to be The Western Maryland Scenic curve through Woodcock Hollow, A couple of miles past Mount pulled out of service for a federally Railroad’s regular Cumberland- we came within 1,000 feet of the Savage, we came at last to the tidy required rebuild and inspection — to-Frostburg excursions run from town of Mount Savage, though the Frostburg Depot. With a one-hour a process that can take years. March through December. The thick woods obscured any view of the layover there, we had some options. Another vintage steam engine has schedule varies by season, from town itself. Tere’s a certain irony to After watching the train’s lumbering been in the wings since 2014, and it’s two to six trips per week. that, because Mount Savage is why black engine spin around on a huge a doozy — C&O Railroad locomotive the railroad is here in the frst place. turntable just beyond the depot (Tat No. 1309, called Maryland Tunder. For children, the Winterland By the 1840s the town had become was a must-see, Pfeifer said, and he Tis huge two-engine behemoth, Express, featuring Santa and a little industrial beehive, with coal was right.), we could stay there and built in 1949, was the last commer- elves, runs four times every mining, clay mining, three iron fur- visit the Trasher Carriage Museum, cial steam locomotive made for a weekend between Thanksgiving naces, a thriving brick works (which just behind the depot —which should U.S. railroad. Te Western Maryland and Christmas. Scenic Railroad purchased it in 2014 operates to this day) and a locomotive have been open, according to its sign, For adults, generally two Sat- manufacturer. but wasn’t — or grab a bite and a beer from Baltimore’s B&O Railroad Mu- urday evenings per month in Hence the need for what was at the Trail Inn Café, right next to the seum, where it had been on display called the Mount Savage Railway turntable. Or we could explore Frost- since the early 1970s. season, there’s an evening mur- when it opened 1845 — built for burg’s Main Street, part of the historic Te plan was to have Maryland der mystery excursion, includ- the primary purpose of carrying the National Pike, which is just up the Tunder up and running by early ing dinner. Ticket prices range town’s products and raw materials to hill about two city blocks away. Tose 2017, but it needed a lot more work from $30/child and $46/adult Cumberland. From there, they could would be two very vertical city blocks, (meaning a lot more time and a lot (standard coach, no meal) to $99 go anywhere, by rail, C&O Canal or mind you, by way of a giant multi- more money) than frst estimated. or more, depending on special National Pike. tiered wooden staircase and an uphill Te latest cost projection puts the themes, events and dinner op- Several decades later the line path along Depot Terrace. I chose the total rehab at $1.8 million, and the tions. Cyclists can take their became part of the Western Mary- latter option, exploring a quarter mile expected completion date is “some bikes on the train for a small land Railway, which at its peak ran or so of Main Street before heading time in 2019.” additional fee. clear across the state and into West back to the depot for the return trip. So, for now, the two not-so-glam- Virginia and Pennsylvania. Tat com- For the time being, the railroad’s orous diesel engines will have to do For information, visit wmsr.com pany lasted into the 1970s, by which mixed-vintage passenger cars are the work — carrying around 30,000 or call 800-TRAIN50 (800-872- time it had all but vanished in a series hauled by a 1960s diesel engine — passengers a year, weaving through 4650). of rail line mergers — Chessie, C&O, assisted, when the number of cars and hills and hollows and horseshoe  Bay Journal l Travel l November 2018

‘Dig a little deeper’ at the Norfolk Botanical Garden Walt Disney version of it. My malaise broke after I talked to Teresa Augustin, the director of environmental engagement and outreach. Her advice: “Dig a little deeper.” “Sometimes, this is a person’s only exposure to nature — these very designed and manicured gardens,” said Augus- tin, who has worked at the facility for 18 years. If you look below the surface, “you’ll see pollinators are working there, the birds are eating the bugs. Our job is to showcase plants but to do that in a very responsible way.” To be sure, not every one of the garden’s plants ft snugly into the Bay’s ecology. But many do. Its 60 gardens include the wildfower meadow, an forest stocked with many indigenous tree species, a 2-acre butterfy garden, a fern glade and a Virginia native garden that explores four types of plant communities. As I pondered Augustin’s point, I was reminded of a concept from the wine industry: terroir. It is the “French concept of place refected in the glass,” as one Wine Spectator editor put it. Terroir emphasizes that a wine is shaped not only by the grapes it is made from but also by the place where those grapes are grown. Te soil, eleva- tion, sun exposure, climate and other factors make the products of one winemaker unlike any other. And while there are dozens of botanical gardens in the United States, none is quite like the Norfolk Botani- cal Gardens. Te Norfolk garden distills the breathtaking range of life that can sprout from the soil in the southern Bay’s watershed. Augustin is cognizant of the Norfolk garden’s special geographical setting. “We’re kind of the northernmost range for a lot south- Colorful blooms grace the At Norfolk Botanical Garden, everything is ern plants and the southernmost range for a lot of north- foreground of a view from a just so. Horticulturalists deadhead roses in ern plants,” she said. footbridge in the Norfolk Botanical Tat lends to the grounds a tremendous variety of fow- Garden. (Dave Harp) the summer to ensure visitors encounter a ers, trees and shrubs that may be able to grow in separate perfume-flled, technicolor display in the fall. places but rarely all in the same place. More than 250,000 plants call the gardens their home, not counting those Azaleas are arrayed for maximum visual pop grown in seasonal displays. in the spring. Some make for strange bedfellows. Crotons, which thrive as far south as the tip of Florida, wind up sharing Even the wildfower meadow is meticulously combed the same grounds as maidenhair ferns, which would wilt in for undesirable upstarts. Florida but do nicely as far north as Ontario. Story by Jeremy Cox Tis oasis of beauty is perched on a 175-acre peninsula Given that fexibility, it may be surprising to learn that in Virginia, less than 3 miles from the Chesapeake Bay. the botanical garden was originally developed largely with But what statements can such a manicured place make about the nature of this southernmost loop of the Bay’s watershed? Quite a few, I found on a recent expedition among the garden’s leafy trails and dizzying variety of fora. But frst, the experience needed to be reframed. Te Botanical Garden, which is celebrating its 80th anniversary this year, features plant and tree species from around world, ranging from scheferas from China to fameberry shrubs from Argentina. It’s all a bit much and, for the most part, not representative of what’s to be found around the rim of the Bay. As I whirled from one colorful exhibit to the next, I found myself awed by the magnitude of human efort and imagination so clearly heaped upon this landscape. Try not to be moved by the 336 diferent fowering trees in the arboretum; the formal rose garden, brimming with more than 3,000 plants; the traditional Japanese garden seemingly transplanted from across the Pacifc. I also couldn’t help feeling a bit lost. Part of me won- A bee pollinates a coreopsis fower in a butterfy garden at dered whether I was still in southeastern Virginia or some the Norfolk Botanical Garden. (Dave Harp) 25 Bay Journal l Travel l November 2018

Te Norfolk Botanical Garden includes forests and ferns (left), as well as wildfowers, azaleas, a Japenese garden and more. Above, a statue honors the African American women who planted thousands of azaleas to launch the garden in the 1930s. (Left / Dave Harp, Above / Tom Houser, Norfolk Botanical Garden) was turned over to a nonproft that Tere’s more to a garden, after all, today oversees a $6.5 million annual than its visual attributes, Augustin said. budget (although the city still owns “Tat’s more how we think now. the land). What is the function of the garden? Highlights include a vista fes- [Te Botanical Garden’s leaders] want tooned with eleven, 7-foot-tall mar- it to be attractive but be a little deeper ble statues of notable artists created so that these plants are supportive of by sculptor Moses Ezekiel; a 2-mile the local ecosystem,” she said. walk through a holiday light display The Norfolk Botanical Garden is (Nov. 9–Dec. 15 this year); a car- located at 6700 Azalea Garden Road oriented million-bulb light display in Norfolk. Te garden is open from 9 (Dec. 16–31 this year); a children’s a.m.-7 p.m. April 1-Oct. 15; 9 a.m.–5 garden featuring a large splashpad; p.m., beginning Oct. 16. Te garden is just one type of plant in mind. American women whose eforts are and a cavernous butterfy house that closed Tanksgiving, Christmas and Tomas P. Tompson, Norfolk’s memorialized by a statue in the WPA futters to life in the summer and New Year’s Day. Admission is $12/ city manager from 1935–38, was Memorial Garden, depicting a wom- early fall. adults; $10/seniors and military; and impressed by the drawing power of an sinking a shovel into the earth. In recent years, the Botanical $10/children ages 3-17. Entrance is the azalea gardens in Charleston, By March of 1939, they had planted Garden has begun adopting more free for ages 2 and younger. SC, and was convinced that his city 4,000 azaleas, 2,000 rhododendrons, sustainable practices, Augustin said. A tram operates year-round. Boat could do the same. So, with the aid of several thousand miscellaneous In 2015, for example, staf stopped tours are available at a cost of $6 for the Depression era Works Progress shrubs and trees and 100 bushels of mowing the grass in the fowering adults. Te 45-minute tours follow the Administration, the city launched an dafodils on what had until recently arboretum, providing a wildfower facility’s internal canals and go out azalea garden project in 1938. been an unforgiving swamp. meadow for butterfies and other onto Lake Whitehurst. Walking routes Much of the hard toil fell to a Over the years, the gardens contin- pollinators. Te café no longer sells travel 15 miles of paved trails and group of more than 200 African ued to grow, and their stewardship single-use disposable plastics. mulch-covered paths.

