Corps Rejects MD Request to Fund Oyster Restoration

July-August 2018 Volume 28 Number 5

Exelon sues MD, Shells with baby oysters, calls Conowingo or spat, growing requirements on them, are washed an ‘unfair burden’ overboard ≈ State and utility at odds over from the who is responsible for pollution Oyster entering the Bay. Recovery Partner- By Karl Blankenship ship vessel The owners of the Conowingo Dam Robert Lee and the state of Maryland have come to to seed a legal blows over whether the utility can be restored forced to pay potentially billions of dollars reef in the over the coming decades to help clean up Tred Avon the Chesapeake Bay. River in The Maryland Department of the 2018. Lack Environment in late April issued a of funds decision that could require the Chicago- will prevent based utility to pay up to $172 million a more reef year to help control nutrient and sediment construc- pollution flowing past the Susquehanna tion this River dam as a condition of it getting a year. new federal operating license. (Dave In late May, Exelon fired back, saying Harp) those conditions imposed an “unfair burden” on the 94-foot-high hydroelectric facility that would cost $7 billion over the Corps rejects MD request to fund oyster restoration course of its requested 50-year operating Lack of federal funds urging the Corps to explicitly request license — a figure the company said was ≈ Feds give qualified OK to dredge restoration funding in future years. “orders of magnitude” more than the dam may halt reef construction oyster shells from Man O’ War Shoal. Cardin said he reinforced that mes- was worth. in the Tred Avon River. See article on page 7. sage with senior Corps leaders when It asked the MDE to reconsider its By Timothy B. Wheeler Tred Avon. A Cardin spokesman said he met with them in early April. decision, and filed challenges in both state Bay Oyster restoration in Mary- his office has requested an immediate Sarah Lazo, spokeswoman for the and federal courts. Exelon said it went to land, which has been beset by disputes meeting with Corps leaders to get an Baltimore District, said the District court at the same time it asked the MDE and delays the last two years, appears explanation. had planned to issue a contract this to reconsider its decision because of the headed for further delays. Cardin had said in April that he year to construct the 45 acres of reefs “seriousness of the issues at hand.” Despite pleas and pressure from was “pretty confident” that the Corps needed to complete reef construction “The dam itself does not produce any the state’s congressional delegation, would provide at least some fund- in the Tred Avon River, with a cost pollution,” Exelon said in a statement the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers ing for oyster restoration in its Civil ranging from $3 million to $5 million. issued May 25. “Rather, the science left funding for oyster restoration out Works work plan, even though the She said the Corps headquarters pro- clearly shows that the pollutants that of its Civil Works work plan for the budget passed by Congress in March vides no explanation for why projects travel down the Susquehanna River, from current fiscal year, which ends Oct. 1. did not specifically allocate any are or are not included in the annual New York and Pennsylvania, are the That decision, disclosed in early June, money for such work. work plan. source of the nutrients and sediments that means the Corps’ Baltimore District Cardin said he had been optimistic Chris Judy, shellfish program flow into the Bay.” will have to shelve plans to complete because Congress has approved a director for the Maryland Depart- In response, the MDE said it would the construction of reefs in the Tred larger budget for the Corps than ment of Natural Resources, said state “vigorously defend our comprehensive Avon River on the Eastern Shore — at the White House had sought, and officials would work with the Corps to Conowingo plan to restore the river and least for now. members of Congress had expressed see “what the next steps are.” the Bay. The Hogan administration is Sens. Ben Cardin and Chris support for oyster restoration. Con- “This is exactly what we feared committed to using science, law and Van Hollen, both D-MD, expressed gressional rules prohibited earmark- would happen … It’s a real setback,” partnerships for environmental progress disappointment, noting that funding ing any of that extra funding for said Allison Colden, senior fisheries throughout the entire Chesapeake Bay was needed to continue the large-scale oyster restoration, but the budget bill watershed and the Conowingo plan is at restoration project under way in the passed in March contained language Oysters continues on page 9 Dam continues on page 27 2 Bay Journal • July-August 2018

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Clockwise from left:

Guide Bill Burn- ham explains the wonders of the Onancock Creek (VA) ecosystem to young paddler Charlie Cox. See article on page 30. (Dave Harp)

Mahan Rykiel’s Isaac Hametz forges his way through vegetation blocking access to Clement Cove on the north side of Fleming Park, where the local community is behind a plan to use dredged materials to restore the area. See article on page 22. (Dave Harp)

WHAT’S INSIDE 24 Boost in underwater grasses earns Anacostia its first These dolphins passing grade • Officials, river advocates say they are finally were photographed 5 Ellicott City officials reflect on how to weather future seeing the results of billions of dollars and countless hours invested near the mouth of storms • As both development and storms become more intense, in ‘once-forgotten’ river the Potomac River hard decisions will have to be made 25 Environmental group warns PA to protect forests or where it empties into the Bay. 7 Feds give qualified OK to dredge oyster shells from Foundation challenges plans that permit natural gas get sued • Dolphins started Man O’ War Shoal • Move is opposed by some watermen, fracking on state land environmentalists, recreational anglers who say it will harm habitat showing up in Bay 26 Bottoms up! Bay’s deepest waters showing signs of waters earlier than for white perch, striped bass recovery • Increase in oxygen levels is a catalyst that helps the usual this spring. 10 Bay scientists: Offshore oil drilling would put Chesapeake help itself See article on page Chesapeake Bay at risk • Many fear a spill would be 20 and related inevitable and could reach the Bay and its resources under the 28 Midpoint assessment for Bay cleanup: only 40% of quiz on page 34. • Wastewater plant upgrades responsible right conditions nitrogen goal met (Potomac- for most of the gains; states, especially PA, will have to crack Chesapeake 12 Scientists scrutinize virus, contaminants in smallmouth down on stormwater, agriculture Dolphin Project, bass die-off • With multiple stressors present in dead fish, TRAVEL taken under NMFS federal researchers try to determine if chemicals in the water made Permit No. 19403) bass more vulnerable 30 Onancock paddle weaves nature, history with every stroke 14 Debates ensues over role of tree clearing in Fones Cliff 32 Thomas Point a beacon for mariners, historians alike landslide • 100-foot-plus slide occurred along section where trees FEATURES had been cut down without required permit, protections along 4 Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay • Alliance to honor historic site environmental leaders at annual Taste gala 15 Scientists predict ‘dead zone’ will be larger than average 34 Chesapeake Challenge • You dolphinitely must take this quiz! this summer • Heavy spring rains flushed more nitrogen than normal into the Bay to fuel algae blooms 34 Bay Buddies • Dolphins! 16 MDE reverses Eastern Shore poultry farm permit after 42 Bulletin Board • Volunteer Opportunities • Workshops • judge’s ruling • Agency had been cited for not adhering to its own Events • Programs • Resources regulations when making compromise with 61-acre operation 47 On the Wing • Hear, here! Brown thrasher’s songs alert you to 18 Public asked to be on the lookout for ‘missing’ mitten its presence WE’RE JUST crab • Once-abundant invasive species hasn’t been reported in A CLICK AWAY a couple of years 48 Bay Naturalist • Spying a flying squirrel can brighten one’s spirits on the darkest night visit us online: 19 PA bill seeks fraction of a cent fee for largest water users FORUM bayjournal.com • Money from those using more than 10,000 gallons a day would like us on FaceBook: help cleanup efforts, avert need to raise fees elsewhere Commentary • Letters • Perspectives Chesapeake Bay Journal 20 Dolphin-spotting season begins even earlier in Bay this 38 States must focus on how much is left to do not how much has or send us a Tweet: year • Researchers want boaters, beachgoers to report sightings of been done @ChesBayJournal the marine mammal in the Chesapeake and its tributaries 39 Chesapeake Born: Oligotrophication! A big word for even

21 Putting roads on salt diet also healthy for nearby streams bigger news, a Bay comeback • Northern VA creek gets region’s first chloride TMDL 22 Fleming Park could rise from the weeds by dredging up 40 As tide rises against them, Deal Islanders hold their ground. spoils, funds • Community welcomes materials from shipping lanes to restore Turner Station’s shoreline habitat, playground and access to water 4 Bay Journal • July-August 2018 Alliance to honor environmental leaders at annual Taste gala By Kate Fritz pollinator gardens and urban farm sites. Over the years has worked with hundreds of The Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay’s volunteers to create and maintain multiple annual Environmental Awards and Taste sites for Tricycle and their partner organiza- of the Chesapeake are just around the tions. corner! This year, our hallmark com- In 2016–17, Scotty designed and munity gathering takes place Sept. 13 on installed green infrastructure practices at the Belcher Pavilion’s rooftop Conference Binford Middle School, Boushall Middle Center at the Anne Arundel Medical Center School and the Neighborhood Resource in Annapolis. Council as a part of the Alliance’s River- At the Taste, the Alliance, its partners Wise Education Program. She was part of and supporters recognize progress in a team tasked with creating a Green School Chesapeake restoration efforts and celebrate Initiative and now leads several of Binford outstanding environmental leaders from Middle School’s green infrastructure instal- across the watershed. lations, overseeing the project’s budget, Our top honor, the Frances H. Flanigan designing conservation landscapes, hiring Environmental Leadership Award, was subcontractors and managing vendors — all established in 2001 in recognition of Clockwise from top with a big smile! She is a true believer Flanigan’s 23-year career of leadership left: that collaboration makes a difference in and partnership-building as the Alliance’s Nick DiPasquale watershed communities. Scotty has been executive director. It commends an indi- (Dave Harp) a true friend to the Alliance as a creative, vidual whose longstanding commitment to Scotty Guinn Dilworth enthusiastic partner, providing amazing the Bay’s restoration and protection reflects (Submitted) ideas and insight to our work. She has the Alliance mission of fostering diverse Matt Kofroth worked tirelessly to produce beautiful partnerships and inspiring environmental (Submitted) designs and ensure that they are installed stewardship. Beau Breeden correctly, on time and within budget. The 2018 Environmental Leadership (Submitted) ≈ Matt Kofroth’s knowledge and Award honors Nick DiPasquale. “can do” spirit are at the heart of his Nick served as director of the U.S. Envi- local watershed work, and the Watershed ronmental Protection Agency’s Chesapeake Champion Award recognizes his incred- Bay Program from 2011 until his retirement ible impact on each downstream neighbor in December 2017. He has a vivid memory who has benefited from the many projects of what inspired his passion for the environ- and programs he’s implemented. During ment and remembers exactly where he his years of volunteering in watershed was the first time he read Rachel Carson’s him as “The Mayor.” efforts prior to his work at the Lancaster Silent Spring. The threat of a spring where Inspired by the peacefulness of the County Conservation District, he steadily no songbirds would sing spurred him to water, the plentiful community beaches and built a base of understanding about the personal action. local crabs, Beau’s devoted thousands of improvements and best practices needed Nick’s career started when he enlisted in hours to volunteering in the last six years, to help Lancaster County, PA, waterways. the Navy where he helped to pilot nuclear including helping with the Alliance’s Project As the watershed specialist at the district submarines for six years. There, he began to Clean Stream cleanups. He coordinated for almost 20 years, Matt has coordinated realize what nuclear energy actually meant minutes or months. He believes in a proac- with the Alliance in the implementation volunteer monitoring programs, helped to the environment, and upon leaving the tive, rather than reactive, approach, which of a $100,000 grant from the Maryland to organize local watershed associations, Navy, became director of Missouri’s Solid has led to a collective hope of restoring the Department of Natural Resources’ Gover- reviewed and written grants for restoration Waste Programs. Bay by 2025. nors Green Challenge Grant to restore Lake projects and created resources for county He next took the post of Delaware’s Nick is as resilient as the ecosystem he Claire. His participation goes beyond the homeowners to improve their water use. director of Air and Waste Management, so enjoys, and won’t stop fighting on the grants: community volunteer events to clear His innovations in watershed education before being named secretary of the state’s Chesapeake’s behalf. invasive species; the securing of open burn have empowered numerous volunteers to Department of Natural Resources and We also honor three Watershed Cham- permits to fight invasive phragmites; and make a difference in their own watershed. Environmental Control. It was here, he said, pions for their outstanding contributions multiple native tree and shrub plantings in Recognizing that one person can’t do it that he “started to appreciate the totality of of innovative thinking, initiative and the the community’s stream valleys. all, he guides and serves as a resource to the environment, not just one piece of it.” development of impactful partnerships Always seeking the next opportunity enable others to excel and complete goals Nick’s enthusiasm and forward thinking to advance stewardship throughout the to help, Beau is looking at public-private broadening the ripples in the stream, continued during his term at the Chesa- Chesapeake region. partnerships to help fund seven restoration so to speak. Matt has contributed to the peake Bay Program. He said his proudest ≈ Beau Breeden’s volunteer work on projects totaling nearly $6 million in Cape Alliance’s Pennsylvania work, including achievement is the 2014 Watershed Agree- behalf of his community and the Magothy St. Claire, where the goals are to save, our READY program and Restoring the ment, the first Chesapeake Bay agreement River make him a true Watershed Cham- restore and improve community property Octoraro Reservoir project, as well as serv- to contain measurable goals and outcomes. pion! He works full-time — as a volunteer that impacts the Magothy. ing as a guide for our state team in writing He said that he believes the indicators are, — on behalf of the Magothy River. The son ≈ Scotty Guinn Dilworth’s expertise a watershed implementation plan. Matt has for the most part, heading in the right direc- of a Navy commander, Beau’s love of the in creating and maintaining resilient and been involved in countless Alliance efforts tion toward improvement. water started early in his childhood. His sustainable native plantscapes, rain gardens, and is a resident watershed expert for many Nick’s passion to help ecosystems and family moved six times by the time he was pollinator gardens, meadows, and green groups in Lancaster County and beyond. habitat during his 30-plus-year career per- 9. Once his family landed in Cape St. Claire roofs makes her a worthy recipient of the We invite you to join us at the 2018 Taste sists in his retirement. He is on the advisory permanently, he began his lifetime work to 2018 Watershed Champion Award. Scotty is to celebrate these inspiring environmental board of ShoreRivers and Chesapeake Legal improve his forever home for generations a certified Chesapeake Bay landscape pro- leaders and to support the Alliance’s critical Alliance, and shares his wisdom during lec- to come. Beau was one of the youngest fessional, Virginia Certified Horticulturist, Chesapeake restoration work. For informa- tures at universities around the watershed. presidents elected to the Board of Governors certified rain garden installer and certified tion, visit allianceforthebay.org. Nick emphasizes that ecosystems respond for Cape St. Claire in 2014, and many of the green roof installer. She also works with Kate Fritz is executive director of the over a period of years, even decades, and not 8,000-resident community jokingly refer to the Richmond nonprofit Tricycle designing Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay. Bay Journal • July-August 2018 5 Ellicott City officials reflect on how to weather future storms ≈ As both development and shaken by the one-two punch. Local offi- weather become more intense, cials are taking a harder look at Ellicott City’s future in the face of climate change hard decisions will have to be likely bringing more intense storms while made. development in the surrounding water- By Timothy B. Wheeler shed increases runoff. As repair crews labored to clear mud “There’s some very large emotional, and debris from Ellicott City’s Main financial and political decisions to be Street in late May, Jonathan Dillow led made,” said Jim Caldwell, Howard a team of scientists through the woods County’s director of community sustain- searching for clues to quantify the ability. “There’s a lot of work that needs devastating flash flooding that had just to be done and a lot of soul-searching (by) ravaged the community for the second folks that live there.” time in two years. The first flood claimed two lives, Stopping by a tree beside the now- damaged 90 businesses, displaced nearly placid Tiber River, Dillow peered at the 100 residents and put hundreds out of trunk, then pointed to a green speck work. Main Street remained closed for clinging to the bark several feet off the two months so businesses, residents ground. and government could repair buildings, “I think I’m onto something,” he called utilities, streets and sidewalks. But by out. “A little bit of a shred of a leaf.” early this year, county officials said that Like crime scene detectives, Dillow Sarah Queen, hydrologic technician with the U.S. Geological Survey, pins orange 96 percent of the businesses there before and his U.S. Geological Survey col- ribbon to an apparent high-water mark of the May 27 flood in Ellicott City. Pink the 2016 flood had returned, as had 72 leagues made their way to the historic tape lower on tree trunk marked the water height of the 2016 flood. (Dave Harp) percent of the residents forced to leave. mill town west of Baltimore a few days The May 27 flood hit days before a after the May 27 flood. They wanted to calculations until later this summer. But National Weather Service reported new emergency warning system could be gather evidence, before it faded or washed Dillow said it was clear from the high- that more than 8 inches of rain fell on activated, and it took the life of a 39-year- away, to determine just how high the water marks they spotted in the stream Ellicott City in a couple of hours May old National Guardsman swept away as water rose and how fiercely it came roar- valleys leading to town that the flood that 27, compared with 6 inches during the he tried to rescue a shopkeeper. Many of ing downstream before tearing through Memorial Day weekend afternoon was previous flood. the same businesses and homes got hit buildings on its way down Main Street to even worse than the previous deluge on In any case, the community, which had again, and the estimated damage to roads the Patapsco River. the evening of July 30, 2016. been determined to return and rebuild The USGS team won’t complete its That comes as no surprise. The in the wake of the first deluge, has been Floods continues on page 6 6 Bay Journal • July-August 2018

Floods from page 5 will be flooding.” He said he thinks it’s time to take a and other public infrastructure totaled $20 closer look at future development and million, twice the toll of the 2016 flood. consider changes in where and how it The recovery this time has been occurs. “There are a few hundred units quicker, at least superficially. Though that are currently planned, and the ability 81 residents were still in temporary to do up to 1,000 units,” he said. “I’m not housing by late June, all but a block so much concerned about the unit num- of Main Street was reopened to traffic bers as the volume of imperviousness.” and 10 of the 120 damaged businesses Caldwell, the county community were up and running, according to Phil sustainability director, said after the Nichols, Howard County’s assistant chief flooding caused by Tropical Storm Lee administrative officer. But the similarity in 2011, he thought of three big changes ends there. Some merchants have made that could help reduce damage from it known they’re relocating or closing future storms – buying out some property for good. “What’s changed now is there owners and removing their buildings to are a bunch of folks who are not coming open up the flood plain, “daylighting” back,” said Howard County Councilman stream channels now buried under streets Jon Weinstein, who represents the Ellicott and buildings, and getting vehicles off City area. “They’ve decided for a number Main Street. During the 2016 flood and of reasons (that) financially or physically, again in May, cars became battering rams they can’t come back.” as they washed down the street, and a few After the 2016 flood, the county com- plugged up one of the culverts. missioned an engineering study to see It’s unclear if a vehicle ban on Main what could be done to shield Main Street Ellicott City’s Main Street was closed following the May 27 flood until authorities Street would fly with merchants and from more devastation. The consultant could clear debris and repair streets, sidewalks and utilities. (Dave Harp) residents, but the idea of buyouts is at least proposed $85 million in projects to reduce being considered. “A lot more property flooding severity, including creating man said, “but…it’s become a public owners have come to us as a result of or expanding three large stormwater safety issue.” this storm and asked us to purchase their retention ponds, an underground “pipe Weinstein added “that regard- property,” Nichols said. farm” to hold more water, and a variety less of our current regulations, I’m Weinstein said the decisions by some of other measures to keep streams in their not sure they’re reflective of what’s businesses and property owners to banks. County Executive Allan Kittle- clearly a change in our weather abandon Ellicott City, however painful, man included four of the flood mitigation patterns.” The 2016 downpour presents an opportunity to see if future projects in his fiscal 2019 budget at an was characterized as a 1,000-year flooding damage could be alleviated estimated cost of $18 million. rainstorm, meaning there’s a one in or even prevented by removing those But the new flood hit before any of 1,000 chance of it happening in any buildings. those projects got off the drawing boards. given year. Those long odds hit again Meanwhile, Nichols said, the county is Now, local officials, merchants and on May 27. going ahead with the four projects already residents are pondering what more can Hours after a video of Ellicott budgeted, and is taking another look at be done to keep the nearly 250-year-old City’s recent flood went viral, what else can be done. community viable in the face of more Katharine Hayhoe, a climate scientist What’s clear, Nichols said, “Ellicott frequent severe thunderstorms, as well as at Texas Tech, tweeted that the “U.S. City is not going to look the same moving how to better control runoff in the heavily Northeast has seen the greatest forward. …We definitely have a new developed watershed. increase in heavy precipitation of any future in front of us.” “It’s a different conversation this time,” Main Street resident Joey Hamblin said he man- region in the country.” Some have suggested even more Nichols acknowledged. aged to get his vehicles to higher ground before High-intensity, heavy rainfall radical change, such as abandoning lower Ellicott City has been flood-prone floodwaters got too high, thanks in part to video events have increased in frequency Main Street and converting it into a living since its founding as a grain mill com- cameras his landlord had put up to provide early in the Northeast by 71 percent history museum, sort of like Harper’s munity in 1772. It was built where four warning after the 2016 flood. (Dave Harp) from 1958 to 2012. The Maryland Ferry, WV. But Weinstein said no one’s streams come together before flowing Commission on Climate Change seriously contemplating anything that into the Patapsco River; some buildings “We have entire neighborhoods has warned that in developed areas, extreme. actually sit atop stream channels. Over that don’t have storm drains,” he said. “large quantities of runoff may quickly “It will change,” he said, “but this the years, Main Street has been inundated In the last few decades, runoff control overwhelm the capacity of stormwater town has changed a lot in the 250 years by floodwaters dozens of times, but there requirements have become increasingly drainage systems.” it’s been around.…It’s still the same town, have been three major floods in the last stringent, Weinstein said, but apparently It’s not just an Ellicott City problem. and people who are here still feel the seven years, including Tropical Storm Lee weren’t always applied. “In some cases,” Intense storms elsewhere around the same.” in 2011. he said, “there were variances allowed same time produced severe flooding in Joey Hamblin typifies the grit and Many residents are convinced the that may not have been appropriate, given Frederick and Washington counties and in determination of many residents. As the flooding has worsened because of con- the sensitivity and topography of the Ocean City. USGS team worked last month to spot tinued development of the heights above watershed.” “It’s happening all over,” Weinstein high-water marks for later surveying, town. Roughly two-thirds of the land in After the 2016 flood, Weinstein intro- said, adding that he wants county officials Hamblin paused to chat while walking the 11-square mile watershed is devel- duced legislation to impose a temporary, to re-examine the consultant’s study from his dogs. His rented Main Street home got oped, and around 30 percent is covered 12-month building moratorium in the the 2016 flood to see if the latest storm flooded in both storms, he said, though he by hard surfaces such as pavement and Tiber-Hudson watershed while the county changes or adds to the list of proposed had a little advance warning the second rooftops. studied what could be done to reduce the mitigation projects. time, thanks to a network of live- Weinstein agreed that development risk of a repeat. But the council refused to But while flood controls may be streaming video cameras his landlord put has aggravated flooding problems, given act. Late last month, Weinstein reintro- upsized or tweaked to capture more up shortly before May 27. Hamblin said the age of the community. Roughly duced his moratorium proposal, and said runoff, Weinstein said he doesn’t see he’s sticking around, despite the risk. two-thirds of the homes and stores in the he now expects the majority to back it. that as a cure-all. “If we get another “We ain’t going nowhere,” he said. watershed were built before any stormwa- “Before, it was primarily an issue with 8.5–10 inches of rain in a couple-three- “[There are] three generations in that ter management was required, he noted. stormwater management,” the council- hour period I hate to say it, but there house. We’re not leaving.” Bay Journal • July-August 2018 7 Feds give qualified OK to dredge oyster shells from Man O’ War Shoal ≈ Move is opposed by some despite repeated they can renew it to take a total of 30 watermen, environmentalists, efforts to reseed it. million bushels, or about 30 percent of In a natural the reef. recreational anglers who say setting, baby DNR officials — and some it will harm habitat for white oysters, known watermen — say the shell cache in perch, striped bass. as spat, attach to Man O’ War is just the ticket to rebuild By Timothy B. Wheeler and grow on other the Bay’s lost oyster habitat and sustain oyster shells. But the traditional wild harvest. After years of scrutiny, federal with Maryland “That’s a lot of shell,” said Talbot regulators have given a qualified green and Virginia both County waterman Jeff Harrison. It’s light to a controversial Maryland embarking on far more, he noted, than watermen’s plan to dredge old oyster shells from large-scale efforts groups have been able to buy an ancient reef near Baltimore — a to restore oyster from shucking houses to plant on project intended to enhance oyster reefs in a total of harvestable reefs. Most of those habitat elsewhere in the Chesapeake 10 Chesapeake plantings are funded publicly via Bay and help the sagging commercial Bay tributaries, the DNR, drawn from $2 million fishery. there’s a much paid annually by the Maryland Port The Baltimore District of the U.S. greater need for Administration to mitigate impacts of Army Corps of Engineers issued a shell substrate than shipping channel-dredging in the Bay. provisional permit on May 17 to the in the past. With But anglers say that Man O’ War state Department of Natural Resources the commercial is one of the best fishing spots in the to take up to 5 million bushels of shells harvest today far Upper Chesapeake for white perch and from Man O’ War Shoal just outside smaller than it was striped bass, and that dredging could the mouth of the Patapsco River and Lucidity Information Design, LLC decades ago, fresh ruin it and the rich underwater habitat. use the shells to replenish or rebuild oyster shells for reef Conservationists also argue that other oyster reefs at other Bay locations. go-ahead, state officials appear in no replenishment are in short supply — materials can be used to rebuild reefs. The Corps’ conditional approval hurry to act on it. They haven’t even and costly. A recent report by the National comes after nearly three years informed those in favor of dredging For that reason, the DNR wants the Oceanic and Atmospheric of effort by the DNR to address the shoals about the Corps’ decision. shoal’s shells to replenish oyster reefs Administration’s Chesapeake Bay questions and concerns raised about Man O’ War Shoal harbors up to in waters open to commercial harvest, office points out that granite and the project, which is opposed by 100 million bushels of shells in its restore other reefs in sanctuary areas concrete have been successfully environmentalists, recreational anglers 446-acre footprint, according to a 1988 and help private oyster growers. State used as substrate on reef restoration and even some watermen. survey. Though productive long ago, officials hope that once the newly But now, having won the federal it has relatively few live oysters now, issued five-year permit runs its course, Shoals continues on page 8

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Shoals from page 7 total of 30 million bushels. Chris Judy, the DNR’s shellfish projects, attracting abundant spat. division manager, said state officials But many watermen believe that hadn’t announced the Corps’ permit natural oyster shell is the best and only approval or even notified stakeholders suitable substrate for reefs, and they because they considered it “pre- persuaded the Hogan administration decisional” until it receives approval to delay work on a federally funded from state agencies. restoration project in the Tred Avon The Corps specified that the permit River because of its use of granite to won’t take effect until and unless build reefs. Ultimately, watermen and the Maryland Department of the the DNR lifted their opposition to Environment provides a certification granite, but only for that project, after that the project won’t harm water the Army Corps of Engineers warned quality or coastal resources. The that the work was in jeopardy because MDE said in October that it had there weren’t enough clam shells — made those determinations. But those the specified alternative — to finish in certifications won’t be made until the a timely fashion. project receives a license from the state Opponents of dredging Man O’ Board of Public Works. War vastly outnumbered supporters at The three-member board, made public hearings in 2016 on the DNR up of Gov. Larry Hogan, Comptroller permit application. Critics also warned Peter Franchot and Treasurer Nancy that, even if dredging is approved, 5 Kopp, decides whether to grant state million bushels of shell wouldn’t be licenses to dredging projects such as enough to meet all of the needs in this. The board issued a request for state waters, especially if alternative public comment on the Man O’ War substrates are ruled out. The DNR has project in November but has yet to set estimated that about 11 million bushels a date for deciding the case. would be needed over the five-year “I don’t think that it will move life of the permit for supporting reef forward in the near future,” said restoration, replenishing harvest reefs William Morgante, the board’s and aiding aquaculture. That’s more wetlands administrator. When asked than twice the amount of shell the state why, he said he’d have to get guidance is seeking to obtain at Man O’ War. on what more he could say. He later Another issue is how the shell referred further questions to the board would be used. members. Allison Colden, senior fisheries Amelia Chasse, the governor’s scientist with the Chesapeake Bay communications director, said that the Foundation, acknowledged that the Hogan administration continues to Annapolis-based environmental group support dredging shell from Man O’ once supported dredging Man O’ War War Shoal. Shoal. But that was nearly a decade “Some local stakeholders have ago, she said, when the DNR specified raised questions to the Board of Public that 90 percent of the shell to be taken Works,” she added, “and we are would be used in restoring oyster working to look into their concerns habitat in sanctuaries. and attempt to resolve them so we In its latest application, the DNR can move forward with this important has not spelled out how the shell would Some watermen claim that oyster shells, above, are the only suitable substrate for project.” She provided no specifics. be distributed, offering instead three baby oysters, or spat, but monitoring on Harris Creek reefs built three years ago Len Foxwell, the comptroller’s chief scenarios with widely different splits. has found a much higher density of new oysters on granite reefs than on those of staff, said Franchot has already Without assurances that the dredged covered with shells. (Dave Harp) made clear his opposition to dredging shell would be reserved for restoration, Man O’ War out of concern for the Colden said, the CBF no longer extract shell using a hydraulic dredge that might be in the water at the time. project’s ecological impacts. supports it. And it makes no sense, she to carve a total of 10 trenches, which But the DNR can seek a waiver from Suzanne Brogan, deputy state added, to whittle away one of the last would extend about a third of the way the latter blackout if the dredged shell treasurer for public policy, said large reefs sticking up off the bottom into the reef and measure about 500 is to be immediately planted at sites Kopp had also raised concerns about in the Bay to provide short-term relief feet wide, disturbing no more than that are expected to take advantage of dredging the shoal after meeting with for the commercial fishery. 32 acres. The DNR agreed to steer natural oyster reproduction, according the DNR secretary and recreational “We are embarking on this large- clear of a 61-acre oyster sanctuary on to Sarah Lazo, spokeswoman for the fishing and conservation groups scale effort to restore oyster reefs to one portion of the reef, even though Baltimore District. opposed to the project. what they used to be,” Colden said. it hasn’t had any measurable oyster Under the terms of the permit, the Harrison, the waterman, suggested “That’s our last remaining example of reproduction in recent years. DNR would be required to spend the that given the controversy around the what oyster reefs can and should look Among other conditions imposed first year monitoring water quality and project, the Hogan administration may like in the Bay.” by the permit are limitations on when fish populations around Man O’ War, be holding off on pressing for board In response to questions and dredging can occur. It’s prohibited after which it could dredge 2 million action until after the election. But concerns voiced by Corps reviewers, from Feb. 15 to June 15 to protect bushels. There would then be a two- he said Maryland’s oyster industry the DNR has tweaked and revised spawning migratory fish from the year hiatus for more monitoring and needs help now, as the wild harvest its dredging plans repeatedly since noise and turbidity generated by analysis and, if that showed no harm, has declined significantly over the last resubmitting them in 2015 — so much excavating shells from the bottom. the DNR would be allowed to dredge three years. so that critics contend the project ought Dredging is also generally outlawed another 3 million bushels by the fifth “I don’t want to wait for anything,” to undergo a fresh review. from June 1 to Sept. 30 to prevent year. If all goes well, the DNR could he said. “I wanted it to happen last As now planned, the DNR would harm to any wild oyster larvae or spat then apply to continue dredging for a year.” Bay Journal • July-August 2018 9

