January-February 2019 Volume 28 Number 10 Scientists waiting to see if record 2018 rainfall dampens Bay recovery ≈ There are hopes that recent the region will test the staying power of flooding the Chesapeake in May and winter snow melts and spring rains arrive. improvements are strong enough recent water quality improvements to persisted through the rest of the year. Not only did the year end wet, but the nation’s largest estuary. August, September and November all scientists said high flows were almost to offset the impact of increased At risk are improving trends for the set records for freshwater flows into a certainty for early 2019 because the nutrient and sediment flows. Chesapeake’s fish-stressing “dead zone,” the Bay, and December flows were ground is so saturated that water will By Karl Blankenship and the restoration of its vital underwater running far above normal in its three continue to work its way into streams For the Chesapeake, 2018 was a grass beds and oyster populations. largest tributaries, the Susquehanna, for months. Further, with the onset year of mud, trash and sewage as Some cleanup efforts seemed to Potomac and James rivers. of winter, there’s little vegetation to unrelenting rainfall washed across withstand the repeated downpours, but “It’s very unusual to have seven absorb the moisture. its vast watershed, sending unusually others faltered. Farmers struggled to months of above average flows,” said “Even if we don’t have rain, I think high amounts of freshwater runoff into plant pollution-absorbing cover crops, Scott Phillips, Chesapeake Bay Coordi- we’re going to have above average the Bay month after month. for instance. nator with the U.S. Geological Survey, stream flows just because of the The water-fouling nutrients and sedi- It’ll be months before anyone can “especially during this period of time.” amount of groundwater draining after ment that were also flushed into the Bay fully gauge the impact of higher- Extended periods of high flows are by record-setting rainfall throughout than-normal river flows that began more common earlier in the year, when Rain continues on page 28 Lawyers not cannons the big guns in latest round of oyster wars ≈ As pushback by waterfront homeowners increases, VA & MD convene workgroups to deal with aquaculture leasing backlogs and disputes. By Timothy B. Wheeler As Chris Ludford sees it, the oysters he’s growing in Virginia Beach’s Lynnhaven River are helping to restore the Chesapeake Bay tributary, once fabled for having some of the tastiest bivalves anywhere. “Nobody thought we’d be eating Lynnhaven oysters again,” said Ludford, a part-time oyster farmer and full-time firefighter whose Pleasure House brand of bivalves are featured on the half- shell at several local restaurants. The Lynnhaven, which extends like an osprey’s claw from the mouth of the Chesapeake into Virginia’s largest municipality, was closed to shellfishing off and on for decades because of pollution. Now, roughly half of the river system has been reopened. Those oyster cages placed in shallow water in the Lynnhaven River could be seen at low tide. Sign warns But to John Korte, who lives on a canal off the boaters of their presence when submerged at other times. (Dave Harp) Lynnhaven, the expansion of oyster farming there is curtailing some people’s ability to enjoy that cleaner shoreline, with offshore signs warning boaters of watermen and fishery police, there’s been no gun- river. He contends the submerged cages used for aquaculture gear in the shallows. “You use it today, play. The combatants this time wield petitions and raising oysters pose hazards to unwitting boaters, I use it tomorrow. But once you put stuff down, I lawsuits. But feelings are running high as the grow- jet skiers, swimmers and waders in one of the state’s can’t do that anymore.” ing industry encounters increasing resistance from busiest recreational waterways. And aquaculture Conflict over oyster farming has been going waterfront homeowners and some watermen who gear spoils the view from waterfront homes. on several years now in the Lynnhaven, but it’s object to what they see as a creeping privatization “We share the water,” Korte said, as he guided spreading throughout the Chesapeake Bay. Unlike his powerboat slowly past houses hugging the the “oyster wars” of the late 1800s between feuding Leases continues on page 21 2 Bay Journal • January / February 2019

Editor’s Note BAY JOURNAL is published by Bay Journal Media to inform the public about ecological, scientific, historic and cultural issues Now’s not the time to talk about the weather, it’s time to act and events related to the Chesapeake Bay. The Bay Journal, As 2019 begins, scientists in place for long periods, according to circulation 35,000, is published monthly except in midsummer are still assessing how much Michael Mann, director of the Penn State and midwinter. It is distributed free of charge. Bundles are available impact the unusually long Earth Systems Science Center. for distribution. Material may be reproduced, with permission period of high flows into That is what happened this year, he and attribution. Publication is made possible by grants through the Bay — eight consecutive argued in a recent Washington Post op-ed, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Chesapeake Bay months and counting — will noting that a high-pressure ridge was stalled Program Office, the Campbell Foundation, the National Oceanic have on our estuary. over places like California and Europe, and Atmospheric Administration’s Chesapeake Bay Office, the On one hand, one should expect it to bringing extreme heat and drought. Mean- Sumner T. McKnight Foundation, the Rauch Foundation, the ultimately bounce back. High flows always while, a deep low-pressure trough persisted Fair Play Foundation, the Shared Earth Foundation, the Virginia happen, and the Bay, after all, is an estuary, in the Eastern United States and Japan, Environmental Endowment, anonymous donors, and by reader where freshwater and saltwater mix. The which both saw excess rain and flooding. contributions. Views expressed in the Bay Journal do not species that live in estuaries have adapted This understanding of the jet stream’s necessarily represent those of any funding agency or organization. to a wide range of conditions. reaction to climate change is relatively new, But humans have been magnifying the Mann said, and suggests that the impact of For mailing list additions/changes, please use the form on this impact of those high flows over time — and climate on severe weather has likely been page or contact: Bay Journal, P.O. Box 222, Jacobus, PA 17407-0222 continue to do so. Once vast forests buffered underestimated for the future. “Our study E-mail: [email protected] the impact of such events, absorbing much indicates that we can expect many more BAY JOURNAL MEDIA of the rainfall and slowing the runoff of summers like 2018 — or worse,” he wrote. what’s left. But centuries of land clearing, the The state-federal Bay Program partner- Bay Journal Media is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization with addition of prodigious amounts of fertilizer ship only recently began incorporating cli- a mission to further public education and awareness of issues and manure to fields, and the paving of huge mate-change considerations into its planning. affecting the Chesapeake Bay and the mid-Atlantic environment areas of the landscape have dramatically It’s not a moment too soon, as it becomes by creating and distributing journalistic products. In addition changed the picture. More nutrients reach increasingly clear that climate change is to producing the Bay Journal, Bay Journal Media operates the the Bay than was the case a century ago, already moving the Bay cleanup goalposts. Bay Journal News Service, which distributes Bay Journal and stormwater gets to the estuary in larger Fortunately, there is interest in dealing articles and original op-eds about the Chesapeake Bay or regional pulses as it runs off the land more quickly. with this coming from the top. Maryland environmental issues to more than 400 newspapers in the region, Precipitation is increasing as well, up Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican, and Vir- reaching several million readers each month. 