Plan your adventure! www.FindYourChesapeake.com 26 Bay Journal • November 2018 Lafayette River oyster reefs reach habitat restoration milestone ≈ Waterway, once one of dirtiest absorb and filter Participants agree to protect the river on in VA, is now first to count toward stormwater. their properties by taking steps such as During reducing lawn fertilization and bagging state’s goal in Bay agreement. the early 20th pet waste. Many have planted “oyster By Jeremy Cox century, pipes car- gardens” in the waters beyond their lawns Once among the Chesapeake Bay’s ried raw sewage to create more habitat. filthiest tributaries, the Lafayette River directly into the Michael Berg, who lives about a has become the first Virginia waterway river. More than block from the Lafayette tributary Haven to have its oyster habitat declared fully a century of ship- Creek, was an early registrant. The retired restored. building and other schoolteacher has collected oyster shells “We’ve done it. Feel proud,” Marjorie industrial activi- from restaurants, designed a floating Mayfield Jackson, executive director of ties fouled the wetlands prototype and poured scores of the Elizabeth River Project, told a cheer- bottom sediments concrete blocks to create starter reefs. ing crowd during an October ceremony with polychlori- “I like doing the physical work, and it’s celebrating the milestone. The Lafayette nated biphenyls. exciting work,” said Berg, 73. “The truth flows into the Elizabeth River, which Exposure to PCBs of the matter is I’m a wannabe biologist.” empties into the Chesapeake Bay near its has been linked Oyster restoration efforts in the mouth at the Atlantic Ocean. to liver damage, Lafayette River date back to 1998, The effort, led by her group and the cancer and other when the Rotary Club of Norfolk Chesapeake Bay Foundation, “pretty health problems, funded the construction of two reefs. much re-invented oyster restoration,” leading to a But it didn’t kick into high gear until Jackson said, as it constructed 12 new national ban in 2009, when the Bay Foundation and reefs over eight years. Workers created 1979. Elizabeth River Project teamed up to 32 acres of habitat that, when combined The oyster develop a broad restoration plan. with “historic reefs” discovered while industry was A survey of the river showed 140 acres the project was in progress, satisfied the shut down on the of sandy bottom suitable for planting campaign’s 80-acre goal set by scientists. river in the 1920s oysters, Shannon said. Their target was to The Lafayette is the first waterway because of its restore half of that total, but the scientists in Virginia to count toward the 2014 sewage and pol- added another 10 acres to the goal — for a Chesapeake Bay Agreement, which calls luted stormwater total of 80 acres — to provide a cushion. for oyster reefs to be restored in five tribu- runoff. Ironically, the river’s contamina- taries in Maryland and five in Virginia by “A lot of people tion provided a near-ideal setting for 2025. Each state has now completed one. thought restoration an oyster comeback, said Joe Rieger, Still to go in Virginia: the Lynnhaven was hopeless,” said deputy director of restoration for the River, the Piankatank River, the Lower Jackie Shannon, Elizabeth River Project. York River and Great Wicomico River. the Chesapeake “No one was harvesting oysters, so it (Rieger said his group and partners also Bay Foundation’s was naturally protected,” he said. aim to forge ahead with restoration work Virginia oyster That set the stage for a pleasant already begun on the Eastern Branch restoration pro- surprise: In 2014, researchers with the of the Elizabeth River, even though it’s John Small of Small’s Smokehouse and Oyster Bar steams gram manager. “It Virginia Institute of Marine Science and not been officially selected as one of the oysters from the York River during the Lafayette River still has a stigma Christopher Newport University found 48 state’s five targeted rivers, and thus won’t celebration. (Dave Harp) around here.” acres of relict reefs teeming with oysters. likely be in line to receive significant The Virginia If not for the discovery, the Lafayette’s government funding.) of fish, such as sea horses, red drum, Marine Resources Commission banned restoration would have continued for The Lafayette project’s architects said striped bass and speckled trout, according harvesting oysters from the restored another decade, scientists say. its impact will reverberate beyond the to the Bay Foundation. reefs in the Lafayette a few years ago, As the work progressed, the river river’s 14-square-mile watershed. Their The restoration added 70 million but the agency could allow aquaculture became a kind of living laboratory, methods and materials evolved over time, baby oysters, or spat, to the river bottom. in the future if the water quality contin- Rieger said. Facing a shortage of transforming the river, which lies entirely Regular surveys show they are thriving, ues to improve, Shannon said. recycled shells, the groups turned to inside the city of Norfolk, into a testing exceeding the density goal of 50 oysters Dozens of people plied the water on granite and later crushed concrete to ground for oyster restoration, they said. per square meter along several of the that sunny October day aboard a rain- serve as shellfish homes. Funding for the multimillion dollar reefs, officials said. At the Granby Street bow of canoes, kayaks and stand-up They also began laying the rocky restoration came from multiple sources, bridge, for instance, a total of 118 oysters paddleboards. At the signal — a few material in strips along the river including the U.S. Army Corps of per square meter were counted last year. short horn blasts from the Bay Founda- bottom instead of unbroken mounds. Engineers, U.S. Environmental Protection The turnaround has impressed tion’s workboat, the Baywatcher — the That gives young oysters more surface Agency and National Fish and Wildlife many observers. crowd poured a cascade of oyster spats area on which to attach themselves, Foundation, among others. “I put a challenge down to all of the into the river. he said. And it allowed the groups to Oysters act like filters, removing cities and towns along the Chesapeake The 2,500 spats settled on a 5-acre reef claim credit for more restored acreage nutrients that fuel harmful algae blooms Bay — if you can do this in Norfolk, a few dozen yards from the lush shoreline while using less substrate. and sediment that block sunlight from VA, you can do this anywhere,” said at the Hermitage Museum and Gardens. Shannon, with the Chesapeake underwater grass beds. The reefs where Andria McClellan, a member of the Afterward, the group of residents, politi- Bay Foundation, said she and other oysters grow help to shield shorelines Norfolk City Council and the Chesa- cians, scientists and nonprofit profession- scientists are now moving on to the from erosion while providing habitat for peake Bay Program’s Local Govern- als gathered on the museum’s grounds for next phase in the restoration: monitor- fish, crabs and other marine life. ment Advisory Committee. an oyster roast and locally brewed beer. ing. Over the next six years, they Early monitoring results suggest the The environmental odds have long One after another, speakers praised will determine whether the new reefs effort is already paying dividends, scien- been stacked against the Lafayette the river’s neighbors for their support. continue to thrive. tists said. Biological surveys on the river River. About 40 percent of Norfolk’s The Elizabeth River Project has recruited “We’re not going to walk away and are showing greater diversity of aquatic population lives inside its watershed, thousands of homeowners, for example, let this good work slip through our life, including at least 25 different species leaving little room for natural buffers to into its River Star Homes program. fingers,” she said. Bay Journal • November 2018 27 Bay Journal’s success is in no small way the fruit of your donations There’s no greater sign Jeffrey Smith of the Bay Journal’s success Chester, MD Ann & Eric Swanson than the compliments and Annapolis, MD donations received from Richard Szarko readers like you. Your gifts Manheim, PA to the Bay Journal Fund In Honor of Thomas F. Thomas, Jr. continue to make our work from Robin Thomas possible, from coverage of the Rosemont, PA Bay restoration and the health David & Jean Toleman of its rivers, to the impacts Knoxville, MD Dennis Treacy of climate change, toxics, Hanover, VA growth and invasive species In Honor of Your Hard Work on the region’s ecosystem. from Helen von Gohren Our staff works every day to Greenbelt, MD bring you the best reporting Lothar Weber on environmental issues Parkton, MD in the Bay region. We are Bill Wolinski grateful for your donations. Crocheron, MD Vickie York Please continue to support our Ocean View, DE success! Supporter Greg Greisman Sponsor Elkridge, MD Mary Beth Adams William Gross Elkins, WV York, PA Richard N. Baird Frank O. Perkins Lancaster, PA Honolulu, HI Donald Brown Norris D. Williams, USN (Retired) Colonial Beach, VA King George, VA Peter Brown Russ Klapatch Laurel, MD Union Dale, PA This apple is one of the edible products of Don and Ann English’s riparian buffer in York County, PA. (Dave Harp) Lani Clark Pattie & Phil Bailey St. Marys City, MD Buckingham, VA Mia Harper Mayer Levy Mark & Karen Perreault Fred Dobbs Arnold, MD Seaford, VA Norfolk, VA Nancy & Dick Biggs Norfolk, VA Chestertown, MD In Memory of Ruth (Rudi) Hartman Kathleen Long Elgin Perry Joseph & Charlotte Evering Takoma Park, MD Colonial Beach, VA Mike & Sheila Bishop from Ronald Hartman Centreville, VA Aberdeen, MD Elkton, MD Robin Mann William T. Powell In Memory of Harry D. Kirby In Memory of Bill Huppert Bryn Mawr, PA Lynchburg, VA Maarten Calon Baltimore, MD John Gamble from Richard Huppert Richard Masland Susan Rivers North Chesterfield, VA Parkville, MD Weston, MA Frederick, MD Kathy Cornell Nathalie, VA Don & Lucy Gaskell P. A. Jay Fred Masterman Kathy Roush Eastport, MI Churchville, MD Phoenix, MD Bel Air, MD Clay Coupland Norfolk, VA Carolyn Gomez-Foronda William Johnson Uwe Georg Neumann Liz Sanders Hardyville, VA Frederick, MD Joppa, MD Hughesville, MD Richard Cox Winter Haven, FL Jeff Grammer Rona Kobell Strick Newsom William Seabrook Lutherville, MD Towson, MD Sandersville, GA Dunkirk, MD Janet Davis Castleton, VA James Francis Gregory III Frank Laughon Oyster Company of Virginia Jason & Andrea Smith Westminster, MD Richmond, VA Topping, VA Nazareth, PA Susan DeFord Silver Spring, MD Leslie Delagran I want to help the Bay Journal maintain and expand coverage  $15–$49 Friend Washington, DC Joseph & Elaine DiGiovanni Yes! of issues related to the Chesapeake Bay and its watershed.  $50–$99 Supporter Laurel, MD Marc Duffy Enclosed is my tax-deductible gift of $  $100–$149 Sponsor Chevy Chase, MD  My check made payable to “Bay Journal Fund” is enclosed.  $150–$249 Benefactor Ethel Dutky  Charge my Visa/MasterCard/Discover/AMEX. Greenbelt, MD  $250–$499 Advocate Charles Epes Card # _____ Expires: Security Code: Richmond, VA  $500–$999 Booster Leslie Fellows Name(s): Aylett, VA  $1,000–$2,499 Champion Address: Joseph & Mary Gillis  $2,500–$4,999 Guarantor North East, MD Charles Paul Goebel City, State, Zip Code:  $5,000 & Up Philanthropist Easton, MD Peggy & Jack Greenwood Is this a memorial? Write name here: Falls Church, VA Is this in someone’s honor? Write name here: Paul Hames Adelphi, MD  From time to time, the Bay Journal may include a list of its supporters in the print edition. Please check here Frank Harrell if you would like your gift to remain anonymous and not be recognized in the Bay Journal. Lottsburg, VA Please mail your donations to The Bay Journal Fund, P.O. Box 222, Jacobus, PA 17407-0222 Bob & Carolyn Hicks Richmond, VA The Bay Journal Fund does not share the names of its donors or their addresses with other organizations. Continued on page 28 28 Bay Journal • November 2018

Continued from page 27 Wayne & Denice Holin Essex, MD Joseph Humerik Dumfries, VA Caroline Ingles Owings Mills, MD Douglas Irvin Easton, MD Newt Jackson A late Salisbury, MD summer Mike Kane Port Crane, NY carpet Edgar W. Kelly of native Newport News, VA sunflowers Richard Kerns at Blackwa- Frostburg, MD ter National Kristie LeGates Wildlife Milton, DE Refuge on Ronald Leitner Maryland’s Lusby, MD Eastern Mike Lofton Harwood, MD Shore reminds Tom & Joy Loomis Beltsville, MD onlookers Carroll Frank & Marcella Shea-Frank that autumn Cockeysville, MD is near. George Keen McLellan (Dave Harp) Gloucester, VA Patricia B. Grimes Patricia Johnson David & Margaret Malkus Mary Jane Nelson Ronald & Catherine Miller Winchester, VA Gaithersburg, MD Dundalk, MD Prattsburgh, NY Jacobus, PA Anne L. Hahn Scott D. Johnson Edward Mallonee Maynard Nichols Leann Miller Palmyra, VA Pikesville, MD Westminster, MD Gloucester, VA Chestertown, MD David Haller Karen A. Jones Carol Malloy Patricia L. Orndorff Roger Newill Hagerstown, MD Baltimore, MD Norfolk, VA Grasonville, MD Virginia Beach, VA Bill Harris David Kantner Mr. & Mrs. Thomas Malone Douglas F. Owens Ted Nutter Glen Allen, VA Cornwall, PA Trappe, MD Dover, DE Glen Mills, PA C. M. Helm David A. Karpa John & Virginia Marshall Jane K. Parks Edward C. Owen Bethesda, MD Hampton, VA McLean, VA Laurel, MD Cambridge, MD Raymond A. Hepner, Jr. Linda Keefer Joseph Martin James H. Payne, Jr. Steve Patten Damascus, MD Barboursville, WV York, PA Annapolis, MD Manassas, VA In Memory of Joan Susan Kirker Susan Martineaw F. Martin Peltzer, Jr. M. L. Pierce from Gene Hicks Sykesville, MD Bridgeville, DE McLean, VA Glyndon, MD Bel Air, MD Edmund McConnell John Klunk Joan Pemberton Cathy Poff Stephen C. Hiett Dover, PA Altoona, PA Glen Arm, MD Fairfax, VA Woodbridge, VA In Honor of John Knott’s 80th Birthday Fred & Dorothy McKinney David Reese Gerald & Rose Hopkins from Anne Knott Rock Hall, MD Terry Perkins Centreville, MD Wyoming, DE Seaford, VA Baltimore, MD Dennis McQuaid Mark Remsberg Joe Horchar Robert Knowlton Baltimore, MD Keith Phillips Rappahannock Academy, VA Fulton, MD Nottingham, MD Arlington, VA Robin & Robert McVicker Barry Hornberger Al & Chris Knudson Suffolk, VA Leonard Picka Friend Chester, VA Ed Gabsewics Wyomissing, PA Nanticoke, MD Sandy Medford York, PA Barbara Howard-Johnson Norman Lang Stevensville, MD Steven Pope Mathews, VA Frank Gallagher Montross, VA Essex, MD In Memory of James Mentzer Solomons, MD Michael Huntley Alice Lang from Bonnie Mentzer Bill Poulos In Honor of Fern Gookin Phoenix, MD Royersford, PA Lancaster, PA Kensington, MD from Roger Gookin Denise Jackson Ray Laracuente Eldon Miller Gail Proctor Towson, MD Baltimore, MD Harrisburg, PA Annapolis, MD North East, MD Alison Gordon Stephen Jackson Beth Anne Lynch Sandra Mitchell Joan Quigley Philadelphia, PA Red Lion, PA Cambridge, MD La Plata, MD Baltimore, MD Victoria W. Gorska-Rabuck Dennis Johnson Angela Lyons Mr. & Mrs. John E. Murray, Sr. Takoma Park, MD Bel Air, MD Newark, DE McClure, PA Continued on page 29 Thank You To These Philanthropic Donors The Curtis and Edith Munson Foundation Bay Journal • November 2018 29