Oysters from page 1 But the state insisted at the time that the Corps not use any more granite in scientist with the Chesapeake Bay constructing reefs. So the Corps opted Foundation. “We have people willing to build the remaining reefs with clam and ready to plant oysters there, and shells from a processing plant in New Gain an understanding there’s no progress to be made.” Jersey. But the contractor hired for the As part of the federal-state Bay project couldn’t get enough shells, and restoration effort, Maryland and Virginia only six of the 10 acres of reefs planned of the laws and policies each have pledged to rebuild oyster that year were completed. habitat and populations in five of their Last November, Col. Edward tributaries by 2025. Maryland has com- Chamberlayne, the Baltimore District’s that affect the Bay pleted one — Harris Creek — with work commander, made a personal appeal ongoing in the Tred Avon and Little to the DNR Oyster Advisory Com- Choptank rivers. The Little Choptank mission, warning that the Tred Avon and beyond. restoration is state-funded. Late last year, project and future federal funding the DNR identified its last two tributar- for any other oyster restoration were ies to undergo restoration work, the St. in jeopardy if the state did not relent Mary’s River and Breton Bay. in its opposition to the use of stone The lack of federal funding will not in building reefs. Oyster shell is too only delay completion of oyster restora- scarce and expensive to be used for tion work in the Tred Avon, but it could such large-scale construction projects, also postpone planning a similar project Chamberlayne explained, and there in Breton Bay, which state officials have aren’t enough clam shells, either. said they would like to be federally By that time, delays and construc- funded. Federal agreement to take on tion interruptions had added $133,000 the project depends on surveys under to the $11.4 million estimated overall way to determine if water quality and cost of the Tred Avon project. If forced bottom habitat are sufficiently good to to continue using only clam shells, support restoration. Chamberlayne warned, it could take Colden said the loss of funding has another four to five years to finish its roots in disputes in Maryland over the job — and at that rate, he added, the use of granite and other alternative Congress and Corps leadership may substrates to build oyster reefs in the be unwilling to keep funding oyster Tred Avon and other tributaries restoration. From the mid-1990s through 2016, The Oyster Advisory Commission the Army Corps regularly received responded by recommending that funding to build oyster reefs in the Bay. the Corps be allowed to use stone to Cumulatively, the Baltimore District got finish the Tred Avon reefs. The four $29 million, while the Norfolk District acres of reefs left from last year were of the Corps got $22 million, according completed in March, but 45 more acres Go further to Cardin’s office. But the annual flow of reefs are needed. of funding ended when then-President After the funding cutoff initiated by with a Master of Science in Law Barack Obama requested no money for the Obama administration, the Trump oyster restoration in the Corps’ fiscal administration has not included oyster 2017 federal budget. restoration in the Corps budget for specializing in Environmental Law. That cutoff came on the heels of fiscal 2018 or 2019. Cardin, Van Hollen the Hogan administration’s call to halt and others in Congress had hoped to work in the Tred Avon. A small group remedy that by appropriating more No admissions tests required. of watermen complained in December money for the Corps and by explicitly 2015 to Lt. Gov. Boyd Rutherford supporting oyster restoration. Apply for Fall 2018 classes by August 3. about the use of granite in restoration Angela Sowers, a water resources projects there and in Harris Creek. The management specialist with the Corps’ watermen complained that granite reefs Baltimore District, informed the advi- snagged crabbing gear and that improp- sory commission that the Tred Avon Learn more: erly constructed granite reefs in Harris project is on hold for now. Creek were damaging boats. “We found out just today that we The watermen also contended that are not getting any funding this year to www.law.umaryland.edu/academics/msl reefs should be made exclusively of do that work,” she said. “So, the next oyster shells, arguing that those are the opportunity will be next year.” only suitable surface on which spat, Lazo, the Baltimore District spokes- or baby oysters, can settle and grow. woman, said District officials have a Scientists say research has shown that chance to seek oyster restoration funding oyster spat will do well on other hard in the Corps’ fiscal 2019 work plan, surfaces in the water, and monitoring assuming Congress can come together to on Harris Creek reefs built three years pass a budget for that year. Army Corps ago has found a much higher density Headquarters is required to annually of new oysters on granite reefs than on submit a work plan to Congress after a those covered with shells. budget passes. Working with the Office The Hogan administration lifted its of Management and Budget, Corps hold on the Tred Avon project in 2016, leaders determine how to spend discre- and work resumed in April 2017, more tionary funds not specifically designed than a year after it had been interrupted. for projects listed in the budget. 10 Bay Journal • July-August 2018 Bay scientists: Offshore oil drilling would put Chesapeake Bay at risk ≈ Many fear a spill would be off Louisiana’s coast, killing 11 workers inevitable and could reach the Bay and unleashing 4 million barrels of oil into the Gulf’s waters. and its resources under the right The environmental effects ranged conditions. widely immediately after the spill. By Jeremy Cox There was a substantial rise in dolphin After the Trump administration and sea turtle strandings, a large die-off proposed allowing oil and gas explora- of seabirds and a temporary shuttering tion off the East Coast in January, of the commercial shrimp fishery. the debate has largely focused on the Portions of the spill floated north, potential harm to the Atlantic Ocean’s covering nearly 1,400 miles of coastline water quality and marine life. from Texas to the Florida Panhandle, That is, after all, where any new oil exacerbating the decline in salt marsh rigs would sprout if the administration set into motion by sea level rise, has its way. scientists discovered. By one study’s But what about impacts to the estimate, as much as 40 percent of the Chesapeake Bay? Could the United oil settled onto the seafloor, damaging State’s largest estuary — the subject coral reefs and other bottom-dwelling of a federal and multi-state program creatures. Tourism industry economic centered on reducing nutrient and sedi- losses in the region were estimated as ment pollution — be at risk? high as $22.7 billion. Yes, say some of the Bay’s top An Atlantic spill, if it were to scientists. happen, almost certainly would be of “I don’t think there are any places in a smaller scale, Boesch said, because the world where they have developed oil drilling there would be in much shal- and gas where they have been able to lower waters. The weight of deeper avoid spills,” said Carl Hershner, direc- water, like the 5,000-foot depth where tor of the Center for Coastal Resources Deepwater Horizon operated in the Management at the Virginia Institute For clues about what might happen to the Bay, look no further than the Gulf of Mexico’s Gulf, exerts more pressure on subter- for Marine Science. Deepwater Horizon spill, said Don Boesch, a marine scientist and former president of ranean oil, increasing the potential The Bay’s inland location may not the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. Above, fire boat response intensity of a blowout. help to shield it from oil pollution. Its crews battled the blazing remnants of the oil rig Deepwater Horizon off the Louisiana The Chesapeake Bay Foundation, water is linked to that of the Atlantic, coast in the Gulf of Mexico, April 21, 2010. . (U.S. Coast Guard) an early and tenacious advocate for and the effects of an offshore oil spill restoring the Bay, stands firmly against could be shared with the Chesapeake, states have asked for offshore drilling. scientists say. the same treatment. A spill would be especially devastat- The five-year offshore leasing House Repub- ing to blue crabs, said Will Baker, the proposal calls for opening not only the licans are fighting group’s president. During the early length of the Atlantic Seaboard but also back, proposing stages of their lives, crabs float out of virtually all other U.S. coastal waters in May that states the mouth of the Bay into the Atlantic’s to oil and natural gas exploration and attempting to block waters. The larvae then develop fins potential drilling. A final decision is the administra- and make their way back into the expected this fall and could go into tion’s move face estuary. effect as early as 2019. a fee equal to at “One ill-timed oil spill in that region The administration argues that least one-tenth the could wipe out an entire year-class of expanding offshore leasing opportuni- government revenue Chesapeake blue crabs, and that would ties could relieve some of the country’s the lease would have be a disaster,” Baker said. dependence on foreign oil and pour generated. Once spilled, oil is extremely billions of dollars into the economy. Off the mid- difficult to clean up, Hershner said. Offshore sources currently represent 18 Atlantic coast, oil Dispersants can break down lighter percent of the domestic production of drilling would likely chemicals at the surface, but they have oil and 4 percent of natural gas. take place dozens of Dr. Brian Stacy, a National Oceanic and Atmospheric environmental consequences of their Increased offshore oil production miles offshore along Administration veterinarian, prepares to clean an oiled own. And sending crews to physically also could be an indirect boon to Bay the Outer Continen- Kemp’s Ridley turtle after the Deepwater Horizon event. remove oil from slick-covered marshes restoration. Portions of federal receipts tal Shelf, experts The animal was one of many young turtles captured 20–40 can cause more harm than good, he from offshore drilling flow into the say. But under the miles offshore as part of animal rescue and rehabilita- said. Land and Water Conservation Fund, right meteorological tion efforts. Will Baker, president of the Chesapeake Bay “The bottom line is [that] once which provides matching grants to state conditions, wind and Foundation, noted that “One ill-timed oil spill in the you’ve spilled the oil, it’s out there and and local governments, as well as funds ocean currents could (Chesapeake) region could wipe out an entire year-class of it’s going to have an impact,” Hershner to federal agencies to acquire land for carry a large spill Chesapeake blue crabs.” (NOAA & Georgia Department of said, adding that, in many cases, it may public recreation and the protection of into the mouth of Natural Resources) be best just to allow the oil to break natural resources. the Bay and beyond, down over time on its own. All of the governors in the Bay perhaps as far north as Baltimore, to the Bay, look no further than the Gulf Boesch, who has been studying the watershed’s coastal states — Maryland, Hershner said. of Mexico’s Deepwater Horizon spill, Bay for nearly three decades, said the Virginia, Delaware and New York If that happens, expect a “significant said Don Boesch, a marine scientist potential environmental costs of drill- — formally denounced the administra- environmental impact” that would be and former president of the University ing for oil in the Atlantic far outweigh tion’s proposal. Keying in on Interior impossible to clean up entirely and of Maryland Center for Environmental the economic benefits. Secretary Ryan Zinke’s public vow to linger for several years, he added. Science. nix Florida from consideration, several For clues about what might happen In 2010, a BP rig exploded 50 miles Oil continues on page 11 Bay Journal • July-August 2018 11

Oil from page 10 opposition to the Trump drilling plan has been tied to regions where oil rigs “Why are we having all these fights have never loomed on the horizon. when the resource base is not so huge Residents along the western and and takes so long to bring on line?” he central Gulf Coast, Kish said, “know asked. about the trade-offs and the problems Although the federal government is that can occur. They know about the working to finalize its offshore leasing terrible spill that happened with the BP program by this fall, it would likely take Horizon. Yet they are very supportive at least another 15 years for companies of offshore drilling and exploration.” to start extracting oil. The backlash to the lease proposal Any oil operation would have to shows no signs of letting up in the undergo a lengthy federal review. mid-Atlantic. What’s more, companies would have When Sen. Chris Van Hollen to perform seismic tests to determine asked Zinke to exempt his home state whether the oil is available in large of Maryland, as Zinke had done for enough quantities to justify a multibil- Florida, Zinke responded that Florida lion dollar effort to bring it to the is “a little different” because Congress surface. has placed a moratorium on drilling in So far, drilling in mid-Atlantic waters off the state’s west coast. The waters has fueled little commercial Oil from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill approaches the coast of Mobile, AL, ban, which expires in 2022, protects interest. The only federal leases for May 6, 2010. “I don’t think there are any places in the world where they have devel- one of the largest military air and water the area were sold from 1976–1983. oped oil and gas where they have been able to avoid spills,” said Carl Hershner, training areas in the country. Companies drilled dozens of wells, but director of the Center for Coastal Resources Management at the Virginia Institute But Zinke also ticked off several con- all were abandoned for lack of com- for Marine Science. (© Petty Officer 1st Class Michael B. Watkins / U.S. Navy) ditions that make Maryland’s offshore mercial returns. area a poor candidate for drilling. There But interest has continued flaring billion barrels of oil and 130 trillion the early 1980s, technological advances are no known oil reserves in its waters, off and on over the years, typically in cubic feet of gas available for potential have enabled companies to pinpoint and a lack of industry infrastructure on concert with the price of crude oil. lease beneath the western and central oil reserves in many places previously land ensures that ramping up production About 2.4 billion barrels of oil and Gulf of Mexico, the only areas off thought to contain no oil, said Dan will be complicated, he said. 23 trillion cubic feet of gas can be the continental United States where Kish, a senior fellow at the Washing- Further, state officials would have recovered off the mid-Atlantic, a region offshore drilling is currently permitted. ton DC-based Institute for Energy the final say over whether any oil col- stretching from the Delaware Bay to the Oil industry advocates, though, Research. lected offshore could be transported in North Carolina-South Carolina border, argue that the mid-Atlantic’s waters “It may turn out there’s nothing and state waters. according to U.S. Bureau of Ocean probably yield far more energy than everybody can settle down or it can turn “I think you’re going to be very Energy Management estimates. those estimates suggest. Since the most out there are huge amounts,” he said. happy with our planning process as we Those totals are dwarfed by the 45 recent seismic surveying took place in It’s telling, he added, that the fiercest go through,” Zinke told the Democrat.

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What caused a years-long decline of Using available data and smallmouth bass in Pennsylvania’s research, the group narrowed Susquehanna River starting more than down the likely causes to the a decade ago? presence of endocrine disruptors Some think they may have finally — many of which originate in cracked the case. The results of recently pharmaceutical and health care published research, lauded by some as products— and herbicides in the “the smoking gun,” points to a virus once water, as well as pathogens and thought not to affect smallmouth bass. parasites. In a series of laboratory experiments, Blazer led a group of scientists from Michigan State University researchers from 2007 to 2012 found that largemouth bass virus can who examined Susquehanna indeed be fatal to young smallmouth bass. smallmouth collected from Others are not ready to stamp “case four basins of the river. A closed” on the mysterious die-off, paper compiling those data saying the full explanation is much was published in April, about more complicated. the same time as the Michigan Biologist Vicki Blazer of the U.S. Geo- State University study. logical Survey Leetown Science Center Research from the Blazer team is one of them. Blazer has been leading established that the 2– to 3-month- a long-term study of wild bass from the old fish had been exposed to a Susquehanna. Her team of federal and plethora of substances, diseases state researchers has been working on the Biologist Vicki Blazer sorts slides holding tissues of smallmouth bass from the Susquehanna and parasites. The diseases ranged premise that multiple infections of disease River in Pennsylvania. At the USGS Leetown Science Center near Kearneysville, WV, she’s from parasitic flat worms, com- and parasites caused the widespread studying the effects of parasites, disease and contaminants on young fish. (Dave Harp) monly found in rivers, to multiple deaths of young smallmouth bass that was bacterial infections and largemouth first observed in 2005. water aren’t helping the situation,” he quickly. What happened in 2005 was not bass virus. Few young fish were found Those infections, she argues, may said. “Identifying which toxins are the a one-off thing. We were waiting until with only one infection; in fact, many had have been triggered by a brew of worst for fish health — that’s something the next year for it to be all over with, but three or more different infections. chemicals polluting the Susquehanna we can do something about.” it [was not] over by 2006 or 2007.” Passive water monitors collected sam- that weakened fish immune systems. A new technique to analyze the The affected area stretched nearly ples at the same time fish were collected “The bottom line was, from site to immune response in fish tissue is help- 100 miles from the confluence of the in spring and early summer. Thirty-four site, there was no one pathogen that we ing Blazer’s research. West and North branches to York Haven chemicals were found in the water. Of were finding,” Blazer said. “Most of the Using the new process, Blazer’s near the Maryland border. Deaths also those 34 chemicals, 32 were found in the places that had mortality had multiple team can expose the tissue of healthy, occurred in the lower Juniata River, the tissues of fish. Some contained as many pathogens. That led us to think that laboratory-raised fish to one stressor at Susquehanna’s largest tributary. as 10 to 34 compounds. something was going on to be immuno- a time — whether chemical, parasite To stem the loss, the Pennsylvania Blazer still sounds surprised when she suppressing those fish and making them or disease —and view the type of cells Fish and Boat Commission allowed talks about the amount of contaminants more susceptible to disease.” that it produces. Researchers compare only catch-and-release fishing for picked up by these fish. “Remembering That’s not to say that largemouth the results with fish tissue collected in smallmouth bass starting in 2011. The these fish are only 2– to 3 months old, virus isn’t the cause of the fish kills. the wild to gauge the severity of the next year, the commission also banned they are accumulating contaminants very “The research has shown that the effects each stressor has on the ability fishing during the spawn, when female quickly,” she said. “Yet we don’t know, largemouth bass virus is capable of to fight disease. The process may also bass lay eggs and males guard the what is the level of a PCB or a pesticide killing smallmouth bass at water tem- reveal whether certain stressors play a nest — to alleviate the stress of being that is going to cause disease?” peratures that continue to exist in the larger role in immunosuppression. hooked while reproducing. Blazer and her team found that the Susquehanna,” said Coja Yamashita, “It is very complicated to understand The population began to rebound number of “co-infections” differed a fisheries biologist with the Pennsyl- these things in the wild,” Blazer said. in 2016 but, as with the deaths, the between sites on the river. Also, the fish vania Fish and Boat Commission who “But until you start looking at them in the cause is unclear. According to annual with more diseases also had a greater worked with the Michigan lab during wild, we will never understand them.” commission surveys, the prevalence number of chemicals in their tissue. the study. “The virus is one piece of When the problem first became of disease and parasite infections has For example, young-of-the-year from the puzzle, just a much larger part than evident in 2005, young fish hatched in declined in the last five years, and the Juniata River and lower and middle we originally thought.” the spring were found dead and dying in more fish are surviving past their Susquehanna River had both more Yamashita said that while there’s July and August in the middle and lower first year. From 2005 to 2012, up to co-infections and more agricultural no way to remove the virus from the sections of the river. The number of 70 percent of the fish surveyed were chemicals than those in the West Branch. river, educating anglers and boaters young that never grew to adulthood led visibly sick, compared with up to 10 Fish from the West Branch and its is needed to help stop its spread. The to fewer fish being “recruited” into the percent from 2013 to 2018. tributaries had some of the lowest rates virus was most likely transported by population, said Geoff Smith, Susque- Biologists sampling the river with of co-infections, skin lesions and infec- boats and equipment from other waters hanna fisheries biologist for the Pennsyl- electrofishing gear saw nearly four tions, and there were fewer hormones and into the Susquehanna. vania Fish and Boat Commission. times as many adult smallmouth bass agricultural chemicals in their tissue. “As far as what Vicki Blazer is doing, “This was not a typical crash,” Smith last year in the middle Susquehanna there’s no doubt that contaminants in the said. “Populations bounce back pretty than in any one year since 2005. Bass continues on page 13 Bay Journal • July-August 2018 13

Bass from page 12 water is low and warm. That year the water was low enough to reach 85 degrees The results of these tests were in the summer. It also followed two years compared with those of fish collected of high rain — and increased runoff. from a test pond, where no disease has Columnaris was found in the earlier study been reported. The fish collected in those but never by itself. waters had a much lower occurrence of Researchers will also explore whether disease and contaminants. young, contaminated fish are born “Throughout this whole process, we’ve from contaminated eggs or whether come at the problem with the assumption they acquire the contaminants from the that this is the link, that there is some kind water column. Some chemicals, like the of immunosuppression,” said Smith, the herbicide atrazine, do not build up in fatty Fish Commission biologist. “They didn’t tissues like eggs. If a fish tests positive have a way to test that, until now.” for atrazine, then it came from the water According to Blazer, there are 400 dif- column. ferent types of land-use attributes in the But tracking the source of contami- Susquehanna River valley. From the small nants is still difficult; the pollutants may river towns on the Juniata River to the not originate in areas of the river where cities of Harrisburg, York and Lancaster the fish are found. Adult bass tend to along the lower Susquehanna, stormwater move long distances, Smith explained. runoff carries debris and chemicals into A female who breeds in the river near waterways. Harrisburg could potentially carry her Staff from the USGS are compiling eggs to another river segment and bring and mapping the data on each of those Young smallmouth in an experimental pond at Leetown Science Center are used the contaminants with them. land uses — including pesticide, herbicide to compare tissue samples with other smallmouth bass caught in the Susquehanna Blazer’s team is trying to pinpoint and fertilizer use — to compare them River that experienced unusually high mortality rates for a period of time. All fish what management options could possibly with the results of water quality sampling are captured and humanely euthanized to look for pesticides, herbicides, parasites relieve some of the stress on the fish. that will take place every two weeks this and diseases in the tissue of various organs under a microscope. (Dave Harp). In looking at many risk factors at once, summer. This information will be further Blazer said, the possibility increases of combined with weather data, to examine the examination of nutrient levels in the summer weather and the relatively learning which pollutants or diseases the impacts of stormwater runoff, as water. An abundance of nutrients can shallow waters of the river, create the have the greatest impact on smallmouth well as new data gleaned from studies on affect which organisms thrive and which perfect recipe for an explosion of some bass — if any. stressors to young fishes’ immune systems. ones suffer, including algae and bacteria. pathogens that could compromise fish People get caught up in finding a The goal is to cross-reference what Nutrients can also cause infections within health. In fact, in 2005, fish commission single cause, Blazer said, but “from happens on the land with the presence of the fish to grow faster, further degrading biologists first thought that the bass were what our data tells us, there is not one chemicals in both water and fish tissue. their tissue. dying from an outbreak of columnaris — cause. I just hope I get to finish this Added to this round of research is Nutrients, combined with warm a common infection fish contract when thing before I retire.”

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REGISTER: ecotoneinc.com/less-is-more-training-symposium 14 Bay Journal • July-August 2018 Debate ensues over role of tree clearing in Fones Cliff landslide ≈ 100-foot-plus slide occurred Recreation’s Shoreline Erosion along section where trees had Advisory Service, which provides free consultations to landowners been cut down without required looking to prevent erosion. He permit, protections along completed a report for the Virginia historic site. True property in January that rec- By Whitney Pipkin ommends that the property owners A landslide on a historically signifi- either stabilize the cliffs with costly cant stretch of Fones Cliffs in Virginia engineered solutions at their base has sparked debate over whether a or keep any development 280 feet developer’s land clearing caused a strip away from the edge of the cliff and of remaining trees to topple into the separated by a vegetated buffer. water more than 100 feet below. The shoreline erosion report A swath of the cliffs that form the recommends the setback length northeast bank of the Rappahannock be twice the height of the 140-foot River near Warsaw sloughed off into bank to prevent erosion, and that the river at the end of May after several stormwater be directed away from days of rain. The landslide occurred on the bank with a piping system. The the edge of a property where more than program does not have a regulatory 13 acres had been cleared of trees in the role, but the recommendations come fall of 2017 without the required environ- from a team of engineers, biologists mental protections in place. Some and natural resource specialists. groups argue that the clearing caused the None of the recommended steps landslide, but regulators say it is difficult were taken before Virginia True to pinpoint an exact cause at a site where cleared land in the fall not far from several factors contribute to erosion. An aerial photo taken on May 24 shows the proximity of a landslide at Fones Cliffs to an area of the cliff’s edge. Conservation organizations have land that was cleared of trees in the fall of 2017. River advocates are concerned that the clearing, Vanlandingham said that spent more than a decade trying to associated with a proposed luxury golf course development on the property, contributed to severe Fones Cliffs features some of the protect the land along the 4-mile stretch erosion on the vulnerable, 100-plus-foot cliffs. (Courtesy of Friends of the Rappahannock) steepest banks in Virginia, which of cliffs, which have remained largely will naturally try to erode back to undeveloped for 400 years and are home ronmental compliance agent, and Jeff An inspection report completed by a more stable slope. to high concentrations of eagles. When Howeth, an engineer hired by Virginia English on May 24 states that sediment “Leaving it in the wooded riparian a Richmond County board rezoned the True to get the property into compliance. control measures on the site had failed condition that it was in is probably the property in 2012 and 2015, its members English wrote in a report that the and the problems would need to be best thing you can do, but it’s been in vowed to keep a close eye on a pair of landslide occurred below a section of the corrected. Howeth, the engineer, did that condition for a long, long time, and projects whose backers said they would property that had been cleared, where acknowledge that changes in land use it’s still erosive,” Vanlandingham said. be protective of the environment. runoff can flow in sheets through a could have contributed to the slide but “To stabilize and protect a shore- Those who oppose the larger of those 50-foot-wide forested area on the cliff’s attributed it primarily to soils that had line, you need to address all the issues projects — a 1,000-acre luxury golf edge. A portion of the silt fencing that become saturated with rain. that are causing it to be erosive while course planned by the Virginia True had been erected to prevent runoff in that Ann Regn, a spokeswoman for the also keeping in mind the owner’s Corp. along the cliff’s edge — were quick area failed because it was not designed or Virginia Department of Environmental goals,” he continued. “In the end, to call the landslide evidence that the required to withstand the high volumes of Quality, said state inspectors found he’s the person writing the check to flawed land clearing process has hastened rain, English wrote in the report. rainfall overwhelmed the silt fences stabilize the property.” erosion. County and state officials, as “The cause of the erosion of the cliffs in several places but didn’t attribute Having a layer of Fones Cliffs well as shoreline erosion experts, though, during these latest rain events cannot the sloughing to those shortcomings slough off is exactly what advocates said that while the clearing could have simply be pinned down to be completely alone. Inspectors saw no evidence, for feared would happen after the land was contributed to the landslide, more than 10 natural or completely man-made,” he instance, of runoff scouring out large cleared. Without the proper stormwater inches of rain over several days in May wrote. “The change in the land cover quantities of soil, and they cannot say controls in place before the trees were might have been too much for the site to condition most likely did play a factor, it’s for sure that the land clearing caused removed, rainwater could easily pick absorb regardless of the recent tree loss. just very difficult to say to what extent.” the cliff face to slough off. up speed and sediment on the sloped The landslide, covering a 120-foot- The county issued a stop work order The agency issued two notices of landscape. The cliffs are composed of wide section of the cliffs, came to the at the end of November after finding that violation to Virginia True earlier this year, crumbly diatomaceous soils that are attention of the Friends of the Rap- the property owners had begun clear- the second of which included undisclosed known for their instability as much as pahannock on May 22, when a local ing trees without attaining the required fines and a consent order, after the their orange-and-white beauty. waterman photographed the landslide permits, which would have included clearing proceeded without a stormwater In their statement, the Friends of and sent the image to Richard Mon- measures to prevent runoff and erosion. management plan. Regn said the site’s the Rappahannock urged officials cure, the group’s tidal river steward. Virginia True’s owners have been work- plan was finally approved on June 21 and to enforce existing regulations and The photo showed toppled trees, laying ing with contractors since then to erect a consent order was signed that will go bring the property into compliance to with their crowns in the water at the silt fencing, catch sediment and grow out for public comment on July 9. “create a level playing field for all land bottom of a freshly scoured cliff face. grass on the property to prevent polluted Moncure said he remains concerned development activities.” The Friends of the Rappahannock runoff, regulators say. that, even if the proper controls are in Richard Pemberton, District 4 member used drones and a small plane to take County administrator Morgan place to prevent stormwater runoff and of the county’s Board of Supervisors, said aerial photos soon after the landslide Quicke said that the erosion and erosion while the land is being developed, in a statement that he is “deeply disap- occurred that showed the proximity sediment control plans for the project, “a silt fence isn’t a suitable replacement pointed” that the project — permitted of the cleared land to the landslide which the county oversees, have been for the forested buffer that had protected under a controversial rezoning approved which, they said, was “no coincidence.” approved, and the stop work order that area of the cliffs before the clearing.” by the board — has resulted in environ- Moncure also took guests onto the river was lifted earlier in May — though Michael Vanlandingham is a mental damage. to view the erosion first-hand: Richard additional permits will be required for shoreline engineer with the Virginia Timothy B. Wheeler contributed English, Richmond County’s envi- clearing or construction to take place. Department of Conservation and reporting to this article. Bay Journal • July-August 2018 15 Scientists predict ‘dead zone’ will be larger than average this summer ≈ Heavy spring rains flushed According to uses up the oxygen in the water. more nitrogen than normal into the U.S. Geological Low-oxygen waters are found Survey, higher than throughout the world, from the Gulf of the Bay to fuel algae blooms average spring rains Mexico to the Baltic Sea. By Jeremy Cox brought more than The Chesapeake’s dead zone has The Chesapeake Bay’s infamous 85 million pounds ballooned since recordkeeping began “dead zone” will be larger than average of nitrogen gushing in the 1950s as growing cities and farm this summer, scientists suggest in a into the Bay from the fields shunted more nitrogen into the new forecast that breaks with a wave of Susquehanna River, Bay, researchers say. One of the main encouraging signs about the estuary’s the primary source goals of the federal-state Chesapeake Bay health. of nutrient pollution restoration program is to reduce nitrogen If their prediction is correct, 2018 will in the main portion and phosphorus loads — and shrink the be the fourth year in a row that the size of the Chesapeake. dead zone. of the Bay’s oxygen-starved area has The Potomac River The typical summer dead zone has increased. The forecasted expansion can delivered another 30 measured about 1.7 cubic miles of water be chalked up to nutrients flushed into million pounds to since 1985, according to the Chesapeake the Bay during the spring’s heavy rains, the Bay. Bay Program. The largest recorded was according to researchers at the University As a result, the dead 2.7 cubic miles in 2011. of Maryland Center for Environmental Despite recent good news about blue crabs and under- zone is expected to be While hypoxic water remains Science and the University of Michigan. water grasses, scientists predict that the Bay’s oxygen- an average of 1.9 cubic stubbornly abundant, anoxic conditions “The size is going to go up and down starved dead zone will be larger in 2018. (Dave Harp) miles this summer, a 5 — the very worst areas where there is every year depending on the weather,” percent increase over virtually no oxygen — are gradually said Don Scavia, a University of Bay grasses are flourishing. Waters are 2017, according to the forecast. improving, Testa said. This year’s Michigan aquatic ecologist and one of the less murky. Despite a harsh winter, the That area of “hypoxic,” or low oxygen, anoxic portion of the Bay is expected report’s authors. blue crab population’s rebound appears water represents about 15 percent of to be 0.43 cubic miles. A dead zone is a popular term for undaunted. Officials and scientists at a the Bay’s total volume. Those numbers Testa attributes the improved anoxic waters that have no or very little oxygen. press conference on June 15 celebrated haven’t changed much over the years, said conditions to gradual reductions in the Fish tend to flee, and any marine life that the Bay’s ability to maintain moderately Jeremy Testa, an UMCES researcher and Susquehanna’s nitrogen concentration can’t escape — usually shellfish — could healthy conditions in 2017 for the third co-author. that began in the 1980s. suffocate. year in a row. Dead zones form when rain washes Scavia said this year’s forecasted New evidence seems to arrive almost But the dead zone has remained persis- nutrients into large bodies of water, caus- expansion isn’t too concerning because daily suggesting that humans are turning tently large over the years, though it has ing algae to bloom. Ultimately, the algae rain appears to be the main culprit. the tide against the Chesapeake Bay’s been disappearing slightly earlier at the die and sink to the bottom where they are “It’s the long-term trend that really many woes. end of the summer. decomposed by bacteria in a process that matters,” he said. Restoring the native balance