10 percent over the last century. And the ginia Gov. Ralph Northam, a Democrat, amount of precipitation arriving in large recently joined in writing a Washington Karl Blankenship, Executive Director storms has increased 50 percent since 1958. Post op-ed calling on states to take the Andrew Nolan, CPA, Chief Financial Officer The U.S. Geological Survey started lead in tackling the problem as the Trump STAFF estimating annual river flows into the Bay administration moves to reverse the in 1937. The average flow never reached nation’s climate-change policies. Editor: Karl Blankenship ([email protected]) 100,000 cubic feet per second until 1972. “For the sake of our future and the Managing Editor: Lara Lutz ([email protected]) Since then, it’s hit that mark a dozen times. future of our children, it is time to put CONTACT US Associate Editor/Projects: Timothy B. Wheeler ([email protected]) It’s uncertain if climate change contrib- aside partisan interest and get to work,” by mail: Bay Journal News Service Editor: Tim Sayles ([email protected]) uted to this year’s record-setting rainfall, they wrote, also noting that in both states The Bay Journal Copy/Design Editor: Kathleen A. Gaskell ([email protected]) but some scientists believe it’s possible. “we are seeing rising seas, more extreme 619 Oakwood Drive Staff Writer: Jeremy Cox ([email protected]) Recent research suggests that changes in weather events, regular high-tide flooding Seven Valleys, PA Staff Writer: Donna Morelli ([email protected]) the atmosphere are causing the jet stream and a changing Chesapeake Bay.” 17360-9395 Staff Writer: Whitney Pipkin ([email protected]) to behave oddly, locking weather patterns — Karl Blankenship Photographer: Dave Harp ([email protected]) by phone: ADVERTISING 717-428-2819 Sign Up for the Bay Journal or Change your Address Marketing & Advertising Director: Jacqui Caine ([email protected]) TheBay Journal is distributed FREE by Bay Journal Media, Inc. If you would like to BOARD OF DIRECTORS be added to its mailing list or need to change your present address, please fill out this form To inquire about Tom Lewis advertising, contact , President and mail it to Bay Journal, P.O. Box 222, Jacobus, PA 17407-0222. Mary Barber, Vice-President o o Jacqui Caine at Check One: New Subscription Change of Address Karl Blankenship, Secretary 540-903-9298 o Please remove my name from your mailing list Frank Felbaum, Treasurer Please note that it may take up to two issues for changes to become effective. Bill Eichbaum Name: Correction Address: The photograph accompanying on the Wing in the December issue depicts a juvenile City: State: seaside sparrow, not a saltmarsh sparrow. The Bay Journal regrets the error. Zip: Optional: Enclosed is a donation to the Bay Journal Fund for $

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Clockwise, from left: Sussey, a duck tolling retriever, sniffs for pollution along Shamokin Creek in Shamokin, PA, with her handler, Carol Parenzan, the Middle Susquehanna Riverkeeper. Sussey has been trained to detect leaks, illegal discharges and broken pipes. See article on page 19. (Ann Nowaskie / Middle Susque- hanna Riverkeeper Association, Inc.)

Stephen Hobson and Tober, his duck tolling retriever, are regulars at Crispus Attucks Park, a one-acre strip of green space that has been permanently TRAVEL protected though WHAT’S INSIDE a conservation A cabin waits for you along the Appalachian Trail 5 Norfolk counting on flood-resiliency project to offset 32 easement in a DC wetter future • Millions in federal funds will be used to 34 Snow geese extravaganza hits home neighborhood. See install tidal marsh, berm and floodwall as well as raise access FEATURES article on page 8. (Dave Harp) road to 2 neighborhoods 4 Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay • 2019 conservation 8 Small parcel could mean a lot for green space in commitment tied to memories, plans for the future Snow geese gather urban DC • Nonprofits using conservation easements to 42 Bulletin Board • Volunteer Opportunities • Workshops • at Blackwater create permanent areas for trees to take root National Wildlife Events • Programs • Resources 10 Alexandria tunneling its way out of sewage overflow Refuge near Cam- problems • Structures will divert tainted water away from 46 Chesapeake Challenge • Reef Sweet Reef bridge, MD. The river and toward wastewater treatment facility to comply with 46 Bay Buddies • Reef Sweet Reef birds overwinter along the Atlantic legislators’ deadline 47 On the Wing • Black scoter’s secretive ways part of this sea Coast between 12 Preserve fish or history? VA dam removal churns up duck’s charm Massachusetts and debate • Opponents of dam removal on Maury River say loss South Carolina. 48 Bay Naturalist • Cry fowl! They are attracted of historic structure and swimming site outweigh gains in FORUM safety, aquatic habitat and paddle sports to the Bay’s open Commentary • Letters • Perspectives waters and abun- 13 EPA names Dana Aunkst to lead Bay Program Office • dant food supply. Longtime PA environmental official wrote ‘reboot’ strategy to 39 Chesapeake Born: Trickle up effect: Reducing Bay’s See article on page ramp up the state’s Chesapeake restoration efforts nitrogen will lower greenhouse gas level 32. (Dave Harp) 14 Science foundation cuts 20-year-old Baltimore 40 Don’t let the bounty of the Chesapeake become only a memory ecological study’s funds • Stream research has made significant contributions to understanding human impacts on 41 Bay crossing study needs to consider importance of Shore farms urban waters, including pharmaceuticals, runoff and sewage 16 After millions spent, MD’s solution for excess manure still elusive • ‘Being an early adapter is very challenging and expensive,’ proponents learning 18 Farm Bill could increase funding to control ag runoff to Chesapeake • While there is more money for programs, there is also more competition from other areas WE’RE JUST 18 MD sea level to increase dramatically, report says • Rate of A CLICK AWAY rising water will depend on how well nations curb gas emissions. visit us online: 19 Middle Susquehanna mascot noses around when bayjournal.com pollution is suspected • Sussey, the sewage-sniffing dog, like us on FaceBook: can detect leaks, illegal discharges and broken pipes Chesapeake Bay Journal or send us a Tweet: 20 MD adult oyster numbers down by half since 1999, @ChesBayJournal study finds• First-ever stock assessment sees overfishing as a continued problem in half of state’s waters 29 Climate change poses a challenge for Bay cleanup www.bayjournal.com goals • Trend toward more and heavier rainfall and warmer weather in region threaten to overwhelm current actions 4 Bay Journal • January / February 2019 2019 conservation commitment tied to memories, plans for future “The vast possibilities of our great There is a lot we don’t future will become realities only if we know about how these make ourselves responsible for that climatic changes will impact future.” our work over the long — Gifford Pinchot run, but we do know one By Kate Fritz thing — it will change it. We could let this I spent the second weekend in frustrate us and throw up December at the place I revere most: our hands and say “enough.” Beaver Run Hunting and Fishing Club But the truth is, we need in Porter Township, PA. Pinchot’s words now more It was full of friends and family, than ever. His concept was my favorite stone fireplace and simple: Conservation is 875-plus acres of conserved forest the application of common in the Pocono Mountains. We