Continued from page 28

Angela Randall Vienna, VA Edward Ream, Jr. Cambridge, MD George & Laura Rew Parkton, MD Jane Riggs California, MD Henry Robbins Bel Air, MD Dave & Billie Roberts Still Pond, MD Bill Rogers Suffolk, VA Gus Rolotti Wayne, PA Robert Rothenhoefer Falls Church, VA Roger H. Rubin Odenton, MD Jane Ruffin Mechanicsville, VA Howard Sathre A great egret works the grassy edge of Parson’s Creek, just off the Little Choptank River in Masrayland. (Dave Harp) Bluefield, VA Era Saunders Christine Tucker Ray Guy Steven H. Smith Charles & Barbara Magness Hampton, VA Harwood, MD Swedesboro, NJ Baltimore, MD Good Prospect Farm White Hall, MD In Memory of Michael J. Schaefer Joseph Turczyn Melvin Lessing George Balas from Susan Schaefer Coatesville, PA Baltimore, MD Bastian, VA Robert Pawlowski Keedysville, MD Gary Visscher John F. Martin Marvin & Grace Fienman West Mifflin, PA Paul Scheibe Silver Spring, MD Lititz, PA Philadelphia, PA Mr. & Mrs. Richard Sharek Kennett Square, PA Peg Volk Ralph Meima John Geddie Indian Head, MD Ray & Gerda Schmidt Cape Charles, VA Chestertown, MD Albuquerque, NM Al & Gloria Wajciechowski Woodbridge, NJ John Voytko Peggy Murchake Annie M. Holley Gloucester, VA Annapolis, MD Spencer L. Schmidt Pittsburgh, PA Rocky Mount, VA Jan Wright Poolesville, MD Gloria Wallace Marcia Reefe Sally Ann Cooper Roanoke, VA Libertytown, MD Steve Schreiner Irvington, VA Columbia, MD Robert Yurchuck Columbia, MD Reuben J. Waller, Jr. Ed Reisman, Jr. William Pratt Virginia Beach, VA Camp Springs, MD Renate & Eckart Schutz Midlothian, VA Virginia Beach, VA Walter L. Baumann Blacksburg, VA Donald Walsh Kathleen Reyes Carolyn Zeman Arlington, VA Williamsport, PA Ralph M. Scott, MD Alexandria, VA Glen Burnie, MD John Burfeind Louisville, KY Douglas & Teresa Ward M. L. Schollian Fred Beata St. Michaels, MD Westminster, MD Jane B. Sebring New Freedom, PA Springfield, VA Heather Schwartz Patti Estheimer Church Creek, MD Donna Wasserbach Jeanne Brinkley Harrisburg, PA Baltimore, MD Clarksville, MD Baltimore, MD Kevin Sellner James B. Godwin Frederick, MD Chris Surowiec David Wasson Gwynedd, PA Rose & David Clugh Reedville, VA Essex, MD Baltimore, MD Thomas & Janet Slaby In Honor of Oscar Howard Beltsville, MD Brian Toole John J. Wernsdorfer Paoli, PA Mary A. Diegert Douglas Howard Paul F. Smith, Sr. Jacobus, PA Vestal, NY White Hall, MD Havre De Grace, MD Douglas Valentine Bob Wirth Seaford, DE Jeffrey Founds Bruce Jezek Jan & Dale Snyder Sparrows Point, MD Bent Mountain, VA Baltimore, MD Millersburg, PA Mr. & Mrs. Marshall I. Waring Mack Wright Henrico, VA Erika Goldsborough Turner Dale L. Keeny Appalachia, VA Ipswich, MA Joseph Anthony Spiegel Ralph White Spring Grove, PA Annapolis, MD Frank R. Young III Richmond, VA Brian Gramp Steve Kosiak Westminster, MD Springfield, VA Patrick Stambaugh Anna & Ed Wilkinson Ardmore, PA Hanover, PA David L. Zonderman Dundalk, MD Janet Hartka Debora & John Mosher Solomons, MD Rosedale, MD Linda Starling William F. Wilson Norfolk, VA Cambridge, MD In Honor of the U.S. Coast Guard Shady Side, MD John Johnson Marnie Neisess Laurel, DE Wilton Strong from Gary Riegel Joseph Alloway, Sr. Ellicott City, MD Dundalk, MD Reading, PA Voorhees, NJ James Kosmides & Mignon Petrini Jeff Trader Annapolis, MD Stephen Nemphos Ann Sullivan Ed DiRaimo Baldwin, MD Abingdon, MD Pocomoke City, MD Wheaton, MD In Honor of Rebecca Robinson Peter Barnum Don Robinson Myrl Stevens Marion Swindell Joe Dvorak Rock Hall, MD Goldsboro, MD Parkville, MD Baltimore, MD Delta, PA Peter Swinehart John Bokman Thomas M. Ruby Karen Westermann Denise Hayes West Point, VA Boyds, MD Lake Placid, FL Richmond, VA Baltimore, MD Norma Swope Hillary R. Chisholm Raynell Smith Barnett James Ken Owens Glen Burnie, MD Williamsburg, VA Fairfax Station, VA Edinburg, VA Deltaville, VA Dan Taylor Charles Dye Inez Robb Robert Winterbottom Guy Wilkerson Madison, WI Williamsburg, VA Baltimore, MD Laurel, MD Sterling, VA Gus Thoma John Engle Don Schweitzer Mary Egan Donald Merryfield Rehoboth Beach, DE Seven Valleys, PA Fruitland, MD Harrisburg, PA St. Michaels, MD Karline Tierney Paul Farragut K-Y Su Russell & Anna Heath Geo Greenlaw Catonsville, MD Ellicott City, MD Kirkland, WA Centreville, VA Parksley, VA Ray Toms Gil H. Goodman Cynthia Touchet Douglas Irvin Frances A. Borlie Sabillasville, MD Reisterstown, MD Camp Hill, PA Easton, MD Loretto, PA W. M. Tress Wallace B. Grissinger Ed Whitesell James H. Lovelady, Sr. William Pratt Hanover, PA Mechanicsburg, PA Halethorpe, MD Hopewell, VA Virginia Beach, VA 30 Bay Journal • November 2018

Commentary • Letters • Perspectives State pollution-permittingorum must be reformed to adapt to climate change By DFavid Flores ≈ Bay jurisdictions can also establish a longer-term task force — Recent extreme weather — Hurricanes staffed by regulators, elected officials, Harvey and Florence — caused wide- and community stakeholders — to spread toxic contamination of flood- continue exploring opportunities for waters after low-lying chemical plants, climate resilience policy reforms by coal ash storage facilities and hog waste amending state pollution regulations in lagoons were inundated. a manner that also aligns with existing Such storm-driven chemical commissions focused on the Chesa- disasters demonstrate that state water peake Bay, environmental justice and pollution permitting programs are climate change. overdue for reforms that account for ≈ Bay jurisdictions should dedicate stronger and more intense hurricanes resources to identify and study climate- and heavy rainfall events, sea level rise vulnerable pollution permittees and the and extreme heat. communities potentially exposed to As the District of Columbia and the climate-driven pollution, then commit states in the Chesapeake Bay watershed resources to assess the environmental prepare their final watershed implemen- and social benefits of any adopted policy tation plans for cleaning up the Bay, two reforms, including state funding deci- important lessons should be clear from sions for investments in infrastructure the recent disasters: First, climate change and growth planning. will greatly complicate Bay cleanup ≈ Reforms in regulatory transpar- efforts and must therefore be factored ency will serve communities exposed into planning. Second, the state regula- to potential climate-driven chemical tion of pollution sources can and should disasters. State regulators should be a critical component of the plan. meaningfully comply with existing The potential pollution implications This scene is from aptly named Water Street, along the Choptank River in Cambridge, regulatory frameworks, including the of climate change are many and varied MD. Such flooding is occurring more often around the watershed. (Dave Harp) Emergency Planning and Community for the Bay watershed: Right-to-Know Act, which requires ≈ Where sunny-day flooding now additional pollution has resulted from minimize their exposure. public disclosure about neighborhood occurs on a weekly basis in parts of DC, climate change. But it’s clear that regula- Fortunately, not all of the news is bad. chemical risks. Moreover, regulators Maryland and Virginia, accelerating sea tors cannot continue to rely on historic Many Bay jurisdictions have made prog- should use this information to target levels will cause nuisance flooding on a rainfall data and expect the same results ress in addressing adaptation and resil- inspection and enforcement resources near-daily basis in the next 20–30 years. from outdated control practices. ience to climate change broadly. New to vulnerable communities and those ≈ Sea level rise also raises the As Bay jurisdictions develop plans York State, for example, has tackled the with greater exposure to climate-induced prospect that seawater will intrude into to integrate climate resilience into their threat of climate-driven pollution head pollution. coastal groundwater, inundating and pollution permitting systems, it’s also on. Environmental organizations pushed ≈ Policy makers must engage degrading drinking water wells, septic important that they keep in mind the New York to pass the Community Risk industry and others in the process of tanks and underground chemical or overwhelming social dimension to and Resiliency Act in 2014. Among other investigating policy reforms and discrete hazardous waste storage facilities. this problem: Climate-driven chemical requirements, the law requires state actions that can be taken at facilities to ≈ Sea level rise will also shrink disasters and environmental pollution agencies to develop regulatory stan- address vulnerabilities to flooding and tidal wetlands, weakening these natural may amplify the harm to the vulnerable dards for sea level rise projections and other climate impacts and that require filters’ ability to help capture pollution. populations and communities that are requires pollution permit applicants and sufficient resources for regulators. The The most recent Bay pollution model- already disproportionately exposed to regulators to consider present and future Massachusetts’ Office of Technical ing suggests that present-day climate both industrial pollution and the impacts exposure to sea level rise, storm surges Assistance has produced a remarkable impacts, including increased rainfall and of climate change. and river flooding. These requirements model for this type of work. more intense storms, are responsible for Low-income communities, sur- only took effect less than two years ago, Additionally, without sacrificing higher levels of inorganic nitrogen, as rounded by urban industrial facilities so critical questions about their effective- ambitious near-term action, the public well as hotter water temperatures that that emit toxic dust and air pollution, or ness are still unanswered. and private sectors need to collaborate render pollution reductions less effective industrial agricultural operations that There are a number of other steps that and develop long-term, enforceable plans at preventing dead zones. emit toxic ammonia into the air and toxic jurisdictions can undertake today to help to move or modify problematic facilities. ≈ Prolonged, extreme heat from cli- nitrate pollution into surface and ground- minimize the costs of climate impacts on Billions of dollars are at stake — mate change is problematic, too, as heat water, are often the same communities the Bay and pollution-permitting in the measured by the value of our natural waves can cause blackouts that disrupt plagued by flooding, storm surge and future. They include: resources and the health of our com- pollution control practices, and high extreme heat. ≈ Bay jurisdictions should examine munities, as well as the magnitude of temperatures can degrade above-ground Vulnerable populations — children, opportunities to apply existing legal past and present investments in pollution storage tanks. seniors, among them — are more authority to adapt pollution-permitting to control and a clean and healthy Chesa- Without further study, it’s difficult susceptible to environmental pollution climate impacts as part of their commit- peake Bay. We must break away from to determine the extent to which more and climate impacts, and they are more ment to address climate change in their business as usual and reform our public frequent and heavier rainfall already likely to be immobile during disaster. upcoming watershed implementation safeguards to account for the accelerat- disrupts pollution control practices at State policy makers also need to address plans. Merely adapting restoration prac- ing impacts and cascading harm of a regulated facilities — from the local disaster policy to ensure that when pollu- tices will fall far short of what is needed changing climate. gas station to major sewer infrastruc- tion or a disaster does occur, vulnerable to account for the impact of climate David Flores is a policy analyst at the ture — and, as a result, just how much communities will have the means to change on the Bay cleanup. Center for Progressive Reform. Bay Journal • November 2018 31