ernstseed.com [email protected] 800-873-3321 16 Bay Journal • July-August 2018 MDE reverses Eastern Shore poultry farm permit after judge’s ruling ≈ Agency had been faulted for not decision. adhering to its own regulations Ishfaq and Zaheer Ahmed, when making compromise with Apna Farms’ 61-acre operation. owners, are By Jeremy Cox seeking to install A decade ago, Maryland’s environ- more than 2 mental regulators greatly expanded million broilers their scrutiny of densely packed animal per year in the farms, including the chicken houses houses, generat- that crowd much of the Eastern Shore’s ing more than landscape. 1,300 tons of Since then, the Maryland Depart- litter, manure ment of the Environment has approved and wastewater scores of new industrial-scale operations annually, accord- without ever turning down an applicant. ing to documents That has changed, though, since the filed in the MDE declined to contest a Maryland administrative administrative law judge’s recent ruling hearing case. that a permit the agency issued last year Zaheer Ahmed violated its own rules. couldn’t be Judge David Hofstetter, in Mary- reached for com- land’s Office of Administrative Hear- ment, and Ishfaq, ings, urged the MDE in a May 30 order who is a partner to reverse its August 2017 approval of in at least one a stormwater permit for a Worcester other Worcester County farm that would be one of the poultry opera- largest of its kind. The ruling cited tion, declined to the MDE’s failure to hold the 61-acre Flood waters surround a chicken house complex west of Berlin, MD, where owners have constructed eight comment. operation, owned by Apna Farms LLC, houses but haven’t started raising birds because of a permit challenge. (Tim Preziosi) The proposed to some of its regulations for stormwa- farm is tucked off ter management. peake Bay, said David Reed, executive they have to squeeze more houses onto a country road just west of the antique Apna will have to submit a new plan director of the Environmental Action each site to offset the higher develop- store-dotted community of Berlin. to address nutrient runoff for approval, Center, the other plaintiff in the case ment costs from the new regulations, About a mile farther to the west lies MDE spokesman Jay Apperson said. In “Poorly sited, poorly situated and which call for more elaborate stormwa- the Pocomoke River, a Bay tributary the meantime, the eight chicken houses oversize operations like this are a direct ter structures, among other measures. connected to the farm site by a network Apna has already built won’t be allowed threat to water quality,” Reed said. Until the last decade or two, most of agricultural ditches and streams. to raise any birds. The U.S. Environmental Protection farmers — and their lenders — were The MDE’s regulatory process The two environmental groups Agency and the Bay’s watershed states satisfied with two or three chicken enables virtually anyone to request a that brought the case to court say that are just beyond the halfway mark in a houses per operation. Now, there are public hearing on a CAFO permit. Over with Hofstetter’s ruling, they expect 15-year campaign to clamp down on groups of five, seven or more. a span of nearly two years, Phillips and the MDE to enforce pollution-control pollution. Projects like the embattled Apna Reed have brought a dozen projects to a measures more consistently. Agriculture, according to the EPA, Farms, which is under contract to raise hearing before MDE officials but with “I hope this is going to set a prec- is the biggest birds for Tyson little success until now. Reed, an attor- edent,” said Kathy Phillips, executive single contributor Foods, are so ney, would work with Phillips to draft director of the Assateague Coastal of nutrients and “I hope this is going to set large that they written arguments against the CAFO, Trust, which challenged the permit sediment to the are regulated citing the potential for ammonia-tainted along with the Environmental Action Bay. Millions of a precedent.” as concentrated air emissions, groundwater degradation Center. “No more short cuts. Let’s do taxpayer dollars — Kathy Phillips animal-feeding and nutrient-laden runoff. The MDE this right.” have been flow- Executive director, Assateague Coastal Trust operations, or would grant the permit anyway. To shield waterways from nutrient- ing onto farms CAFOs. The In some of the cases, Phillips said laden runoff, the state requires farmers from Virginia to state has permit- she noticed that the MDE was allowing to build separate sheds to store manure New York to help their owners reduce ted more than 400 such poultry growing farmers to avoid immediate compli- and dead birds. A state cost-sharing runoff with actions such as planting operations. ance with some requirements to build program aimed at improving the Chesa- vegetative buffers and digging storm When Worcester County resident the storage buildings for manure and peake Bay’s health typically helps defray ponds. Paul Bishop first heard the details of composting facilities for the disposal of much of those construction costs, but That work has coincided with the CAFO that Apna wanted to build dead birds. Apna ran into a delay getting the money. an unprecedented wave of poultry on neighboring land, he was concerned, The leniency grew out of a budget- Instead of making the farm wait house construction on the Delmarva but not surprised. ing bind, said Louise Lawrence, head to go into business, MDE officials Peninsula, home to one of the densest “The way I look at it, that’s not really of resource conservation for the state brokered a compromise: Apna could concentrations of broiler operations in farming,” said Bishop, whose father Department of Agriculture. During start raising flocks as long as it used the country. owned and operated a farm with two the 2017 fiscal year, Gov. Larry Hogan “temporary measures” to manage its Many farmers are taking old chicken chicken houses. “They put eight houses nixed a portion of the cost-share waste. The deal gave the farm up to two houses offline, limiting the actual on a small lot there. That’s just crazy. funding set aside for environmental years to build the proper structures. growth to just a percentage point or two These are the biggest houses you can upgrades on farms that had helped How Maryland regulates — and per year, according to industry esti- build, and they just stuck them in there.” CAFO operators pay for the manure doesn’t regulate — its poultry industry mates. But the new houses are substan- He and his wife, Mary Lou, ended storage and composting buildings. will play a starring role in the federal and tially larger than the older generation up formally joining the two environ- multi-state effort to clean up the Chesa- of structures. What’s more, owners say mental groups in appealing the MDE’s Permit continues on page 17 Bay Journal • July-August 2018 17

Permit from page 16 is “legally inconsistent” with the state’s water-quality laws. That left the program with $3 million, While administrative hearings or just less than one-third of the total involve cross-examination and evi- funding requests it received that year. dence, they differ from typical court- “We’ve been good for 30 years,” rooms in one critical way: The judge’s Lawrence said. “That was the first year ruling amounts to a recommendation, we got caught up in what was going on” and an agency can choose to follow it or in Annapolis. not. The MDE decided to comply. At Apna Farms, the two giant Farmers aren’t backing down in the manure sheds normally required would face of this new breed of opposition. have been replaced by a practice known James Fisher, a spokesman for the as windrowing — shoveling the waste Delmarva Poultry Industry trade group, into long, narrow piles inside the said a recent USDA assessment has chicken houses to allow natural com- shown that farmers have made some of posting to take place. After a couple the biggest strides toward meeting the weeks, the material is spread back over Chesapeake Bay’s nutrient-reduction the floor and another flock of chickens goals. The Berlin farm’s opponents are placed on top. The process is repeated “outside the mainstream” view that with each new flock. cost-sharing represents an “efficient, Meanwhile, the mandatory composting effective” way to accomplish that goal, facility would have been replaced by an he said in a statement. 18-foot by 25-foot temporary steel shed. Meanwhile, farmers no longer have State regulators justified the changes to wait for funding. The state has set in a memo last year, arguing that the Paul and Mary Lou Bishop live next to a proposed poultry operation in Worcester aside $10 million for the fiscal year that alternative measures they approved County, MD, and joined the Assateague Coastal Trust and Environmental Action begins July 1. would “enable poultry farmers to con- Center to challenge the operation’s state-issued permit. (Jeremy Cox) For her part, Phillips said she plans struct new [animal feeding operations] to continue closely watching the state or expand existing operations, and still a judge. The first died a paperwork- plans to keep them in compliance with as it balances restoring the Chesapeake meet applicable federal, state and Gen- related death. the Clean Water Act, he wrote. Those with supporting its farmers. eral Discharge Permit requirements.” Hofstetter’s subsequent 18-page plans must follow a specific set of U.S. “The Maryland Department of the Phillips disagreed. ruling took a “letter of the law” Department of Agriculture policies Environment is supposed to protect “We said, ‘This time we’re going approach to the case. The federal gov- designed to mitigate pollution. the environment,” she said. “They’re to contest it,’” she said. It was just ernment empowers the state to make To accept anything less than those not the Better Business Bureau or the the second case they brought before farmers draft nutrient management minimum standards, Hofstetter wrote, Chamber of Commerce.” 18 Bay Journal • July-August 2018 Public asked to be on the lookout for ‘missing’ mitten crab ≈ Once-abundant invasive species hasn’t been reported in a couple of years. By Whitney Pipkin You won’t see the Chinese mitten crab’s mugshot on a milk carton, but researchers want you to keep an eye out for it anyway. The mitten crab (Eriorcheir sinensis) gets its name from claws that appear to be clothed in algae. Like dozens of other species that have made their way into the Chesapeake Bay via ballast water or other methods of human introduction, the mitten crab is considered an invasive species ear- The Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, between 2005 and 2014, asked marked for eradication. the public to submit photos of any Chinese mitten crab, above, that they found in the But a renewed campaign to report Chesapeake to the center’s Mitten Crab Watch website. Researchers are asking citizen sightings of the crab this summer isn’t scientists to be on the lookout for the invasive species this year, which they haven’t seen geared at counting their abundance. in the Bay in four years. / Flyers, right, will be posted at fishing docks throughout the Instead, scientists are asking the Chesapeake as researchers ask boaters and fishermen to keep an eye out for the crab. public to help confirm what they are They suspect it might no longer have a presence in the area, but the species is also beginning to suspect: This species has known for boom-and-bust population cycles elsewhere. (Photo & illustration / SERC) disappeared from the Bay altogether — and possibly from the East and The palm-sized crab features long Efforts to control invasive fish, such measures 3–4 inches across. West coasts, too. legs for walking sideways across land as the blue catfish and snakehead, have The crabs can be eaten and are From Maryland to Connecticut, or along the riverbanks where it creates hinged on their edibility, encouraging grown on aquaculture farms in Asia more than 150 sightings of Chinese a home by burrowing holes. During fishermen and consumers to catch-and- for that purpose, but their small frames mitten crabs were reported after a fish- its population booms in Britain, high eat as many as possible. But they are make them a lot of work for a small erman caught the first specimen in the concentrations of these holes have not disappearing. amount of meat. Maryland portion of the Chesapeake made the banks less stable in some “The mitten crab is unusual It once seemed inevitable that the Bay in 2005. But no one has reported areas and resulted in flooding. because it was so abundant on both mitten crab would go the way of the catching or seeing a Chinese mitten On the West Coast, where the crab coasts, and it has a strong record of blue catfish, the zebra mussel or the crab on the East Coast since 2014. was first spotted in 1992, an outbreak being an invader in many other parts emerald ash borer, slowly but surely The species is known to have of the local population by the end of of the world,” Ruiz said. “In the San taking over an ecosystem to the boom-and-bust population cycles, but the decade saw mitten crabs clogging Francisco Bay, there were hundreds potential detriment of native species, scientists say that four years is a long water intake pipes along the coast of thousands caught in some years. So fisheries and infrastructure. But that time for such a prolific invader to hide as they made makeshift homes in we’re really interested in trying to find doesn’t seem to be happening — and it its beady-eyed face. infrastructure. The crab was abundant out if people are seeing any of these could change researchers’ assumptions “This is the mystery we’re trying in the San Francisco Bay by the late crabs on both coasts.” about invasive species. to solve,” said Gregory Ruiz, a senior 1990s, boring as many as 30 holes per To that end, SERC’s invasions lab “We tend to think about what the scientist at the Smithsonian Environ- square meter in some places, accord- has been spreading the word. impact will be when it arrives, but mental Research Center in Edgewater, ing to a study in 2000 by University of “Have you seen me?” reads one of population dynamics are unpredict- MD, where he runs a marine invasions California researchers. the flyers circulating on social media able,” Ruiz said. “It doesn’t change our lab. “It would be very unusual to have “Our findings suggest that the with a photo and description of the approach, but it broadens our perspec- a crab or marine invader that was so mitten crab is here to stay as yet crab. Others will be posted at fishing tive about what’s possible with how a abundant go extinct.” another member of San Francisco’s docks along the Chesapeake Bay with species will play out in a location.” Unlike the Bay’s native blue crab, evolving non-indigenous communi- instructions for what to do if one is Ruiz said another lesson from the young mitten crabs prefer low-salinity ties,” the study stated. found: Freeze the crab rather than mitten crab case is the importance of water, so experts say the animals But, a decade later, the crab was throw it back, note the exact location engaging the public. When an invasive could lurk in riverbanks up to 50 miles nowhere to be found on the West Coast, where it was found and take as many species has just been introduced or inland from the Bay. Mitten crabs with the last reported sighting in 2010. photos as possible. possibly eradicated, research can are also catadromous, meaning they Ruiz, who runs a lab and research Photos and other information benefit from a wide swath of people migrate from brackish portions of group in the San Francisco Bay as can be submitted to SERC’s Mitten keeping their eyes peeled for it. rivers into saltwater environments to well, said having a species once so Crab Watch website. The website Almost all of the records of the reproduce — the opposite direction abundant on both coasts fly under the was established soon after the first mitten crab in the Chesapeake Bay of anadromous fish species such as radar for years — or go extinct — Chesapeake Bay sighting in 2005, and were reported by the public, not striped bass and American shad. could be a first. is still a good place to click through scientists collecting samples. Now, The mitten crab’s cute name belies On the Delmarva Peninsula, a South mug shots of the furry-clawed creature researchers hope that crowdsourcing its disturbing potential impact on local American aquatic rodent that destroys that members of the public have sent in will help them close the case of the ecosystems and economies. They are wetlands, the nutria, has been virtually over the years. missing mitten crab, for good. voracious eaters of aquatic plants, eradicated through a hunting program Researchers say that the mitten If you find a mitten crab, fill out algae and fish eggs and can displace that began in 2002 and will complete its crab is easy to spot. The creature’s a report on the Mitten Crab Watch local species. verification phase in 2019. There have claws, covered with algae-like hairs, website at mittencrab.nisbase.org. If Native to the East Coast of China and also been nonnative species brought to set it apart from the Bay’s other crabs. you think you have a Chinese mitten Korea, the mitten crab made the leap to the United States in the past that never Other distinguishing features include crab, but aren’t sure, contact the Europe decades ago and has been spread- got established and faded away, such as four small spines along the front of Mitten Crab Hotline at 443-482-2222 ing its territory there since the 1970s. clams imported for aquaculture. a brownish-green carapace, which or email [email protected]. Bay Journal • July-August 2018 19 PA bill seeks fraction of a cent fee for largest water users ≈ Money collected those using late on whether those costs would be more than 10,000 gallons a day passed on to electric consumers or to people buying lift tickets or enjoying a would help cleanup efforts, avert round of golf. need to raise fees elsewhere. Sturla’s bill would support water By Donna Morelli protection programs across the state Pennsylvania could generate up to that impact not only the Chesapeake, $500 million annually to help clean but also the Ohio River and Delaware polluted streams and the Chesapeake Bay, although most of the water use is Bay by charging large users of water a in the Susquehanna Basin. fraction of a cent per gallon. That’s the About $65 million would go to findings of a report released June 6 by state environmental agencies, some a joint committee of the Pennsylvania that have seen budget cuts for nearly General Assembly. 16 years. That includes $5 million for The bipartisan Legislative Budget the Fish and Boat Commission, which and Finance Committee conducted the has been at the center of a legislative study to look at the costs and revenues battle to allow the agency to close an should a new water use fee be enacted. estimated $2 million gap in revenue by Three attempts to pass such a water Safe Harbor Dam, one of two hydroelectric dams on the lower Susquehanna raising the fees for fishing permits. fee bill have failed, but Rep. Michael River, is owned by Brookfield Renewable. (Brookfield Renewable) John Arway, executive director of Sturla, D-Lancaster, introduced another the commission, told the committee such bill during the 2017 budget season. drawals greater than 10,000 gallons as commercial, agriculture and public that the funds would “remove the need Just before the bill’s introduction, per day, with the fee reduced to 0.0001 water — should the fund raise $100, to raise the fishing license fees and the five Pennsylvania members of the cent per gallon if similar amounts of $300 or $500 million a year. take the burden off the backs of the Chesapeake Bay Commission — a water withdrawn are returned to the “I’m still trying to digest it — there’s boaters and anglers that spend $1.2 body of state legislators, cabinet secre- source. Under the bill, agricultural, a lot of data to be sorted through,” said billion a year in Pennsylvania.” taries and citizens from Pennsylvania, municipal and nonprofit withdrawals Marel King, Pennsylvania director of Rep. Garth Everett, a Republican Maryland and Virginia — stressed the would be exempt. the Chesapeake Bay Commission, soon representing parts of two counties in need for a dedicated fund to address Based on 2015 usage data, those after the report was released. King took the northern part of the state, said that Pennsylvania’s water pollution woes fees would raise about $2.6 billion per on the task of summarizing the find- conceptually there isn’t anyone in the and its lagging performance in Bay year, with most of that amount — $2.4 ings for commission members. “The general assembly who is against clean cleanup efforts. Sturla is a member of billion — coming from hydroelectric combination of rates and exemptions at water. Everett, also a member of the the commission. plants along the Susquehanna. this point seem infinite.” Bay Commission, said last year that he The new report lists the industries “The impacts of the legislation Research for the report included was going propose another water use that use most of the water withdrawn on existing hydropower resources is reviews of water use programs in 11 fee bill. He decided not to bother, and from Pennsylvania’s surface and ground unclear and could be wide-ranging other states. According to the report, he doesn’t think the Sturla bill will get sources each year. According to the and, as a result, we will continue to only three of them charge an annual any traction because of the opposition state Department of Environmental monitor it,” said Andrew Davis, a fee for water withdrawals: Minnesota, of the Republican-dominated legislature Protection, that number in 2015 totaled spokesman for Brookfield Renewable, Wisconsin and New Jersey. to increased taxes or fees is too strong. 25.8 trillion gallons. Hydroelectric which owns several energy facilities in “However, no state imposes a fee “The political reality — even if power, thermoelectric power and public Pennsylvania, including the Holtwood that would generate anything remotely Mike Sturla’s bill is the most perfect water supplies accounted for 98.4 per- and Safe Harbor dams on the lower close to what is being contemplated bill that was ever drafted — the cent of the withdrawals. Hydroelectric Susquehanna. in [the bill],” said Christopher Latta, chances of it passing with the current power, alone, accounted for 92 percent. Instead of solely focusing on the deputy executive director of the Legis- membership is less than zero,” Everett The remaining 1.6 percent of withdraw- proposed bill, the report evaluates lative Finance and Budget Committee. said. “Even if we put it in my name it als served commercial, agriculture and various scenarios of rates and revenue, For example, he said, approximately would be, ‘Oh here comes Garth and recreational land users, such as golf all based on 2015 withdrawal rates. For $4.7 million is generated in Minnesota, the Chesapeake Bay again.’ We need courses and ski resorts. example, the report breaks down how $5.1 million in New Jersey, and $1 someone who is viewed more moder- Sturla’s bill would levy a fee of much per gallon would be charged to million in Wisconsin. ately. We put the snowball together — 0.001 cent per gallon on water with- each of 11 sectors of industry — such The study did not research or specu- we just need someone to throw it.” 20 Bay Journal • July-August 2018 Dolphin-spotting season begins even earlier in the Bay this year ≈ Researchers want boaters, beachgoers to report sightings of the marine mammal in the Chesapeake and its tributaries. By Whitney Pipkin This spring, when pods of dolphins crossed the threshold into Chesapeake Bay waters, the scientists were ready for them. The dolphin tracking website that went online in June 2017 was already up and running for the season, ready to record as early as the end of April that a few Atlantic bottlenose dolphins had arrived near Cove Point. By mid-May, participants logging onto the Chesapeake Dolphin Watch website, run by the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, had reported 16 dolphin sightings in Bay waters in places as far north as Shady Side and Dundalk, MD. Researchers hope to see that number grow throughout the summer as more people become aware of the popular creatures’ presence. Since the site was launched last summer, dolphin-watchers have used it to report 1,000 sightings throughout These dolphins were photographed near the mouth of the Potomac River where it empties into the Bay. (Potomac- the Bay and its rivers. The crowd- Chesapeake Dolphin Project, taken under NMFS Permit No. 19403) sourcing project blew researchers’ expectations — that maybe a few dozen public has soured on the spectacle of sea were near the Gov. Harry W. Nice dolphins frequented these waters in the Chesapeake Challenge & Bay creature shows at theme parks — and the Memorial Bridge, where U.S. Route summer — out of the water. Buddies test your knowledge of sentient creatures have gained increasing 301 crosses the river just south of “We knew anecdotally that dolphins dolphins on page 34. legal protections since the 1960s — more Popes Creek, MD. The Dolphin Watch were seen in the Chesapeake, but research in natural settings is under way. map, which can be viewed by creating I still wasn’t anticipating anything attention in 2016 after Georgetown As part of that trend, seven dolphins an account on the site, recorded a like the number of sightings we’ve University researcher Janet Mann located at the National Aquarium in couple of citizen sightings there on seen reported,” Helen Bailey, an began studying how far they were Baltimore could soon be relocated to a the morning of July 4, and at least one associate research professor at UMCES venturing into the Potomac and other seaside sanctuary in Florida, according more after that. Chesapeake Biological Laboratory, said Bay tributaries. That research, along to the Associated Press. The aquarium The updated website now allows last year. “It’s just been incredible.” with reports from local citizens, has begun a three-year program, contributors to add photos and Bailey has been studying dolphins indicates that dolphins are traveling including raising water temperatures in videos to their reports and include in the Patuxent and Potomac rivers farther and in greater numbers, the dolphins’ indoor tanks, to teach the descriptions about whether they with underwater microphones, called although scientists are still trying to mammals new behaviors and prepare spotted the creatures from a boat or hydrophones, to better understand understand why and to what extent. them to move. shoreline and other relevant details. what causes them to travel. But she Mann, who has spent three decades “The species we exploited so Camera icons will appear next to the and her team wondered where else studying dolphins in Australia’s Shark heavily for centuries now command dolphin images on the site’s map to dolphins were wandering in the Bay. Bay, is continuing to study a local our attention,” Mann writes in the indicate where sightings have been That inspired the crowd-sourced population of more than 500 individual book’s introduction. confirmed. website, which will launch a mobile dolphins spotted near the mouth of This summer, the species — in the Ann-Marie Jacoby, a field application later this month. the Potomac as part of the Potomac- wild — could continue to captivate investigator who worked on the While dolphins frequent the Lower Chesapeake Dolphin Project, which was Chesapeake Bay audiences, who are Potomac-Chesapeake Dolphin Project and Middle Chesapeake Bay and started by the Georgetown researcher. just beginning to realize that they last year, said she hoped the dolphin southern coastline of Virginia in the The team has named many of them might spot a dolphin breaching near would become a flagship species of summer, they were not often seen after U.S. presidents and first ladies. Baltimore. the Bay. But she didn’t imagine how venturing into the Bay’s rivers until Mann kicked off this year’s dolphin- Last year, people used the quickly they’d become popular with recent years. spotting season with an editorial in tracking website to report dolphins as boaters and beachgoers who helped The apparent return of dolphins to The Washington Post and last year far north in the Bay as the Magothy spread the word. the Potomac interests scientists who published a book about the behavior River and off Hart-Miller Island “We wouldn’t be able to find out see their presence as a good omen for of cetaceans, a family that includes east of Baltimore, with several other [about their presence] so quickly if it local water quality. Historic accounts dolphins, called Deep Thinkers: Inside sightings just west of Rock Hall on hadn’t been for the public reaching out indicate that the creatures once swam the Minds of Whales, Dolphins, and Maryland’s Eastern Shore. Bailey said and being so interested,” Jacoby said. as far north as the Aqueduct Bridge Porpoises. she tries to follow up on the reports To see where dolphins near Georgetown University in the In the book, Mann points out that and was able to verify about 450 of have been spotted so far, visit District of Columbia. much of the current research about these those sightings. ChesapeakeDolphinWatch.org. The local crew of dolphins began marine mammals has been gleaned from The northernmost confirmed Learn about Mann’s research at capturing more media and public studying them in captivity. But, as the sightings in the Potomac last summer PCDolphinProject.org. Bay Journal • July-August 2018 21 Putting roads on a salt diet also healthy for nearby streams ≈ Northern VA creek gets miles of roads in nine districts. Virginia region’s first chloride TMDL. has the third largest state-maintained highway system in the country, behind By Whitney Pipkin Texas and North Carolina. A creek in Northern Virginia is Crafton said VDOT has been “very going on a pollution diet, and residents progressive” in adopting best manage- might feel the belt-tightening this time. ment practices, some of which are filter- That’s because it could lead to limits on ing down from the Northeast, to reduce a compound that’s as beloved on U.S. salt’s impact. One of those practices roads as it is in our meals: salt. is spreading liquid salt brine, which After spending decades studying contains less chloride than rock salt, on Accotink Creek — which drains a roads to keep snow and ice from sticking 52-square-mile swath of midsize homes and make easier work for plows. and commuter-crowded roads in Fairfax He thinks some of the low-hanging County, VA — scientists couldn’t ignore fruit for reducing salt applications could the impacts that road salts were having be in the hands of private contractors on a freshwater creek whose critters that are hired by homeowners’ associa- weren’t accustomed to the brinier waters. tions or mall parking lots to spread salt. At the end of May, the state Depart- A few contractors have been involved ment of Environmental Quality approved in the salt strategy meetings so far, and a pair of new pollution limits for the DEQ officials said they are continuing to creek, called total maximum daily loads, reach out to get more of them involved. or TMDLs. One aims to reduce the VDOT, along with Fairfax County, amount of pollution-carrying sediment As it washes off roads and into streams and groundwater, salt not only increases the city of Fairfax and the U.S. Army’s that runs through the creek, which is a the salinity but also concentrations of chloride in the water, making it inhospitable Fort Belvoir, could be required to do tributary to the Potomac River. The other for many of the animals that live there. (Dave Harp) more when the new chloride limits for addresses the waterway’s high chloride Accotink Creek are worked into their concentrations — in what appears to salt and how that affects local streams. how cities or private contractors could permits, which will be up for renewal be the first salt-related TMDL in the “You don’t stop applying salt at benefit their bottom lines by rethinking in a couple years. But plenty of other Chesapeake Bay watershed. watershed boundaries, so the problem salt applications. organizations have a stake in how much The salt that is spread on roads in is more widespread,” said David Evans, Joe Wood, Virginia staff scientist salt is on the roads or in the waterways. winter is sodium chloride, typically nonpoint source coordinator at the DEQ. with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, The water authorities in Fairfax and made up of about 40 percent sodium “We started looking at water quality data commended the state’s approach to Loudoun counties, for example, want to ions and 60 percent chloride ions. As it throughout the region, and the patterns a problem that is “likely ubiquitous make sure their sources of drinking water washes off roads and into streams and were the same as in the Accotink.” across Virginia’s urban watersheds.” aren’t laden with salt, which can corrode groundwater, the compound not only Early in the process, Evans said his “I think the DEQ recognizes that, pipes, affect taste and require additional increases salinity but also concentrations team reached out to more snow-laden U.S. if they had the resources to go assess processing. Agencies that spread salt to of chloride in the water. Studies around regions where officials are a few years all the watersheds, they’d have lots of keep the roads safe for drivers also see the the country have found that, as indicators ahead on treating road salt as a pollutant. impairments,” Wood said. “This process compound’s corrosive impact on roads of salt increase, streams begin to lose Minnesota’s Twin Cities, for example, helps us get a feel for who the stakehold- and related infrastructure as it piles up in their most sensitive species first, insects adopted a chloride management plan in ers are and what the logistical challenges the winter months, damaging vegetation like mayflies, then amphibians and fish. early 2016 that addresses salt application are going to be for those people.” and vehicles. This is not the first attempt to regu- in the metro area, where 39 waterbodies Wood said one obstacle is that “We are learning as we go,” said late the pollutants plaguing Accotink are listed as impaired by chloride. scientists in this region haven’t studied the DEQ’s Evans, “but [reducing salt Creek. In 2011, the U.S. Environmental The DEQ decided to take a similar chloride as a pollutant as much as they applications] does seem to be a true Protection Agency imposed a TMDL approach, convening a group of nearly have nitrogen or phosphorus. One opportunity for a win-win if public on the Accotink watershed, but, in a 70 stakeholders from across Fairfax study by scientists from Virginia Tech safety can be maintained and environ- lawsuit brought by the Fairfax County and Arlington counties to develop a salt and Maryland’s Towson University mental and other harm can be reduced Board of Supervisors and the Virginia management strategy that will benefit found that some of the stormwater — while providing cost savings to Department of Transportation, a more than the Accotink. management practices that curb nutri- public and private organizations.” federal judge invalidated the TMDL, The key, officials learned from ent pollution, such as planting forested Any win-wins that come out of this ruling that the EPA’s methodology for other regions, is to get everyone who buffers alongside streams, don’t have process are likely to be hard-fought, as measuring sediment flow was flawed. cares about road salt in the same room the same effect on chloride. the group tries to balance the concerns Opponents of that TMDL also said that to rethink how they use it. The effort Two of the salt management of environmental organizations, such stormwater retrofits would have been can also help regulators understand strategy’s workgroups will focus on as the Friends of Accotink Creek, with too costly for homeowners and busi- what’s feasible without putting public creating a suite of practices aimed at the political pressures facing county nesses in the creek’s watershed. safety at risk. keeping chloride out of the water. But it decision makers. Not having the roads But the high stakes decision made “This project comes with a lot of will be up to residents and cities — and ready for icy conditions has felled more Accotink Creek one of the most exten- expectations, not only from you guys in the agencies that spend millions of than one politician. sively monitored watersheds in the region this room but also from the public and dollars spreading salt each year — to The DEQ wants more of those — and the first to show the statistical politicians,” said Will Isenberg, TMDL implement them. decision makers to get involved in the symptoms of road-salting routines that are and assessment coordinator with DEQ, “In terms of how this might affect strategy process. They also hope they’ll common throughout the Bay region. at the outset of a meeting in June. “The our operations, it’s potentially huge,” spread the word, even among residents In developing their own TMDL for more thorough we can be in these said Scott Crafton, MS4 program man- who might not know the impact of the Accotink — which will require recommendations, the better.” ager for the Virginia Department of spreading salt on a sidewalk near a some permit holders in the watershed to The strategy document that results Transportation’s maintenance division. storm drain. address their salt use — state regulators from these meetings will be a reference VDOT budgeted more than $210 The message? Too much salt is not are casting a wider net. They want the point for officials regulating chloride million for its anti-icing program last only bad for your body. It could also be entire region to reconsider how it spreads in streams. It will also recommend winter, which covers almost 130,000 bad for your local water body. 22 Bay Journal • July-August 2018 Fleming Park could rise from the weeds by dredging up spoils, funds ≈ Community welcomes has limited hours for materials from shipping lanes use by the public. It’s notable that to restore Turner Station’s Turner Station would shoreline habitat, playground be the place to push and access to water. the envelope on public By Timothy B. Wheeler acceptance of dredged When Larry Bannerman was a kid, material. The com- he and his friends used to go crabbing in munity developed after a cove off Bear Creek, a tidal tributary World War I, as black of the Patapsco River that bordered their steelworkers found Baltimore County neighborhood. themselves excluded That was more than five decades from new housing ago. These days, you almost need a built elsewhere in machete to reach the water at Fleming the Dundalk area of Park in Turner Station, a historically Baltimore County. African-American community southeast It has hung together, of the city, just inside the Baltimore despite decades of Beltway. Other than a pier jutting out abuse and neglect — an into the creek at one spot, the rest of the injustice that in some shoreline is walled off by dense stands of ways is being belatedly phragmites. The invasive wetlands grass acknowledged. The obscures some wooden pilings, all that county recently posted remains of a boardwalk that once skirted signs there honoring the water. Henrietta Lacks, of “We’d come down here in the morn- Isaac Hametz (right), of landscape design firm Mahan Rykiel Associates, reviews park upgrade plans with recent book and movie ing and by lunchtime we’d have a bushel (from left) Doug Myers of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and Larry Bannerman and Gloria Nelson of the fame. A resident of of crabs,” he said. “Right over there, Turner Station Conservation Teams. (Dave Harp) Turner Station, she there was a boathouse,” he recalled, unwittingly gave her pointing toward Clement Cove on the bottom has been placed back on land in cells for use in medical research that’s north side of the park. “They used to a residential neighborhood — and in this led to some life-saving breakthroughs, have dances and everything when we case, at the residents’ request. though she never benefited herself or were little.” That level of acceptance has been a even knew about it. Today, community leaders hope to long time coming. The Maryland Port Today, the neighborhood is sand- reclaim their waterfront access and Administration has been toiling for wiched by industry, with Dundalk enhance the park, using a material that’s decades to melt public resistance to Marine Terminal to the northwest historically been shunned by other com- placing the harbor’s dredged material and the former steel mill complex on munities — sand and silt dredged from on land anywhere near people. Part of Sparrows Point across Bear Creek, now the shipping channels in Baltimore’s that hostility has been sensory — the being redeveloped as a hub for shipping, harbor. muck can give off a rotten-egg sulfur manufacturing and distribution. It’s a “I’d like a boardwalk and the shore- smell when it first comes out of the community that might understandably line enhanced, where we can get back water. But there’s also been concern be suspicious of being dumped on again, on the water,” said Gloria Nelson, presi- about contaminants from two centuries of being taken advantage of. dent of the Turner Station Conservation of shipbuilding and manufacturing This project, though, came together Teams, recently as she and Bannerman, along Baltimore’s waterfront. with the consent and even encourage- chairman of infrastructure, traffic and It took the port 14 years to overcome ment of community leaders. It grew out safety for the group, walked around the lawsuits and public opposition to using of a design research collaborative that 16-acre park and talked about the plan dredged material to create Hart-Miller Mahan Rykiel led last year in partner- for giving it a makeover. Island, which sits out in the Bay just off ship with the port administration and With design help from Mahan Rykiel the Baltimore County shore. The port other public and private entities. The Associates, a landscape architecture now has approval to place harbor mate- firm enlisted four graduate student firm, they propose to use sediment rial in a pair of diked containments at interns to think creatively about how pumped in from the harbor bottom to Masonville Cove in industrial southern and where to use material dredged from transform the reedy, rocky shoreline Baltimore and at Cox Creek, near the shipping channels. into a marsh that would support native mouth of the Patapsco. “They brought a landscape design lens vegetation, waterfowl and other wildlife. Masonville Cove was a precedent to what for us has been an age-old chal- They also want to use some of the of sorts. The port won the nearby lenge — finding places to put the stuff,” dredged material in a playground in the community’s approval to use dredged said Kristen Fidler, chief of outreach, park, to give children some low mounds material by pledging to reclaim what policy and permits in the port administra- to run up and down. had once been a recreational beach tion’s office of harbor development. “Essentially, you don’t have a water- used decades ago by residents. Port Seeking ideas, Hametz and the front park here because you don’t have contractors removed tons of debris and interns met with several of the MPA’s access to [water],” said Isaac Hametz, contaminants along the shoreline, then citizen and stakeholder advisory com- Mahan Rykiel’s research director, who’s Lucidity Information Design, LLC created a waterfront nature park with mittees. One of the groups they met with working with the community on the plan an environmental education center. But was the “harbor team,” which advises — which has the support of a host of can secure the funding and regulatory unlike the Fleming Park plan, Mason- the port on the placement of dredged public agencies, area companies and the approvals needed for the proposed park ville Cove is physically separated from material. Nelson and Bannerman, who nonprofit Chesapeake Bay Foundation. upgrade, it would mark the first time Curtis Bay by busy highways and rail If the community and its partners that material dredged from the harbor’s lines. It’s reachable only by vehicle and Turner continues on page 23 Bay Journal • July-August 2018 23