hiked sense to the common in the chilly gray weather, enjoying problems for the common the camaraderie of catching up with good. He believed in the longtime friends. We laughed at old power of the many, not the memories, reflected on 2018 and few. shared our goals for the New Year. I’ve carried that ethos I’ve been making trips to the forward in my own career, Beaver Run Hunting and Fishing as I’ve moved from working Club since I was 9 months old. More as an environmental than three decades later, it is still my scientist, to an favorite place on Earth. environmental planner and Having moved around a lot as a now an executive director child, Beaver Run was the one place of a regional nonprofit that was always the same every time I organization. returned. I could expect to fish, boat, The work that we do swim and hike in the summer, and ice at the Alliance for the fish and participate in snowball fights Chesapeake Bay embodies in the cold months. Pinchot’s ethos as well. We In 2008, the club worked in believe in a two-part theory partnership with Delaware Highlands of change, built first on Conservancy to put the nearly 900 convening voices to identify acres of property that I love so dearly problems, and second by in a conservation easement. The club deploying resources to solve now has money to continue to invest those problems. We believe in the management of its property for in the power of partnerships the long haul. The 70-acre lake, trout across a diverse range of pond and miles of the Bushkill Stream voices that the Chesapeake that runs through the property are all Bay watershed is made of. used by fisher-folk and hunters of all It is my belief that pioneers, ages. like Pinchot, would still As I sat by the warm fire in the remind us today that this lodge, discussing the club’s history has always been the recipe and brainstorming New Year’s for success over time. resolutions for 2019, my mind couldn’t As 2019 approaches, help but wander to Gifford Pinchot. it is imperative that we Truly a leader of his times, Pinchot continue to work together is my answer to every “who do you across many landscapes and admire most?” icebreaker I’ve ever Beaver Run, and the ability to fish for trout there, was the one place that was always the same sectors, finding the areas of participated in. every time that the author returned. (Kate Fritz) commonalities that unite us, Nearly 75 years after his death, not separate us. Pinchot is still known as one of So as I sat in the common area In a future impacted by a warming the most influential voices of the of the Club, where Pinchot once sat climate and rising waters, we must U.S. conservation movement. He as he discussed his philosophy of manage and restore our waters and established the modern definition of conservation, I had one foot rooted in forests for the purpose of sustaining conservation as the “wise use” of our the past. My thoughts began to drift to more than 18 million people in the natural resources. Pennsylvania from 1923–1927 and 2019 and the work ahead of us.. Chesapeake watershed. After forming the basic concept 1931–1935. It has been a rainy year around To quote Pinchot, we must “aim of conservation, Pinchot became Out of his many impressive the Chesapeake, with many places for the greatest good for the greatest President Teddy Roosevelt’s right- achievements, the thing that connects breaking annual rainfall records. The number for the longest time.” hand man in the conservation of more Pinchot and myself the most is that weather has been hard on our rivers Let’s start 2019 strong and focused than 230 million acres of public land he invented his resource management and streams, and in turn, our beloved forward for a clean and healthy during Roosevelt’s term. Pinchot was ethos on a piece of property that Chesapeake Bay. With more pulses of Chesapeake Bay watershed! appointed the first practicing forester, means the world to me — Pinchot was stormwater entering the watershed, it Kate Fritz is the executive served as the first chief of the U.S. a member of Beaver Run in the early will likely impact the work installed in director of the Alliance for the Forest Service, and was governor of 1900s. the name of restoration. Chesapeake Bay. Bay Journal • January / February 2019 5 Norfolk counting on flood-resiliency project to offset wetter future ≈ Millions in federal funds Morris’ position and hosting a series of will be used to install tidal climate workshops. But the project in the city’s Ohio marsh, berm and floodwall as Creek watershed marks the first well as raise access road to 2 major one of its kind to move into the neighborhoods. construction phase, said Joe Rieger, By Jeremy Cox deputy director of restoration for the A landmark U.S. Army Corps of Elizabeth River Project. The Ohio is Engineers report in 2017 called for $1.8 a tributary of the Elizabeth River’s billion in projects to protect Virginia’s Eastern Branch. second-largest city from sea level rise “Here’s a model that could be and stronger coastal storms. replicated in other neighborhoods,” That’s because Norfolk is in the Rieger said. “The city is going to learn crosshairs of sea level rise. It’s a a lot from this project.” low-lying city at the confluence of the Whether the city will have the James River and Chesapeake Bay, just money to replicate it elsewhere is a few miles from the Atlantic Ocean. unclear. The $112 million came With a large population, key military largely from a $1 billion pot of unused installations and water problems federal funding originally intended for already occurring, Norfolk has begun Hurricane Sandy recovery efforts. grappling with how it will prepare for “You can’t do this for every single a wetter future. Joe Rieger, deputy director of restoration for the Elizabeth River Project, ges- community in Norfolk,” said Josh Some clues may lie in two of its tures toward the river’s Eastern Branch as he discusses the planned Ohio Creek Behr, a political scientist with the Old most flood-prone neighborhoods, restoration project. (Dave Harp) Dominion University research and where construction is scheduled to modeling think tank that helped to begin in April on a flood-resiliency stations. The project also includes Norfolk officials have been laying write the grant proposal for the city project whose cost and scope rival any raising nearly a half-mile of roads by the groundwork for a citywide and state. Applying a comparable level undertaken so far in the United States. up to 6 feet above existing ground climate overhaul since 2014, when of fixes citywide would cost “hundreds Bolstered by an injection of $112 level. the Rockefeller Foundation selected of billions of dollars,” he added. million in federal dollars, local “The idea is to hold the water while it to be one of 100 “resilient cities” “It’s just not going to work,” Behr said. officials plan to install more than 7,000 you can, clean it and release it slowly alongside London, New York City The flood-addled Hampton Roads feet of earthen berms, about 1,000 into the system when you can,” said and Paris, among others. The city region, a swath of southeast Virginia feet of floodwalls, several acres of Christine Morris, Norfolk’s chief put the $1.7 million it received from tidal marsh, a tide gate and two pump resilience officer. the organization toward establishing Norfolk continues on page 6