Commentary • Letters • Perspectives Whatorum on Earth led to the failure of environmental ethics? ByF Tom Horton open question, Lewis said, how democ- racy will cope with an age of limits that Surveying the current wreckage of we are still so reluctant to acknowledge. federal environmental policies, I’ve Indeed, representative democracy wondered: Close to half a century out is not very representative right now, in from the first Earth Day — April 1970 — the view of Will Baker, who has led the how could such a dramatic reversal even Chesapeake Bay Foundation for decades. be possible? His early inspirations and mentors were Across the board, clean air and water Republicans like William Ruckelshaus regulation is being aggressively rolled and Russell Train, the first two EPA back, commitments to public lands under- administrators. (It was also a Republican, cut, credible science linking environmen- Arthur Sherwood, who co-founded the tal responsibility to human and planetary Bay Foundation in 1967). health rejected out of hand. But with few exceptions, the majority Where is the massive public objection of Republicans in both houses of Congress to this unprecedented assault? are simply unwilling to challenge President Could it be we still lack an envi- Trump’s environmental rollbacks and ronmental ethic, a value system strong rejection of sound science, Baker said. enough to make the madness unthink- That, Baker said, does not reflect the able? Could that be, despite all of our Posting at Gwynns Falls in Baltimore is a sign that environmentalism still has a majority wishes of citizens of all political environmental education, the passage way to go to protect nation’s waters. (Dave Harp) persuasions, “any more than most East of major air and water and chemical Germans wanted the Berlin Wall.” laws, the establishment of the U.S. strong government. It also came at a time But it’s the lobbyists, the big money, Environmental Protection Agency and its of comparative economic prosperity, the computerized gerrymandering of counterparts in virtually every state, and when “jobs versus regulations” lacked the political districts that is running things despite the maturing of ecological science power to divide us. these days, he said. His words: “Democ- that proves how humans and the rest of Environmental awareness has never racy isn’t really achieving its ideals.” nature are interconnected? been higher, Lewis noted. That’s not the Maybe it does come down an ethical William Rees raises that sad possibil- same as an ethic, but still, “there’s a lot of failure after all, or a moral vacuum. And ity in a compelling piece, Are Humans dry wood sitting around in the environ- maybe it’s centered in Washington, DC. Unsustainable by Nature? Rees is a mental forest [waiting] for something to Tom Horton has written about the scientist and co-inventor of the “ecologi- spark it,” he said. Chesapeake Bay for more than 40 cal footprint” analysis that shows we’d Our democracy itself emerged hand years, including eight books. He lives in need several Earths if everyone consumed in hand with the exploitation of natural Salisbury, where he is also a professor like Americans. He says that being resources and other peoples (think slaves of Environmental Studies at Salisbury opportunistic, oriented to the short term, Chesapeake Born and Native Americans). It remains an University. to the quick gain, to seizing all available resources — all this served humans quite net too narrowly, focusing on wilderness well as an evolutionary strategy (so far). too much and social justice not enough — etters to the ditor The University of British Columbia for betting we could sustain the planet by L E professor further argues that to support working within our corporate-capitalist Keep covering Fones Cliffs ity announced the filing of a lawsuit these genetic predispositions we have system. But does our breakdown of envi- I would like to thank the Bay Jour- against the would-be developers for concocted “cultural genes,” or memes — ronmental resistance really lie in citizens’ nal for continued, in-depth coverage significant and repeated environmental like the myth of endless, limitless growth, failure to develop a strong enough ethic? of the damages and violations at Fones violations. applied to everything from population Not so fast, some say. Cliffs along Virginia’s Rappahannock While damage to archeological politics to housing developments. Environmentalists have gotten used River. It is clear that many citizens resources is irreparable, the habitat can Indeed, mainstream economics to mainly playing defense, said Gerald across the Chesapeake landscape are be repaired, especially if the property uncritically embraces the no-limits myth, Winegrad, former Maryland state senator concerned about what happens at this can be permanently protected. Regard- discounting natural systems — the Earth, and one of the environmental stalwarts of very special place rich in history and less, trees can and should be replanted in other words — as a constraint on my generation. And that needs to change; where eagles soar. on the illegally cleared area. Under a human ingenuity and enterprise. [we] need to think Civil Rights move- Fones Cliffs is a majestic place. conservation scenario, archeological In contrast, environmentalism at its ment, anti-Vietnam protests, marches, This 4-mile formation of forested cliffs resources would also be protected. core is about heeding limits; and while sit-ins, civil disobedience, super-PACS. reaches heights of 80–100 feet and We are pleased that Gov. Ralph limits on growth, consumption, stuffing “Mimic the NRA,” he said, referring to is composed of diatomaceous earth Northam’s administration is taking the atmosphere with CO2 (carbon dioxide) the political potency of the gun group. formed millions of years ago. This this environmental and cultural loss and saturating coastal waters with nutri- Another view: Modern history can be is the ancestral territory of the Rap- seriously. We remain hopeful that we ent runoff ultimately may be liberating seen as pendulum swinging between the pahannock Tribe. It is also designated can permanently protect the cliffs for (as in, we get to keep the Bay, the planet, powers of the state and those of corporate as a globally significant Important Bird current and future generations. Thank etc.), politicians running on a platform interests. This is according to Michael Area for both resident and migratory you to the thousands of people who of “limits” are too easily dismissed as Lewis, my environmental historian col- bald eagles and other migratory birds. have voiced their support for Fones against progress. league at Salisbury University. As your loyal readers know, in mid- Cliffs. I was set to keep on in this vein, to cite The great rise of environmentalism October, Virginia Attorney General Joe McCauley critiques of the environmental movement in the decade around the first Earth Day Mark R. Herring and the Virginia Chesapeake Fellow since Earth Day 1970 for having cast its coincided with a major swing toward Department of Environmental Qual- Chesapeake Conservancy 32 Bay Journal • November 2018

Commentary • Letters • Perspectives Chesapeakeorum Bay Program fueled by science, driven by partnership By JoanF Smedinghoff Volunteers the jurisdictions based on one model that are increas- everyone agreed to. By the time 1987 For 35 years, the Chesapeake Bay ingly helping rolled around, the partnership was ready Program has been the collaborating force to gather to work toward its first numeric goal behind Bay restoration. data. Here, rather than setting up programs with This December marks 35 years since former South only vague goals of reducing pollution. the signing of the 1983 Chesapeake Bay Riverkeeper “We had this growing partnership Agreement. This agreement set up the Diana Muller, agreeing to numerical goals about what Chesapeake Bay Program and started left, checks we wanted to try to do,” Batiuk said. the monitoring network that has been at data being “It set the basis for actually dividing up its center for more than three decades. uploaded from those goals among the four jurisdictions The Bay Program has changed as we’ve a hydrolab that were currently at the table.” learned more about the Bay watershed, probe in the The Bay Program partners signed but the fundamentals have stayed the South River, the 1987 Chesapeake Bay Agreement same: We are fueled by science and MD. Volun- committing to an ecosystem approach driven by partnership. teers Paula to restoration, with the stated goal of Sticking to these values, the Bay Frohring reducing 40 percent of nutrients entering Program has been able to stay on the and Andrew the Bay. right track. By convening different Muller assist. While ambitious, this was the first groups and working together, the Frohring time the partnership committed to a partnership has hit milestones that were measures measurable goal and an ecosystem unimaginable at the beginning. wind, humidity approach. It was the first agreement in The original signers of the Chesa- and air which the partnership committed to peake Bay Agreement initiated the temperature, take specific voluntary action to reduce program when they saw the results of which Andrew pollution, restore fisheries and habitat a Congress-commissioned multiyear Muller and increase stewardship of the Bay and study. The Bay was in poor health, and records. its rivers. excess nutrients were to blame. (Dave Harp) In 1992, through amendments to the But the results went beyond science. 1987 agreement, the partnership offi- Maryland and Virginia were losing Harris Creek in Maryland and the cially acknowledged that, to bring back a lot of money because the crab and Lafayette River in Virginia. Now home the Bay, they had to focus more than just oyster fisheries were impacted. Tourism to 351 acres of oyster reefs, Harris Creek on the Bay itself and its most impaired decreased because people didn’t find the represents the largest oyster restoration waterways. They began to create plans Bay swimmable. project in the world. to reduce pollution in all of the Bay’s “I can tell you that when I started waterways, called tributary strategies. almost 34 years ago, I would’ve never A relay race thought that we would have made the Although much of our progress has Uniquely Chesapeake progress that we have,” said Rich Batiuk, been seen in recent years, the ground- By the end of the 1990s, the partner- the Chesapeake Bay Program’s recently work for these successes was laid a long ship had gathered close to two decades’ retired associate director for science, time ago. worth of data about the watershed. They analysis and implementation. “This not a marathon but a relay building up what is now entering into its also had worked together for more than “When I came, we had 12 million race,” said Carin Bisland, associate fourth decade: the partnership’s monitor- 10 years at reducing pollution, restoring people. We now have 18 million people,” director for partnerships and account- ing program,” Batiuk said. “The states habitat and improving fisheries manage- Batiuk noted. “You would have had to ability at the Chesapeake Bay Program. and DC were working with us to set up ment, but they were running into a reduce the footprint just to hold steady, At its inception in 1983, the Bay what is now about 160 stations in their problem that made this difficult. and you could have claimed success. Program was founded on coordinated 34th year of collecting water quality data Under the Clean Water Act, the states We’ve not only done that, but we’re turn- science and monitoring. The governors across the entire Chesapeake Bay.” and DC had to take certain actions to ing it the other direction. The system’s of Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia Through the Chesapeake Bay improve waterways that are impaired. coming back.” and the mayor of the District of Colum- Monitoring Program, the partnership But in the partnership’s voluntary Last year, we saw the largest amount bia met with the administrator of the established consistent standards for Chesapeake Bay Agreement, they had of underwater grass acreage in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency water monitoring in the states of Mary- agreed to reduce nutrient and sediment Bay in our three decades of collecting and the chair of the Chesapeake Bay land, Pennsylvania and Virginia and the pollution. This meant that they had data—an estimated 104,843 acres. This Commission, an advisory group that District of Columbia. regulatory responsibility to improve their surpassed our 2017 restoration target represents the state legislatures, to sign While this may seem obvious now, impaired waters to meet water quality and, along with being the fifth consecu- the first Chesapeake Bay Agreement. Bisland said, it was unheard of at the standards, and a different set of volun- tive year of acreage growth, is the first In this groundbreaking document, the time for states to use the same monitor- tary responsibilities to the Bay Program time in modern history that grasses in signatories agreed to work together ing protocols, and this innovation set up to reduce nutrient and sediment pollution the Bay have exceeded 100,000 acres. toward a healthy Chesapeake. the partnership for success. Not only did by 40 percent. It represents the biggest resurgence of This first agreement brought together it make it possible to compare progress On top of the fact that there were two underwater grasses recorded, not only these different entities, established a among the four jurisdictions, but it also different approaches to meet, the water in the Chesapeake Bay, but in the entire coordinating Chesapeake Bay Program began the process of building trust quality standards in the Bay were, in world. office in Annapolis and set up a monitor- across the partnership. some instances, inconsistent across state Bay Program partners also completed ing partnership that exists to this day. This trust allowed the Bay Program oyster restoration on two tributaries: “At that point, we were actually to apportion pollution responsibly across Chesapeake continues on page 33 Bay Journal • November 2018 33