Turner from page 22 nationwide for funding, out of nearly 100 proposals in the running. Even if Turner represent Turner Station on that team, Station makes the cut, those funds would suggested doing something at the park, only pay for spreading about 2,600 cubic according to Fidler. yards of dredged material, which is just a “We were thrilled and so pleased portion of what’s envisioned for the park that they were open to that possibil- makeover. ity and saying that they’re a welcome Hametz said the overall plan calls recipient of it,” Fidler said. “We’ve… for using about 10,000 cubic yards really worked hard together to address — enough to fill three Olympic size the stigma that harbor-dredged material swimming pools — to create marsh is scary. Folks are now recognizing along 2,600 feet of shoreline and build that it’s a resource of value that can be some small mounds in the playground. reused in a variety of different ways.” To make the park more resilient to Per guidelines recently developed storms and rising sea level, Hametz by the Maryland Department of the said, another 10,000 cubic yards could Environment, the Fleming Park dredge be used to build an earthen berm around material would be tested and screened the waterfront. The total cost, likewise, to ensure that people aren’t exposed would be significantly more. to contaminants that linger in some Getting local funding may be a chal- sediments, Fidler said. Indeed, Hametz lenge, though. Baltimore County officials suggested, the dredged material might have yet to be persuaded to spend their even help remediate legacy pollution money on a project like this involving the from when Bethlehem Steel occupied placement of dredged material. Sparrows Point, leaving heavy metals “It’s sort of a nice intent, but we and other contaminants in the bottom don’t think it’s practical at this point,” Mahan Rykiel’s Isaac Hametz forges his way through phragmites and other mud of Bear Creek. The sediment place- said Vincent J. Gardina, county direc- vegetation blocking access to Clement Cove on the north side of Fleming Park in ment and native plantings, he said, could tor of environmental protection and Turner Station. (Dave Harp) help keep contaminants from being sustainability. stirred up by waves. The county has budgeted about a solution to the port’s need for places Administration who’s working at the First, though, the project needs to $750,000 toward shoreline stabilization to put dredged material. More than DNR, is spearheading the effort. secure funding and regulatory approv- at Turner Station and one other nearby 1 million cubic yards gets excavated “We wanted to take that idea and run als. Toward that end, the Turner Station community. But to date, the county has every year in the harbor alone, Fidler with it and do a similar model,” she said, Conservation Teams, with the help of focused on doing shoreline projects that said, and nearly 5 million cubic yards “[to find] sites where we do frequent Mahan Rykiel, submitted a proposal will control erosion and reduce nutrient gets dredged annually to maintain the dredging but don’t have suitable place- in March to the U.S. Army Corps of pollution. Gardina said he’s concerned shipping channels serving Baltimore, ment sites.” Engineers, seeking inclusion in a con- that using dredged material this way from the Chesapeake & Delaware canal But for supporters of the Fleming gressionally authorized pilot program could actually release more nutrients and at the head of the Bay to Cape Henry Park project, it’s about more than just a to demonstrate the beneficial use of other pollutants into the water, at least in where it meets the Atlantic Ocean. physical renovation of a tired recreation dredged material. the short term, and that it could be much But the Turner Station project’s site. Doug Myers, Maryland senior sci- The group is asking for $1 million more expensive to do and oversee. value, its proponents say, isn’t in the entist at the Bay Foundation, said that’s in federal funds, to be matched by Hametz said he and Turner Station volume of dredged material it would use why the Annapolis-based foundation has $668,000 from other sources, to create leaders hope to meet with county, state — it’s in the example it can set. Mary- stepped up to be a partner in the effort. the marsh habitat at the park by spread- and federal agency officials to answer land officials hope it will inspire more “The Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s ing a thin layer of dredged material in their questions and concerns about the “beneficial use” and “innovative reuse.” vessel, Snow Goose, could dock here and take kids out,” he said. “We could do oyster gardening here and place those oysters onto the Fort Carroll restoration site [near the mouth of Bear Creek]. There’s a lot of opportunity for us to get engaged more with the com- munity, have the community have more access to the Bay the way they used to.” “There are just so many opportuni- ties for the community in this project,” Gloria Nelson said. “We want to bring it to life and hope we see it within our time frame, so that we can have an opportunity to enjoy it.” Whether at Turner Station or some- where else, Hametz said, something has to be done with all of the material dredged from the bottom of the Bay and Artist’s rendering of a portion of an upgraded Fleming Park, with dredged material used to create marsh habitat and access to the its rivers and creeks. Given the difficul- water restored by rebuilding an old boardwalk. (Mahan Rykiel Associates) ties finding places its disposal, it makes sense to try to work out beneficial uses the shallow water along the shoreline. project and persuade them it’s worth Indeed, the state Department of Natu- for it like this, he added. Sediment would be pumped up from doing. The elected officials they’ve met ral Resources is looking to map sites all “This isn’t just a Baltimore County navigation channels and deposited in with so far have been interested and around Maryland that might benefit from problem,” Hametz concluded. “It’s a depths of no more than 2 feet, and more supportive, he noted. a similar thin-layer placement of dredged Baywide problem, and we’re going to likely just a few inches. If it comes together, the makeover material. Jackie Specht, a fellow with have to find creative solutions if we’re The Corps plans to select 10 projects of Fleming Park won’t provide much of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric going to continue to live near the Bay.” 24 Bay Journal • July-August 2018 Boost in underwater grasses earn Anacostia its first passing grade ≈ Officials, river advocates say they are finally seeing the results of billions of dollars and countless hours invested in the ‘once-forgotten’ river. By Whitney Pipkin Decades of work to improve the health of the Anacostia River are beginning to pay off, according to a report released Wednesday by the Anacostia Watershed Society. The river earned a “D-minus” on its annual report card, its first passing grade in the decade since the nonprofit began issuing report cards for the waterway that runs through Maryland and the District of Columbia into the Potomac River. A significant uptick in underwater grasses — from zero acres a few years ago to nearly 25 acres in 2017 — pushed it over the threshold from “F” to “D-minus.” Advocates say the Anacostia’s water quality is likely even better than The Nationals Park baseball stadium, pictured here from the Anacostia River, has become the anchor of several redevelop- indicated by the report card, which ment projects along the river. A recent report card shows the river’s water quality is steadily improving. (Dave Harp) was compiled mostly with the latest data from 2016. Since then, in March said Rushern Baker, county executive volunteers to plant several acres of a dozen plants along the river slated for of this year, the first of DC Water’s for Prince George’s County, MD, underwater grasses, such as wild environmental cleanup projects —have underground tunnels came online to which has taken steps to reduce pol- celery, over the years and taken steps been studied at length, but the projects capture 80 percent of the sewage over- luted overflows to the river. “When we to protect them — in one instance to remediate them have barely begun. flows and polluted stormwater runoff signed an agreement to work together culling an outsize number of resident The District and Maryland counties in the Anacostia watershed. Instead of to revitalize the Anacostia River a geese in a park along the river. But have each passed legislation to rein in entering in the river, the flow is now few years ago, it was more than a both native and nonnative grasses the river’s trash problems, but the report diverted to the District’s wastewater ceremony.” appear to be faring well on their own indicates more enforcement is needed treatment plant. In the latest report, the river scored thanks to water quality improvements, for littering and illegal dumping. “This passing grade didn’t have 100 percent for underwater grasses Foster said. On water clarity, the river also had anything to do with the tunnel yet, which, at nearly 25 acres, exceeded a Biologists also are tracking the a failing grade. Studies indicate that which was a huge milestone,” said 20-acre goal for the river set by scientists presence of water-filtering freshwater more than 70 percent of the river’s Jim Foster, president of the Anacostia at the Metropolitan Washington Council mussels in the Anacostia and are sediment pollution is from erosion Watershed Society. “The hard, heavy of Governments. Foster said more considering propagating them. along streambanks scoured by fast- lifting we’ve been doing is finally accurate data was added to the report The river squeaked into passing flowing water. paying off in improved water quality.” The Anacostia Watershed Soci- When the added improvements ety produced the report card using from the tunnels are accounted for in government data and the EcoCheck future reports, Foster said, “then we’re “This is not happening by accident.” assessment system developed by the really expecting a great grade.” University of Maryland Center for The report card’s grading system is — Rushern Baker Environmental Science, which is also based on the Anacostia’s ability to meet Prince George’s County Executive used to grade the health of the Chesa- certain markers — levels of dissolved peake Bay and several of its tributaries. oxygen, chlorophyll a and water In 2014, the society switched to clarity— that support aquatic life. It also card after the District Department of grades for having more dissolved using school-system letter grades to looks for reductions in bacteria, toxic Environment and Energy conducted a oxygen and less fecal bacteria, too. make their reports more understand- contamination and trash that prevent survey of underwater grasses in 2017, Both measures likely benefitted from able to the public. Some river reports the river from being swimmable or which boosted their numbers. DC Water’s ongoing efforts to reduce consider a 40– to 60 percent score a fishable, a milestone advocates want the Surveys indicate that the Anacostia sewage overflows to the river. Less “C” or passing grade, while schools waterway to meet by 2025. had healthier populations of under- rainfall than usual in 2016, the year the would use the letter grade “F.” With an overall score of 63 percent water grasses in the 1980s and 1990s data was collected, also helped. Foster said the Anacostia’s 63- in the latest report card, the Anacostia than in the last decade, and researchers Once the sewer system — originally percent passing grade means it’s barely entered into passing-grade don’t entirely understand why. Though designed to overflow into local rivers getting closer to its goals — but not territory. But that score is much better the river was by some measures more to prevent urban flooding — is com- that the river is safe for fishing or than the 56 percent it received in 2017 polluted during that earlier period than pletely retrofitted, the largest sources swimming. and the string of failing grades from in the 2000s, when the grasses took a of fecal bacteria to the system will be “The only thing really separating us previous years. turn for the worst, researchers theorize wildlife and pets. from swimming is higher bacteria counts Public officials and river advocates that changes in sediment pollution may The river still earned failing grades in the river,” he said. “We are on the cusp said they are finally seeing the fruit of have reduced certain types of grasses for the amount of toxics and trash that of really being able to say that we’re confi- billions of dollars and countless hours or that monitoring data had gaps. plague its waters. dent that you can swim on a pretty regular invested in its improvement. The Anacostia Watershed Society The Anacostia’s toxic problems — basis in the river.” But not yet. “This is not happening by accident,” and other groups have since deployed linked to an industrial past with nearly Read the full report at anacostiaws.org. Bay Journal • July-August 2018 25 Environmental group warns PA to protect forests or get sued ≈ Foundation challenges plans gas. Most of it is located in a north- that permit natural gas fracking central region called the Pennsylvania Wilds, which includes some of the on state land most pristine forestland in the state. To By Donna Morelli date, the DCNR has issued three shale An environmental organization gas leases on a total of 138,866 acres. that put the teeth in Pennsylvania’s The 2016 state forest management Environmental Rights Amendment is plan states that “the economic use and turning its sights on the state agency sound extraction and utilization of geo- that manages 2.2 million acres of logic resources is part of the bureau’s public forestland. mission.” The foundation contests this. A lawyer for the Pennsylvania Envi- “Nothing in the plain language” ronmental Defense Foundation sent an of the Environmental Rights “intent to sue” letter to the Department Amendment, Childe wrote in his of Conservation and Natural Resources letter, allows for the sale of public in early June. The letter states that the natural resources for economic use or foundation will take court action if the benefit, the use of proceeds from the agency continues with its process of sale of natural resources for DCNR updating local plans under the current operational expenses, or “balancing” 2016 statewide forest management plan. the economic gains of gas extraction John Childe, the attorney represent- with the long-term ecological health ing the activist organization, said in of state forests. If a conflict exists the letter that the 2016 plan first must between the agency’s mission and be revised because it fails to uphold the constitutional law, Childe argues, the state’s Environmental Rights Amend- law must win. ment in its handling of natural gas Among other requests, the founda- extraction in state forests. tion is asking the DCNR to add to the The Environmental Rights Amend- forest management plan an inventory ment, added to the state constitution of existing and anticipated degradation in 1971, asserts the public’s right to of natural resources caused by gas “clean air, pure water and the preserva- drilling and explain how those impacts tion of the natural, scenic, historic can be prevented and repaired. and esthetic values of the environ- A DCNR spokesperson said the ment.” The amendment also says that agency will publish an update to its the state’s natural resources are the 2014 Shale-Gas Monitoring Report in common property of all of the people, early summer and that it will include including generations yet to come, information similar to what the and that the state must conserve and foundation has requested. maintain them. The foundation has a history of “Nothing in the 2016 plan does challenging the state’s handling of gas anything to identify and quantify A hydraulic fracturing rig is set deep in the Loyalsock State Forest in Pennsylva- extraction and won a landmark 2017 the impact of drilling on the 617,000 nia’s northern Endless Mountains region. An environmental group is asking for a decision from the Supreme Court of acres opened up to natural gas leases,” revision of the state’s forest management plan to reflect Pennsylvania’s Environ- Pennsylvania, which found that, based Childe said. “The biggest problem that mental Rights Amendment. (Martha Rial / Provided by DCNR) on the Environmental Rights Amend- state forests have is being ignored.” ment, the use of state revenue from oil The state forest management plan is Childe argues, the DCNR could guide and how they intend to meet them,” and gas extraction to support anything the road map for managing all aspects the local plans in ways that better Childe said. “They need to tell how but natural resource conservation is of the massive forest system. Updated conform to the law. well they are doing across the entire unconstitutional. periodically, the plan forms the basis for “Then they would have a whole forest system.” The decision also gave unprec- 20 local forest district plans. section on what their [Environmental Cindy Adams Dunn, DCNR edented strength to the amendment By revising the statewide plan now, Rights Amendment] obligations are secretary, said in a written statement by invalidating a prior requirement that the agency and its staff “fully to consider the economic value of a embraces” its role as a trustee of the contested project against the conserva- state’s natural resources and that the tion value of natural resources. “DCNR vehemently disagrees with State Supreme Court Justice [the foundation’s] position.” Christine Donohue wrote the majority The DCNR is conducting a series of opinion, in which she stated, “The meetings, scheduled through Novem- Commonwealth (including the Gov- ber, to gather public input on updates ernor and General Assembly) may not to the district plans. “[DCNR] encour- approach our public natural resources ages all to read the plan and take as a proprietor, and instead must at all advantage of these public meetings times fulfill its role as a trustee.” as an opportunity to help set manage- But soon after the court issued its ment priorities and meet the men and decision, the state legislature and Gov. women who serve as trustees for the Tom Wolf approved a 2017–18 budget public forests,” Dunn said. that uses revenue from gas leases to About 1.5 million acres of state for- support general operations and other ests are underlain with the Marcellus expenditures. The foundation has Shale formation that harbors natural challenged it in court. 26 Bay Journal • July-August 2018 Bottoms up! Bay’s deepest waters showing signs of recovery ≈ Increase in oxygen levels What happened, the scientists say, is is a catalyst that helps the that the uptick in oxygen levels caused some of the ammonium to be trans- Chesapeake help itself. formed into other forms of nitrogen — By Karl Blankenship initially nitrite and then nitrate. After mining through decades of “Oxygen is an important molecule data, scientists have uncovered an for controlling the way a lot of these encouraging new sign that parts of the nutrients are processed,” Testa said. deepest, most degraded areas of the “The extra increment of oxygen makes a Chesapeake Bay are not only beginning big difference.” to respond to cleanup efforts, but starting Unlike ammonium, nitrite and nitrate to cleanse themselves. are forms of nitrogen that can be denitri- The big discovery: Concentrations of fied — that is, they are converted from ammonium are decreasing in the deepest forms of nitrogen that fuel algae growth parts of the Bay. into an inert gas that dissipates harm- Admittedly, trends in ammonium lessly from the water. Denitrification is, — a chemical cousin to ammonia that in fact, the same process that removes Wikipedia defines as a “positively nitrogen from effluent at wastewater charged polyatomic ion with the chemi- treatment plants, but in this case, nature cal formula NH4” — are likely never is doing it for free. going to gather as much public attention Testa, Kemp and Boynton concluded as, say, trends in underwater grass beds. that getting a little more oxygen into the Nonetheless, scientists say, even water helps to short-circuit ammonium’s small changes in concentrations of this “We’ve had some modest nutrient load decreases, and we have a responsive Bay. ability to fuel more algae. By removing chemical trigger a chain reaction that Those modest load decreases have played into causing the patterns that we are that fuel from the system, they said, less helps remove nitrogen from some of the starting to see,” said Walter Boynton, retired scientist from the University of oxygen is used up than would otherwise worst parts of the Chesapeake’s summer Maryland Center for Environmental Science. (Dave Harp) be the case. It’s something scientists “dead zone” than would be expected call a “feedback loop,” where a natural from the region’s modest nutrient reduc- The story starts in the deep waters oxygen concentrations that scientists process kicks in and results in greater tions alone. That, in turn, is helping of the Bay that are plagued by oxygen- have noted in recent years. But then changes than otherwise expected. oxygen concentrations to increase. starved dead zones each summer, they saw something new: In those deep In the Bay, scientists have seen It’s hard to overstate the significance making these areas off-limits to most waters of the Bay, ammonium concen- similar progressions in underwater grass of the findings, which shows cleanup aquatic life. trations were decreasing as oxygen levels restoration, where expanding grass beds actions are helping the Chesapeake to Getting more oxygen into those areas were slowly rising — and have been improve water quality conditions beyond help itself, say Michael Kemp and Walt has been a main goal of the region’s doing so for decades. what would have occurred through pol- Boynton, two longtime Bay scientists nutrient reduction efforts. Nutrients Ammonium is one of several forms of lution reductions alone, thereby allowing and colleagues who were co-authors of that wash into the Bay each winter and nitrogen that exists in the environment. the bed to further expand. the paper and heralded the unexpected spring spur the growth of huge algae Most of the nitrogen that enters the Bay To be sure, the initial improvements findings as “exciting” and “important.” blooms. When the algae die, they sink and feeds algae blooms is in the form of are small — oxygen levels in deep parts Kemp and Boynton, two recently to the bottom and are decomposed by nitrate, which comes from farm fertiliz- of the Bay remain low enough to be retired scientists from the University bacteria whose rapid metabolisms draw ers, manure, discharges from wastewater off-limits for most aquatic life much of of Maryland Center for Environmental oxygen out of the water. treatment plants and other sources. the summer. But the ammonium trend Science who spent much of their careers The problem is particularly severe But when those algae die and are con- is clear, and it is reflected in oxygen documenting the decline of the Bay, in deep areas because of a barrier — sumed by bacteria, the stored nitrogen is conditions throughout most deepwater suggest in a new paper published in the called a pycnocline — that forms in released as ammonium. That’s a problem areas, The trends are most pronounced journal Limnology and Oceanography the summer and separates the warmer, because ammonium is a favored food for from the mouth of the Potomac River to that deep areas of the estuary are not fresher and lighter water on the surface most algae; the same amount of ammo- the mouth of the Rappahannock River. only showing signs of recovery from from the saltier, colder and heavier water nium will grow even more algae than the “The decline of bottom water ammo- decades of nutrient over-enrichment — on the bottom. The pycnocline prevents equivalent amount of nitrate. nium concentrations is an extremely something they weren’t always sure they oxygen-rich surface waters from mixing For the deep waters below the sharp trend,” the authors noted. “From would see — but are actually responding with low-oxygen bottom waters, effec- pycnocline, this was a double whammy. our point of view, this is probably the better than anticipated. tively leading large portions of the Bay’s Bacteria were not only using up the strongest statistical relationship that “There is real progress in the clean- bottom to become virtually depleted of oxygen directly, but as they decomposed we’ve ever seen in the monitoring ing up of the Bay and the reversal of oxygen — or hypoxic — and unable to algae, they were also churning out program water-quality data trends.” eutrophication,” Kemp said. sustain fish, clams or even worms. ammonium that could be moved to As they reviewed decades of data, the To be sure, the improving trend is By reducing nutrient pollution, Chesa- surface water to fuel more algae growth, authors also discovered that the trend modest and was not obvious until they peake cleanup efforts aim to reduce algae which would die, sink, be consumed in ammonium concentrations actually examined seasonal monitoring data growth which, in turn, means less fuel for and so on — a self-reinforcing loop that showed up well before the oxygen covering more than 30 years. oxygen-consuming bacteria. There are worsened conditions. improvement was detected. As a result, It also came as a bit of a surprise. signs that this is working. Recent studies But as the amount of nitrogen reach- they say, it’s a trend that can foreshadow Because there are so few examples of show a gradual trend toward less algal ing the Bay has modestly decreased in the improvement in dissolved oxygen coastal waters recovering from nutrient production in saltier Bay regions which, more recent years, so has algae growth, concentrations here and elsewhere. enrichment, the chemical process they on average, is causing the dead zone to allowing a bit more oxygen in deep “That is the kind of thing that we found wasn’t previously described in break up earlier at the end of the summer. waters, especially late in the summer. want to see,” Boynton said. “We’ve science journals. “If we had known As they reviewed decades of seasonal “What we noticed when looking at the had some modest nutrient load where to look for these trends,” they said water quality monitoring data, Boynton earlier breakup of hypoxia is that ammo- decreases, and we have a responsive in their paper, “they would have been and Kemp, working with another nium concentrations were really going Bay. Those modest load decreases available for discovery at least 10 years UMCES scientist, Jeremy Testa, saw down in the bottom water,” said Testa, have played into causing the patterns before the present.” the small improving trend in deepwater who was the lead author of the paper. that we are starting to see.” Bay Journal • July-August 2018 27