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Norfolk from page 5 above sea level. In response to community concerns, engineers sought that’s home to 1.6 million people and to use as many “green” structures as several cities, including Norfolk, possible. So, the new barrier along is often labeled the second-most most of the riverfront will largely be vulnerable U.S. metropolitan area to composed of a 4-foot grassy berm. sea level rise. The only place facing a On the river side of the berm, greater threat: New Orleans. fresh plantings will festoon the Water levels have risen by 18 inches wet landscape, creating a “living over the last century and are forecast shoreline.” A total of 3.5 acres of new to go up another 4.5 feet by 2100, oyster reefs will provide an ecological according to planning and engineering lift to the urbanized river. If that guidelines adopted by the Hampton helps the fish bite, users of the new Roads Planning District Commission community pier will soon find out. in October. Sea level rise in the area Overall, the project is “pretty is accelerating at nearly twice the impressive from our perspective and global average, scientists say, because maybe the gold standard as cities and the land is also sinking as part of a counties have to do more of this,” geological process that’s an artifact said Lyle Varnell, associate director from the last Ice Age. for advisory services for the Virginia A few miles south of downtown Institute of Marine Science. He signed Norfolk on the banks of Ohio Creek, a letter of support of the project’s water struggles aren’t some design on behalf of the institute in future abstraction for a pair of December. communities — they’ve been The effort packs a lot of engineering happening for years. During unusually punch into a relatively small 255-acre high tides, the storm sewers work area, raising questions about whether in reverse, with water bubbling up it can serve as a template in other instead of going down. Heavy rains communities, Varnell said. regularly transform the lowest streets “Of course,” he said, “they had the into canals, blocking one of the two resources to do this, which will be the access roads for 2,000 residents. challenge going forward.” Without action, people and The funding stemmed from businesses will probably flee a President Barack Obama era Chesterfield Heights and Grandy program available only to states and Village in the coming decades, Behr communities impacted by major said. Recurring storm surges will disasters between 2011 and 2013. damage homes, forcing residents to Awards went to places whose plans abandon them, he said. Others will were to shown to be “embracing simply get tired of the inconvenience resilience as a way to build a caused by the flooding and leave. better future,” said Judith Rodin, Property values will crash. then-president of the Rockefeller “If you didn’t do anything, the Foundation, which provided technical signal to the business people would be assistance to the program. ‘This isn’t going to get any better,’” Norfolk qualified because of its Behr said. “The risk is less [farther] Cheryll Sumner, president of the Chesterfield Heights Civic League, helped to tangle with Hurricane Irene. The city inland and the population is already build support for the $112 million project in her community and adjoining Grandy received the third largest amount there, so it’s a reinforcing loop.” Village. (Dave Harp) of money after New York City’s The two neighborhoods lie wedged $176 million and New Orleans’ $141 between the Eastern Branch and a Sumner recalled. The torrential rain marathon strategy sessions, she said. million. The Ohio Creek project can buzz saw of traffic on Interstate 264. and storm surge flooded the block Then, officials hosted more than two help preserve an important slice of Industrial complexes on the east and facing the riverfront. She ended up dozen community meetings to gather Norfolk while positioning the city in west further disconnect residents from tying her boat to a telephone pole to feedback from residents. the eyes of business leaders and others the rest of the city. “It’s not some place keep it from floating away. The plan borrows heavily from as a climate change leader, supporters you encounter or wander through,” Grandy Village consists almost water-fighting strategies common in say. For them, the question “How can Behr said. “There was not a lot of entirely of barrack-like brick New Orleans and the Netherlands, but the city afford the cost of adaptation?” awareness this neighborhood was apartments operated by the city’s with a few Chesapeake Bay-friendly inevitably raises another, “How can it even there.” housing authority as affordable twists. The most critical feature is afford not to?” Cheryll Sumner grew up in housing. But the two communities the transformation of Ohio Creek “It is a big investment,” said Chesterfield Heights, a community of share more than a border: Both and neighboring Haynes Creek into Traci Munyan, resiliency program crape myrtle-lined streets and older are historically African American large stormwater impoundments, manager for the Virginia Department single-family homes. She returned as neighborhoods that developed in Morris said. Berms will surround the of Housing and Community an adult to raise five children there. response to the need for living quarters creeks and their marshy shorelines to Development, which shepherded the Now the president of the Chesterfield near the river’s shipyards. They were contain the rain water running off the grant for the city. “But the alternative Heights Civic League, she said she has built on top of former creek beds and surrounding land. An existing 8-acre to this community and the information heard little resistance from neighbors hastily filled-in wetlands, leaving park behind a neighborhood school we will receive will outweigh [the over the enormous public works rainwater nowhere to collect except will be turned into an occasional cost]. These folks will hopefully not project. That’s because of a shared on their roads and in residents’ yards, water-storage area as well. have to relocate, and they’ll rebuild to realization: “The water is coming,” Morris said. Kimball Terrace, the community higher flood standards that will keep she said. The resilience plan was shaped by access road that routinely floods, will them there not only for that big one The first sign of trouble came meetings called “Dutch dialogues” be rerouted to bypass the western but that day-in, day-out inconvenience during Hurricane Isabel in 2003, in which experts converged for industrial area and raised to 8 feet they live through.” Bay Journal • January / February 2019 7

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Give us a call at 301-725-7333 or find your perfect mix at chesapeakevalleyseed.com. 8 Bay Journal • January / February 2019 Small parcel could mean a lot for green space in urban DC ≈ Nonprofits using conservation space in an urban easements to create permanent environment.” areas for trees to take root. Casey Trees didn’t By Whitney Pipkin need much persuading to help the city place Protecting the District of Columbia’s easements on the prop- tree canopy — and its City of Trees erties, even though that reputation — is “always a moving conservation strategy is target,” said Mark Buscaino, executive rarely used in an urban director of the nonprofit that leads the context. The nonprofit local effort. So, in addition to fever- had already completed ishly planting and defending urban its first urban ease- trees, Casey Trees is taking a new tack: ment on a park in the conserving a handful of small lots District’s Bloomingdale where more of them could take root in neighborhood a few the future. years earlier — and This fall, the nonprofit partnered had been looking for with the District government to place more projects like it four small, undeveloped properties the ever since. city owns into conservation easements. “It became clear The voluntary agreements permanently that one of the best limit how the properties can be used, things we could do to in this case protecting them as green, preserve tree canopy “plant-able” spaces. While the amount is to preserve soil,” of land included in the agreements is Buscaino said. relatively small — measured in square The opportunity in feet rather than acres — the concept is Bloomingdale came in notable. 