Commentary • Letters • Perspectives

Chesapeakeorum from page 32 science, but these conditions can change, and we need to be flexible and under- lines. In addition, scientists didn’t think standing in a way that accommodates theF regulatory standards were reflective those changes. of what was known about the biology of the Bay, and, for deeper waters in Looking forward some areas, might not be possible to ever The Bay Program has more than 30 achieve. years’ worth of monitoring data, but Armed with monitoring data and that doesn’t mean we know everything. cooperation among the jurisdictions, This year’s record rainfall could put a the Bay Program worked with the EPA damper on the progress we’ve seen in to reconcile these two programs — the the past few years, so we are closely regulatory and the voluntary — to create watching to see how the ecosystem one program that would be better suited reacts to it. We’re still monitoring to see for the Chesapeake Bay. what these impacts are, but thanks to The Bay Program achieved our monitoring partnership, a network this through the signing of another already exists, as well as ample data to agreement, Chesapeake 2000. compare it with. This agreement had more numeric We’re looking into a new source of goals — including wetland acres, miles information: residents. Through the of fish passage and an increased number Citizens Monitoring Cooperative, a of oysters — but most importantly, it project of the Bay Program, volunteer called for the development of consistent Widgeon grass grew near the bulkhead in Tylerton, on Smith Island in 2018. Last monitoring groups can learn how to col- standards built from the unique scientific year saw the largest acreage of underwater grasses in the Bay in three decades of lect quality data from their local streams, understanding of the Bay. This allowed collecting data. (Dave Harp) providing useful data to the jurisdictions the jurisdictions to develop coordinated and Bay Program for areas that we don’t water quality standards that, once table, it just expanded our sense of what include more federal involvement as well. have the capacity to monitor. approved by the EPA, they could work might work and what might not work in The EPA has always acted as a represen- Along with collecting data, the toward for improving their impaired different places.” tative for all federal agencies, but in 2010, partnership has stepped up its work to waterways. At the same time, they received President Obama signed an executive verify what pollution reduction mea- This early work would make it pos- benefits from being part of the Bay order calling on federal agencies to play a sures, also known as best management sible, in 2010, to set up the Chesapeake Program. “The monitoring system larger role in restoring the Bay. practices, are in place. All of the states Bay Total Maximum Daily Load. The expanded to include stations in their “What the executive order really and DC have BMP verification processes Bay Program had an agreed-upon model, parts of the watershed,” he said. “They did was create an opportunity — and that include initial inspection, follow-up decades of monitoring data, state- got to benefit from the tools that we built actually a demand — for our many checks and evaluation of performance. specific but coordinated water quality in terms of the science and the models. federal partners to come to the table,” This achievement helps state and standards and a trusting partnership. More recently, all seven jurisdictions got remarked Jim Edward, acting director local governments as well as the Bay With those in place, the Bay Program to have, for the first time in the United of the Chesapeake Bay Program, who Program know that restoration invest- would be able to put the nation’s largest States, high-resolution, land cover data, led the implementation of the executive ments are maintained and sustainable. TMDL in place that would be suited for wall to wall across their towns and cities order for the partnership. “It brought the It also helps the Bay Program’s model- the Bay, not based on generic or incon- and farmlands.” Department of Defense and the Corps ers estimate how much pollution is sistent standards. Because of this state-level involve- of Engineers to the table, as well as the prevented from entering waterways, ment, the Bay Program has always been a National Park Service and other agencies which is then cross-checked with the An adapting partnership partnership. Every partner is part of you may not think about.” monitoring data. While the original agreement was the decision making. At its highest level Now, the Bay Program is learning For 35 years, the Chesapeake Bay signed by representatives from Mary- of management — the Executive how to adapt in a new way: manage- Program has been running a relay land, Pennsylvania, Virginia, the District Council — there are nine people in ment. As we learned through retrofitting race, passing the baton of science and of Columbia, EPA and the Chesapeake charge: the governors of Delaware, Mary- the federal regulatory program, the restoration as we innovate, learn and Bay Commission in the 1990s, it became land, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia Chesapeake Bay is a complex ecosystem adapt. Join us on the next leg of the clear that the Bay could not be restored and West Virginia; the mayor of the Dis- with its own unique needs that we are race at chesapeakebay.net. without the involvement of its headwater trict of Columbia; the administrator of the only beginning to understand. The Bay Joan Smedinghoff is the web states. EPA; and the chair of the Chesapeake Bay Program partnership is set up to make content specialist with the Chesapeake Even though Maryland and Virginia Commission. Decisions are made based decisions informed by the best available Bay Program. have direct connections to the Bay, the on consensus or unanimous approval. watershed extends up to New York and Since the beginning, residents and out to Delaware and West Virginia. local governments have played a special With the knowledge that they all have role in the Bay Program. The partnership Let Us Know an impact on the Bay, those three states developed two advisory committees to The Bay Journal welcomes letters pertaining to Chesapeake Bay signed on to the most recent agreement the Executive Council, one for residents issues. Letters should be no more than 400 words. Send letters to: Editor, in 2014. and one for local governments, so the Bay Journal, 619 Oakwood Drive, Seven Valleys, PA 17360-9395. Batiuk reflected on the benefits that voices of these two large stakeholder E-mail letters to: [email protected] the new partners bring to the Bay Pro- groups were always front and center in Letter writers should include a phone number where they can be gram. “We found that they brought their the partnership. At the same time, the reached. Longer commentaries should be arranged in advance with the own experiences working with farmers partnership developed an advisory com- editor. Call: 717-428-2819. or working with localities, working mittee for science to ensure the voices of Views expressed are those of the writers and do not necessarily reflect with their folks in cities and townships the scientists were never lost. those of the Bay Journal or Bay Journal Media. and boroughs. By bringing them to the The partnership has expanded to 34 Bay Journal • November 2018

CBL Visitor Center Carpoolers meet at the Sierra Club Volunteer docents, ages 16 & MD Chapter office at 9 a.m., return older, are needed at the Chesapeake WorkdayMake sure that whenWisdom you at 5 p.m. Carpool contact: Laurel Biological Laboratory’s Visitor Center participate in cleanup or invasive Imlay at 301-277-7111. on Solomons Island, MD. Volunteers plant removal workdays to protect must commit to a minimum of two, the Chesapeake Bay watershed Snap a stream selfie 3– to 4-hour shifts each month in and its resources that you also Water quality in 80 percent of the spring, summer and fall. Training protect yourself. Organizers of U.S. streams is unknown. Help to Volunteer Opportunities sessions are required. Info: almost every workday strongly bridge the information gap by taking [email protected]. urge their volunteers to wear long a selfie in one’s backyard or nearby Count birds at Nixon Park pants, long-sleeved shirts, socks stream. Info: iwla.org/streamselfie. Nixon County Park near Jacobus, Anita Leight Estuary Center and closed-toe shoes (hiking or PA, needs volunteers for the Cornell Anita Leight Estuary Center in waterproof). This helps to mini- VA Master Naturalist training Laboratory of Ornithology’s Project Abington, MD, needs volunteers, mize skin exposure to poison ivy The Prince William County (VA) FeederWatch, a citizen science ages 14 & older, for an Invasinators and ticks, which might be found Master Naturalist Merrimac Farm program in which participants count workday 2:30–4:30 p.m. Nov. 17. at the site. Light-colored clothing Chapter needs volunteers interested the number and identify species of Help to remove invasive plants and also makes it easier to spot ticks. in the stewardship of natural areas, birds visiting feeders from November install native species. Learn why Hats are strongly recommended. trail and stream rehabilitation, and through early April. Volunteers nonnative invasive plants threaten Although some events provide water quality monitoring. They can commit to a one-hour time slot on ecosystems, how to identify problem work gloves, not all do; ask when lead educational programs or assist Tuesday or Wednesday every other plants, and removal and restoration registering. scientists in plant and animal surveys. week. Data is forwarded to Cornell strategies. Wear sturdy shoes, long Events near water require Training covers ecology, geology, for its nationwide project that tracks sleeves and work gloves. Info: closed-toe shoes and clothing that soils, native flora & fauna and habitat winter bird population trends. 410-612-1688, 410-879-2000 x1688, can get wet or muddy. management. The fee is $200; a Beginners are welcome. The park otterpointcreek.org. Always bring water. Sunscreen scholarship is available. Volunteers is ADA accessible. Info: Andrew at and an insect repellent designed commit to 40 volunteer hours a year. 717-428-1961. Adopt-a-Stream program to repel both deer ticks and Info: merrimacfarmvmn.weebly.com/. The Prince William Soil & Water mosquitoes help. Paradise Creek Nature Park Conservation District in Manassas, Lastly, most organizers ask that Floatable monitoring program Paradise Creek Nature Park in VA, wants to ensure that stream volunteers register ahead of time. The Prince William Soil & Water Portsmouth, VA, needs people of cleanup volunteers have all of the Knowing how many people are Conservation District in Manassas, all ages (12 & younger w/adult) to support and supplies they need for going to show up ensures that VA, needs volunteers to help assess participate in its Volunteer Service trash removal projects. Participating they will have enough tools and and trace trash in streams as part Days 9–11 a.m. Nov. 10 and Dec. groups receive an Adopt-A-Stream supervisors. They can also give of an effort to reduce nonpoint 8. Help to replace invasive plants sign from the PWC Public Works directions to the site or offer any source pollutants in urbanized and with native species or maintain trails Department in recognition of their suggestions for apparel or gear industrialized areas in relation to and recreation amenities. Wear stewardship. To learn more, adopt a not mentioned here. the County’s Municipal Separate closed-toe shoes and long pants. stream or get a proposed site, visit Storm Sewers (MS4) permit. Bring sunscreen, insect repellent [email protected]. Groups Cleanup supplies are provided. Info: and a water bottle. Preregistration is can also register their events at in November, December and [email protected]. required. Info: Ranger Kat Fish at 757- trashnetwork.fergusonfoundation.org. January remove invasive plants in 392-7132 or [email protected]. the forested swamp in Hyattsville, Resources Little Paint Branch Park MD. Meet at farthest end of parking Tree plantings, free trees Help the Maryland-National lot. Info: Marc Imlay at Marc. EPA citizen science report Stream-Link Education is looking Capital Park and Planning [email protected], 301-283-0808, An EPA advisory body recently for volunteers to help plant trees at Commission remove invasive species (301-442-5657 the day of event); or submitted a report to agency Waterside Community in Frederick, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. the last Saturday in Colleen Aistis at 301-985-5057. leadership recommending that MD, 9–11 a.m. Nov. 10 & 17. Info: November, December and January at the U.S. Environmental Protection streamlinkeducation.org/plantings. Little Paint Branch Park in Beltsville. American Chestnut Land Trust Agency proactively and fully Stream-Link is also seeking new Learn about native plants. Sign in for The American Chestnut Land integrate citizen science into its planting sites along streams and rivers, a safety orientation. Gloves and tools Trust in Prince Frederick, MD, needs work, embrace it as a core tenet of particularly on farm land. Those who are provided. Info: Marc Imlay at volunteers for invasive plant removal environmental protection and use own property along streams or rivers [email protected], workdays 9–11 a.m. Thursdays citizen science data directly. The full with inadequate vegetated buffer 301-442-5657. and 10 a.m.–12 p.m. Wednesdays. report can be found online. Google: can contact Stream-Link to see if All ages (16 & younger w/adult) EPA Needs a Comprehensive Vision they could be eligible for free trees. Cromwell Valley Park are welcome. Training, tools and and Strategy for Citizen Science. Planting area must be a minimum Cromwell Valley Park near Towson, water are provided. Preregistration of 5 acres and must meet other MD, needs volunteers for Habitat is required. Info: 410-414-3400, Creek Critters App requirements. Info: 301-473-6844. Restoration Team / Weed Warrior acltweb.org, [email protected]. The Audubon Naturalist’s Creek Days: 2–4 p.m. Nov. 14, 17 & 28. Critters App empowers people to Woodbridge, VA, cleanup All ages (12 & younger w/adult) are Ruth Swann Park check on the health of their local The Prince William (VA) Soil welcome. Remove invasive species, Help the Maryland Native Plant streams by through finding and and Water Conservation District install native plants and maintain Society, Sierra Club and Chapman identifying the small organisms — or needs volunteers for its Woodbridge restored habitat. Service hours Forest Foundation 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. creatures — that live in freshwater Community Big Cleanup Day 9 a.m. are available. Meet at Sherwood the second Saturday in November, streams, then generating stream to noon Nov. 17. Volunteers House parking lot. No registration is December and January remove health reports based on what can join a cleanup group or lead required. Info: Laurie Taylor-Mitchell at invasive plants at Ruth Swann they find. The free app can be an event. Sites include Jefferson, [email protected]. Park in Bryans Road. Meet at Ruth downloaded from the App Store Marumsco and Veterans Swann Park-Potomac Branch Library and Google Play. Info: anshome. Memorial parks. Supplies and Magruder Woods parking lot. Bring lunch. Info: Marc org/creek-critters. To learn about support will be provided. Info: Help Friends of Magruder Woods Imlay at [email protected], 301-283- [email protected]. 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. the third Saturday 0808, (301-442-5657 day of event). Bulletin continues on page 35 Bay Journal • November 2018 35