Dam from page 1 the heart of our multi-state strategy to deliver the results Marylanders expect and deserve.” Exelon is not the only one chal- lenging MDE’s decision. The Lower Susquehanna Riverkeeper Associa- tion and Waterkeepers Chesapeake also filed an appeal with the MDE, contending that the agency failed to do enough to address the dam’s impacts. At issue is how to resolve one of the most confounding issues facing Bay restoration efforts — addressing the excess pollution now reaching the Bay because it is no longer being trapped in the 14-mile-long reservoir behind the dam. The dam was completed in 1928 and for most of the last century has been trapping sediment and nutrients that would otherwise reach the Chesa- peake. But scientists say the reservoir reached its storage capacity faster than they expected, and once-trapped pollutants now flow into the Bay just 10 miles downstream. The reservoir behind the 90-year-old Conowingo Dam has filled, allowing nutrients and sediments that were once trapped to The state-federal Bay Program enter the Bay. (Dave Harp) partnership has estimated that it will require an annual reduction of 6 mil- tions are so costly they would put the “The entire time Exelon has $17 per pound of nitrogen and $270 lion pounds of nitrogen and 260,000 dam out of business and therefore rep- operated this, to their financial gain, for every pound of phosphorus that pounds of phosphorus to offset the resent an illegal “taking” of Exelon’s it was known that this was going to needs to be controlled; or dredge the impact of the dam’s lost trapping property. The utility has asked FERC happen someday and there were no reservoir. capacity. That would be roughly an to put its relicensing decision on hold preventative actions taken by Exelon,” Meanwhile, the Lower Susquehanna additional 5 percent reduction for a until the appeals are resolved. said Alison Prost, the Chesapeake Bay Riverkeeper, along with 18 other river where upstream nutrient control In its filings, Exelon contends Foundation’s acting vice president for riverkeeper groups in the region, efforts in Pennsylvania are already far that the state certification “departs environmental protection. contend the certification does not go behind schedule. dramatically” from those issued to Prost said she was worried that by far enough because it does not address Bay Program partners plan to other operations around the country, going to court, Exelon could delay the potentially catastrophic impacts if write a new cleanup plan to offset that which it contends are more narrowly any action for years. “Saying it has no floodwaters from a severe storm scour additional pollution, but they have focused on actions related specifically responsibility isn’t appropriate,” she vast amounts of built-up sediment and not indicated how those reductions — to the operation of a hydro facility. The said. “Exelon needs to be at the table stored nutrients out of the reservoir which come on top of the obligations company called it unprecedented for with those other states to decide what and flush them into the Bay, as states already face to meet cleanup a hydroelectric operation to be held they can do while still being finan- happened with Tropical Storm Agnes goals — would be paid for, or who is responsible for pollution originating cially solvent.” in 1972. responsible for making them. upstream. It’s unclear how much Exelon A recent study led by the U.S. Exelon is seeking a new operating But some environmental groups say makes from its power generation at Army Corps of Engineers and the license from the Federal Energy the issue is not so straightforward. Conowingo. A report prepared for the Maryland Department of Environment Regulatory Commission to continue “This is complicated,” said Mark conservancy and the CBF last year discounted that concern, saying the generating power from Conowingo, Bryer, Bay program director for The estimated that dam revenues ranged bigger threat to the Bay was the annual one of five hydroelectric facilities Nature Conservancy, which has been from $115 million to $121 million increase in nutrients that has taken along the lower Susquehanna. But as involved in the dam’s relicensing annually — a figure the utility said place under more normal weather part of the licensing process, Maryland for years. “The Nature Conservancy was too high. conditions since the reservoir filled. has to issue a certification that the works on hydropower around the How much Exelon could be willing But the riverkeepers said that study operation of the dam will not degrade world, and this is one is unique.” to pay toward restoration efforts is also underestimated the impacts of very water quality. While the Conowingo Dam did unclear. The utility stated in a letter large events which they say are “very Maryland issued that certification not create the pollution, he said, its to the MDE on Jan. 16 that “it is open likely or reasonably likely” to occur April 27, but it imposed numerous presence on the river greatly influences to providing some level of support to many times during the course of a conditions it said were needed to miti- when, and in what form, pollution improve Chesapeake Bay water quality 50-year license. gate water-quality impacts from the reaches the Bay. as part of a settlement agreement.” They asked that Exelon be required dam. Along with the requirement that For instance, the dam can affect the But in a letter to Exelon on April to excavate at least 4 million cubic Exelon fund nutrient pollution control types of sediment and nutrients that 20, Maryland Environment Secretary yards of sediment from behind the dam practices, it called for other efforts to get washed downstream. Large sedi- Ben Grumbles said the utility had each year, which they say would offset curb debris that flows downstream and ment particles, which can be beneficial failed to provide sufficient detail about the roughly 1.5-million–2-million changes to dam operations that the downstream, tend to get trapped, while the level of support it was willing to cubic tons that flow over the dam each state says affect downstream habitats fine sediment, which is more harmful provide. Shortly after that, the MDE year while also slowly drawing down for fish and wildlife. to water clarity, is more likely to get finalized the water quality certification what has built up over the decades. On May 25, Exelon appealed the flushed downstream. which gave the utility three choices: “This is one of the most important decision administratively with the Environmental groups contend the install offsetting pollution control decisions in the effort to clean up the MDE and in court where, among other utility has done little to address that practices itself; pay a fee for others things, it contends the proposed condi- concern. to install the practices, at the rate of Dam continues on page 29 28 Bay Journal • July-August 2018 Midpoint assessment for Bay cleanup: only 40% of nitrogen goal met ≈ Wastewater plant upgrades its nitrogen goal and 58 percent of its responsible for most of the phosphorus goal. ≈ Maryland achieved 53 percent of gains; states, especially PA, its nitrogen goal and 127 percent of its will have to crack down on phosphorus goal. stormwater, agriculture. ≈ Virginia achieved 82 percent of By Karl Blankenship its nitrogen goal and 101 percent of its The Bay region has reached the half- phosphorus goal. way mark toward its Bay cleanup goal ≈ West Virginia achieved 89 in terms of time — but not in terms of percent of its nitrogen goal and 94 accomplishments. percent of its phosphorus goal. July 1 marked the midpoint to the 2025 ≈ Delaware achieved 33 percent of deadline for taking all actions needed to its nitrogen goal and 110 percent of its stem the tide of water-fouling nutrients phosphorus goal. into the Chesapeake Bay, which would ≈ The District of Columbia ultimately result in clearer water, less achieved 258 percent of its nitrogen algae and an end to its summer oxygen- goal, and 100 percent of its phospho- starved dead zone. rus goal. But the region only achieved about 40 ≈ New York nitrogen loads percent of its nitrogen reduction through increased by 4 percent, while the end of last year. Not only was that phosphorus decreased 69 percent. short of the halfway mark, it was even Even where progress was on or further away from the actual goal for the ahead of schedule, the overall figures end of the year — a 60 percent reduction. mask some problematic trends. “Unless the states and their federal Everyplace except New York, which partners expand their efforts and push While efforts so far appear to have spurred improvements in the Bay’s health, environ- has been plagued with problems at its harder, the Bay and its rivers and streams mentalists called the recovery “ fragile.” (Dave Harp) largest wastewater treatment facility, may never be saved,” said Will Baker, far exceeded their wastewater goals. president of the Chesapeake Bay Founda- installed state-of-the-art nutrient removal recovery “fragile,” and Baker cautioned Although wastewater plants are not the tion, which recently released its own technology. against too much optimism, noting that largest cumulative source of nutrient analysis of efforts so far. “It’s clear that Maryland and Virginia Lake Erie was declared recovered from pollution, they accounted for 70 percent of Making up lost ground and getting are carrying the (Baywide) improve- nutrient pollution decades ago but is the watershed’s nitrogen reductions from to the finish line on time will require ments, and mostly by tackling wastewa- now “worse than ever.” 2010 through 2017, and as a group have ramped-up efforts for pollution sources ter,” Baker said. “As the clock ticks down exceeded their 2025 goals. where progress has been slow — such to 2025, we know the second half is going Missed targets But, because most wastewater plants as agriculture and stormwater — and to be more difficult.” The 2017 targets were the latest to are now upgraded, nutrient discharges in places clearly lagging, especially The story was better for phosphorus, be missed since the state-federal Bay from many of those facilities are likely Pennsylvania. where the region achieved 90 percent Program set its first nutrient reduction to increase as population growth and To that end, the U.S. Environmental of its goal. But it is nitrogen that largely goal in 1987. The target set then, for a 40 development spurs an increase in the Protection Agency in June sent a letter to drives algae growth in the salty Bay percent reduction by 2000, was missed, as volume of water they treat between now all of the states in the watershed telling during most of the year (phosphorus was a follow-up goal for 2010. and the cleanup deadline. That means them that new cleanup plans to guide tends to feed algae in freshwater), and That year, the EPA imposed a new, more effort will be needed from areas efforts through 2025 will need to show controlling it has long proved to be more regulatory cleanup plan intended to where progress has been more difficult, how states will make up shortfalls and problematic. Algae cloud Bay waters, end further delays. The Chesapeake Bay such as stormwater and agriculture. All provide adequate funding and oversight to causing die-backs of critical underwater Total Maximum Daily Load, commonly jurisdictions missed their nitrogen goals meet their Bay cleanup obligations. grass habitat, and when the algae called a pollution diet, set nutrient targets for stormwater, and all except West But the agency singled out Pennsylva- die, they sink to the bottom and are for each state and major river, with plans Virginia missed them for agriculture. nia for special scrutiny, saying the state is decomposed in a process that creates to achieve them required by 2025. As Nitrogen from stormwater runoff, as “significantly off track” to meet nutrient an oxygen-starved “dead zone” that is an interim goal, 60 percent of needed well as septic tanks, has ticked upward, reduction goals and warning that it could intolerable to most aquatic life. cleanup actions were to be taken by the while the rate of reductions from agri- take new actions — the EPA has twice Though the region is short of its end of last year. To keep efforts on track, culture — the largest source of nutrients temporarily withheld funding — if the cleanup goals, Baker said there’s the EPA required states to submit detailed to the Bay — has been stagnant. Since state doesn’t pick up the pace. evidence that pollution reduction efforts “watershed implementation plans” 2010, computer model figures show Through the end of last year, Bay are paying off. Underwater grasses last showing how they would meet their that farms in the region have reduced Program data indicate that since 2010, year were more abundant than they had goals, along with two-year “milestone” nitrogen runoff in the watershed as a Pennsylvania only achieved 18 percent been in decades. Studies have shown check-ins on progress. It also required a whole by about 1 million pounds a year, of its nitrogen reduction goal— leaving evidence of slight improvements in “midpoint assessment” at the halfway about the same rate as before the TMDL 82 percent to be achieved between now the dead zone. Water clarity has also point to incorporate new science and was established. and 2025. Put another way: In less than improved in recent years. make whatever course corrections might With less than eight years to reach eight years, the state would have to “We are at a critical point in the be needed to achieve the 2025 goal. the pollution diet’s ultimate goal, and reduce 2.5 times as much nitrogen as it Chesapeake Bay cleanup. We are seeing The EPA will issue its official review having to address tougher-to-control has in the last 32 years. some incredible progress,” said Chante of progress in July. But Bay Program sources to get there, the region clearly But Bay Program figures show Coleman, director of the Choose Clean computer model estimates through the faces a tall order. challenges extend beyond Pennsylvania. Water Coalition, who joined Baker at end of last year show only Virginia, West Further, the job is expected to get While other states have mostly done a recent news conference to discuss Virginia and the District of Columbia met slightly harder in July. The Bay Program, better, they did so in large part by upgrad- cleanup efforts. their 60 percent goals for both nitrogen using numbers from a new, updated ing wastewater treatment plants, a source While efforts so far appear to have and phosphorus. computer model that incorporates a vari- of reductions that is nearly exhausted, as spurred improvements in the Bay’s Overall, they show: most plants in the watershed have now health, environmentalists called the ≈ Pennsylvania achieved 18 percent of Assess continues on page 29 Bay Journal • July-August 2018 29

Assess from page 28 Dam from page 27 ety of new information and reflects new Chesapeake Bay,” said Betsy Nicholas, science, is expected to adopt new state executive director of Waterkeepers cleanup targets to guide efforts through Chesapeake. “We shouldn’t be 2025. Generally, those numbers show less approving a 50-year license without a progress than did the old model, which solid, accountable plan for removing was used to evaluate the impact of actions sediment from behind the dam.” through 2017. Exelon, in its filings, said that In preliminary numbers, Maryland dredging was not a feasible option, appears to be hardest hit by the changes. citing the recent Corps/MDE study But in a statement, Maryland Environ- which estimated it would cost as much ment Secretary Ben Grumbles said as $2.8 billion annually just to dredge the state “is fully committed and will enough to keep pace with what now continue to press all of our Bay state flows into the reservoir. partners to do what it takes to get the job Further, the utility said those costs done so we can stay on track for one of would increase over time because the the biggest environmental success stories amount of material to be dredged each in a century.” year — equivalent to 25 football fields He praised the EPA’s work to bring covered with 67.5 feet of sediment — “sound science” into the midpoint assess- The Bay’s underwater grasses, such as eelgrass, are harmed when too much would quickly exhaust nearby disposal ment process but also said the agency nitrogen clouds the water, blocking the sunlight they need to grow. (Dave Harp) sites. needed to help through “robust funding Maryland is planning to fund a pilot and strong enforcement.” those priority areas, the agency said. accountability among the jurisdictions project, though, to determine whether In addition, the EPA letter directs the and strong oversight from our federal lower cost options which reuse some of Getting to the finish line state to make other policy, legislative partners is absolutely critical,” he wrote. that material might be feasible. When those updated cleanup targets and regulatory changes needed to meet If the state keeps falling short, the Since its last operating license are set, it will kick off a yearlong effort for goals, including restrictions on such EPA letter held out the possibility of expired Sept. 14, 2014, Conowingo states to draft new watershed implemen- harmful actions as spreading manure taking “backstop” actions against it, has operated on an annual license tation plans outlining what they will do to during winter months. The agency which include increased environmental issued by FERC. The license renews reach their 2025 Bay restoration goals. recommends creating new programs to enforcement activity in Pennsylvania’s automatically while the relicensing is In a letter sent to the states in June, transport manure out of areas with an portion of the Bay watershed; requiring pending. the EPA — which has the legal responsi- excess of animal wastes and establish- new discharge permits for currently Any delay in issuing a new license bility to oversee the Bay cleanup — said ing an agricultural cost-share program, unregulated smaller-scale animal farming for Conowingo would also postpone it expects those plans to provide evi- as other states have done, which can be operations; mandating greater reductions millions of dollars’ worth of fish pas- dence that states have adequate financial used to target farms in priority areas. from wastewater treatment plants; and sage improvements at the dam, which and technical assistance, cost-share and The EPA also wants Pennsylvania to directing grants to only be used for spe- were negotiated between Exelon and regulatory programs in place to oversee achieve greater nutrient reductions from cific purposes if the agency believes the the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. stormwater and agricultural runoff wastewater treatment plants to make up state is not adequately targeting projects. Those improvements were primarily reduction efforts. It also said states need for shortfalls in curbing stormwater and The EPA has twice temporarily with- aimed at getting American shad and to have programs in place capable of agricultural runoff. held grant funding from the state because river herring upstream, but most of tracking the installation of various pollu- Deborah Klenotic, a spokeswoman of shortcomings and has been giving those actions are contingent on the tion control practices and verifying that for the Pennsylvania Department of greater scrutiny to the state’s programs new license. they continue to work over time. The Environmental Protection, said the and progress. There is no prescribed time frame EPA also said it wants states to involve state is still reviewing the letter and that But finding ways to pressure Pennsyl- for the MDE to make a decision local governments in their cleanup plan “Pennsylvania remains committed to its vania has proven elusive. In the past, the regarding either Exelon’s or the development and to set some sort of local 2025 Bay TMDL goals and is bringing EPA has resisted the idea of regulating waterkeeper’s administrative appeals. pollution reduction goals to help achieve unprecedented levels of partnership, smaller animal operations because the The state must respond by July 9 nutrient targets. ideas, resources and commitment to the state has so many of them. And with less to Exelon’s state court challenge The EPA added that it will evaluate challenge.” than 10 percent of its nitrogen coming that was filed in the Baltimore City progress between now and 2025 “and The state, she noted, has already from wastewater treatment plants, a Circuit Court. The state’s response to may take appropriate federal actions for launched an expansive planning further crackdown there would produce Exelon’s federal lawsuit, filed in the those jurisdictions that are not making process to write new watershed imple- only small improvements. U.S. District Court for the District of adequate progress toward meeting their mentation plans that involves local Even environmental groups are split Columbia, is due by July 11. [pollution reduction] planning targets.” governments and other stakeholders, over what to do about Pennsylvania. Meanwhile, others will be watch- The agency singled out Pennsyl- and will ultimately result in county- Baker called for the EPA to exercise ing to see whether the action sets a vania for increased oversight. In the level cleanup targets. its backstop authority under the TMDL precedent. letter, the EPA restated concerns it Rich Batiuk, associate director for and impose new sanctions against “It’s a bit of an odd situation, has voiced in the past about the state’s science with the EPA’s Bay Program Pennsylvania and any other state that given that it’s a 25,000- square- significant shortfalls — not just in Office, said the letter makes it clear that falls behind. “If EPA remains unwilling mile watershed, to hold the folks actual progress, but in committing Pennsylvania’s new plans “must provide to impose backstops,” he said at the news accountable who actually did a service to the level of funding, staffing and a higher level of specificity in order to conference, then the agency’s words were to the Bay,” said Andy Davis, a regulations needed to make progress. provide the EPA, the other jurisdictional “empty threats.” spokesman for Brookfield Renewable, Federal regulators want the state partners and the public with sufficient But Coleman said many of her which owns two upstream dams in to clearly identify the most effective reasonable assurance that Pennsylvania coalition’s members would oppose Pennsylvania — Holtwood and Safe pollution control practices and the areas can achieve their goals by 2025.” taking backstop actions against Penn- Harbor — whose reservoirs are also where they can most effectively be Indeed, in a recent letter to EPA sylvania, especially if they involve largely filled, according to the Corps employed to curb nutrient-laden runoff. Administrator Scott Pruitt, Maryland withholding funds. study. And they want the state to ensure that Gov. Larry Hogan lamented that cleanup “Pennsylvania is so far behind in the “But right now, we are just watch- funding is prioritized to deploy those efforts would be “much further along” cleanup that taking away money at this ing from the sidelines like everyone practices within targeted areas. All fed- if all other states had made as much point would be quite detrimental to the else. We will continue to do so and see eral Bay-related grants have to go into progress as his state. “Fair and consistent cleanup as a whole,” she said. where this thing shakes out.”  Bay Journal l Travel l July-August 2018

Onancock paddle weaves nature, history with every stroke the tale of the ill-fated Commodore Zedekiah Whaley, a Revolutionary War fgure buried of the creek’s center branch — though no one knows exactly where. Burnham’s skill can be explained in part by his years as a history major, followed by time spent as a journalist. His wife, Mary, is a former journalist, too. Together they operate Burnham Guides, a paddling tour company spawned by their passions for kayaking and writing. And that passion doesn’t have time for a break. While based in Onancock during the summer, they give tours in the Florida Keys and Costa Rica during the winter. Tey continue to write, having authored no fewer than six outdoor travel guides since 2007. Onancock (pronounced with emphasis on the second syllable) lies at about the midway point of Virginia’s por- tion of the Delmarva Peninsula — essentially a large, Ice Age era sandbar formed by melting glaciers. No inter- states traverse its landscape, and its only connection with the state’s mainland is a 23-mile network of bridges and tunnels. Much of the region’s urban scenery can be described most charitably as unspoiled by gentrifcation. A pair of geography scholars published a study a few years ago about the preponderance of abandoned gas stations found in the area. Onanock is a diamond in the rough. Visitors to this town of 1,200 souls are greeted by a downtown of quaint antique shops, restaurants featuring cosmopolitan favors and an old-fashioned movie theater. Te town is one of the main drivers of the Shore’s 31 percent increase in Charlie Cox, a young paddler Four and a half miles from its mouth at the tourism-related tax receipts since 2010, said Kerry Al- on a guided tour of Virginia’s Chesapeake Bay, Onancock Creek diverges in lison, executive director of the Eastern Shore of Virginia Onancock Creek, stops for a close- Tourism Commission. up inspection of periwinkle snails three directions. In 1680, settlers transformed Its central location makes it a base camp for visitors in the marsh grass. the banks of this branching stream into the looking to explore the entire shore, from Assateague Island’s sandy beaches to Cape Charles’ shopping district, town of Onancock. Allison said. And Onancock ofers plenty of experiences Te community on Virginia’s Eastern Shore has borne of its own, particularly for people interested in getting out witness to more than 300 years of U.S. history, a narrative on the water, she added. recorded in its antebellum homes, sprawling cornfelds “Seeing the Eastern Shore from the water is the only and ever busy wharf. real way to understand it,” she said. “People lived on the By Jeremy Cox Despite its deep harbor, Onancock was never destined water. It was their only transportation artery at that time. And that has been erased from modern history.” Photos by Dave Harp for the types of development — seen in port cities like Baltimore and Norfolk — that have all but banished nature Te path of least resistance to that watery ideal is a from the landscape. As a result, Onancock serves up a living classroom in which the environment shapes history and vice versa all the way to the present. Its story is best told from the van- tage point of the water, and one of the best people to tell it is Bill Burnham. “Te history and the present are very close,” Burnham said, as he paddled his kayak upstream on a warm June morning toward the wharf where his outftter business is headquartered. “Te families you see from the Revolution- ary War are the people you see in the restaurant.” Burnham maintains all of the mandatory trappings of an ecotour guide: sweat-wicking long-sleeve T-shirt, polarized sunglasses with a strap, wind-tossed blond hair and a ruf of gray hair on his chin. What distinguishes him becomes apparent within the frst few minutes of a paddle: his seasoned storytelling ability, which can drill with equal depth into Onancock’s ecological and historical highlights. One moment, he is describing the daily habits of peri- winkles, the marble-size sea snails that spend their lives on Paddlers on Onancock Creek stop to chat with watermen marsh grass near the shoreline; the next, he is recounting about the day’s catch. 31 Bay Journal l Travel l July-August 2018

Bill Burnham leads kayakers through the family-friendly waters of Onancock Creek (left), which includes shoreline views of homes from the 1800s and 1930s (above). two-hour excursion with Onancock the frst of many anachronisms: a a salt marsh environment,” Burnham the fght, leaving Whaley’s fagship Sailing Adventures. Te company fer- wooden-plank bridge that still carries said, “they say it pretty much all looks to sufer heavy losses. Whaley was ries up to fve passengers per trip on car trafc. the same. But these little critters are killed, and he was brought back to a scenic journey starting and ending Te slow-moving branch, he ex- doing something amazing every day.” Onancock for a lavish funeral. His at the town wharf on a cat boat called plains, bisects the town into two eras Tacking naturally from habitats body lies within the cemetery at Scott Gratitude. of growth. To the north, stately homes to humans, Burnham nudged our Hall, but the plot’s exact location For something a little more hands- built as early as 1830 are tucked back foating party toward the backyard remains a mystery, Burnham said. on, see the Burnhams. Teir opera- behind the grassy banks. To the south, of one of the grandest structures on Back out in the main creek, the tion is nestled in an old steamboat the landscape is locked in the 1920s the tour. Scott Hall, built in 1769, is view suddenly morphs from urban to ticket ofce on the wharf, leased from and 1930s, dotted with homes picked known as much for its graveyard as rural. Here and there stand sturdy- the Historical Society of the Eastern out of Sears catalogs. for being the oldest house in town. looking houses, backed by acre upon Shore of Virginia. Te organization A few hundred yards beyond the Tere lies Whaley, the Revolution- acre of farmland that has provided also owns the larger building next mouth of the branch brought us to ary War commodore, somewhere. the region with its wealth for hun- door, the 1842-built Hopkins Brothers the former Onancock School, where In 1782, after the British sur- dreds of years. Our caravan startled Store, which has been transformed generations of local students gradu- rendered at Yorktown but before an osprey midmeal, and it erupted into the renowned Mallards at the ated, including Virginia’s current gov- the Treaty of Paris formally ended from its branch with a fsh clenched Wharf restaurant. ernor, Ralph Northam. In accordance the Revolutionary War, Whaley set frmly in its talons. Our booking included a single with Onancock’s cultured present, it of on an expedition to halt British Burnham led us back toward kayak for myself and a tandem for my is now an arts and community center. plundering of Eastern Shore farms. town but not before circling into the wife and our 8-year-old daughter. Te After another bend, the water He gathered more than two dozen creek’s north branch. A giant, gray two-hour guided tour of Onancock petered out into a thatch of salt marsh volunteers in Onancock into his boat barge loomed into view, having just Creek costs $45 per person, but it’s a flled with spartina grass and, farther and, along with three allied vessels, of-loaded a fresh bounty of crushed good deal considering that on most landward, groundsel bushes. sailed into the Bay. rock bound for road construction or days it’s likely to be a small group. Now, I’ve known my daughter to In Kedges Strait near Smith Island, making cinder blocks. A few more Patrons can save a little money by become enraptured with scoring a just across the state line in Maryland, paddle strokes brought us alongside a simply paying the rental fee and ven- minor league baseball game by hand, the Battle of the Barges ensued. It crab boat and its crew, chatting about turing out on their own. Te profes- so I know she is made of diferent was a rout. Tree of his barges fed the day’s haul. sional accompaniment isn’t a matter stuf than most 8-year-olds. But it was of safety; the surrounding waters still striking to witness her become Exploring Onancock by water are smooth and easy to ply in most engrossed in Burnham’s commentary weather regardless of paddling experi- on the tiny snails that clung to the Legend has it that Onancock translates as “foggy place,” so let’s ence, and getting lost is nearly impos- waving stalks of grass. clear some things up on traveling there. Route 13 provides the best sible with the out-and-back route. “I call them marsh farmers,” he (and only) access, but don’t miss the signs pointing the way (Business Splurging on a guide, though, will said, plucking one from its perch to Route 13 from points north or Virginia Route 179 from points south). prove valuable to anyone unfamiliar give her a closer look. with Onancock’s history or its fora As the tide rises, a periwinkle Burnham Guides offers a variety of kayak trips, including an over- and fauna. climbs its chosen stalk to stay above night sojourn to a 1920s fshing lodge on an island near the tip of the Te wharf looks over the broad the water. Along the way, it gnashes Delmarva Peninsula. The two-hour tour of Onancock Creek is $45 per pool of water where the three chan- its teeth into the grass, leaving a person. Call 305-240-0650 or email [email protected]. groove that will become covered with nels coalesce into one, broad wa- Cruises with Onancock Sailing Adventures are available May–October terway. After easing us into our algae once it’s submerged. When the plastic watercraft, Burnham steered water falls, the descending snail feeds at 9:30 a.m., 12:30 p.m., 3:30 p.m. or 6:30 p.m. Rates are $45 per us upstream into the creek’s center on the freshly collected algae. person. Call 757-710-3658 for information. branch. We immediately encountered “For a lot of people who are new to  Bay Journal l Travel l July-August 2018

Tomas Point a beacon for mariners, historians alike diameter hexagonal cottage and lends it the distinctly lunar-landing module appearance. It is arguably the most iconic light on the Chesapeake Bay. “Tomas Point Shoal Light has six dormers,” docent Tom Cagle said as we sped toward our destination. “It’s the only one with six. Watch out for the model they sell in town. It only has two.” A broad-faced retired Maryland Natural Resources po- lice ofcer with an infectious smile, Cagle told us he called the manufacturing company with the hope of persuading it to rectify the error. Now that the error has been brought to my attention, I’ve noticed a lot of misidentifed Tomas Point Lighthouses, including a photo in the National Archives. Te tour began on the open deck beneath the house. Meg Govan, a retired ffth-grade teacher and a docent since 2006, told us that, on the shore side of the light- house, the water is a mere 6– to 8-feet deep and becomes shallower all the way to shore. On the Bay side, it drops quickly to 35 feet. British ships, she said, ran aground in these waters twice during the War of 1812. In the late 1800s, when the shoal was fertile ground for commercial oystermen, lighthouse keepers often recorded names of vessels working in their vicinity and helped to keep a watch for poachers. Te lighthouse is now a popular spot for anglers, but the days of oystering the shoal is over. So, too, are the days of screwpile lighthouses. Teir Participants on a tour of the Tomas downfall was caused by a once-common occurrence that is Point Shoal Lighthouse approach I once heard the Tomas Point Shoal Light- hard to envision today: ice. In recent decades, the naviga- the 1875 structure, which stands in house described as a Victorian rendition of a ble waters of the Bay have frozen enough to require Coast its original location at the mouth of Guard icebreakers only a handful of times, but historically Maryland’s South River. lunar landing module. ice was a very real hazard. In the late 1800s, screwpile It’s an absurd image that stuck with me, not just for its lighthouses at Love Point and Wolf Trap were destroyed succinct visual depiction of the structure — a white, six- by ice and one at Sharps Island was shorn from its founda- sided, lapped-board cottage perched on spidery iron legs tion. Even the sturdier caisson light that replaced it was in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay — but also for the tilted by ice in 1977. sense of vulnerability and isolation it evokes. Tomas Point has withstood damaging ice since it was Indeed, there must be parallels between landing on the built in 1875, in part because of a steel wedge set on its moon and spending weeks at a time encapsulated in a tiny own screw piles about 90 feet upstream, where it would shelter surrounded by a vast, inhospitable environment. split ice fowing down the Bay during the spring thaw. Tat was the reality of life for a succession of lighthouse Riprap was also added over time, and the lighthouse stood keepers who tended it for 111 years. its ground. But not without incident. In 1877, the lens was Story & Photos Today, the public can tour the lighthouse, in its original knocked from its base and broken. Keepers told the Balti- By Kimbra Cutlip location just south of Maryland’s Bay Bridge, for a glimpse more Sun “the running ice shakes the light-house so much of that life. Te light is operated by the Coast Guard and that the stoves have to be lashed down. At night the ice still serves as an active aid to navigation, but the house breaking against the piers sounds like the cracking of fre.” and structure were transferred to the City of Annapolis in In 1918 and 1940, heavy ice led to the evacuation of 2004. Tey are being restored and preserved by the U.S. the cottage. In later years, the keepers endured hurricanes Lighthouse Society and its Chesapeake Chapter. such as Agnes in 1972. Now, as the wakes of passing boat- Run by the Lighthouse Society, the tours begin with a ers slapped loudly but harmlessly against the iron rods and 30-minute boat ride from the Annapolis Maritime Mu- surrounding riprap, I reached up to touch the bottom of seum and can accommodate up to 18 participants. As we the lighthouse — the very foor that had shuddered and motored out of Annapolis, four yellow-shirted docents groaned violently beneath the keepers. chatted up passengers, eager to share their knowledge of As Govan spoke, she was interrupted every seven min- the harbor, the Chesapeake and Tomas Point, an elbow of utes by the raspy, angry squawking of birds — or rather a land at the mouth of the South River where a shallow shoal recorded simulation of birds in distress. “It’s to keep the extends a mile and a quarter into the Bay. birds away,” she said. “If you see the picture of this light- Te last manned lighthouse on the Bay, it hosted keep- house on the Weather Channel, the roof looks white be- ers until 1986 when the mechanism was fully automated. cause it’s covered in guano. It’s an old picture, from before It is the only intact lighthouse of the “screwpile” design the restoration.” still in its original location. Tis design involved manu- Fastidiousness was required of early lighthouse keepers, ally screwing long iron rods or pilings deep into the Bay’s who were expected to wear their full woolen uniform at all bottom. Above the surface, the pilings at the lighthouse times. Clearing bird poop from the roof would have been cant slightly inward and are braced with tie rods and steel part of the daily routine, I suppose. Govan mentioned I-beams. Te resulting platform supports the 35-foot wanting to ask the Weather Channel to replace the photo 33 Bay Journal l Travel l July-August 2018

A tour group gathers inside the Tomas Point lighthouse as docent Meg Govan tells tales of its history (above left). Docent Chris Mulry (above right) explains the solar-powered light that operates in the lantern room and still serves as a navigational aid to ships on the Chesapeake Bay. with a new one now that the red down the Bay. gas vapor fueled the light, which was history, its keepers bore witness to metal roof is kept clean again. In the kitchen, or galley, a list of amplifed by a 28-inch crystal Fresnel signifcant changes in climate, tech- After taking questions, she led us annual allowances included early lens. It was electrifed in 1933 and nology and culture. to the frst foor of the house which lighthouse staples such as cofee, converted to solar in 1997. Today, their stories are being kept we accessed by climbing a narrow tea, four, baking powder, vinegar, Our hour on the lighthouse ended alive by a new breed of keeper — ladder through a hatch in the wrap- beef, codfsh, mutton, apples and all too abruptly when the last of us volunteers from the Lighthouse around porch. White gingerbread 104 pounds of something called pilot had poked our head into the tower. Society who lovingly scrape, paint, balusters form the porch railing. bread. Tis is where I began to feel I could have stayed all day trying to repair, and, yes, use duct tape, as well Te exterior boards of the cot- the constraints of a timed tourist conjure up an obsolete way of life. I as docents like Govan and Cagle who tage gleam with heavy layers of white expedition. Interesting information imagine time moved more slowly for lead tours and defend the image of paint, interrupted here and there hung on the walls everywhere, but the occupants of the lighthouse, but the lighthouse against false replicas by small pocks of black — wounds there was not enough time to read it. in the compression of its 150-year and outdated photos. of rotted wood. Closer inspection Moving on to the radio room — a revealed that they were actually quite glaring example of the ill-conceived prevalent on one side, but unnotice- aesthetic of the 1970s, with its “gov- able under patches of white duct ernment green” paneled walls and tape. Before the Lighthouse Society wheat-brown carpet squares — Go- took over, the building had fallen into van discussed how life had changed disrepair. Restoration is clearly ongo- for the keepers and then proudly ing, but it appeared the duct tape was showed us the careful restorations, doing its job for now. which included a vintage television Inside, the restoration looks that a volunteer had carefully glued nearly complete with beautifully back together after vandals smashed fnished original hardwood foors, it on the rocks below. white tongue-in-groove walls and A spiral staircase leads to the ceilings, period furniture and two second story of the lighthouse, which wood stoves. Te frst foor is divided once housed the 1,000-pound fog into four rooms, a sitting room and bell keepers had to wind like a clock. kitchen that approximate 1905 ap- Te bell struck three times every 30 pearances, a head keeper’s bedroom seconds when visibility was low. Te that is still under renovation, and the volume must have been torture. To- “Coast Guard room” refurbished to day, the National Oceanographic and its 1970s era radio room and ofce. Atmospheric Administration weather Troughout its life, the lighthouse instruments operate in this space. was manned by three or four men (Anyone in the world can see condi- Te wraparound porch of the Tomas Point lighthouse ofers scenic views in working 12-hour shifts and rotat- tions on the lighthouse at ndbc.noaa. ing two or three weeks on duty with gov/station_page.php?station=tplm2.) all directions. one week ashore. Rotating crewmen A hatch in the ceiling and a Tours of the Thomas Point lighthouse run on select Saturdays through carried trash and mail, and a monthly ship’s ladder lead to the heart of the early October. The cost is $80 per person and tickets can be pur- tender delivered water, fuel and other lighthouse, the lantern room. Te chased at uslhs.org/about/thomas-point-shoal-lighthouse/tours. provisions. low-wattage acrylic light is wired to Note that guests must be at least 12 years old or 4-feet tall to safely In the sitting room, Govan showed a bank of four solar-charged marine navigate the ladders. Videos on safety and the history of the light- us the lighthouse version of a book batteries, but circular brass vents on mobile, a medicine cabinet-size book- each parapet remind me that it was house are also available on the website. For information, call shelf resting on the foor. Books were once a living beacon with a fame 415-362-7255 or email [email protected]. rotated between lighthouses up and that required tending. First oil, then 34 Bay Journal • July-August 2018