2015, when a commu- “It’s unique to have a municipal nity group that owns a government putting its own lands one-acre strip of green under private easement,” said Charles space in the now- Flickinger, a Casey Trees board popular DC neighbor- member and attorney who documented hood reached out for the easements. “In this case, the city An oakleaf hydrangea provides late fall color along a pathway in Crispus Attucks Park. (Dave Harp) help to preserve it. The doesn’t get a charitable deduction. It’s block-long “oasis”— just additional protection for the land.” Crispus Attucks Park — is hidden Alan Rowsome, executive director from the street by rowhouses of the Northern Virginia Conservation backing up to it on every side. Trust, is used to helping conservation When renovated, the homes sell easements come to fruition in rural, for around $1 million. suburban and, occasionally, urban But the out-of-sight ribbon of landscapes. In cities, he said, “measur- land wasn’t always a draw for the ing in square feet might not seem like community. Through most of the it’s worth doing, but it can make a huge 1900s, the site was home to a tele- difference.” phone switching station and cable Seeing Casey Trees jump into yard. When the company closed easement work in the District — where in the late 1960s, it left behind an larger land trusts don’t often work abandoned building on an acre and the nonprofit is already a steward of asphalt and cement that would of natural landscapes — seemed to remain for decades, according to Rowsome like a logical and innovative records on the park’s website. solution. In the late 1970s, residents got Owned by the District’s Department the company to donate the build- of Housing and Community Develop- ing as a community center and ment, the four properties were among formed a nonprofit that became 90 that the agency was in the process of the Crispus Attucks Development auctioning off or re-imagining as part Corp., whose volunteer board of its “Vacant to Vibrant” initiative. manages the space to this day. In Polly Donaldson, the department’s the intervening years, the commu- director, said the program’s main goal The TKF Foundation provided a memory garden inside Crispus Attucks Park. (Dave Harp) nity center lost its public funding is to take underused or derelict spaces for programming and the empty the city had acquired over the years and ing for the next best thing. While the tribute to those goals while making the space became a magnet for abandoned “return them to productive use.” city’s housing department doesn’t land more functional for both residents vehicles, the homeless, drug dealing Most of the properties were sold necessarily have a goal to preserve a and the environment. and illegal dumping until a police to developers to create affordable and certain amount of natural areas in the “A key part of our mission is crackdown in the late 1990s. workforce housing units. But, for a nation’s capital, the District’s mayor and revitalization,” Donaldson said. “The Still, residents began to see potential few parcels that were too small, too environmental agencies do. trees, neighborhood by neighborhood, in the underused space. Will Gomaa, hilly or too close to industrial areas, The housing department saw in these are great investments for the city, and for example, the agency started look- small parcels the opportunity to con- we see that as a way to preserve green DC Lots continues on page 9 Bay Journal • January / February 2019 9

DC Lots from page 8 — do not make good soil for planting trees. past president of the CADC, said that’s For the four ease- when they began ripping up small ments within the patches of asphalt and planting gardens District, the language around the edges. allows for things like “There were still residents that cared park benches and small a lot about it,” Gomaa said of the park’s storage solutions while sordid years. “Even during those diffi- ensuring that about cult times, people were planting flowers 95 percent of the land behind their houses, or a tree or two.” remains “plant-able.” Those piecemeal efforts turned into Each of these a broader vision for the space where properties protected the former building had burned down through conservation and a patchwork of asphalt remained. easements in Septem- After battling through back taxes ber is unique, ranging to reclaim ownership of the site, the from a tiny, hilly lot of CADC board began in the early 2000s trees between houses to create a park. in DC’s Buena Vista They worked with the city to remove neighborhood to a half- what was left of the burned-out building acre mini-forest nestled and brought the newly minted nonprofit, next to an industrial Casey Trees, in to landscape the space corridor and railroad where clusters of trees would continue tracks in Lamond to be planted and fill in over the next 15 Riggs, a few miles years. Now, Saturday morning soccer north of Casey Trees’ practices bring dozens of kids to the headquarters. park’s grassy sections, where residents Three of the four walk their dogs on weekday mornings Christopher Bulka, president of the board for Crispus Attucks Park, and his bernedoodle, Huckle- properties are located and readers find shade along the edges berry, are regulars at the park, which is near his house. (Dave Harp) squarely in the water- on slow Sunday afternoons. shed of the Anacostia Gomaa, who moved to the neighbor- green in perpetuity. River, in east and southeast portions hood in 2009, said the community “We started thinking about Buscaino said Casey Trees had been of the city, and one is on its edge in the finally had its green oasis and wanted to considering taking on a land trust role District’s northern corner. Two proper- keep it that way. But the acre of land — ways we could make sure to participate in easements at about the ties are triangle-shaped grassy lots at in the midst of a city with rising popula- this land would stay a park, time the opportunity to do so at Crispus the end of residential streets, one of tions and housing prices — was worth Attucks came up. which has no trees — yet. far more than their nonprofit’s annual no matter what happened “For us at Casey Trees, this is really As the District nears 700,000 income from yard sales and events. in the future.” a win-win in terms of our mission for residents, with a growth rate of nearly “We started thinking about ways we the tree canopy,” Buscaino said of the 1.5 percent per year, both the city and could make sure this land would stay a — Will Gomaa easements, both at Crispus Attacks and the nonprofit said they’d be interested in park, no matter what happened in the Past president on the District-owned lots. “Even if a finding more spaces that fit the bill for future,” Gomaa said. Crispus Attucks Development Corp. tree gets cut down, if there’s soil [that’s easements. Casey Trees’ Buscaino said Most of the organizations that the protected], it’s going to turn into a tree in December that he was in the process board reached out to about conservation sooner or later.” of hiring someone to pursue easements easements specialized in preserving private land in rural areas. Flickinger, who helped craft the lan- full-time, to “give it the old college try.” historic buildings. They didn’t have a Still, an easement seemed to be the guage for the easements, said he mimicked “I would like to see it be more than rubric for protecting a park. Though the best way for the board, which would other land trusts’ legal language while an episodic thing where somebody District has more green and treed spaces continue to own Crispus Attucks Park, tweaking it for an urban environment. He knocks on our door and says, ‘Hey, than most cities of its size, thanks in to prevent the space from being devel- was careful to avoid language that would I’ve got some land,’” Buscaino said. part to its share of national parks, few oped into another row of townhomes merely require the land to be kept “pervi- “They’re not making any more land in of those spaces are protected through in the future. Even if the nonprofit ous,” so that water could filter through it, this 60-square-mile triangle that is the private easements — a conservation tool went under and the park was sold to a because paving stones and tennis courts city. Wherever we can preserve trees, more commonly used on large tracts of new owner, the easement would keep it — regardless of how well they filter water we will.” CHESAPEAKE BAY WORKBOAT MODELS Crab Boats, Fishing Boats, Oyster Boats, Skiffs, Display Cases, Accessories & More