Do You Have a Mid-January through Mid-March Event? This is to remind organizations and centers Bay Journal office no later than Dec. 11 if they with events or deadlines that take place are to run in the combined January-February between mid-January and mid-March that 2019 issue. Please e-mail news about upcoming announcements for these items must reach the events to this address: [email protected]. Bulletin from page 34 partnerships or host a Creek Critters event, contact for use by teachers, home-school have developed a toolkit for students locations and the total number of [email protected]. educators, naturalists, scout leaders and educators in coastal and inland participants from the organization and other instructors. These free areas to learn about marine debris or school expected to participate Watershed education capsules interdisciplinary tools are designed and monitor their local waterways. in the EarthEcho Water Challenge. Prince William Soil and Water to interest students in local wildlife This toolkit is a collaborative effort to This information helps to determine Conservation District’s watershed while building on disciplines like reduce the impact of trash on marine how many kits a group needs. The capsules, which teach students art, language arts, math, physical ecosystems through hands-on citizen Virginia Water Monitoring Council about the important functions of education, science and social science, education and community provided the kits for this effort. watersheds, are available, first-come, studies. Each trunk contains an outreach. Info: Google marine debris first served. Info: pwswcd.org/ educator guide with background monitoring toolkit for educators. Emerald ash borer program educators, [email protected]. information, lesson plans and The Virginia Department of For- hands-on K–12 activities, as well as Bilingual educator resources estry’s Emerald Ash Borer Cost-Share Environmental education grants activity supplies, books, furs, replica Bilingual lessons are available in Program will help landowners and EcoTech Grants offer up to $2,500 tracks, videos and other hands-on English and Spanish for Interstate organizations (nonprofits, schools, to engage children in inquiry- items. Trunk subjects include aquatic Commission on the Potomac River homeowner associations, municipali- based, STEM-related projects that invasive species, bats, black bears, Basin educational programs. Info: ties) treat ash trees to prevent their leverage technology and/or use furbearers, white-tailed deer and potomacriver.org/resources/educator. death by the emerald ash borer. Info: nature-based design to address wild turkeys. Trunks are available Meredith Bean at meredith.bean@ environmental problems in local at seven locations around the state Turf / lawn programs dof.virginia.gov, 434-220-9034. To communities. This cycle’s application and can be borrowed on a first- For information on the Prince learn about the invasive insect, visit deadline is Jan. 15, 2019. Info: come, first-served basis for up to William Soil & Water Conservation emeraldashborer.info. To participate captainplanetfoundation.org/grants/ two weeks. Info: Google Wildlife District’s 12 Steps to a Greener in free webinars, visit ecotech. Education Trunks. Lawn / Building Environmental emeraldashborer.info/eabu.php. Sustainable Turf BEST Lawns Park passes for 4th-graders Learn if your yard is Bay-Wise programs, low-cost, research-based Bay Backpack The Maryland Department of Master Gardeners in Prince programs for lawn education, Provided by the Chesapeake Bay Natural Resources is partnering George’s County (MD) takes contact: 703-792-4037 or e-mail Program’s Education Workgroup, the with the U.S. Department of the part in Bay-Wise, a program that [email protected]. Bay Backpack is an online resource Interior’s Every Kid in a Park program offers free consultations on sound for educators with information about to provide fourth-grade children environmental practices for county Stormwater management info funding opportunities, field studies, and their families free admission residents’ yards to help them to have Businesses and nonprofits curriculum guides and lesson plans to national public lands and state their landscapes certified as Bay- interested in landscaping and turf related to the Chesapeake. Contact: parks. The Maryland Park Service Wise. The Master Gardeners look for management, stormwater pond baybackpack.com. will honor the federal passes, valid healthy lawn maintenance, efficient management, wildlife concerns, through Aug. 31, 2019, at all 75 state watering and pest control, and recommendations for maintaining Baltimore biodiversity toolkit parks. The passes are also valid at 16 native trees and plants that provide landscapes, protecting water quality The Baltimore Biodiversity Toolkit national parks, six national natural shelter and habitat for wildlife. and pollution prevention can call 703- addresses the need for high-quality landmarks, five national wildlife They also suggest approaches to 792-6285 to schedule a free site visit. and accessible green space in the refuges and two federal heritage reduce pollution. Free Bay-Wise city, not only for native plants and areas in the state. The program’s signs are given to homeowners VA water monitoring test kits animals, but for residents as well. goal is to increase access to public who demonstrate sound practices. The Virginia Department of It helps communities identify a lands and facilities for children at an Homeowners can also evaluate Environmental Quality is distributing suite of ambassador animals that impressionable age to ignite their their property online using the a limited number of water monitoring represent habitat types within, and interest and love for the outdoors. MD Yardstick, which tallies their kits to test for dissolved oxygen, pH, historic to, this area; shares practical It also offers teachers resources for pollution-reducing gardening and turbidity and temperature. These resources for supporting specific planning field trips, including free landscaping practices. To have a kits are available for free to schools wildlife needs; and monitors and access for classes and eligibility for yard certified as Bay-Wise, though, and organizations that do not have encourages the collection of citizen federal transportation funding. In homeowners need to have the water monitoring equipment. The science data; and develops a culture addition, the DNR offers educational Master Gardeners visit and evaluate DEQ requests that participants use of conservation and stewardship. resources for teachers. The pass their landscape. Contact: Esther these kits as part of the EarthEcho The toolkit highlights 20 ambassador covers admission, but does not cover Mitchell: [email protected] or Water Challenge (formerly known as wildlife species from four different amenities and services, such as boat visit extension.umd.edu/baywise/ World Water Monitoring Challenge. habitats. These animals represent a rentals, camping or staff-led tours. program-certification. Click on See worldwatermonitoringday.org). variety of conditions that are present For details or to print a pass for this “download the yardstick” to evaluate Groups with their own monitoring in high-quality environments for year, google Every Kid in a Park and a landscape and/or vegetable garden. equipment can also participate in the human, plant and animal health. follow the directions on the website. event. Teachers, or those who work The multi-platform toolkit is Marine debris toolkit with a large number of students, can designed to help partners prioritize Wildlife education trunks The National Oceanic and request a free kit. Contact: Stuart community greening projects based The Maryland Department of Atmospheric Administration’s Office Torbeck at charles.torbeck@deq. on representative species, citizen Natural Resources is offering a of National Marine Sanctuaries and virginia.gov and provide a mailing variety of wildlife education trunks the NOAA Marine Debris Program address, the number of monitoring Bulletin continues on page 36 36 Bay Journal • November 2018