B. They travel up freshwater rivers to drink a large shark — especially a bull shark — from B. Younger dolphins there. making a meal out of a dolphin. Dolphins C. Both young & old dolphins C. They absorb water through their skin, won’t go down without a fight, though. What 7. Dolphin eyesight is excellent both in and which filters out the salt. dolphin defense do predators try hard to out of the water. At night, Dolphins are able D. They get all the water they need from the avoid? to see in shades of gray and one other color fish they eat. A. A hard wallop from its tail spectrum. Which spectrum is it? Bay Buddies B. A nasty bite from its long, sharp teeth A. Blue-green 4. A male dolphin is called a bull, a female C. A poke from its strong, hard beaklike nose Dolphins dolphin is called a cow and a young dolphin D. A slicing cut from its fin D. Blue-purple is called a calf. What is a group of dolphins B. Yellow-orange called? 6. Dolphins are highly intelligent and playful. C. Yellow-green It’s summer, and humans aren’t the only They have been observed chasing each other mammal tourists visiting the waters of the A. Herd 8. Dolphins can hear much better than B. Pod (like tag), tossing seaweed between them Chesapeake. Will you be lucky enough to see (like catch) and carrying objects, which they humans. How much better? C. Platoon an Atlantic bottlenose dolphin? If not, you can sometime use to try to persuade another A. 5 times learn more about these animals by taking this D. Squad dolphin to play. What ages are seen doing B. 10 times quiz. Answers are on page 39. 5. Dolphins are at the top of their food chain. these activities? C. 15 times D. 20 times 1. Dolphins have occasionally been sighted Still, that doesn’t stop the occasional orca or A. Older dolphins as far north as Baltimore Harbor, the Chester 9. How do dolphins communicate with other River and Washington, DC. Where are you dolphins? most likely to see dolphins in the Chesapeake? A. Clicking A. Cape Charles B. Creaking & squeaking B. Elizabeth River C. Whistling C. James River D. All of the above D. All of the above 10. Humans pose the greatest threat to 2. Dolphins eat a variety of Chesapeake spe- dolphins. How? cies. Which of these is not on their menu? A. Fishing equipment, such as gill nets A. Crustaceans, including shrimp, crabs B. Hunting (FYI: Dolphin meat can contain B. Fish, including spot, croaker, menhaden, chemical contaminants.) silver perch C. Pollution C. Invertebrates, including squid, jellyfish D. All of the above D. Aquatic vegetation, including eelgrass, 11. Dolphins are in the family Delphinidae. redhead grass, widgeon grass Three of these whales are also in this family. 3. Dolphins cannot drink the water where Which one isn’t? they are normally found because it’s too salty. A. Beluga whale Where do dolphins get the water they need to B. Killer whale (orca) survive? C. Melon-headed whale A. They surface when it rains and open their An Atlantic bottlenose dolphin leaps out of the water (National Aeronautics and D Pilot whale mouths skyward to catch the drops. Space Administration) — Kathleen A. Gaskell You dolphinitely need to take this quiz! thinking about it, dolphins must consciously pers (forearms) and flukes (tail — each half is A. They locate their prey using echolocation. make the decision to breathe. Dolphins can’t one fluke). Which is used to swim and which B. They flap their flippers to swim using the take in air underwater and must constantly is used to steer? same motion that bats use their wings to fly come up to the water’s surface to breathe. 6. Bottlenose dolphins usually swim 2–4 through the air. Adults have been recorded staying under the miles per hour. What is their top recorded C. They are nocturnal. water for as long as 15 minutes, but what is speed? D. They hibernate in sea caves. the average amount a dolphin stays underwa- A. Almost 11 mph 10. A bottlenose dolphin would regularly ter before it must come up to inhale? B. Almost 18 mph dive 200 feet to the Sea Lab II off La Jolla, Several Atlantic bottlenose dolphins showed A. 3 minutes CA. He not only brought tools and mail to the up off Cove Point, near Solomons, MD, at the C. Almost 26 mph B. 7 minutes D. Almost 33 mph lab’s personnel. Should a diver get lost, he end of April. Since its launch last summer, C. 9 minutes was trained to lead the diver to safety. What ChesapeakeDolphinWatch.org — a website D. 11 minutes 7. Dolphins get only one set of teeth in their was his name? run by the University of Maryland Center lifetime. They use their teeth to capture, not 3. The average lifespan of a bottlenose A. Blitz for Environmental Science — has received chew, their prey, which they swallow whole. B. Dash reports of 1,000 sightings in the Bay and its dolphin is 20–25 years, with a maximum age How many teeth does a dolphin have? of 60–65 years. Which sex, on average, tends C. Ricochet rivers. Visit the site to learn more about these A. 18–34 teeth D. Tuffy creatures and, in the meantime, you might to live about 10 years longer? It’s also the B. 38–64 teeth discover a fact or two by taking this quiz. smaller of the two genders. C. 72-104 teeth 11. Speaking about dolphin names, re- Answers are on page 39. A. Female D. 110–140 teeth searcher Janet Mann, as part of her Potomac- B. Male Chesapeake Dolphin Project, has given 1. There has been at least one exceptional 8. Only newborn dolphins have hair, and it names to a local population of the more than case of a 1,400-pound Atlantic bottlenose 4. How are dolphins different from most land falls out within two weeks. Where is this hair 500 individual dolphins spotted near the dolphin. How large is the average bottlenose mammals? found? Potomac’s mouth. After whom are many of dolphin that visits the Chesapeake? A. They have no sweat glands. A. The top of its mouth the dolphins named? A. 6 feet long, 100–200 pounds B. They eat and breathe through separate B. The top of its blowhole A. Greek gods & goddesses B. 9 feet long, 200–300 pounds holes in their mouth. C. Around its eyes B. Flowers (females) & trees (male) C. 12 feet long, 300–400 pounds C. The normal birth position is tail (feet) first. D. On the tips of its flippers C. Literary characters D. All of the above D. 15 feet long, 400–500 pounds 9. Dolphins share a behavior with bats. What D. U.S. presidents & first ladies. 2. Unlike humans, who breathe without 5. A dolphin swims and steers using its flip- behavior is this? — Kathleen A. Gaskell Bay Journal • July-August 2018 35

YourThanks to Bay generosity Journal makes us want to jump for joyL. Andrew Ball Fund contributors, we’ve Jersey, VA increased our staff, expanded Bigeye Direct coverage, added pages and Herndon, VA Douglas Clow Jr. are better able to inform the Odenton, MD public about issues affect- Cary Ridder & David Alberowerth ing the Chesapeake and its Washington, DC watershed. Donations support Gail & Michael Kenna the Bay Journal and other Wicomico Church, VA activities related to Bay Peter Marx Journal Media’s mission to Annapolis, MD expand independent journal- Chris Naughten & Melissa Talley ism that informs the public Colesville, MD about environmental issues Edgar & Carole Merkle affecting the Chesapeake Bay Chestertown, MD and the mid-Atlantic region. Carole Ratcliffe This includes our Bay Journal Easton, MD News Service, which distrib- Tom Straehle utes articles and commentar- Westminster, MD ies to newspapers throughout Sponsor the region. Doug Lashley Please help us continue our Severna Park, MD success! William Long Fawn Grove, PA Philanthropist Susan Able The Campbell Foundation Annapolis, MD Annapolis, MD Shelton Alley Wye Hall Cape Charles, VA Queenstown, MD “Fish are jumping and the river is high.” Justin Aaron, right, and Arthur King fish a pound net on the upper Blackwater River. A regular on the river, Aaron catches all manner of fish. This day it Richard Andrus Town Creek Foundation Binghamton, NY Easton, MD was mostly mud shad and a few carp. (Dave Harp) Gary Antonides Rauch Foundation Mike & Pat Burke Jeff Eberly Edgewater, MD Baltimore, MD Champion Tom & Marcia Lewis Cheverly, MD Lancaster, PA Leon & Susan App The Shared Earth Foundation Annapolis, MD Charles Cushwa Neal & Linda Halsey Sandston, VA Chestertown, MD Glenn D. McLean Lynchburg, VA Towson, MD Mike & Sheila Bishop Sumner T. McKnight Foundation Great Falls, VA David & Mary Hess Nicholas Klise Centreville, VA Baltimore, MD Booster Harrisburg, PA Catonsville, MD Kevin Bissell Prince Charitable Trusts William K. Blanchet Frederick Marcell Dave Neumann North Beach, MD Washington, DC Severna Park, MD Olney, MD Baltimore, MD Gary Bowser Curtis & Edith Munson Foundation Marilyn Mause Benefactor Harry & Jane Wells Street, MD Washington, DC Myersville, MD J. Frank Bernheisel Irvington, VA In Memory of Scot Brockway Roy E. & Elizabeth C. Hock Foundation Advocate Falls Church, VA In Memory of Carmel Guido from Martha Brockway Williamsburg, VA Phillip & Cynthia Chase Richard Connelly from Yolanda Drenner Silver Spring, MD Guarantor Laurel, MD Newark, DE Rosedale, MD Martin & Janet Brown Alan Griffith Adil Godrej John & Martha Detweiler Robert & Ann Whitcomb Derwood, MD Centreville, MD Manassas, VA Camp Hill, PA Annapolis, MD Douglas Burdick Grayr, ME Beverly & Kent Cigler I want to help the Bay Journal maintain and expand coverage  $15–$49 Friend Hummelstown, PA of issues related to the Chesapeake Bay and its watershed. James & Emmie Clark Yes!  $50–$99 Supporter Richmond, VA Enclosed is my tax-deductible gift of $ In Memory of Dorothy Corbett  $100–$149 Sponsor from Edward Corbett  My check made payable to “Bay Journal Fund” is enclosed.  $150–$249 Benefactor State College, PA  Charge my Visa/MasterCard/Discover/AMEX. Richard I. Crawford Card # _____ Expires: Security Code:  $250–$499 Advocate Townsend, DE  Bob & Pat Davis Name(s): $500–$999 Booster Harrisburg, PA  $1,000–$2,499 Champion Thomas D. Davi, Jr. Address: Richmond, VA  $2,500–$4,999 Guarantor Robin L. Dennis City, State, Zip Code:  $5,000 & Up Philanthropist Chapel Hill, NC Alphonse Desena Is this a memorial? Write name here: Arlington, VA Is this in someone’s honor? Write name here: Karen A. Duhring Gloucester Point, VA  From time to time, the Bay Journal may include a list of its supporters in the print edition. Please check here Barbara Erskine if you would like your gift to remain anonymous and not be recognized in the Bay Journal. Bryn Mawr, PA Please mail your donations to The Bay Journal Fund, P.O. Box 222, Jacobus, PA 17407-0222 Walter Fava The Bay Journal Fund does not share the names of its donors or their addresses with other organizations. Berwyn Heights, MD Continues on page 36 36 Bay Journal • July-August 2018

Continued from page 35 Anne Brown Saint Leonard, MD Frances Flanigan Bob Hickmott Baltimore, MD Washington, DC Flippo Lumber Corp. William Meeks Doswell, VA Baltimore, MD Michelle Frank Glenn & Trish Guy Lititz, PA Leonardtown, MD Gus Gartner Douglas Herman Centreville, MD Chambersburg, PA Jim Gilford John & Sophia Oord Frederick, MD Mount Holly, VA John Gillespie Anna Schrad Chestertown, MD Woodstock, MD Martha Habermann Katherine McAloon Fishing Creek, MD Alexandria, VA Hanging Ten Ranch Clarence Tignor Longmont, CO Silver Spring, MD Frederick & Margaret Hardy Diana K. Weatherby Silver Spring, MD New Carrollton, MD Norman Hines. Sr. Randy Adams Kensington, MD Henrico, VA Thomas & Valerie Hirsch Peter M. Aigner Chester, MD Duncansville, PA Richard & Sue Hu Lee Allain Solomons, MD Lottsburg, VA Judith Jaqueth Don Allen Salisbury, MD Bethesda, MD Dick Johnson Stan Allen Catonsville, MD Susan, VA William Johnson Meredith Allison Frederick, MD A pair of bald eagles are perched on a duck blind in the Blackwater River one morning in June, Annapolis, MD most likely searching for breakfast. (Dave Harp) Bob & Helena Jones Steven P. Alpern Stevensville, MD Paddy’s Seafood In Memory of James Price Gregory L. Van Blargan Towson, MD Gary Knipling Dallastown, PA from Henrietta Price Montgomery Village, MD Richard Anderson Easton, MD Mason Neck, VA Richard Owen & Paula Wordtt In Honor of Lizzie & Sadie Baldwin, MD In Honor of Ken Koetzner Chestertown, MD William Rochow from Gary Vaughan Appalachian Audubon Society Solomons, MD from Virginia Koetzner Delphine Peck Baltimore, MD Camp Hill, PA Patchogue, NY Easton, MD Sari Kiraly & Rodney G. Tomlinson Charles Wachsmuth Mr. & Mrs. James O. Armacost Chris Koval Mark & Karen Perreault Annapolis, MD Chester, MD Baltimore, MD Landenberg, PA Norfolk, VA Dale Schumacher Harry Walch John Bacon Michael & Susan Liebert In Memory of Gay Petrlik Elkridge, MD Fairhope, AL Chesapeake Beach, MD Timonium, MD from George Petrlik Alvin C. Schweizer II In Honor of Sarah Lane Nancy G. W. Baker Magothy River Association Ellicott City, MD Newport News, VA from Dale Weammert Sugar Run, PA Glen Burnie, MD Severna Park, MD In Honor of Joe Mihursky Bill & Janis Seegar Kathleen Baldwin Richard Masland from Harriette Phelps Easton, MD Gene & Joanne Wilhelm Annapolis, MD Weston, MA Greenbelt, MD Slippery Rock, PA Catherine Sheppard John & Jeanette Beck Capt. Mac McGuire Andrew Platt Bowie, MD John & Mary Jo Williams Towson, MD Linthicum, MD Woodville, VA Elkton, MD Ann & G. David Stifel Reade Belote, Jr. Woody Merkle Glenn Pletcher, Sr. Gloucester, VA Ann Yellott Onley, VA Woodstock, MD Gap, PA Cockeysville, MD Gerald Swope J. B. Benson Sherrill Modlin Mr. & Mrs. John W. Plowman Middle River, MD Kenneth & Patricia Young Lanexa, VA Severna Park, MD Harrisburg, PA New Oxford, PA Keith Thomas Betty & John Beyer Phillip Olekszyk Martha Turner Avondale, PA Sterling, VA Gloucester, VA Romney, WV Supporter Jewel & George Thomas In Memory of Bernard Salb Bryon Bodt Carolyn Osborne Arthur Turowski Gloucester, VA from James & Christine Ryan Churchville, MD Bethesda, MD Fishing Creek, MD In Memory of Tom Grizzard Nottingham, PA Nickolas Otte George & Barbara Reiger from Mr. & Mrs. Clifford W. Randall Roger Bollman Essex, MD Locustville, VA Blacksburg, VA Easton, MD Continues on page 37 Thank You To These Philanthropic Donors The Curtis and Edith Munson Foundation Bay Journal • July-August 2018 37

Continued from page 36 Susan Martineaw Bridgeville, DE Charles Boyle Mr. & Mrs. John Murray, Sr. Perryville, MD McClure, PA James Payne, Jr. Friend Manassas, VA Terry Reck Dover, PA Terry Perkins Wyoming, DE Harry Stokes Gettysburg, PA Steven Pope Mathews, VA Dean & Peggy Troyer Norfolk, VA Henry Robbins Bel Air, MD Asmare Atalay Hopewell, VA Robert Rothenhoefer Falls Church, VA Larry Baker Culpeper, VA Paul Scheibe Kennett Square, PA George Belt Stewartstown, PA Steve Schreiner Columbia, MD Bernard & Josephine Bodt Churchville, MD Paul Smith, Sr. Havre De Grace, MD Gary & Susan Bryde Hockessin, DE Jan & Dale Snyder Millersburg, PA Bob Burns Bethesda, MD Peter Swinehart Boyds, MD Desiree DiMauro & Todd Thompson Vienna, VA Norma Swope Williamsburg, VA Kathy Elliot Yoe, PA W. M. Tress Hanover, PA Wayne & Cheryl Fisher Juvenile brown pelicans take flight near their nesting grounds on a sandy spit between Smith and Milton, DE Tangier islands. (Dave Harp) Joseph Turczyn Coatesville, PA Carl Fritz Camp Hill, PA William Putland Susan Christopher John Seitz In Honor of the U.S. Coast Guard Havre De Grace, MD Wicomico Church, VA Hyattsville, MD from Gary Riegel Donald & Roberta Gallagher Reading, PA Lititz, PA Stephen Rettig In Memory of Terry A. Crauston In Honor of the U.S. Coast Guard Waynesboro, PA from Joshua Cranston from Gary Riegel Jeff Trader Lillie Gilbert Silver Spring, MD Pocomoke City, MD Virginia Beach, VA Terry & Linda Ritter Reading, PA Virginia Beach, VA John Current Bill Arnold John Engle Jo Ann Hersh Apalachin, NY Seven Valleys, PA Alexandria, VA Leo & Anne Roseman Lancaster, VA Newport News, VA Gerald Dietz Paul Farragut Phil Holzinger Sandra Ashenfelter Loganville, PA Ellicott City, MD Lancaster, PA Scott Sewell Boiling Springs, PA Baltimore, MD Greg Godon Archie Bachelor Robert Gorey James & Janet Janata Birdsboro, PA Norfolk, VA Tom Sherman North Prince George, VA Catonsville, MD Blacksburg, VA Paul E. Grech, Jr. George & Dorothy Bloomer Mr. & Mrs. Herbert Lodder Suzanne Jenkins West Grove, PA Midlothian, VA Marshall & Ginger Silverman Palmyra, PA Lutherville, MD New Freedom, PA Wally Horak Paula Bounds Robert Mosher Cy Jones Riva, MD Silver Spring, MD Larry & Louise Smith Henderson, MD Charlton, NY Williamsburg, VA Bill Mason Ed Reisman, Jr. Robert Kies Glen Rock, PA Steve Bowman Virginia Beach, VA In Memory of Anna Mae Snyder White Hall, MD Camp Springs, MD Denton Ortman from Ted Snyder, Jr. Sue Ann & Chuck Chlumsky Heather Schwartz W. Robert Kilbourn Oley, PA York, PA Joppa, MD Shrewsbury, PA Clarksville, MD In Memory of Ted Snyder, Sr. Mary Perkins Orrin Kline Marty Clapper Mary Shrift from Ted Snyder, Jr. Glen Burnie, MD West Chester, PA Manassas, VA Oley, PA Reading, PA Barnett Rattner Mr. & Mrs. Marshall Waring In Honor of Theodore Stastny Annapolis, MD Lynda Clary Tangier, VA Henrico, VA Kyle C. & Abigale L. Knepper Baldwin, MD In Memory of Joan Guy Wilkerson from Joshua Knepper from Gene Hicks M. Hanford Day Boiling Springs, PA Lynette Stehr Sterling, VA Berwyn Heights, MD Bel Air, MD Silver Spring, MD Ed DiRaimo Bernard & Mary Jo Kobosko Richard & Alta Richardson Capt. Doug DuVall Reisterstown, MD Philip Sze Wheaton, MD Gaithersburg, MD North Chesterfield, VA Ellicott City, MD Mark Kromer In Honor of Kathleen Littleton Dan Rosen James Florentine, Jr. Cynthia Touchet Owings, MD Camp Hill, PA from Michael Nastasi & Terry Passano Springfield Center, NY Westminster, MD John Kucel Salisbury, MD George Rutter Ed Gabsewics Randy & Anne Whitby Columbia, MD Smithsburg, MD Patricia Vazquez Front Royal, VA York, PA Julia McBee Brandywine, MD Leslie Suhr Barry Hornberger George Balas Bastian, VA Rockville, MD Charles Wright Harrisburg, PA Wyomissing, PA William McCauley Virginia Beach, VA Leon Thompson Mr. & Mrs. James Houstoun Marvin & Grace Fienman Mechanicsville, VA Verne Keefer Wilmington, DE Glen Rock, PA Philadelphia, PA Antoinette Orsini Virginia Beach, VA Charles Stephen Ward Stephen Jackson Annie Holley Kennett Square, PA Donald Bennett Annapolis, MD Red Lion, PA Rocky Mount, VA Ben Pendleton Hughesville, PA C. B. Allwein David Kantner Jim Burch Chesapeake, VA In Memory of Whitey Schmidt Mount Gretna, PA Cornwall, PA Phoenix, MD Rick Phillips from Mr. & Mrs. David Brunk In Memory of Scott Bowling Ray Laracuente Tom & Vickie Carter Davidsonville, MD Jamesville, VA from Anna Angolia Harrisburg, PA Newark, DE Earl Pickett John Buchleitner Cottage City, MD Robert Liskey Margo Bloxom Pamplin, VA Severna Park, MD In Memory of James Mentzer Middle River, MD Chincoteague Island, VA Tom Powers Caeser Butkiewicz from Bonnie Mentzer Joseph Martin Mark M. Getz Poquoson, VA Mount Carmel, PA Lancaster, PA York, PA Fleetwood, PA 38 Bay Journal • July-August 2018

Commentary • Letters • Perspectives Statesorum must focus on how much is left to do, not how much has been done By AFlison Prost The budget passed last month by the General Assembly is an important This is a critical time for Bay resto- step. It provides funding for agricultural ration. At the halfway point between conservation practices and new fund- 2010 and 2025 the question is: Are we ing for matching grants to help local on track? jurisdictions, as well as reduce urban The Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s and suburban polluted runoff. These midpoint assessment focused on the funds should be spent cost-effectively to principal Bay states’ progress in imple- maximize pollution reduction benefits. menting the Chesapeake Clean Water In addition, as in Pennsylvania, Blueprint, also known the Chesapeake the implementation of forest riparian Bay Total Maximum Daily Load or buffers has been sluggish and needs to “pollution diet.” These three states be accelerated. Furthermore, the state are responsible for achieving roughly needs to re-evaluate its post-construction 95 percent of the remaining pollution stormwater criteria for new development reductions. Our evaluation has found and develop an accounting-for-growth success, but also troubling trends. framework that considers the expansion The blueprint, established in 2010, of poultry production. includes pollution limits, state-specific plans to achieve those limits, two-year Moving forward milestones to evaluate progress, and In Pennsylvania, the Keystone 10 Million Trees Partnership, coordinated by the CBF, The Bay jurisdictions are starting consequences for failure. The states is expected to have a positive impact on reducing agricultural, urban and suburban to work on the third iteration of their also committed to have practices in pollution by achieving as much as two-thirds of the Chesapeake Bay TMDL goal of cleanup plans that will describe actions place to achieve 60 percent of the 95,000 acres of forested riparian buffers. (Dave Harp) between now and 2025. These plans needed reductions by 2017, and to finish must be detailed and comprehensive — the job by 2025. The CBF’s report used Although the commonwealth is meet- City have met goals for reducing this and address existing shortfalls. information from the Chesapeake Bay ing the commitment to determine that pollution, which is established in regu- Developing local pollution- Program to assess whether the states farms have plans, moving forward, the latory permits. To get back on track, reduction goals and ensuring robust achieved the 60 percent goal. We also inspection program should begin verify- Maryland must strengthen the next outreach efforts is critical, as are evaluated the key policies and programs ing the implementation of the practices round of permits, adhere to deadlines efforts to prioritize and target that states were relying on and made in the plans. With 6,800 miles of streams and requirements in approving jurisdic- resources to maximize cost-efficiency. recommendations for future priorities. impaired by agricultural activities, future tions’ Financial Assurance Plans and In addition, the Bay jurisdictions On the positive side, watershedwide, compliance efforts must transition toward reduce forest loss from development. should start planning now for the the 2017 pollution reduction goals for technical assistance and implementation. To improve progress in agriculture, impacts of climate change — both in phosphorus and sediment were achieved In addition, the statewide Keystone Maryland should focus its cost-share terms of the potential for additional and pollution reductions from wastewa- 10 Million Trees Partnership, coordi- investment dollars in targeted areas and pollution reductions and the prioritiza- ter treatment plants far exceeded 2017 nated by the CBF, is expected to have on sustainable practices — and restrict the tion of practices that will yield mul- goals in all three states. On the down- a positive impact on reducing agricul- use of funds for new or expanding poultry tiple benefits, including greenhouse side, the nitrogen pollution reduction tural, urban and suburban pollution by operations. Maryland also needs to better gas reduction and climate resiliency. goal was missed, and Pennsylvania con- achieving as much as two-thirds of the account and plan for pollution increases The Chesapeake Clean Water tinues to be responsible for most of the blueprint goal of 95,000 acres of forested from sprawl growth in rural areas as well Blueprint is working. The dead zone is shortfall. In addition, reducing polluted riparian buffers. But Pennsylvania as an expanding poultry industry. getting smaller, Bay grasses set a new runoff from urban and suburban areas is continues to be challenged by inadequate record last year, and the Bay’s oyster also off track in all of the jurisdictions. federal and state investments to clean Virginia population is recovering. It is time to and protect its rivers and streams. Virginia has made progress in develop and implement plans that will Pennsylvania The effectiveness of these efforts wastewater and agriculture, but needs finish the job. Pennsylvania’s cleanup plan estab- should benefit from the DEP’s pro- to improve stormwater cost-share Alison Prost is acting vice president lished a strategy to achieve agricultural posed approach of targeting time and programs, account for growth in for environmental protection and compliance with state regulations on resources in counties and watersheds poultry farming and strengthen urban restoration at the Chesapeake Bay all farms in the Chesapeake watershed that are delivering the most pollution to stormwater permit requirements. Foundation. by 2017. Overall, progress was lagging local waters and the Chesapeake Bay. until July 2016 when the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protec- Maryland tion initiated a program to verify that Like other states, Maryland has Let Us Know farms at least have the required plans, made progress reducing pollution from The Bay Journal welcomes letters pertaining to Chesapeake Bay as well as set a goal to inspect 10 wastewater treatment plants and at this issues. Letters should be no more than 400 words. Send letters to: Editor, percent of the farms annually. time, this is covering gaps from other Bay Journal, 619 Oakwood Drive, Seven Valleys, PA 17360-9395. Since 2016, the DEP and county sources. Maryland will not be able to E-mail letters to: [email protected] conservation districts have inspected rely on wastewater plant upgrades to Letter writers should include a phone number where they can be 15 percent of agricultural land in the cover shortfalls at the 2025 deadline. reached. Longer commentaries should be arranged in advance with the state for required sediment and erosion Maryland is also significantly behind editor. Call: 717-428-2819. control and manure management plans. in reducing polluted runoff from urban Views expressed are those of the writers and do not necessarily reflect About 65 percent of farms inspected and suburban areas. None of the state’s those of the Bay Journal or Chesapeake Media Service. had the required plans. most populated counties nor Baltimore Bay Journal • July-August 2018 39

Commentary • Letters • Perspectives Oligotrophication!orum A big word for even bigger news, a Bay comeback ByF Tom Horton pioneered tracing the flows of energy through nature that allowed a fuller It was a year ago, a sunny summer understanding of how all of the parts, morning overlooking the Choptank including humans, fit together. Other River… We were discussing what it scientists might publish on wetlands and has all meant, studying the Chesapeake fisheries; Odum delved into economics, Bay for about 40 years with just retired physics, even religion and wrote books University of Maryland scientists like Environment, Power and Society, Walter Boynton and Michael Kemp. which has influenced my own writing Except they’re not sounding as about the Chesapeake. retired as they should. Both have The pair’s Odumesque training completed enviable careers; Walt’s would prove a good fit for the efforts dealing with leukemia and post-polio begun in the 1970s to understand the stuff, Mike with Parkinson’s disease. estuary’s unprecedented, systemwide But like two old hounds, legs feeble but decline. Just as important from Odum, noses still keen, they’ve picked up the who worked his whole career with his hot scent of a scientific mystery. even more famous brother, ecologist “Oligotrophication.” Mike almost Eugene, Mike and Walt also learned doesn’t know how to pronounce it. collaboration, which was not encour- It’s rarely uttered — the opposite of aged in their field when they started. “eutrophication,” the term for the Together, they’ve published around overfertilization and resulting de-oxy- 50 peer-reviewed papers and in 2009 genation of waters through he addition won the prestigious Odum Award for of human wastes and fertilizers, which Lifetime Achievement, the only joint has become the sorry norm for the Bay winners of the prize. and coastal waters around the planet for “We live in the age of estuaries,” the many decades. late oceanographer Donald Pritchard Some oligotrophication would be a (an Odum winner) used to say, meaning good thing for our Chesapeake, promis- Retired University of Maryland scientists Michael Kemp, left, and Walter Boynton the geologically brief times between Ice ing cleaner, clearer waters, lusher with published around 50, peer-reviewed papers and in 2009 won the prestigious Odum Ages when seas rise and Chesapeake all of the life that abounded when Walt Award for Lifetime Achievement, the only joint winners of the prize. (Dave Harp) Bays form. first saw the Bay in 1969. More recently, in the last half cen- Could it be happening, even a smid- to stop reading right here. But to a Bay tury, we entered the age of eutrophic or gen, after 30-plus years of federal-state scientist…well, let Mike tell you: polluted estuaries — more recently still Bay restoration efforts? “When I first saw that relationship the era of trying to reverse such trends. Collegially, the two scientists go (in the data) I felt like the Conquis- Is it possible we may now be trend- back and forth about the prospect, tadors traveling across the American ing, slightly but surely, toward oligotro- prodding, second guessing, arguing as Southwest and coming upon the Grand phic, or recovering estuaries? they’ve done since they started working Canyon — Wow! How’d this get here?” It would be a fitting capstone to the together in the 1970s — as scientists In essence, it makes them suspect careers of those two old dogs, Walter have done with one another since there our modest gains in reducing nitrogen Boynton and Michael Kemp; both of was science. entering the Bay so far might have still whom would say more research needs With their younger colleague Jeremy been enough to reach a tipping point, to be done to confirm that. Testa, they’ve recently uncovered tanta- creating a positive feedback loop, boost- Tom Horton has written about the lizing hints that the Chesapeake, decades ing the estuary’s ability to rid itself of Chesapeake Bay for more than 40 after tipping over the edge toward a more Chesapeake Born pollution faster than expected. years, including eight books. He lives in degraded state, could be on the threshold Our traditional measurements of Salisbury, where he is also a professor of a comeback. “My gut says so, but [it’s] to where you could see another 0.05 progress, like reductions in volumes of Environmental Studies at Salisbury still just bits and pieces of proof…not of a meter into the water. But that was and duration of oxygen-poor waters University. conclusive,” Mike said. enough to explode the river bottom with or total pollution entering the estuary, Both men acknowledge that envi- many species of native grasses. Both might not be the whole story, might not ronmental science knows more about scientists find it “thrilling,” this notion be accounting for the Bay, in effect, Chesapeake Challenge how ecosystems go to hell than about that there are “thresholds” or “tipping also beginning to help itself. Answers to how they come back. There’s too little points” where a slight change can create Walt and Mike were born to do just You dolphinitely need to take this quiz! experience with the latter. a cascade of other changes. this stuff, to tease out scientific truths on page 34. Walt’s more convinced at this point They’re excited by what’s emerging from big, complicated, ever-shifting 1. B, 2. B, 3. Female 4. D, than Kemp. He recalled earlier work from decades of old water quality data ecosystems like the 187-mile-long 5. flukes swim, flippers steer in the Potomac River where the water they’ve been reworking, reanalyzing Chesapeake, embedded at the base of 6. B, 7. C, 8. A, 9. A, 10. D had gotten so cloudy that only a single “a thousand different ways” for the last 64,000 square miles of lands that drain 11. D species of nonnative grass inhabited the few years, Mike said. into it through 40-odd significant rivers. Bay Buddies bottom. Visibility, measured by a black- Something unanticipated seems to Both came here as Ph.D. students Answers to Dolphins! on page 34. and-white Secchi disc lowered into the be happening, a trend involving forms of the legendary H. T. Odum at the 1. D, 2. D, 3. D, 4. B, 5. C, 6. C, 7. A 8. B, 9. D, 10. D, 11. A river was 0.6 of a meter. of nitrogen — technically NH4, N2, N3 University of Florida, a genius who Visibility improved very marginally and NO2 — that might make you want brought systems analysis to ecology, 40 Bay Journal • July-August 2018