Call us today! Fully Assembled 215-290-3722 Wood Construction www.BlackwayBoatModels.com 10 Bay Journal • January / February 2019 Alexandria tunneling its way out of sewage overflow problems ≈ Structures will divert tainted with federal requirements. But when certified environmental education to $555 million. Across the Potomac water away from river and river advocates rang the alarm that center — the first of its kind in Fairfax River, DC Water’s Clean Rivers Project Alexandria wasn’t doing the work County, located just southwest of includes 18 miles of tunnels and an toward wastewater treatment quickly enough, the General Assembly the city’s Old Town corridor — staff estimated cost of $2.7 billion. facility to comply with voted to speed up the time line. seemed more than able to tackle the But, if Alexandria is able to com- legislators’ deadline. Their 2017 law requires Alexandria project. They were excited about the plete its project by the 2025 deadline, it By Whitney Pipkin to reduce the number of overflows into challenge. may be one of the fastest timeframes in This time two years ago, officials the Potomac from 60 per year to less “When you say, ‘You got combined which a city has addressed its overflow from the historic city of Alexandria, than four — and to remove nearly all sewer overflows,’ that’s not the most problems. VA, were jockeying with state legisla- of the E. coli bacteria flowing from exciting thing,” said Caitlin Feehan, Adam Krantz, CEO of the National tors for more time to curb the sewage the other three outfalls into impaired program manager for the utility’s Association of Clean Water Agencies, overflows that wash 140 million waterbodies. RiverRenew project. “But we see it as which represents water utilities, said gallons of untreated sewage into the Overall, the planned project is serving our ultimate goal of helping many such projects take 15–20 years Potomac River and its tributaries each expected to keep pollution from over- the community improve water quality. to complete. But if anyone can get year. But since then, in an effort to flowing 96 percent of the time. As an We do that by treating wastewater — it across the finish line, he said, it’s meet the General Assembly’s 2025 added benefit, it should remove several but also with this project.” AlexRenew’s CEO Karen Pallansch, deadline to complete the work, the city thousand pounds of the trash that flows If the plans come to fruition, Alex- who also sits on the NACWA board has found a way. into the river via the sewer system. andria will join dozens of other cities and previously served as its president. Like many centuries-old wastewater This summer, the Northern Virginia that have curbed polluted overflows “She embodies an innovative, treatment systems in the country, city transferred ownership of its four with costly projects to increase capac- problem-solving mentality. She’s very Alexandria’s captures both sewage outfalls — and the permits requiring ity at wastewater treatment facilities. good at completing projects,” Krantz and stormwater in its pipes. To expedited treatment — to the local Like the District of Columbia and said. “AlexRenew did a remarkable prevent sewage backups, the system wastewater treatment facility, Alexan- the Virginia cities of Richmond and thing stepping forward to do this was designed to divert wet-weather dria Renew Enterprises, or Lynchburg — where projects are all [project] for the city.” Potomac Riverkeeper Dean Nau- joks was among those pushing the city to clean up its sewer overflows much sooner than originally planned. With the state’s blessing, the city had planned to leave the largest of the four outfalls — which spews tens of mil- lions of gallons of polluted stormwater annually into the Potomac River’s Oronoco Bay — untouched for the next 20 years while addressing other outfalls. “The idea that they were still flushing their toilets into the Potomac was unacceptable to not only us but to a lot of communities downriver,” said Naujoks, who has continued to participate in the plan’s process to ensure overflows are reduced as much as possible. “AlexRenew, to their credit, kept picking up the capacity. Their consultants all seemed to suggest they could do this.” The project could increase residents’ utility bills by $20 to $40 a month in the coming years, but the exact amount depends on whether the city gets grants from the state to defray the cost. Richmond and Lynchburg each have received millions of dollars from Participants in the Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s VoiCeS (Volunteers as Chespaeake Stewards) program get an introduction the state for their combined sewer to the areas served by the wastewater facility Alexandria Renew Enterprises during a tour on Nov. 28. Paula Sanjines, a outflow reduction projects. Alexan- process engineer with contractor Jacobs, used a map on the floor of the entryway to start a tour. (Whitney Pipkin) dria officials plan to ask the General Assembly for $25 million this year overflows to the nearest water body, AlexRenew. Staff at the facility well under way — Alexandria plans and for more in future years to equal sending untreated sewage directly brought not only expertise but also to build concrete tunnels deep under- about 20 percent of the project’s cost, into the stream or river. This has come a new outlook to what had been an ground to divert tainted water from the according to AlexRenew staff. to be known as a combined sewer intractable problem for a city council overflow points away from the river The city initially planned to reduce overflow system. unaccustomed to such projects. and toward the treatment facility. overflows over time by building Now, under pressure to reduce Can the city funnel a few million Alexandria’s RiverRenew project storage tanks in various places and nutrient pollution in waterways, many more gallons per day to the plant for entails building more than two miles redeveloping areas with modern cities are chipping away at combined treatment by 2025? Yes, said Alex- of tunnels, two pumping stations and stormwater controls, but the General sewer overflow problems through Renew and its contractors. During a increasing treatment capacity at the costly long-term programs to comply tour of the utility’s LEED Platinum- plant, costing an estimated $370 million Tunnel continues on page 11 Bay Journal • January / February 2019 11