The fees (before Nov. 20/after Nov. 14 (River’s current condition) & 717-428-1961. 20) are: non-presenter: $70/$80; Nov. 28 (Restoration under way). ≈ Hanging of the Greens: 6–8 Presenter: $65/$80; full-time Preregistration required. Suggested p.m. Dec. 7. Rail Trail at Hanover students, nonprofit member or donation: $15. Info: elizabethriver.org, Junction Train Station. After staff: $40/$60. Register online by [email protected]. decorating the station’s exterior, noon Nov. 30. Walk-ins will not be ≈ Youth Field Day: 1-3 p.m. Nov. snack on hot beverages, cookies accepted. Discounts for full-time 12. All ages. Games, nature activities. during a holiday-themed program. students and members/staff of Free. No registration. ≈ Winter Wildlife Hike: 2–3:30 Bulletin from page 35 nonprofit organizations [501(c)(3)] ≈ The “After Turkey” Strut: 11 a.m.– p.m. Dec. 9. Nixon Park, near are also available on a first-come, 12 p.m. & 2–3 p.m. Nov. 24. Jacobus. One-mile wander explores science data and spatial analysis first-served basis. All ages. Walk off some of that park habitats while searching for that includes social, economic and Thanksgiving dinner! Take a brisk signs of winter activity. ecological indicators. Info: fws.gov. Events / Programs 2-mile walk on trails through the Except where noted, all programs forest, wetlands. Learn about local are free and do not require Forums / Workshops Patuxent Research Refuge fall flora, fauna along the way. Wear registration. Contact: 717-428-1961. Upcoming events at the Patuxent walking shoes, bring a water bottle. MD water monitoring forum Research Refuge’s National Wildlife Free. No registration. Farm Sprouts The 24th Annual Maryland Water Visitor Center [C] and North Tract ≈ Winter Animal Adaptations: The Maryland Agricultural Monitoring Council Conference, [T] in Laurel, MD, include: 2–3 p.m. Dec. 1. River Academy. All Resource Council invites children, Science, Stewardship and Citizen ≈ Owl Eyes: 12:15–12:45 p.m. ages (12 & younger w/adult) Discover up to age 5, to Farm Sprouts at Involvement / Working Together for Nov. 10 & 17 [C] All ages. Learn the adaptations that wildlife use the Baltimore County Ag-Center Clean Water, takes place 7:30 a.m. about owls. No registration. to stay warm and protected. Free. in Cockeysville. The program uses to 4:30 p.m. Dec. 7 at the Maritime ≈ Bird Walk: 8–10 a.m. Nov. Preregistration required. Contact themes from children’s books to Conference Center in North 14 & 28 [C] Ages 16+ Search for Kat Fish at [email protected], explore a farm or nature topic Linthicum. The conference includes fall migrants in several habitats. 757-392-7132. through movement, stories and arts a morning plenary session featuring Binoculars recommended. & crafts. Sessions are scheduled presentations by Chesapeake Bay ≈ Nature Tots: Pigment of York (PA) County Parks 9:45–10:45 a.m. or 11:30 a.m.–12:30 Foundation President Will Baker Patuxent: 10:30–11:15 a.m. Nov. Upcoming programs at York (PA) p.m. Nov. 16 (Turkeys) and Dec. 7 and Dominique Lueckenhoff, acting 20 [C] Ages 3-4. Learn about the County parks include: (Hibernation). The fee, for ages 9 deputy director of the U.S. EPA change of the season by examining ≈ Christmas Magic - A Festival of months and older, is $8. Anyone Region 3 Water Protection Division; color changes on the refuge. Lights: 6–9 p.m. Monday–Thursday; who wants to attend the program concurrent breakout sessions; ≈ Raptors Reign: 1–3 p.m. Nov. 5–9 p.m. Friday, Saturday & Sunday*. but is unable because of financial posters; exhibitor tables; snacks; 24 [C] All ages. Licensed falconer Nov. 23–Dec. 31 (Closed Dec. 24 & constraints is asked to call MARC at all-you-can-eat buffet lunch; and Rodney Stotts shares the power 25) Rocky Ridge, York. Fund-raiser, 410-887-8973 to see if arrangements post-meeting social. Topics include: of nature through discussions and is the largest holiday attraction in can be made. Bring a lunch to forests & water quality; urban up-close encounters with birds of the area with more than 600,000 stay longer and explore the park. ecology; promoting stewardship; prey. No registration. lights, animation, trains, holiday Preregistration required. Info: environmental reporting; stream ≈ Tiny Tots: 10:30–11:15 a.m. Nov. scenes, refreshment for sale. Two [email protected], restoration monitoring; sewage 25 & 26 [C] Ages 16–48 months onsite wheelchairs are available marylandagriculture.org/farm- infrastructure; citizen monitoring; w/parent participation. Interactive on a first come-first serve basis. sprouts-preschool. and toxic contaminants. Contact: songs, stories, activities highlight the Fee: $10/adults; $9/ages 59+; $7/ dnr.maryland.gov/streams/Pages/ refuge’s wildlife. group of 12+ adults & seniors; $5/ Oregon Ridge Nature Center MWMC/conference.aspx or Dan ≈ North Tract Bicycle Ride: 1–3:30 ages 4–12; free/ages 4 & younger. Upcoming events at Oregon Ridge Boward at [email protected]. p.m. Nov. 25. Ages 10+ Learn how Personal checks,credit cards not Nature Center in Cockeysville, MD, The registration fees include lunch, to reduce one’s footprint, leave no accepted. There will be an ATM include: breaks and conference materials. trace on 12-mile ride. See local on the premises. Tickets can be ≈ Shoots & Letters: 10–11 a.m. wildlife, plants, historical sites. Bring purchased on site Monday–Thursday. Nov. 15 (Hibernation) & Nov. 29 bike, energy bar/snack, water bottle, *Admission on Fridays, Saturdays, (Deer) Ages 3+ Stories, crafts, Chesapeake Challenge helmet. Ride is weather-dependent. Sundays is by timed tickets only, adventures. Fee: $2/child. No Answers to Except where noted, all programs which can be purchased at registration. Take this otterly fun quiz! are free (donations are appreciated; yorkcountyparks.org. Reservations ≈ Bookworm Story Time: 11–11:45 on page 38. designed for individuals/families; required, no walk-ins these nights. In a.m. Dec. 7. Toddler to age 6. Nature 1. Antarctica & Australia and require preregistration. Contact: the event of inclement weather, call story plus activity such as an animal 2. B & C 3. B 4. A 301-497-5887. For disability-related 717-840-7443 for updates, closures. encounter, puppets or craft. Dress for 5. D 6. A 7. An average accommodations, notify the refuge, ≈ Pet Night at Christmas Magic: a brief outdoor experience. Free. No adult male weighs around 25 giving as much notice as possible. 6–9 p.m. Nov. 28/rain date: 11/29. registration. pounds, an average female Info: fws.gov/refuge/Patuxent. Bring your pet to have its photo ≈ Falling Behind: Nov. 17 & 18. weighs around 18 pounds taken with Santa Claus for a $7 All ages. Learn about winter birds, Paradise Creek Nature Park donation. See first item for event, seed pods, animal signs on hike. 8. River otters can run up to Upcoming events at Paradise admission details. Pets admitted free. Free. 18 mph and swim 12 mph Creek Nature Park in Portsmouth, ≈ Birds of Prey Day: 11 a.m. & ≈ Turkey Tales: Nov. 24 & 25. 9. C 10. Right/4 Left/2 11. A VA, include: 1 p.m. Nov. 24. Nixon Park, near Ages 5+ Stories, crafts, live turkey. ≈ Guided Ranger Walks: 2–3 p.m. Jacobus. Meet live hawks, owls, or Fee: $3. Bay Buddies Nov. 10 & Dec. 8. All ages (11 & falcons during indoor program by ≈ Nature Book Club / Darwin Answers to Otter Adaptations younger w/parent) Learn about native local raptor rehabilitators. Learn how Comes to Town - How the Urban on page 38. plants, wildlife & how to identify these birds are adapted to hunting Jungle Drives Evolution: 7–8 1. Whiskers 2. Membrane wildflowers. Free. Preregistration on the wing. Cameras welcome. p.m. Nov. 26. Studies by Menno 3. Hair 4. Nostils & Ears 5. Toes required. Contact: Kat Fish at 757- Register at 717-428-1961. Schilthuizen, an urban ecologist, 6. Tail 7. Paws 392-7132 or [email protected]. ≈ Natural Ornament Workshop: show how man-made environments Boxed Word: Weasels ≈ Brown Bag Lunches / Elizabeth 1–3:30 p.m. Dec. 2. Nixon Park, near are accelerating and as a result, River 101: 12–1 p.m. Nov. 7 Jacobus. Supplies provided. Drop-in, (Elizabeth River’s past); Nov. leave anytime. Preregister at Bulletin continues on page 37 Bay Journal • November 2018 37