Commentary • Letters • Perspectives As theorum tide rises against them, Deal Islanders hold their ground By CFaitlyn Johnstone would be photographed many times in the years since its A small country road, ambitiously des- abandonment. A venture ignated a state highway, branches off U.S. capitalist group bought the Route 13 in the town of Princess Anne, island in the fall of 2010, MD, and meanders out into the marsh of commissioning a surveyor to the Eastern Shore. For 19 miles, the road take aerial photos of the disap- travels through forests of loblolly pines pearing sand with its solitary before giving way to miles of marsh grass home. The last house collapsed and patched water. Continue out into the into the waves in October of marshes, past where you would expect 2010. Today, the remains of to see humans and you end up in Deal structures below the waves and Island, one of the last classic Chesapeake the welcome respite of shallow Bay watermen communities. sand out in the Bay make an The size of the island is dependent excellent refuge for wildlife on your level of optimism: the county and a great place for watermen website describes Deal as being 3 miles to go crabbing. wide and 1 mile long. The resident- The islands of the Chesa- maintained island website describes peake Bay are curious in their Deal as 6 miles wide and 3 miles long. virtually rockless composi- It depends on how you determine what tion, making land highly is “land” and what is “water,” a line that susceptible to erosion from becomes ever more difficult to draw as storms and everyday wear. the years pass. Deal Island is, like most The Chesapeake basin has of the islands in the Tangier Sound, long-term geology working slowly being lost to the sea. against human habitation as Before the sun is fully up on the last well: Thanks to the compres- day in March, Butch Walters is at the sion by a heavy sheet of ice local marina preparing to search for the during the last ice age, the last of the winter oysters. His morning Chesapeake basin fluctuates greeting is immediately followed with from its release similar to the suspicious questions about how we know Butch Walters of Deal Island, MD, culls oysters harvested using a power dredge in the waters way Jell-O would wobble in the same people that he does, and how north of Deal Island, MD, in 2017. (Will Parson / Chesapeake Bay Program) and out after a pressing finger he came to have passengers. Working on was lifted. Currently, the the water is not a tourist opportunity, and on the island, returning each night to Chesapeake basin is sinking, bringing the Deal Island is so far out of the way that beautiful Victorian homes. Just like Deal land closer to the water at the same time strangers rarely venture out. When we does today, Holland Island had a traveling that the water is rising up to meet it. explain our contacts, Walters’ weathered baseball team. Such a lively community In this area, it is not a matter of what is face laughs. “I wondered how you were created the illusion of permanence. causing the changes—whether you want able to get down here and do that!” By 1922, Holland Island was aban- to believe it is human-caused climate Full disclosure, I grew up on Deal doned. With no bedrock to hold it in place, change, changes that are part of the Island visiting my family. It is the kind erosion quickly returned the island to the natural cycle of the Earth, sea level rise, of island where childhood memories are Bay. Some of the homes were dismantled a sinking Chesapeake or a combination a Norman Rockwell painting, if he had and taken to Crisfield, MD, to be rebuilt. of factors—the reason is not important. experienced a bit more salt and some Others tried to remain behind on their Everyone on the island can see the blue crabs. Summer evenings frequently There is a sense of place to the island so island, only to have devastating storms changes. Current residents will likely included trips for ice cream in the open deeply ingrained that very few would pull the land out from under their feet. live out their days on Deal Island, but the bed of a pickup truck, if you could find a think of leaving, even if it became neces- On a visit to the island many years later, island and the way of life will not last place on the edge amongst the crab pots. sary. Butch Walters is a “born here,” and former waterman Stephen White came forever. There is still a ways to go until A man with kind eyes that disappeared one of the last in generations of water- across the headstone of a little girl in one of then. The watermen of Deal Island are beneath deep black wrinkles would serve men in his family. the abandoned graveyards. Because of the working to save their heritage, in pictures up bonbons – frozen custard layered with inscription on this headstone, he poured and memoirs if not in passing on the chocolate syrup-soaked ice in paper cups A changing island blood, sweat and tears into trying to save traditions. – in a tiny car-drawn trailer sitting among Under the Chesapeake Bay lay more what remained. One single house persisted This is all happening on a slow the weeds. Headed back with our treats than oyster beds. Straight out from Deal above the waves in the decades to follow, geologic scale, but the combination of in the bed of the pickup, our bare feet Island is a patch of marsh called Holland beautiful and desolate. White and his wife factors facing Deal Island is accelerat- would dangle above the dirt road as we Island, home to birds and not visible at all placed sandbags, stones and wood and ing the timeline for its human residents. rattled off at speeds fast enough to easily during high tide, when it fully disappears even sunk a barge as breakwaters. The sea Holland Island still exists for the birds and dislodge a child or two. beneath the waves. Under the surface are proved a larger opponent, and White gave crabs, but it has been many decades since The island and a closeup view of the remains of an entire community— up the fight for Holland Island in 2010. The its human community was lost to the the working day of a waterman is not homes, schools, churches, shops and a headstone of the small girl that had driven dissipation of the land, and present-day generally open to new people. On Deal post office. In 1910, Holland Island was his 15-year crusade read, “Forget me not, watermen were shocked to dig into its Island, residents differentiate neighbors the most populated island in the Chesa- is all I ask.” by being “born heres” and “come heres.” peake. Ninety working vessels made port The last house on Holland Island Island continues on page 41 Bay Journal • July-August 2018 41

Commentary • Letters • Perspectives

Islandorum from page 40 tells us from her sunny deck. past and find their ancestors lived there. Her home looks ByF the time Walters’ great-grandchildren out over a large reach his age, they may be learning the piece of property same history about Walters and the other edged with watermen of Deal. marsh grasses, a shimmering The life of a waterman strip of the open “I’ve been oystering since I was 15 Bay and view of years old,” Walters said. “It gets in your the work boats blood, and you just don’t lose it. I mean on the horizon. you’re just stuck. You don’t want to do “It’s quiet, but nothing else.” He speaks with a Deal yet everybody’s Island accent, a warmly rolling mumbling here. If you need of words with a simultaneous staccato somebody, you cadence, unique to these small Chesapeake call. Country lands. “I could be doing something else life.” and I hear somebody say ’oysters‘ or The typical ’catching some crabs‘ and I’m ready to go.” age in the area has Though the pull on the heart that started to creep calls one to the water seems to be both up. When some- environmental and genetic, Walters may one passes away, be one of the last able to answer it. “Our Feral cats inhabit a marina on Deal Island in Somerset County, MD. Cats often eat scraps that watermen extra food, flow- generation, my generation, is the last big bring in with their catch. (Caitlyn Johnstone / Chesapeake Bay Program) ers and people generation that’s still working the water… are coordinated Kids are not wanting to work or they’re of young people are leaving the island oyster survival need to be more connected through the churches, fire companies, not used to this kind of work. Cause it is because there aren’t many jobs. If you with a broader view of the ecosystem legions and other civic-minded organiza- more work. Ain’t nothing easy about it.” don’t have your license already, it’s a involved in oyster survival. For one thing, tions strongly established on the island. Walters’ grandfather and great grand- five–, six–, seven-year waiting list unless keeping it local. “[Hatchery oysters] “It’s a community thing, the whole thing, fathers before him were all watermen. you got somebody in the family that’s won’t grow like the natural oyster will. from Dames Quarter right on down,” His father worked the water until he went leaving their license to you.” They grow real long and narrow and Whitelock states with pride. “They’re into the service, then worked on boats and The boat, rigging equipment, licensing they’re not fit to eat. They’re getting shells different communities but we’re all the went into painting after his return. Wal- fees and strain of diminished catch all from down in Florida; ancient shells is same. [We] look after each other.” ters’ son seems to have inherited a part of make working the water a less profitable what they’re called. They won’t catch on Working the water holds the same the waterman heart, but it isn’t enough. business these days. “I don’t know what’s them, either. That’s what they’re planting level of dedication for the remaining “He reminds me a lot of my father cause gonna happen to the water businesses. overboard on rocks — that are productive watermen. “It’s a way of life,” Walters he has the light for [being a waterman],” Looks to me likes it’s gonna be starva- rocks! — and they ruined ‘em.” suddenly stated from the helm of his said Walters, speaking of the extra quality tion time…there’s not going to be any Rather than merely brushing shoul- work boat. Silence has stretched for he feels one needs to be a waterman, watermen. There’s nobody young who ders when they come into contact in a some time when this statement is “but he don’t have the light to do it for can afford to go into the water business.” day’s work, Willing would like to see offered, and he spoke directly to the a living.” He looks out over the waters That’s former waterman and boat builder true collaboration between officials and water as he said it. “It gets in your blood as he talks, steering with a practiced Jack Willing, the man who presides over watermen on the science of growing and lays claim; I don’t know what it is. hand and keeping one eye on his screen Scott’s Cove Marina and holds court for oysters and the direction of the seafood It got in mine. I been here ever since.” readouts. Technology has revolutionized watermen on the faded couch next to the industries. “If you can’t catch no oysters, Caitlyn Johnstone is an outreach some aspects of working the water, like chip rack in the marina shop. you lose all your market. If you don’t specialist at the Chesapeake Bay the introduction of the power dredge, but To Willing, much of the problem with keep them cultivated, they die. It’s pretty Program and Alliance for the Chesa- Walters still uses a few of the old water- oyster recovery is a lack of communica- simple. They can’t get up and move peake Bay. men tricks. Flocks of ducks tend to swoop tion between the state and the watermen. around like a crab can.” down and feed on oyster beds, leading the “[The watermen] have been doing it since watermen to a likely spot. If you know they were 5 or 6 years old,” he said. “The Living what you’re looking for, the wildlife and watermen could tell you what’s going on.” on Deal Island the water can be just as effective as a Willing sees many problems with the Like the crabs, the depth finder. current state of hatcheries, though he’s people of Deal Island But it takes more than having “the highly in favor of growing oysters. During have the option to move light” and the knowledge to be a water- high school in the late ‘50s, Willing was away, but most would man. Mary Frances Whitelock, a former head of an aquaculture club that had rather stay through the math teacher and former shedder (some- great success in cultivating oyster patches changing conditions. one working in the crab sheds preparing and making a profit. “But the state!” he Scenery is breathtaking, the soft shells), spoke about the economic exclaims, “they can’t grow one, save their but it’s the neighbors that strains on the watermen industry. “I know heart overboard, unless they plant shells are the strongest factor. a lot of parents don’t want their people to for them to catch on.” “Saving a heart There are four com- go out on the water because they don’t overboard” is a mixture of affection and munities that make up think there’s a future in it anymore. Used disparagement akin to the Southern “bless the area: Dames Quarter, to be, everybody down here worked for your heart,” and not a phrase you’re likely Chance, Deal Island and the water. They made their living on the to hear outside a waterman town. Wenona. “I like a com- A tombstone dating to the early 1800s lies broken on Deal water. They grew up that way. But a lot He said that those with an interest in munity life,” Whitelock Island, MD. (Will Parson / Chesapeake Bay Program) 42 Bay Journal • July-August 2018

July 7, 11, 21 & 25 and Aug. 18, 22, Preregistration is required for 25 & 29. All ages are welcome (12 both programs; contact: 410- & younger w/adult) to help remove WorkdayMake sure that whenWisdom you 612-1688, 410-879-2000 x1688, invasive species, plant natives participate in cleanup or invasive otterpointcreek.org. and maintain restored habitat. plant removal workdays to protect Service hours are available. Meet the Chesapeake Bay watershed Ruth Swann Park at Sherwood House parking lot. and its resources that you also Help the Maryland Native Plant Preregistration is required. Contact: protect yourself. Organizers of Society, Sierra Club and Chapman Volunteer Opportunities Laurie Taylor-Mitchell at almost every workday strongly Forest Foundation 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. [email protected]. urge their volunteers to wear long the second Saturday in July, August CBL Visitor Center pants, long-sleeved shirts, socks and September remove invasive Volunteer docents, ages 16 & Patapsco Valley State Park and closed-toe shoes (hiking or plants at Ruth Swann Park in Bryans older, are needed at the Chesapeake Maryland’s Patapsco Valley State waterproof). This helps to mini- Road. Meet at Ruth Swann Park- Biological Laboratory’s Visitor Center Park needs volunteers to help remove mize skin exposure to poison ivy Potomac Branch Library parking on Solomons Island, MD. Volunteers wavyleaf basketgrass throughout the and ticks, which might be found lot. Bring lunch. Contact Marc must commit to a minimum of two, park. Workdays are scheduled 9 a.m. at the site. Light-colored clothing Imlay at [email protected], 301-283- 3– to 4-hour shifts each month during to noon July 21, Aug. 25 and Sept. also makes it easier to spot ticks. 0808, (301-442-5657 day of event). the spring, summer and fall seasons. 8. Wear long pants, long sleeves and Hats are strongly recommended. Carpoolers meet at the Sierra Club Training sessions are required. sturdy boots. Bring water and gloves. Although some events provide MD Chapter office at 9 a.m., return Contact: [email protected]. Rain cancels a workday. The park also work gloves, not all do; ask when at 5 p.m. Carpool contact: Laurel needs volunteers to help with weekly registering. Imlay at 301-277-7111. Paradise Creek Nature Park maintenance. Registration is required. Events near water require Paradise Creek Nature Park in Contact: volunteerpatapsco.dnr@ closed-toe shoes and clothing that Resources Portsmouth, VA, is looking for maryland.gov. can get wet or muddy. participants of all ages (12 & younger Always bring water. Sunscreen Emerald ash borer program w/adult) to take part in its Volunteer Lancaster, PA, stream surveys and an insect repellent designed The Virginia Department of Service Days 9–11 am. July 28 and The Lancaster (PA) County to repel both deer ticks and Forestry’s Emerald Ash Borer Cost- Aug. 11 and 25. Help to pull invasive Conservancy needs volunteers of all mosquitoes help. Share Program will help landowners plants and install native species as ages to help out at its Susquehanna Lastly, most organizers ask that nonprofits, schools, homeowner well as maintain trails and recreation Riverlands Research and Education volunteers register ahead of time. associations and municipalities treat amenities. Wear closed-toe shoes Center at Climbers Run Nature Knowing how many people are ash trees to prevent death by the and long-pants. Bring sunscreen, Preserve in Pequea, 9–11 a.m. July going to show up ensures that emerald ash borer. Contact Meredith insect repellent, water bottle. 14 as part of the Water Quality they will have enough tools and Bean at [email protected]. Preregistration is required. Contact: Volunteer Coalition, a partnership supervisors. They can also give gov, 434-220-9034. To learn about Kat Fish at 757-392 7132, with the Lancaster Conservation directions to the site or offer any the borer, visit emeraldashborer.info. [email protected]. District and Donegal Trout suggestions for apparel or gear To participate in free webinars, visit Unlimited. Preregistration is required. not mentioned here. emeraldashborer.info/eabu.php. Adopt-a-Stream program Contact Linda Ferich at The Prince William Soil & Water [email protected]. MD weekly fishing report Conservation District in Manassas, tools and water are provided. Learn what fish are biting where in VA, wants to ensure that stream Little Paint Branch Park Preregistration is required. Contact: Maryland through summaries written cleanup volunteers have all of the Help the Maryland-National 410-414-3400, acltweb.org, by experts at news.maryland.gov/dnr/ support and supplies they need for Capital Park and Planning Commission [email protected]. tag/weekly-fishing-report. trash removal. Participating groups remove invasive species 11 a.m. to 3 receive an Adopt-A-Stream sign from p.m. the last Saturday in July, August Prince William Ploggers Learn if your yard is Bay-Wise the PWC Public Works Department and September at Little Paint Branch Join the Prince William (VA) Master Gardeners in Prince in recognition of their stewardship. Park in Beltsville. Learn about natural Ploggers, a volunteer corps of George’s County (MD) takes part in To learn more, adopt a stream features and native plants. Sign in for a joggers who pick up litter. Contact: Bay-Wise, a program that offers free or get a proposed site, contact safety orientation. Gloves and tools are Lynda Kummelt at 571-285-3772; consultations on sound environmen- [email protected]. provided. Contact: Marc Imlay at 301- [email protected]. tal practices for county residents’ 442-5657, [email protected]. yards to help them to have their York County (PA) Parks Snap a stream selfie landscapes certified as Bay-Wise. Upcoming volunteer opportunities Magruder Woods Water quality in 80 percent of The Master Gardeners look for at York County, PA, parks include: Help Friends of Magruder Woods U.S. streams is unknown. Volunteers healthy lawn maintenance, efficient ≈ Kain Park, York: 6:30–8:30 p.m. 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. the third Saturday in can help bridge the information gap watering and pest control, and native July 10. Trail maintenance. July, August and September remove by taking a selfie from their backyard trees and plants that provide shelter ≈ Kain Park, York: 9–11 a.m. & invasive plants in the forested swamp or nearby stream. Contact: and habitat for wildlife. They also 1–3 p.m. Aug. 11. Clean up the lake in Hyattsville, MD. Meet at the farthest iwla.org/streamselfie. suggest approaches to reduce pollu- by canoe. end of the parking lot. Contact: Marc tion. Free Bay-Wise signs are given ≈ Raab Park, Seven Valleys: 9 Imlay at [email protected], Anita Leight Estuary Center to homeowners who demonstrate a.m.–12 p.m. Sept. 22. Trail work. 301-283-0808, (301-442-5657 the Volunteer opportunities at sound Bay-Wise practices. Home- ≈ Nixon Park, York: 9–11:30 a.m. day of event); or Colleen Aistis at Anita C. Leight Estuary Center in owners can also evaluate their prop- & 2:30–4 p.m. Oct. 6. Habitat tree 301-985-5057. Abingdon, MD, include: erty online using the MD Yardstick, plantings. ≈ Invasinators: 9–11 a.m. July which tallies their pollution-reducing Preregistration is required. Contact: American Chestnut Land Trust 15. Work at Leight Park & Bosely gardening and landscaping practices. [email protected], 717-840-7440. The American Chestnut Land Conservancy. Ages 14+ Remove To have a yard certified as Bay-Wise, Trust in Prince Frederick, MD, invasive species, plant natives. though, homeowners need to have Cromwell Valley Park needs volunteers for its invasive ≈ Plankton Monitoring Studies: the Master Gardeners visit and Cromwell Valley Park near plant removal workdays 9–11 a.m. July 11, 18 & 25. Adults. Help to evaluate their landscape. Contact: Towson, MD, needs volunteers for Thursdays and 10 a.m.–12 p.m. collect, identify, analyze plankton Esther Mitchell: [email protected] its Habitat Restoration Team / Weed Wednesdays. All ages (16 & younger samples. Call the center for Warrior Days 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. w/adult) are welcome. Training, introductory training. Bulletin continues on page 43 Bay Journal • July-August 2018 43

through Dec. 15. This non-credit course with no formal classes covers how to protect trees from New Submission Guidelines insects, diseases and fire; step- The Bay Journal regrets it is least two months in advance. See by-step procedures on making a not always able to print every below. forest inventory and stand analysis; notice it receives because of ≈ Submissions to Bulletin Board details of the forestry business; tax space limitations. Priority is given must be sent either as a Word or nuances; and the sale and harvest to events or programs that most Pages document, or as simple text Bulletin from page 42 of forest products. The course is closely relate to the preservation in the body of an e-mail. PDFs, designed to provide a framework and appreciation of the Bay, newsletters or other formats may or visit extension.umd.edu/baywise/ for a forest stewardship plan. The its watershed and resources. be considered if there is space program-certification. Click on $150 fee includes supplemental Items published in Bulletin and if information can be easily “download the yardstick” to evaluate readings. The paper version text Board are posted on the online extracted. a landscape and/or vegetable garden. and appendices for the course are calendar; unpublished items are ≈ Programs must contain all of in binder form. Online users receive posted online if staffing permits. the following information: a phone Runoff on private property a flash drive of the paper version of Guidelines: number (include the area code) or Private property owners in the text and appendices. A certificate ≈ Send notices to e-mail address of a contact person; Virginia who need help with erosion of completion is awarded when all [email protected]. Items the title, time (online calendar and runoff control can contact the assignments are completed. Contact: sent to other addresses are not requires an end time as well as a Prince William Soil and Conservation extension.umd.edu/forestry-course. always forwarded before the start time), date and place of the for VCAP Assistance at 571-379-7514 or Nancy Stewart at 410-827-8056 deadline. event or program. Submissions or visit: http:/vaswcd/vcap. x107, [email protected]. ≈ Bulletin Board contains events must state if the program is that take place (or have registration free, requires a fee, has age Floatable monitoring program Grants to fight MD wildfires deadlines) on or after the 11th requirements, has a registration The Prince William Soil & Water The Maryland Department of of the month in which the item deadline or welcomes drop-ins. Conservation District in Manassas, Natural Resources is offering critical is published through the 11th of ≈ September issue: August 11 VA, needs volunteers to help assess grant funding through its Volunteer the next month. Deadlines run at ≈ October issue: September 11 and trace trash in streams as part Fire Assistance Program to help of an effort to reduce nonpoint strengthen wildland firefighting source pollutants in urbanized and capabilities statewide. The grants, monitoring-toolkit educators; educators (Other teachers may attend industrialized areas in relation to which help first responders to marinedebris.noaa.gov/sites/default/ if space allows.) Participants leave the County’s Municipal Separate acquire and maintain the skills files/publications-files/MarineDebris- with the Reach Educator Guide for Storm Sewers (MS4) permit. Cleanup and specialized tools they need to MonitoringToolkitForEducators.pdf. Middle School, Modules 1-10 and supplies are provided. Contact: battle wildfires, are funded by the earn U.S. Sailing STEM Educator [email protected]. U.S. Department of Agriculture Urban farming workshop certification. The Reach modules Forest Service. They require local Future Harvest Chesapeake are correlated to national education Turf / lawn programs matching funds of 50 percent, Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture, standards in science and math, as well For information the Prince William with a maximum award of $3,000. the University of Maryland Extension as US Sailing’s Learn Sailing Right! Soil & Water Conservation District’s Volunteer fire departments can and the Farm Alliance of Baltimore Baltimore’s Downtown Sailing Center 12 Steps to a Greener Lawn / submit one grant application per invite urban farmers to Cultivate is a co-host of this workshop. Contact: Building Environmental Sustainable year. Applications will be accepted Baltimore: Community-Engaged cbmm.org. Turf BEST Lawns Program — low- until July 16. Contact: Monte Farming, 6–8 p.m. July 12 at cost, research-based programs for Mitchell at 410-260-8503. Whitelock Community Farm in Events / Programs lawn education — call 703-792-4037 Baltimore. Eric Jackson of Black or visit [email protected]. The Bay Backpack Yield Institute will explain why it’s MD Conservation Corps Provided by the Chesapeake Bay critical to gather input from, show The Maryland Department of Stormwater management help Program’s Education Workgroup, the respect to and support a farm Natural Resources is recruiting young Businesses and nonprofits Bay Backpack is an online resource community’s members. Whitelock adults, ages 17–25, for the Maryland interested in landscaping and turf for educators with information about Community Farm’s Isabel Antreasian Conservation Corps, an AmeriCorps management, stormwater pond funding opportunities, field studies, will discuss the ways Whitelock program that staffs extensive management, wildlife concerns, curriculum guides and lesson plans engages and serves their Reservoir conservation, environmental and recommendations for maintaining related to the Chesapeake. Contact: Hill community. The workshop fee is natural resources management landscapes, protecting water quality baybackpack.com. $10. To request a scholarship, email projects across the state. Participants and pollution prevention can call 703- [email protected] with work on five to seven teams for 792-6285 to schedule a free site visit. Marine debris toolkit the subject line “Cultivate Baltimore an 11-month period beginning The National Oceanic and Atmo- scholarship request.” in September. Their work might Bilingual educator resources spheric Administration’s Office of include: conducting interpretive state Bilingual lessons are available in National Marine Sanctuaries and the CBMM educator workshops park programs; helping to preserve English and Spanish for Interstate NOAA Marine Debris Program have Free educator workshops offered historical heritage sites; improving Commission on the Potomac River developed a toolkit for students and by the Chesapeake Bay Maritime park nature centers; maintaining Basin educational programs. Contact: educators in coastal and inland areas Museum in St. Michaels, MD, include: trails; planting trees; providing potomacriver.org/resources/educator- to learn more about marine debris ≈ Exploring the Chesapeake: environmental education programs resources/bilingualmaterials. and monitor their local waterways. Mapping the Bay: 10 a.m.–2 p.m. for students; restoring wildlife This toolkit is a collaborative effort July 30 for K–12 school-based habitat; and working with schools Forums / Workshops to reduce the impact on marine and homeschool educators. Learn to plant Bay grasses. Interested ecosystems through hands-on citizen strategies for teaching with maps individuals must submit an online Class for forest owners science, education and community using the CBMM’s Exploring the application at dnr.maryland.gov/ The University of Maryland outreach. Contacts: sanctuaries. Chesapeake: Mapping the Bay publiclands/Pages/mcc_application. Extension is offering a General noaa.gov/news/aug17/toolkit-helps- exhibition. The Maryland Geographic aspx. Placement is on a first-come, Forestry Course for landowners. students-and-teachers-fight-against- Alliance is co-host of this workshop. first-served basis. Both paper and online versions marine-debris.html; marinedebris. ≈ STEM & Ocean Literacy: 9 a.m.–5 of the course are offered Sept. 1 noaa.gov/curricula/marine-debris- p.m. Aug. 6. Open to middle school Bulletin continues on page 44 44 Bay Journal • July-August 2018

1 p.m. Aug. 11 at Romance Pier and ≈ Go Wild for a Native! 1–2:30 common access card, DD Form the Kent Island American Legion p.m. Aug. 12 [N] Ages 8+ Learn how 1173 ID card (dependent ID) or a DD #278. Register for required wristbands to turn even a small corner of a yard Form 1173-1 ID card. Free, on-site at 8 a.m., fish 9–11 a.m. and get into a wildlife oasis. Fee: $4. parking available. Contact: cbmm.org, prizes and refreshments 11:30 a.m. ≈ Just for Kids / Animal Story Time: 410-745-2916. The program excludes to 1 p.m. Participants, who must be 1–2 p.m. Aug. 18 [N] Ages 3–10. festival admission. A list of 2018 accompanied by an adult, are asked Listen to an animal story, make a participating Blue Star museums is at to bring their own rods as there are bookmark. Fee: $4. arts.gov/bluestarmuseums. Bulletin from page 43 only a few loaners available. Bait is ≈ Owl Prowl: 8–9:30 p.m. Aug. ≈ Family Boatshop Program: 10 provided. Prizes are awarded for the 24 [N] Ages 5+ Join a naturalist, who a.m.–4 p.m. Aug. 4. Ages 10+ w/ Farm-to-table fund-raiser largest fish, smallest fish, most unique will call in a great horned owl. Wear adult. Help to build steam-bent bird The Prince William Environmental fish and most fish caught in each age dark clothing, sturdy shoes. Fee: $4. feeders. The cost for one youth/adult Excellence Foundation’s third annual group: 3–5, 6–10 & 11–16. Winners ≈ Migrating Monarchs: 1–3 p.m. pair is $55; each additional child is Farm to Table Fund-raiser Dinner must be present to claim their prize. Aug. 25 [N] Ages 6+ Learn about, help $20. Preregistration required; visit takes place 3–8 p.m. (first seating There will be no more than one to capture & tag these butterflies as cbmm.org/shipyardprograms. 3:30–5:30; second seating 5:30– trophy per winning child. Contact: they head south to Mexico. Fee: $4. 7:30) Aug. 25 at Windy Knoll Farm [email protected] ≈ Stream Search: 1–2:30 p.m. Summer Adventure Poker Run in Nokesville, VA. The meal is an Aug. 26 [N] Ages 8+ Search stream Take part in the Anita C. Leight open seating, buffet-style dinner Cromwell Valley Park creatures. Nets provided. Shoes will Estuary Center’s Summer Adventure with lemonade, tea and water; local Upcoming programs at Cromwell get wet. Free. Poker Run! Abingdon 9 a.m.–12:30 beer and wine will be available for Valley Park’s Willow Grove Nature Ages 12 & younger must be p.m. July 14. Register in before sale. All meal ingredients will be Center [N] or Primitive Technology accompanied by an adult. Except 10 a.m. and get a list of locations provided and produced by farms in Laboratory [T] near Towson, MD, where noted, preregistration is (Anita C. Leight Estuary Center, Prince William County. The event include: required for all programs. Contact: Bosely Conservancy, Mariner also includes local artisans, farm ≈ Ochre: Humanity’s Paint: 1–3 [email protected], Point Park & Copenhaver Park) to sponsors, vendor displays, antique p.m. July 14 [T] Ages 8+ Learn the 410-887-2503. For disability-related visit. Participants take selfies while equipment, silent auction, raffle history of red ochre pigments, then accommodations, call 410-887-5370 collecting a playing card at each site and a hayride tour of the farm. hike in the Minebank Run to collect, or 410-887-5319 (TTY), giving as before returning to the center. Those Tickets are: $40/adults, $20/ages process the rock into paint. Bring much notice as possible. who complete the poker run earn 13–18; free/ages 12 & younger. All a bandana or white shirt to paint. a T-shirt. Prizes are announced at proceeds support the foundation’s Shoes will get wet. Fee: $4. Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum 12:45 p.m. Snacks will be provided. environmental, agricultural and ≈ Wild Edibles: 1–3 p.m. July 15 Upcoming events and programs Free. No registration required. natural resource conservation [N] Ages 18+ Join a naturalist to at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Contact: Laura Coste’ at education programs. collect, cook what is found. Fee: $5. Museum in St. Michaels, MD, 410-638-3217 x2448, ≈ Mud & Fire / Part I: 1–2:30 p.m. include: [email protected]. Destination Dinosaur at VLM July 21 [T] Ages 18+ Use clay from ≈ Winnie Estelle Ecology Cruises: The Virginia Living Museum White Marsh Run to discover how 10–11:30 a.m. Aug. 8 and 1–2:30 MD youth fishing rodeos invites the public to its latest exhibit, native people made pottery. Fee: $4. p.m. July 12. All ages. Explore the The MD DNR Fishing & Boating Destination: Dinosaur, a dinosaur- ≈ Mud & Fire / Part II: 1–3 p.m. Miles River’s habitat and ecology; Services and partners in local themed experience. Guests travel Aug. 11 [T] Ages 18+ Bring the learn how to monitor, test its water communities are running free Youth back to the Jurassic and Cretaceous pot from Part I to learn how to fire quality; look for an oyster reef’s Fishing Rodeos for ages 3–15. periods as they view 11 animatronic pottery on a campfire. Fee: $5. animals. The route passes near Long Participants learn basic angling skills; dinosaurs in the indoor gallery; a ≈ Poisonous Plants & Animals: Point Island, known for its eagle develop an understanding of the life-size T. rex and Pachyrhinosaurus 1–2:30 p.m. July 22 [N] Ages 5+ and osprey populations and heron environment and natural resources; photo-op in the garden; water- Learn to how to identify, avoid: rookery. Fee: $20. Preregistration and have an experience that fosters spitting Dilophosaurus & baby on the poison ivy, cherry leaves, nightshade, required. Contact: interest in conservation and fishing. back deck; original Virginia dinosaur copperhead snakes. Fee: $4. cbmm.org/onthewater. Because of space limitations, tracks; and outdoor dinosaur ≈ Moths in the Moonlight: 8–9:30 ≈ Winnie Estelle Cruises / Log would-be attendees should call the discovery trail. Three dinosaur- p.m. July 27 [N] All ages. Attend an Canoe Races: Two-hour cruises contact at each venue to register. related shows are also being offered: indoor presentation about saturniid depart 9:30 a.m. July 29, & Sept. Upcoming rodeos include: ≈ Did An Asteroid Really Kill moths, then head outside to attract 16; and 9:30 a.m. & 1:30 p.m. July ≈ Bay 7 Street Ponds, Talbot the Dinosaurs? 1:30 p.m. daily May insects with bait, lights. Fee: $4. 28, Sept. 8 & 15. View Chesapeake County. 8 a.m.–12 p.m. July 14. 5–Sept. 3 in the Abbitt Planetarium. ≈ Just for Kids / Little Free Library Bay sailing log canoe races along Contact: Calvin Yowell, Easton Elks Fee: $4 plus museum admission. Launch & Story Time: 1–2:30 p.m. July the Miles River while aboard the Lodge #1622, 410-820-8935. ≈ The Rex is Right! 12:30 p.m. 28 [N] Ages 3–10. Help unveil the 1920 buyboat. Cruises include ≈ Patterson Park, Baltimore. 10 & 1:30 p.m. daily June 16–Sept. 3. Little Free Library with a story, hike to commentary from CBMM’s docents, a.m.–1 p.m. Oct. 27. Contact: Bob Live theater program in the outdoor stream to search for creatures that live crew. Fee: $35. Registration required. Wall, Baltimore City Recreation and amphitheater. there. Shoes will get wet. Fee: $4. Contact: cbmm.org/onthewater. Parks, 410-245-0854. ≈ Daring Dinosaurs! 11 a.m., 12 ≈ Butterflies Like It HOT! 1–2:30 ≈ Free Admission / Military Families: p.m. & 1 p.m. June 16–Sept. 3. Live p.m. July 29 [N] Ages 8+ Learn to CBMM participates in the Blue Star Eden Mill Nature Center animal encounter on the museum’s observe, identify butterflies, plus Museums program, which offers free Upcoming events at Eden Mill main level. why they prefer hot weather. Bring general admission to active-duty Nature Center in Pylesville, MD, Destination: Dinosaur is included binoculars. Free. military personnel and up to five include: with museum admission: adults/$20, ≈ Discovering Dragonflies: 1–2:30 immediate family members through ≈ Child & Adult Paint: 6–8 p.m. ages 3–12/$15. Contact: thevlm.org, p.m. Aug. 4 [N] Ages 5+ The creature Sept. 3, 2018. It includes those July 13 (Sea Turtle) or 3–5 p.m. 757-595-1900. in Alien was partly based on insect currently serving in the U.S. military: July 27 (Fish). Ages: 5–10 w/adult. life cycles. Help to catch these pond Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Learn how to use tools, acrylic Kent Island youth fishing derby creatures. Shoes will get wet. Fee: $4. Coast Guard as well as Reservists, paints, canvas, brushes, as well Kent Island Fishermen, Inc. and ≈ Late Summer Wildflowers Field National Guardsman, Public Health as techniques. Child & adult each the Kent Island Estates Community Hike: 1–2:30 p.m. Aug. 5 [N] Adults. Commissioned Corps, NOAA complete a 14”x 18” acrylic Association’s 13th Annual Youth Learn the stories behind wildflower Commissioned Corps. Participants Fishing Derby takes place 8 a.m. to names. Free. must show a Geneva Convention Bulletin continues on page 45 Bay Journal • July-August 2018 45