Tunnel from page 5 tunnels with little to no interruption on the surface. An added benefit of Assembly’s decision sent officials back AlexRenew taking over the project, to the drawing board and led to a more she said, is that the utility can pull all holistic project. of the earth that the boring machine “We already have the treatment removes out at its plant, leaving fewer plant and, by doing some tweaks here, disruptions in the Old Town corridor we can take on additional flow and where the Oronoco Bay outfall is do work that’s already in our wheel- located. house,” said AlexRenew’s Feehan. As part of the process, AlexRenew The plant already provides waste- has already begun collecting soil water treatment services for 300,000 samples along the proposed tunnel residents in a tan-bricked portion of routes. The plan calls for the work to the facility that blends into its sur- take place in a deep layer of prehistoric roundings near Cameron Run, cleaning clay where — even in a centuries-old more than 13 billion gallons of waste- city such as Alexandria — it would be water each year before it is discharged unlikely to disturb historical artifacts. into tributaries of the Potomac. (But better safe than sorry in a town Diverting the outfalls — out of that was built in some places atop which about 140 million gallons of buried wooden ships. [See Experience sewage-tainted water currently flow Alexandria’s maritime past, March each year — to the plant for treatment 2017]). entails a marginal increase in capacity. During a boat trip with elected The project will likely use a officials on the Potomac River earlier refurbished tunnel boring machine, Kacey King-McRae, a process analyst at Alexandria Renew Enterprises, shows a tour this year, AlexRenew’s CEO Karen which chews away at the earth and group some of the outdoor tanks where wastewater is treated. AlexRenew is leading Pallansch thanked the state legislators builds a concrete tunnel in its wake, to a project to construct tunnels from Old Town Alexandria to the plant to treat polluted among them for the funding her facil- complete a pair of 12-foot-wide tunnels water that currently overflows into the Potomac River. (Whitney Pipkin) ity received to complete wastewater more than 100 feet underground. A treatment upgrades in recent years. federal environmental assessment is the Potomac River waterfront. The of the public comments about tunnel And she reminded them that more under way to help determine the path service required both the assessment construction. would be needed to complete a project of the tunnels. and public listening sessions, which To quell concerns about a machine that AlexRenew had only recently The National Park Service is the took place this fall. boring a tunnel deep under historic acquired. owner of much of the land under which “We’ve heard from the public homes — or under the edge of the “We’re very excited, with a little tunnel construction would occur — consistently that there’s a desire to stay Potomac River, as one plan would trepidation around the program,” including Jones Point Park, the George as far away from Old Town as pos- entail — Feehan points to the other Pallansch said, “because we have to do Washington Memorial Parkway and sible,” Feehan said, summarizing many cities that have successfully built it by 2025.” Tell

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

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But the But the river debate over its future has been anything can still be used but smooth. for recreation The Virginia Department of Game afterward, Finger and Inland Fisheries is working with the said, adding that city to tear down a hole-ridden dam that the moving water critics say poses a drowning hazard and would be good blocks fish and mussel movements in the for kayaking and Chesapeake Bay tributary. standup paddle- But opponents are mounting a last-ditch boarding. Another effort to preserve the stone and mortar potential benefit: structure. They argue that the century- Paddlers will no old dam’s historic value outweighs the longer have to environmental benefits of its removal. portage around The public would also lose a popular the dam. swimming attraction, they contend, if “I think the 1.2-mile-long flat pond behind the having it be a dam reverts to a free-flowing stream. Water pours down the Maury River and falls over a dam at Jordon’s Point near Lexington, VA. Most of the beautiful river in Removing fish barriers has been one 10-foot-high dam and the railroad trestles pictured here are set to be demolished as soon as flows dimin- its natural state of the longtime goals of the Chesapeake ish enough to enable the work to proceed. (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service) will still be an Bay restoration. Whether dismantling asset to the city,” dams or installing passages, officials to be a lot of connectivity here,” said some time before 1900 — no one is sure Finger said. “It’ll just be different.” are striving to reopen waters to fish Wayne Dyok, executive director of exactly when — to power a nearby mill. The project includes nods toward migration and to create more habitat for American Dams. At the time, Jordan’s Point was awash historical preservation. Remnants of the important species. As of 2017, authorities The group is considering a lawsuit in heavy industry, serving as one of structure and a handful of railroad piers across the region had already opened challenging the DGIF’s environmental Lexington’s main economic engines. will be left in place to give future visi- 1,236 additional miles, with just less than assessment. The document, Dyok said, But by World War II, the mills had tors a sense of what once stood there. half of that amount in Virginia. improperly credits the project with creat- closed, and the dam had fallen out of The project also will strive to keep But Bay scientists caution against ing 1,140 miles of connected habitat. But use. The modern engineering report water flowing down the dam’s millrace, declaring victory just yet. Much of the 1,084 of those miles are already available found numerous leaks as well as a crack the shallow canal that diverted water mileage gain came through projects con- to fish upstream of the dam, so the state spanning its entire 10-foot height on the from the main river channel to power sidered “low-hanging fruit,” they said. should only credit itself with adding 56 upstream side of the structure. the mill, Finger said. If the Lexington dam is removed, fish miles, he said. The report estimated that rehabilitat- The Virginia Military Institute, which would still face another barrier 7.5 miles Moss defended the calculation, saying ing the 10-foot-high, 185-foot-long calls Lexington home, lobbied the city to downstream at a second dam, which it came directly from the Chesapeake structure would cost up to $3 million. keep the dam to preserve the impound- blocks their path to the James River Bay Fish Passage Prioritization Tool, the In the city of 7,000 residents, that total ment. Its depth allowed cadets to practice and Chesapeake beyond. But it would protocol endorsed by the Chesapeake equates to an entire year’s worth of leaping into the water from a zipline. open a network of adjoining waterways, Bay Program. spending on capital improvements, such “These activities require sufficient connecting 56 miles of fish habitat In November, Sherry White, the as bridge repairs, street paving and other depth, and we are expecting that depth downstream of the dam to 1,084 miles on USFWS assistant director for fish and infrastructure upgrades. won’t be available in the areas we the upstream portion, said Lisa Moss, a aquatic conservation in the agency’s “We don’t have that kind of money do the training now when the dam is U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist. Northeast region, ruled that the project to fix up a dam that doesn’t really have a removed,” said Col. Stewart MacInnis, Supporters say that removing the dam would create “no significant impact” to purpose other than increasing some rec- a VMI spokesman. also will improve water quality and the the human or natural environment. The reational opportunities,” City Manager The Lexington City Council reaffirmed diversity of fish and insects in the aquatic determination removed one of the last Noah Simon said. “If you have somebody its commitment in October to remove the food chain immediately upstream of the major regulatory hurdles facing the project. that’s giving you a solution to a problem dam, all but closing the door on legislative structure. The velocity of river flows Calls to remove the Maury River you can’t afford, why not consider it?” efforts to save the structure. American will increase, pumping more oxygen dam began in 2006, when a deceptively That’s what happened, he said, when Dams representatives said that they can into the