designers and garden clubs, as well as purchase hand-crafted items at the Greens Sale. Guests are treated New Submission Guidelines to complimentary cider and cookies. The Bay Journal regrets it is least two months in advance. See Weather permitting, the 22-acre not always able to print every below. gardens will also be open for self- notice it receives because of ≈ Submissions to Bulletin Board guided tours during the open house. space limitations. Priority is given must be sent either as a Word or Proceeds benefit Ladew’s Manor to events or programs that most Pages document, or as simple text Bulletin from page 36 House, 22-acre gardens, 60-acre closely relate to the preservation in the body of an e-mail. PDFs, Nature Walk, and Butterfly House. and appreciation of the Bay, newsletters or other formats may changing the evolution of animals, Admission is $13/adults; $10/seniors its watershed and resources. be considered if there is space plants. Light refreshments provided, & students; $4/ages 2–12. Purchase Items published in Bulletin and if information can be easily feel free to bring a snack to share. tickets at LadewGardens.com. Board are posted on the online extracted. Free. calendar; unpublished items are ≈ Programs must contain all of All events take place, rain or Cromwell Valley Park posted online if staffing permits. the following information: a phone shine. Ages 12 & younger must Upcoming programs at Cromwell Guidelines: number (include the area code) or be accompanied by an adult. Valley Park’s Willow Grove Nature ≈ Send notices to e-mail address of a contact person; Preregistration is required or strongly Center near Towson, MD, include: [email protected]. Items the title, time (online calendar encouraged, except where noted. ≈ Let’s Talk Turkey: 1–2:30 p.m. sent to other addresses are not requires an end time as well as a Info: 410-887-1815, Nov. 17 All ages. Benjamin Franklin always forwarded before the start time), date and place of the [email protected]. wanted the turkey to be the national deadline. event or program. Submissions Payment must be made within bird. Learn about wild turkeys, then ≈ Bulletin Board contains events must state if the program is five business days of registration. meet some. Fee: $4. that take place (or have registration free, requires a fee, has age Programs are designed for individuals ≈ Black Friday Hike: 7–8:30 p.m. deadlines) on or after the 11th requirements, has a registration and families; groups can call the Nov. 23 Ages 5+ Hike ends with of the month in which the item deadline or welcomes drop-ins. park to arrange a program. For s’mores around a campfire. Fee: $5. is published through the 11th of ≈ December issue: November 11 disability-related accommodations, ≈ Autumn Leaf Lantern: 1–2:30 the next month. Deadlines run at ≈ January-February issue: December 11 call 410-887-5370 or 410-887-5319 p.m. Nov. 24. Ages 2–10. Take a (TTD/Deaf), giving as much notice as short hike to gather leaves to craft a possible. mason jar lantern. Fee: $5. about an animal or a habitat. Event Ages 12 & younger must be ≈ Good Night Groundhog: 1–3 may include meeting a live animal, a accompanied by an adult. Events Mount Harmon Plantation p.m. Nov. 25. All ages. Learn about craft or acting out the story. Free. No meet at the center and require Upcoming events at Mount woodchucks. Hike to search for their registration. preregistration unless otherwise Harmon Plantation in Earleville, MD, burrow. Fee: $4. ≈ Black Friday Opt-Outside noted. Payment is due at time of include: Ages 12 & younger must be Hike: 9–10:30 a.m. Nov. 23. Meet registration. Info: 410-612-1688, 410- ≈ Photography Workshop / accompanied by an adult. Except at Jerusalem Mill. Ages 8+ Hike the 879-2000 x1688, otterpointcreek.org. Nature & Architecture - Taking where noted, preregistration is trails along the Little Gunpowder More Creative Photographs: 1–4 required for all programs. Info: River. Participants choose between Parkway’s biodiversity program p.m. Nov. 17. Steve Gottlieb, [email protected], a simple or a more challenging The Friends of Dyke Marsh, photographer and author of cromwellvalleypark.org, 410- route. Free. Friends of Little Hunting Creek, the several books on photography, will 887-2503. For disability-related ≈ Fort Building Fun: 12:30–2 p.m. American Horticultural /Society, discuss composition, lens choice, accommodations, call 410-887-5370 Nov. 24. Meet at Pontoon Pier. Ages and the Four Mile Run Conservatory natural light, camera position, or 410-887-5319 (TTY), giving as 8+ Collect natural material to build Foundation invites the public to selective focus, the effective use much notice as possible. a temporary fort. Learn how to make hear National Park Service biologist of foregrounds & backgrounds. twine to lash materials together. Brent Steury discuss the George Workshop includes field work. Fee: Anita Leight Estuary Center Fee: $3. Washington Memorial Parkway’s $40. Preregistration required. Programs at the Anita C. Leight ≈ Owl Prowl: 5–6:30 p.m., Nov. 11-year biodiversity inventory ≈ Yuletide Festival: 11 a.m.–3 p.m. Estuary Center in Abingdon, MD, 24. Meet at Bosely Conservancy. 7:30 p.m. Nov. 14 at the Huntley Dec. 1 & 2. Fund-raiser features include: Ages 8+ Listen for the call of these Meadows Park Visitor Center in holiday decorations inspired by ≈ Gratitude Hike: 8:30–10 a.m. elusive creatures, maybe catch a Alexandria, VA. Steury will talk Colonial Williamsburg, hearth Nov. 17. Adults. Research has shown glimpse of one. Fee: $5. about documenting 5,563 species cooking demonstrations, including that practicing gratitude increases ≈ Sunday Trail Running Series: in the parkway’s 4,580 acres from gingerbread; wassail punch; mansion happiness. Take a guided stroll 10–11 a.m. Nov. 25. Ages 13+ (15 & the rare plant communities of the tours; children’s holiday craft through Leight Park’s woods. Free. younger w/adult) All skill levels/paces Potomac Gorge to the birds of the activities; Christmas marketplace; ≈ Kitchen Chemistry: 10:30 welcome. Log miles while enjoying Dyke Marsh Wildlife Preserve. The and a decorations & greens sale a.m.–12 p.m. Nov. 17. Ages 5+ beautiful scenery with fellow nature event is free. Those using a GPS featuring plants from the plantation. Delve into the world of chemistry enthusiasts. The course is an out- device to find the center should enter Fee: $10; ages 12 & younger are using items found in a kitchen. and-back, single track, about 2 miles 3701 Lockheed Blvd., Alexandria, free. Proceeds benefit Mount Experiments explore the science of long. Free. VA. Info: fodm.org, 703-768-2525. Harmon Plantation. Info: food & cooking. Fee: $5. mountharmon.org, info@ ≈ Herp Hibernation: 1–2:30 p.m. mountharmon.org, Nov. 17. Ages 5+ Discover where Bees from page 40 possible. They provide nests for some 410-275-8819. reptiles, amphibians go for the species of bees. winter. Up-close encounter with a pesticides altogether. ≈ If you find a bee nest too close to Ladew Christmas Open House snake, turtle. Check out wild herptile ≈ Plant gardens filled with native, your home, don’t destroy it. Contact a Ladew Topiary Gardens in wetland areas. Free. nectar-producing flowers for your local beekeeper or your state coopera- Monkton, MD, invites the public ≈ Where do the Wild Things Go? area. Go to pollinator.org/guides.htm tive extension service for advice about to its Annual Christmas Open 12–1:30 p.m. Nov. 18. All ages. Learn and type in your zip code. You’ll get removing the nest without harming the House 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Dec. 7 & 8. where some animals go to escape information about pollinators in your bees. Visitors can tour the rooms of the winter’s cold. Free. area plus a list of pollinator plants. Kathy Reshetiloff is with the U.S. circa 1747 Manor House, which ≈ Tails & Tots: 2 p.m. Nov. 18. ≈ Leave tree stumps, dead branches Fish and Wildlife Service’s Chesa- have been decorated by local floral Ages 6 & younger. Listen to a story and rotting trees on your property, if peake Bay Field Office in Annapolis. 38 Bay Journal • November 2018 Take this otterly fun quiz! 1. The river otter is one of 13 otter species found around the world. They are found on all but two continents. Which two? Bay Buddies Otter Adaptations! 2. Which two of these are names for young otters? A. Cub If you want to learn how the B. Kitten North American river otter’s body is C. Pup adapted to the animal’s needs, you D. Ottling otter take this quiz. Each description is accompanied by its scrambled 3. North American river otters answer. Put the answer in the spaces often come within a few feet of a provided. The boxes, when read human on land or a boat when they from top to bottom, will spell out the are swimming with their head above common name for Mustelidae, the the water. Why is this? animal family that otters belong to. A. They are one of the most curi- Answers are on page 36. ous mammals known. B. Their eyes are adapted for sight 1. W H I S K E R S underwater, making them near- sighted above the water. C. They are notorious for begging 2. M E M B R A N E for food, especially fish. D. They are extremely social animals and associate with a variety 3. H A I R of other animals. 4. N O S T R I L S & E A R 4. River otters are in the Mustelidae family, which except for the sea otter, have anal scent glands 5. T O E S that produce a strong secretion used to attract mates and mark territory. Which one of these is not a member 6. T A I L of this animal family: A. Badger 7. P A W S B. Beaver 1. These are long and thick and help C. Fisher D. Wolverine the otter find its prey in murky water. 2. This is a clear, filmlike “third 5. Otters are active year-round, eyelid” that protects an otter’s eyes and are able to withstand winter’s when it swims underwater with its eyes cold temperatures because of their open. dense fur. What is the estimated density per square inch of an otter’s 3. This ranges in color from brown pelt? Pop goes the otter (a member of the mustelidae or weasel family). (Dave Harp) and black to gray and white. It is thick A. 460,000 hairs and waterproof, which helps an otter to B. 360,000 hairs This adaptation is thought to help maintain its temperature when swim- C. 260,000 hairs the animal swim underwater. Which ming in cold water. D. 160,000 hairs lung has four lobes? Which lung has 4. Both of these features close while two lobes? the otter is underwater to prevent water 6. On average, how long can an from entering them. otter hold its breath underwater? 11. Instead of creating its own A. 4–6 minutes home, a river otter may decide to 5. These are fully webbed, which B. 6–8 minutes move into the abandoned den or lair help to make the otter a powerful C. 8–10 minutes of an other animal, or even take it swimmer. D. 10–12 minutes over. These animals include musk- 6. This thick, tapered feature makes rats, beavers, foxes, badgers and up about a third of an otter’s length. It is 7. Which is larger? A male or a rabbits. It might even move in with very muscular and moves in a wavelike female otter? one of these animals, with each spe- motion that can propel the otter though left the pile. Otter scat has its own cies living in an area not being used the water in bursts of 12 miles per hour. 8. As a rule, is a river otter faster special name. What is it? by the other. Which animal is it? It also provides stability and helps to on land or in the water? A. Perfoop A. Beaver steer while swimming. B. Scootch B. Fox 9. The scent of otter poop has C. Spraint C. Muskrat 7. These have a very delicate sense been described as relatively pleas- D. Tottle D. Rabbit of touch, which helps the otter identify ant for animal scat. Each otter has — Kathleen A. Gaskell objects in the dark, as well as skillfully its own unique aroma that helps 10. One of the otter’s lungs has grasp or handle objects. other otters identify which individual twice as many lobes as the other. (Answers are on page 36) — Kathleen A. Gaskell Bay Journal • November 2018 39 Downy woodpecker chips out its own niche in the avian world By Mike Burke continues through the brood- ing and feeding of chicks. Action at the bird feeders was con- Nests typically contain tinuous. Red-winged blackbirds had four to six eggs laid on arrived, scattered across the backyard, consecutive days. The eating spilled seeds and fighting for chicks all hatch at once 12 position on the suet feeder. Cardinals days later. They fledge in and chickadees were hungrily feeding a bit more than two weeks, on black oil sunflower seeds. A dozen although they will rely on mourning doves had staked out a their parents for food for prime location under the thistle feeder. weeks. A single downy woodpecker (Dryo- Downy woodpeckers bates pubescens) was shuttling back look remarkably like hairy and forth between a redbud tree and woodpeckers. Although one of the feeders filled with a mixture downies are much smaller, of nuts. The downy would take a the overall color pattern is bite, scoot 20 feet to the safety of the identical. At a distance, size redbud, eat the nut and immediately can be hard to judge. Birders head back for more. have developed a handy Although there was just one wood- field identification trick. The pecker, seeing him at the feeder was downy’s bill is relatively no fluke. Downies are widespread and short, extending forward common. Their range includes all of the about the same distance continental United States except for the from the base of the bill to extremely arid Southwest and north of the back of the head. The the tree line in Alaska. In Canada, they hairy’s bill is much longer are equally dispersed from the Mari- than that. Other differences time Provinces to British Columbia and exist, but the bill length is as far north as trees can grow. the easiest identification They are also tolerant of humans. method. One of the wonderful crowd- Although these two sourced programs run by Cornell Uni- species have an uncanny versity’s innovative Ornithology Lab is resemblance, they aren’t called Project FeederWatch. It collects even of the same genus. Bird data from thousands of participants biology has been revolution- who record the number and species ized in the last decade, of birds attracted to feeders in the powered by molecular winter. Five of the six North American analysis of mitochondrial regions analyzed in the FeederWatch DNA. We now know that effort reveal that downies are in the downy woodpeckers are top 10 of species seen at feeders. In the most closely related to two Northeast Region, which includes most woodpeckers of the South- of the Chesapeake Bay watershed, west: the ladder-backed downy woodpeckers were recorded at and Nuttall’s. These three 92 percent of the yards enrolled in the Downy woodpeckers are the smallest woodpeckers in North America. At 6 inches, they are species are now classified as program last year. Only chickadees just a bit bigger than chickadees. (Donna A. Dewhurst / U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service) members of the Dryobates and juncos showed up more often. family. Downies are the smallest wood- mostly of insects and other tiny Hairy, red-headed, pileated and pecker in North America. At 6 inches, animals.(About a quarter of their diet others belong to the Picoides genus. they are just a bit bigger than chicka- consists of nuts, berries and seeds, (Field guides published before 2015 dees. especially in winter when insects are may still list the downy’s old scientific The downy’s head features black scarce.) Downies use their sturdy bills name, Picoides pubescens.) and white stripes punctuated by a to open small crevices in trees to get at DNA analysis and Project shortish black bill and mahogany eyes. insects in their tunnels under the bark. FeederWatch are just two of recent They have feather tufts just above the They use their long, sticky tongues to major scientific advances in bird bill that protect their eyes and nasal reach their prey. biology. Tracking technology, photo passages from wood chips as the birds Because dying and dead trees recognition, even global on-line peck away at trees. Males, like the one harbor the most insects, downy wood- birding apps are adding depth to our in our backyard, have distinctive red pecker populations tend to expand understanding of the avian world. patches on their napes. in areas ravaged by tree pests and This rapidly growing reservoir The body is black on top except diseases such as emerald ash borers, of knowledge is impressive. But as I for a large white streak down the Dutch elm disease and gypsy moths. watched the downy in my backyard back. The wing and outer tail feathers The downy’s adaptable bill — less probe away at the feeder, these devel- are spotted white. Downies are light chisel-like than those of other wood- opments weren’t foremost in my mind. colored underneath. The white parts peckers — can be used to prick open every year as well as several smaller To me, nothing is more impressive in get progressively duskier as one moves insect tunnels or as a tiny forceps to roosting cavities nearby. the avian world than the singular life farther west and south. extract insect eggs. Part of the bill’s Downies are at least seasonally of a living bird. As the name makes clear, wood- utility is evident in the birds’ tree monogamous. The pair works together Mike Burke, an amateur naturalist, peckers need wood. Their diet consists excavations. They build nesting holes drilling nest sites, and the cooperation lives in Cheverly, MD. November/2018 Volume 28 Number 8 The Bay Journal NONPROFIT ORG. P.O. Box 222 U.S. POSTAGE Jacobus, PA 17407-0222 PAID DULLES VA PERMIT # 510

The Bay Journal is printed on 100% recyclable/recycled paper using vegetable-based inks. www.bayjournal.com Bee grateful this Thanksgiving for native pollinators By Kathy Reshetiloff

Many people do not realize that native bees have been pollinating the continent’s flowering plants long before honey bees were brought from Europe. As bees move from flower to flower collecting nectar, they also move pollen from flower to flower. Pollination occurs when pollen grains from a flower’s male parts (anthers) are moved to the female part (stigma). Once on the stigma, the pollen grain grows a tube that runs down into the ovary, where fertilization occurs. Bees, both honey bees and native bees, are crucial to the production of most fruits, nuts and berries on which people and wildlife depend. Although honey bees are used extensively in agriculture, many plants still rely on native bees for pollination. Many of the common dishes we relish on Thanksgiving might not be on the table without native bees: apple pie, pumpkin pie, cranberries, the onions in stuffing, as well as many vegetables like carrots, sweet potatoes, squash, brussels sprouts, broccoli and green beans. Even the almonds for tasty casseroles would be missing. For instance, the honey bee does not know how to pollinate tomato or eggplant flowers. And, it does very poorly compared with native bees when it comes to pollinating many native plants, including pumpkins, cherries, blueberries and cranberries. Some native bees, like bumblebees, are generalists, and gather pollen from Some bee species are only active imported from Europe for greenhouse a wide variety of flowering plants. They for a few weeks during the growing pollination. use a method called buzz pollination, in season and depend on plants that Pesticides are also a threat. Many which a bee attaches itself to a flower and flower at that same time. of the pesticides used on farms and rapidly vibrates its flight muscles. This Many pollinators — so important backyard gardens are broad-spectrum causes the entire flower to vibrate and to our economy and lives — are in varieties, meaning that not only are loosens the pollen so it flows out of the trouble. Honeybees, raised specifi- they toxic to plant pests, but bees and openings in the anthers. cally to pollinate crops, are declining. other beneficial insects as well. Plants that rely on buzz pollination Causes include parasitic mites, disease, The loss of habitats and native include tomatoes, cranberries, blueber- pesticide poisoning, the encroachment plants affects native bees and other ries and eggplants. The bumblebee is also of Africanized honey bees and a phe- insect pollinators including butterflies. an important pollinator of some clovers, a plants they will pollinate. So if you go to nomenon, Colony Collapse Disorder To help conserve native bees and forage crop for cattle. a local pumpkin patch around Halloween, (CCD), where they leave the hive in other pollinators: Other native bees are specialists, it’s likely that you are walking over nests search of nectar and do not return. ≈ Reduce the use of pesticides. requiring certain plant species. Squash full of developing young squash bees. The causes of decline in wild bee If you must use an insecticide, apply bees, for example, are very efficient pol- Blueberry bees and cactus bees populations vary by species. Like the it in the evening when many pollina- linators of melons and various squashes, are also specialists. Miner bees nest honey bee, the bumblebee has been tors are inactive. If possible, stop using including zucchini and pumpkin. These underground and are very good hurt by the introduction of a nonna- bees often nest underground beneath the pollinators of apple species. tive parasite carried by bumblebees Bees continues on page 36