the Bay’s lighthouses. Brownie, 717-428-1961. Selected photos will be featured in Junior and Cadette Girl Scouts ≈ Wading Birds Drop-In: 1–3 p.m. the DNR’s 2019 wall calendar. The can earn badges. The fee of $40 July 22. Kain Park’s Iron Stone Hill grand prize winner gets $500, a 2019 per person includes an overnight Parking Lot, York. Ages 8+ Look park passport, a five-year magazine stay with a dedicated museum for what lives around Lake Redman subscription and five calendars with facilitator, activities, patch and Look through binoculars and spotting winning image on the cover. First two-day admission to the museum’s scopes for water birds, learn why place receives a 2019 park passport, exhibitions and campus. Groups they hang out in the shallow waters. two-year magazine subscription Bulletin from page 44 (12-person minimum, 18-person Drop in & leave at any time. and five calendars; second place a maximum) may add a drop-in river ≈ Moonlight Bike Rides on one-year magazine subscription and painting. Fee: $50. cruise aboard the 1920 buyboat Heritage Rail Trail County Park: Meet five calendars; and third place one ≈ Nature Storybook Art: 10 Winnie Estelle, subject to seasonal at 8:30–10 p.m. July 28 at Hanover calendar. A Fan Favorite will also be a.m.–12 p.m. July 16–20. Ages 5–10 availability. Overnights are reserved Junction for 9-mile trip; 8:30–10 p.m. selected by DNR Facebook followers (no parents) Learn about books, on a first-come, first-served basis, Aug. 25 at Seven Valleys for 10-mile after the contest closes. Entries can illustrators, art techniques such as with a $100 deposit. Contact: trip; 7:30–9 p.m. Sept. 8 at Stump be submitted online or through the drawing, painting, collage, crafting/ cbmm.org/lighthouseovernights. Park Meadow (Astronomy Night) mail; the deadline is Aug. 31. Details constructing. Fee: $71. for 8-mile trip. Bring bicycle, light, are available at dnr.maryland.gov/ ≈ Still Life Drawing: 5:30–7:30 Mount Harmon Plantation water, helmet. Contact: 717-840- Pages/photocontest.aspx. Contact: p.m. July 19 (Birds) & Aug. 28 Upcoming events at the Mount 7440, yorkcountyparks.org, Lauren Mitchell at (Textured surfaces). Teens, adults. Harmon Historic Plantation and Nature [email protected]. [email protected]. All skill levels welcome. Fee: Preserve in Earleville, MD, include: ≈ Insects: 2:30–4 p.m. July 29. $9. Courses teach tips, tricks for ≈ Sultana Guided Lotus Blossom Nixon Park, York. Take an indoor, VA conservation photo contest capturing subjects with an artistic Paddle: 9–11:30 a.m. July 13. Ages in-depth look of both local and The Virginia Soil & Water naturalist’s eye. Watch a brief 12+ Launch from Mount Harmon’s exotic specimens. Conservation District’s 2018 Photo presentation, spend the rest of the waterfront for a paddle along an ≈ Boats & Birds: 9–11 a.m. Aug. Contest’s theme is Conservation time drawing from your choice of a abundance of lotus blossom, led by 5 & 26. Kain Park, Lake Redman Through The Seasons. Each person variety of displays. a guide from the Sultana Education Activity Area, York. Take a slow can submit up to 10 photos. The ≈ Wee Wonders: 9:30–11:30 July Foundation. Later, take a guided paddle in a canoe or kayak on Lake contest runs through Aug. 15. 23–27. Ages 2-5 with adult. Nature tour of the manor house. Kayaks Redman to look for birds living along Contact: vaswcd.org/photocontest. games & activities, story, craft, hike provided. Bring water, snack, the shoreline. No birding experience each day. Fee: $75. binoculars. Fee: $30. Preregistration necessary. Bring a snack, drink, field Benjamin Banneker Historical Park ≈ Owl Prowl: 8–9 p.m. July 28. Ages required; visit sultanaeducation.org, guide, binoculars (there are a limited Upcoming programs at the 6+ (minors w/ participating adult). After click on public paddles under the number of loaner binoculars). Fee: Benjamin Banneker Historical Park and an indoor lesson on owls, hit the trails public education menu. $20 w/park boat; $10/participants Museum, Catonsville, MD, include: to perhaps hear their calls. Fee: $3. ≈ Lotus Blossom Art & Nature w/their own boat. Preregistration ≈ Liberty Tea Party: 2–3:30 p.m. ≈ Critter Dinner Time: 11 a.m. Festival: 10 a.m.–4 p.m. Aug. 4. required; call 717-428-1961. July 15. Adults. After the Boston Saturdays through August. All ages Event includes nature-inspired fine ≈ Butterflies of Pennsylvania:1–2 Tea Party, colonial household’s tea (minors must be w/adult). Learn arts, crafts, exhibitors, wagon rides, p.m. Aug. 12. Nixon Park, York. consisted of herbs, mints from their about, help feed some of the center’s children’s activities, live bluegrass PowerPoint presentation of common gardens. Learn about different teas, animals. Free. Preregister by 4 p.m. music, local food vendors. Fee: $5; butterflies and their host plants. and customs at this casual afternoon the Friday before. ages 12 & younger are free. Contact: ≈ Caterpillars Drop-In: 2–4 p.m. tea party. Fee: $20. ≈ Sunrise/Sunset Canoe Trips: www.mountharmon.org, 410-275- Aug. 12. Nixon Park, York. Meet live ≈ What’s Cookin’, Mr. Banneker? 9–11:30 a.m. Saturdays or 5:45–8:15 8819, [email protected]. caterpillars, learn about their habits, 12–3 p.m. July 21. All ages. Historical p.m. Thursdays through mid-October. habitats. Bring butterfly photos for interpreters demonstrate Federal Ages 6+ (all minors w/adult) Explore York County (PA) Parks identification. Drop-in & leave any time. Period techniques of cooking at a Deer Creek. The emphasis is on Upcoming events at York County, ≈ Hunter Safety Course: 6–9:30 hearth. Free. environmental education, interpretation PA, parks include: p.m. Aug. 16 & Saturday 8 a.m.–12 ≈ Moths & Mars: 8–9:30 p.m. provided by naturalist guide. Fee: $8. ≈ Creature Features: 9:30–10 a.m. p.m. Aug. 18. Nixon Park, York. PA July 27. Ages 5+ Celebrate National Preregistration is required for all or 11–11:30 a.m. July 12, 19 & 26 and Game Commission instructors teach Moth Week and a close encounter programs. Contact: 410-836-3050, Aug. 7. Nixon Park, York. Ages 5+ this course. Preregistration required; with Mars! Learn how to attract [email protected]. Learn about an animal’s natural history, visit pgc.state.pa.us. nocturnal moths, view Mars through a Registration ends 24 hours in advance behavior using photos, props, artifacts. ≈ Flintknapping: 2:30–4 p.m. telescope. Fee: $3/person; $10/family. of programs. Weekend programs’ Different animal each session. Aug. 19. Nixon Park, York. Hands-on ≈ Trace Your Roots: 10 a.m.–2 registration closes at noon the prior Friday. ≈ Fridays in a Stream: 9:30-11 demonstration of the ancient art of p.m. July 28. Learn the basic a.m. July 13 (Rocky Ridge Park, making tools from rock. Participants steps: exploring family artifacts & Youth lighthouse adventures York), July 20 (Nixon Park, York), July can practice with stone axes, throwing documents; standard records such as Youth groups are invited to 27 (Wallace-Cross Mill, Hopewell sticks, bow and arrows, atlatl. census, vital records, military records reserve dates for the Chesapeake Township). Explore a hillside starter Except where noted, events & other public records. Fee: $18. Bay Maritime Museum’s Lighthouse stream, then a valley floor stream, are free and do not require ≈ Todd Marcus Jazz Concert: Overnight Adventures on select then a rich, protected, coldwater preregistration. Contact: 717-840- 6–8 p.m. July 28. Benefit concert on Fridays and Saturdays, Aug. 31 stream. Hands-on, wet feet activity. 7440, yorkcountyparks.org. the lawn of the Banneker Museum through Oct. 27. A museum educator No open-toe shoes or sneakers; rain supports programs. Tickets: $20. helps participants, ages 8–12 (and boots recommended. MD resources photo contest Advance registration is required chaperones), travel back in time to ≈ Bats Demystified: 2:30–4 p.m. July The Maryland Department of for all programs. Contact: 410- explore the life of a late 19th-century 15. Nixon Park, York. Learn why bats Natural Resources is accepting 887-1081, BannekerMuseum@ lighthouse keeper as they spend are beneficial as myths are dispelled. entries for its 2018 Maryland Natural BaltimoreCountyMD.gov, . the night in the 1879 Hooper Strait ≈ Woods Wander: 10–11:30 a.m. Resource Photo Contest. First, Lighthouse in St. Michaels, MD. July 17. Rocky Ridge Park, York. second and third place winners Farm Sprouts From lighthouse engineering to the Meet at Hidden Laurel Parking Area. will be selected for each of the The Maryland Agricultural daily task of maintaining the great All ages. Explore one of several four seasons featuring any of the Resource Council invites children, lamp, the overnight uses games, trails with a naturalist to investigate following subjects: flora, landscapes, costumes and objects to explore whatever is there. Preregister at recreation, weather and wildlife. Bulletin continues on page 46 46 Bay Journal • July-August 2018

painted ($5 fee), slide down the jaws Bring reusable water bottle and wear ≈ Raptors Reign: 1–3 p.m. July of a giant inflated shark, build a shark the activity uniform, comfortable 28 [C] All ages. Licensed falconer out of Legos and tag #cmmlegoshark hiking shoes, hat, sunscreen, insect Rodney Stotts discusses, shares and #calvertmarinemuseum. No repellent. Camera, binoculars are up-close encounters with birds of complimentary passes or strollers recommended. prey. No registration. inside the museum for this event. ≈ Screech & Kestrel: 12:15–12:45 ≈ North Tract Bicycle Ride: ≈ Historic Sunset Supper Cruises p.m. July 14 & 21. [C] All ages. 1–3:30 p.m. July 29. Ages 10+ on the Wm. B. Tennison: 5–7:30 p.m. Meet an American kestrel & Eastern Learn importance of reducing one’s Bulletin from page 45 Aug. 4 & Sept. 1. Learn about the screech owl. No registration. Drop-in footprint & leaving no trace on WWII Amphibious Training Base, & leave any time. 12-mile guided ride. Discover local up to age 5, to Farm Sprouts at Solomons’ boat-building heritage, ≈ Nature Tots / Leapin’ Lilypads! wildlife, plants, historical sites. Bring the Baltimore County Ag-Center battles, submarines, lighthouses, 10:30–11:30 a.m. July 17. [C] Ages bike, energy bar/snack, water bottle, in Cockeysville. The program uses the Ghost Fleet, historic homes, 3–4. Frog songs, stories. helmet. Ride is weather dependent. themes from children’s books to landmarks while noshing on ≈ Learn to Fish: 2–3:30 p.m. All programs are free; donations explore a farm or nature topic appetizers. Return to the museum July 19 [C] Ages 3–12. Learn about are appreciated. Except where through movement, stories and arts for a presentation, light supper. proper fishing techniques, species noted, programs are designed for & crafts. Sessions are scheduled Tickets: $50. Preregistration required; found at the refuge. Equipment individuals/families and require 9:45–10:45 a.m. or 11:30 a.m.–12:30 contact 410-326-2042 x41, Melissa. provided. Bring sunscreen, hat, water preregistration. Contact: 301- p.m. July 27 (Bees & Butterflies / [email protected]. bottle. 497-5887. For disability-related Thumbelina); Aug. 10 (Pretty Ponies/ ≈ Beginner Wildlife Photography accommodations, notify the refuge, The Magicians Horse & The Horse CBEC kayak class Part II: 7–9 p.m. July 19. [C] Ages giving as much notice as possible. and the Stag); Aug. 24 (Sunflowers The Chesapeake Bay Environ- 14+ Class covers auto tracking Contact: fws.gov/refuge/Patuxent. & Birds / Two Little Dicky Birds); mental Center in Grasonville, MD, settings, two-eye focusing, camera Sept. 7 (Cows / Ferdinand the Bull is offering American Canoe Associa- program settings, creating a backyard Paradise Creek Nature Park & Little Boy Blue). The fee, for ages tion Instruction Programs for Kayak bird studio. Learn how animals see, Upcoming events at Paradise Creek 9 months and older is $8. Bring a Paddling Skills. Both courses include so they don’t see you! Nature Park in Portsmouth, VA, include: lunch to stay longer and explore two hours of dry-land instruction and ≈ Family Fun / Hot Diggity Dirt! ≈ Clear-Bottom Kayak Paddles on the park. Registration required; three hours of on-water instruction 10 a.m.–1 p.m. July 20 & 21. [C] All Paradise Creek: 10 a.m.–12 p.m. July 14; visit marylandagriculture.org/farm- on calm, flat water. The schedule is: ages. We take dirt for granted, but 4:30–6:30 p.m. July 21 & Aug. 5; 4–6 sprouts-preschool. Contact: ≈ Level 1 Intro To Kayaking without it there would be no food, no p.m. Aug. 18; 9–11 a.m. Sept. 22. No [email protected]. Instruction Course: 10 a.m.–5 animals, no people. Learn where it experience necessary. Paddle includes Anyone who wants to attend the p.m. July 29. Course for beginner/ comes from, what it’s for, who lives in kayaks, paddles, life jackets, guide. program but is unable to because intermediate kayakers covers pre- it through hands-on activities, crafts, Learn about park’s history, ecology. Fee: of financial constraints is asked to paddling preparation, equipment, games for all ages. No registration. $40. Registration required at least two contact MARC to see if arrangements stroke development, maneuvers, Drop-in & leave any time. business days prior to paddle. can be made: 410-887-8973, self-rescue and rules of the water ≈ Bird Walk: 8–10:30 a.m. July 21 ≈ Ranger Station: 12-2 p.m. July [email protected]. on traditional decked kayaks, [C] All ages. Early migrants possible. 28 and Aug. 11 & 25. All ages. Meet inflatables and sit-on-tops (spray Binoculars recommended. education rangers, observe live Calvert Marine Museum skirts are not included). For an extra ≈ Night Hike: 8–9:30 p.m. July wetlands animals, learn about the park’s Upcoming events at the Calvert fee, participants can sign up for 21 [T] All ages, registration required. wildlife, ecology. Impromptu nature Marine Museum in Solomons, MD, an optional assessment that would Explore North Tract’s nocturnal world. walks, ranger talks. No registration. include: provide documentation of having ≈ Photo-Adventure Scavenger Contact 757–392-7132, kfish@ ≈ Fossil Field Experience: 9 a.m. achieved a certain level of paddling Hunts: 9 a.m.–1 p.m. July 21 & 28. elizabethriver.org. July 21, Aug. 18, Sept. 15, Oct. 20. ability. The cost is $70 (plus $20 [T] All ages. Using clues, individuals Ages 8+ (Children must be w/adult.) for kayak/equipment rental). The and/or groups can hunt on trails for Anita Leight Estuary Center Meet at Cove Point Lighthouse. assessment fee is $20. Register: sculptured stones, mystery objects, Programs at the Anita C. Leight Estu- Learn how to find, identify fossils, bayrestoration.org/kayaking. plants, animals while learning about ary Center in Abingdon, MD, include: then search for them on beach until ≈ Level 2 Flatwater Safety & the refuge’s history, features. A camera ≈ Kids-n-Canoes: 2:30–4:30 p.m. 11:30 a.m. Bring a bag lunch or Rescue Course: 10 a.m.–5 p.m. Aug. or cell phone needed. Beginner’s July 22. Ages 5+ Learn paddling basics, eat at a local restaurant. Program 10 or Sept. 9. This workshop covers Hunt (0.75 mile) is on Little Patuxent explore Otter Point Creek. Fee: $12. resumes at 1 p.m. at the museum flatwater safety practices, rescue River Trail. Advanced Hunt (1.2 ≈ Synchronicity Kayak: 7:30–10 where participants discuss finds, techniques that can be performed miles) is on Merganser Pond Trail p.m. July 27. Ages 8+ (17 & younger w/ explore the Paleontology Hall. Fee with a minimum of equipment in the & Wildlife Viewing Area. Amazing adult) View sunset, full moonrise before of $20 includes museum admission. first few minutes of an emergency. Race Scavenger Hunt involves driving Otter Point Creek paddle. Fee: $12. Preregistration required. Contact: bit. The cost is $70 (plus $20 for around the “Wildlife Loop” to find ≈ Summertime Science: 10:30 ly//FossilFieldExperience or Melissa kayak/equipment rental). Register: mystery objects, solve a biology a.m.–12 p.m. July 28. Ages 4+ Build, McCormick at 410-326-2042 x41. bayrestoration.org/kayaking. puzzle. No registration. Drop-in & test rockets, make giant bubbles. Get ≈ Dee of St. Mary’s Public Sails: Contact Courtney Leigh, at 410- leave any time. messy. Fee: $5. 2:30–4:30 p.m. July 8 & 28; Aug. 12 827-6694, [email protected]. ≈ Learn to Fish: 9–10 a.m. July 25 ≈ Fishy Fun: 1:30–3 p.m. July 28. & 25; Sept. 16 & 29; Oct. 14. Tickets: [C] Ages 5–13. Learn proper fishing Ages 5+ Learn which fish are common $25/ages 13+ and $15/ages 5–12. Ages Patuxent Research Center techniques, the types of species found in the area, get to fish through hands-on 5 & younger not permitted. Advance Upcoming events at the Patuxent at the refuge. Equipment provided. activities. Fee: $3/person; $12/family. reservations taken till noon the Friday Research Refuge’s National Wildlife Bring sunscreen, hat, water bottle. ≈ Trail Running Series: 10 –11 a.m. prior to each sail. Remaining tickets are Visitor Center [C] and North Tract ≈ Special Weekday Opening of July 29. Ages 16+ All paces welcome. at admissions desk the day of the sail. [T] in Laurel, MD, include: Lake Allen: 8 a.m.–4 p.m. July 27 [T] 2-mile course is out and back, single Contact: 410-326-2042 x41. ≈ Scouts BSA Merit Badge Classes: All ages. The lake will be open for track. Free. ≈ Sharkfest: 10 a.m.–5 p.m. July 8 a.m.–12 p.m. July 14 (Nature); July fishing, hiking, nature observation. Ages 12 & younger must be 14. Live sharks. Learn ’sharktoids,’ 21 (Plant Science); July 28 (Forestry). Normal state, refuge regulations accompanied by an adult. Events meet examine evidence of prehistoric [T] Parent participation required. All apply. No registration. at the center and require preregistration. sharks, make a shark-themed craft, participants must have a blue card ≈ Tree ID Hike: July 28 [C] Payment is due at time of registration. take a picture in the life-size jaws of signed by their Scout Master that 9:30–11 a.m. All ages. Learn about Contact: 410-612-1688, 410-879-2000 a Megalodon shark, get your face corresponds to the merit badge class. local conifers, deciduous trees. x1688, otterpointcreek.org. Bay Journal • July-August 2018 47 Hear, here! Brown thrasher’s songs alert you to its presence By Mike Burke

A light rain was falling as dawn struggled to life. The sun didn’t so much rise as reluctantly brighten the landscape. I was tired and a little cranky that this endless rain might confine us indoors for yet another day. I put the kettle on to boil and found myself staring vacantly out the kitchen window at the farmhouse’s backyard. Ignoring the rain, a bird was busy hopping about, flipping through leaf litter in search of breakfast. The gray morning made it difficult to distinguish the rufous color on the bird’s back and wings, but its behavior made the identification easy: This was a brown thrasher. Brown thrashers (Toxostoma rufum) are one of those rare birds whose name is accurately descriptive of both its color and its behavior. Standing on longish legs, thrashers are a handsome reddish brown up top, from their caps to their long tails. Thin black-and-white wingbars are visible. Underneath, the birds are white, with black streaks across their chests giving way to all-white bellies. The face is a mottled buffy An adult brown thrasher, left, stands by a juvenile in Virginia. The younger bird’s eye will turn the characteristic yellow as it brown with intense yellow eyes. The gets older. (cbgrfx123 / Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license) formidable bill is perfectly designed to thrash through detritus on the ground the urge to sing. It’s often the easiest The problem has been the loss of as the bird hunts for larvae, beetles, time to see them. appropriate habitat. grubs, worms and the like. As many people recognize, Forest edges allow ample light in to Boldly and brightly colored, mockingbirds tend to sing brief song foster the growth of thick understories thrashers can be surprisingly hard segments four times in a row: e.g., of scrub. Today, those edges are being to see because their favorite habitat tseet-tseet-tseet-tseet; toodalee- lost. Forest tracts are being clear-cut is dense undergrowth. Here in the toodalee-toodalee-toodalee, etc. for expanding development. Eastern United States, that means the Brown thrashers can be recognized by In the second half of the last understory of forests. In the Midwest, their habit of repeating each segment century, many family farms you’ll find brown thrashers in thickets, twice: cheep-cheep; seeme-seeme, painstakingly carved out of forest hedgerows and scrubby fields. and so on. Catbirds usually do single lands were abandoned. These farms in The kettle started whistling, but segments, often ending with their the most rural parts of the watershed I was engrossed in watching this namesake meow. weren’t developed. The forests thrasher hop about. It was more Brown thrashers build their nests gradually filled back in, taking those effective at waking me up than the low in trees or shrubs, sometimes edges with them. mug of tea would be. even on the ground. Both parents For more than a decade, several Brown thrashers are short-distance incubate the young and care for the friends have joined us in renting the migrants. Their permanent range nestlings. They are especially vigilant farmhouse where I was standing. The centers on most of the U.S. Southeast. other artificially lighted structures. around the nest and will attack any owner recently put the entire farm Come early spring, a number of these The night lights disorient the migrants intruder — they have even been up for sale. We renters may lose a thrashers will head north as far as with all-too-frequent fatal results. known to draw blood from people cherished rural retreat, but the impact New York and west as far as Montana. Brown thrashers are in the who get too close to their young. on those two birds in the backyard may They spread unevenly across the entire same avian family (Mimidae) as Typically, thrashers have clutches be more profound. Mississippi watershed. mockingbirds and gray catbirds. ranging from two to six eggs. They Complex legal, cultural and We start seeing brown thrashers in Like their cousins, they are excellent incubate the eggs for two weeks and economic factors will ultimately Maryland in early April. By mid-May, songsters and readily imitate other the fledglings are ready to leave the decide the fate of the farm. It is a the entire Chesapeake Watershed is birds’ songs. nest just 10–12 days after hatching. process that is repeated countless times covered. Ornithologists tell us that a single In the southern portion of their range, annually across the watershed. In the fall, migratory thrashers brown thrasher may sing more than brown thrashers may have two broods The fate of the farm — and the rejoin their resident brethren back in 1,000 different songs. That’s one of the annually. Farther north and west, they birds — was out of my hands. For the Southeastern states. largest vocal repertoires of any North usually have just one. now, all I could do was watch and Like many avian species, brown American bird. Our changing landscape has been pray for sunshine, both literally and thrashers are nocturnal migrants. That Although they spend most of their hard on thrashers. Although the figuratively. makes them susceptible to crashes into time on or near the ground, thrashers population is still large, it has declined Mike Burke, an amateur naturalist, buildings, broadcasting towers and look for high perches when they feel by an estimated 41 percent since 1966. lives in Cheverly, MD. July-August/ 2018 Volume 28 Number 5 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 Spying a flying squirrel can brighten one’s spirits on the darkest night

By Kathy Reshetiloff amount and quality of habitat is probably the Summer nights in my backyard biggest threat these include the usual wildlife visitors: squirrels face. Southern crickets, toads, bats and the occasional flying squirrels require deer. But one particularly steamy forests with mast (nut)- August night I was rewarded with producing trees as well a glimpse of a new nocturnal guest. as snags (dead trees) or While letting out my dog, I was large trees with cavities startled by a small animal hanging on for nesting. my bird feeder. Its large eyes reflected The Chesapeake Bay the glare of the porch light as the small watershed was covered mammal stood motionless. Then, in an by forests when colonists instant, it leaped, gliding silently off first arrived. By the late my deck to the woods below. 1800s, 40–50 percent of This nighttime raider was a south- the watershed’s forests ern flying squirrel G( laucomys volans). had been cleared of trees. Although found in forests from Throughout the 20th cen- southern Ontario to the Gulf Coast, tury, new forests grew up southern flying squirrels are not often on abandoned farmland. seen due to their stealthy nighttime But these forests are habits. Only 8–10 inches long (includ- now more homogenous ing the tail), southern flying squirrels in age, size and species are grayish to brown above and creamy composition. white below with a flattened tail, large Between 1982 and ears and big black eyes. 1997, the Bay watershed Their most notable feature is a thin lost more than 750,000 furry membrane of skin, known as a acres of forestland to patagium, which runs along the sides development — a rate of of the body from the wrist of the front about 100 acres per day. leg to the ankle of the hind leg. This While this rate fell in membrane is what gives the squirrel its 2006 to an estimated flying or, more accurately, gliding ability. Although found in forests from southern Ontario to the Gulf Coast, southern flying squirrels are not often 70 acres per day, it When the front and back legs are seen due to their stealthy nighttime habits. (Phil Myers / University of Michigan Museum of Zoology) remains unsustainable extended, the membrane forms a and forests have been winglike gliding surface, acting like a such as acorns and hickory nuts, but divided into disconnected fragments, parachute while the flat tail serves as they will also eat berries, seeds, fruits, which offer less high-quality habitat a rudder. This allows the squirrel to buds, flowers, mushrooms and bark. for forest wildlife. silently glide from tree to tree. Before As the days I have yet landing, the squirrel drops its tail and shorten, flying to see another lifts its front legs. This slackens the squirrels begin flying squirrel membrane and acts as a brake. Flying hoarding food. Southern flying squirrels in the forest squirrels land as lightly and quietly as Nuts are gath- near my home. they glide and will immediately scurry ered and stored, require forests But efforts to to the other side of a tree trunk to either buried with nut-producing trees conserve remain- avoid detection by predators. individually ing forests There are two breeding periods then capable of gliding. Devoted moth- or stashed in as well as dead or large trees and reconnect for the southern flying squirrel. The ers, the females seldom leave their nest cavities or patches of forests first is February through March and newborns, defending them and even the cracks and with cavities for nesting. are in full force the second, May through July. Litters moving them if the nest is disturbed. crevices of trees. throughout the average between three and four young, Southern flying squirrels favor They do not watershed. I’ll which are born hairless with eyes and beech-maple, oak-hickory and live hibernate but may remain in nests for continue to keep my eyes peeled for ears closed, and weigh less than 0.25 oak forests. Tree cavities serve as nest several days during severe weather. this night glider and hope to see one of an ounce. Development is slow. Ears sites. Often, a squirrel will use one Groups of flying squirrels may gather again soon. open at 3 weeks; eyes open a week cavity as its nesting site and others as in one cavity to conserve warmth. Kathy Reshetiloff is with the U.S. later. The young are weaned by the feeding or refuge areas. Not surpris- Predators include cats, owls, hawks, Fish and Wildlife Service’s Chesa- time they are 6– to 8 weeks old and are ingly, their primary foods include nuts raccoons, weasels and foxes. But the peake Bay Field Office in Annapolis.