water and reshaping the bottom strong current washed a 16-year-old boy the USFW and the Virginia Wildlife repair the dam for far less than the city’s to be more hospitable to the spawning over the spillway. He drowned, unable to Grant Program stepped in to fund the consultant estimated. Still, the state and feeding habits of the creatures that escape the recirculating vortex at its base. $260,000 demolition. Work is set to Department of Conservation and Recre- normally live in rivers. A 2007 engineering report financed begin in early 2019, whenever the current ation said it would require anyone who There are no farther dams upstream by the city called the structure “unsafe” slackens in the rain-swollen river. takes ownership of the dam to first obtain a from that part of the river, which lies on a and recommended its removal, warning The impacts of the removal will ripple $3 million bond as financial assurance. bend known as Jordan’s Point. it could suffer a “partial failure” during far beyond the project’s footprint, said Dyok said his small group doesn’t Opponents say the increase in a “significant high water event.” In Louise Finger, a stream restoration biolo- have that kind of money, and he ques- uninterrupted steam miles for fish isn’t December 2017, the state Department of gist with the DGIF. tions whether the DCR has the authority significant enough to justify destroying Conservation and Recreation ordered the The normal high-water level will to impose such a requirement. In the the dam, though. city to repair or remove the dam, citing plummet as much as 7 feet just upstream meantime, he hopes his group’s own “The more I looked at Jordan’s Point, its continued decay. of the dam site, according to the DGIF. stability analysis can be completed before the more I realized there isn’t going The low-head dam was constructed As officials gathered public comments the wrecking crew arrives. Bay Journal • January / February 2019 13 EPA names Dana Aunkst to lead Bay Program Office ≈ Longtime PA environmental said. “I look forward to then, the department has been working official wrote ‘reboot’ strategy to working collaboratively to implement that strategy. with our stakeholders in “Dana is a results– and data- ramp up the state’s Chesapeake protecting our nation’s driven manager of environmental restoration efforts. largest estuary and the programs and will be a good fit with By Karl Blankenship local waterways through- the professional staff at EPA,” said The U.S. Environmental Protection out the Chesapeake Bay David E. Hess, former DEP secretary. Agency announced on Dec. 12 that it watershed.” “Pennsylvania is the linchpin to had selected a longtime Pennsylvania He also served as meeting Chesapeake Bay Watershed environmental official to head its deputy secretary for field Agreement cleanup goals, and he Chesapeake Bay Program Office. operations, overseeing six knows our state well. The challenge EPA Region III Administrator offices in implementing the will be to dedicate enough federal and Cosmo Servidio named Dana Aunkst, full array of state and fed- Pennsylvania resources to the program who has held a number of positions eral regulatory programs. to accomplish those goals.” with the Pennsylvania Department As executive deputy Aunkst’s appointment comes at a of Environmental Protection over the secretary of operations he key time, as one Bay Program chal- years and authored its Chesapeake Bay oversaw the activities of lenge in coming years will be work- “reboot” strategy to oversee the office more than 2,000 profes- ing with Pennsylvania to accelerate that coordinates the state-federal Bay sional and technical staff cleanup effort. The state contributes restoration efforts. engaged in all aspects of more water-fouling nutrients to the “He has tremendous skill at environmental protec- Chesapeake than any other jurisdic- building partnerships and creating a tion. As deputy secretary tion, but is far behind in its share of the shared vision among geographically of water, he oversaw cleanup effort. diverse stakeholders,” Servidio said. programs for surface and As head of the Bay Program office, “His experience and relationships with Dana Aunkst has worked for 33 years on environmental groundwater quality; soil Aunkst will be responsible for more multiple agencies will serve us and our programs in private industry as well as local and state and water conservation; than just nutrient reduction efforts. The partners well as we accelerate efforts government. (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency) public water withdrawals; office oversees and helps coordinate to safeguard the Chesapeake Bay and sewer facilities planning; activities aimed at meeting goals of its living resources.” he has served in a number of positions, and industrial discharges. the 2014 Chesapeake Bay Watershed Aunkst has worked for 33 years on including deputy secretary and acting In that job, he also led efforts in Agreement, from environmental educa- environmental programs in private secretary. 2016 to write the strategy to reboot the tion and citizen stewardship to habitat industry as well as local and state “This is a tremendous opportunity state’s Chesapeake Bay cleanup efforts restoration and fisheries management. government. Since 2002, he has to build upon the accomplishments to after it had fallen far behind and faced Aunkst started in his new position worked at the Pennsylvania DEP where date by EPA and its partners,” Aunkst potential action from the EPA. Since on Dec. 23. Restoring the native balance

ernstseed.com [email protected] 800-873-3321 14 Bay Journal • January / February 2019 Science foundation cuts 20-year-old Baltimore ecological study’s funds ≈ Stream research has made under “normal” weather significant contributions to conditions, urban and suburban watersheds retain understanding human impacts an unexpectedly high share on urban waters, including of the water-fouling nutrients pharmaceuticals, runoff and sewage. they get from lawn fertil- By Timothy B. Wheeler izer, air pollution and other For two decades, scientists have sources, preventing them been monitoring the streams that from washing downstream to flow from Baltimore’s outer suburbs the Bay. through some of the city’s most “We have the longest, blighted neighborhoods on their way to most comprehensive urban the harbor. watershed data anywhere in With data painstakingly compiled the world,” Groffman said. from stream-sampling field trips and Mining that 20-year data a network of continuously operating base, for instance, has shown stream gauges, researchers involved in how sewage leaks and over- the Baltimore Ecosystem Study have flows plaguing Baltimore’s new insights on how urban waters are aging wastewater system polluted by sewage leaks and runoff impair local streams. from lawns and pavement. They’ve The long-term monitoring documented how pharmaceuticals and of Baltimore area streams personal care products that wash down has been a help to the Bay people’s drains are getting into the restoration effort, said Rich water and into insects, frogs and fish. Batiuk, who retired last But they’ve also found that urban year as associate director of streams are surprisingly resilient — science for the EPA’s Chesa- and that addressing their ills can help peake Bay office. It furnished the long-running effort to restore the Chris Swan, a professor at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, looks over a vacant data that the Bay Program Chesapeake Bay while also improving lot in West Baltimore that his students seeded with native wildflowers. The experiment, part lacked resources to monitor, the quality of life for city dwellers. of the Baltimore Ecosystem Study, aims to convert abandoned sites into more attractive green he said, and helped to upgrade Now, though, the future of that spaces that can draw pollinators and also soak up more polluted runoff. (Timothy B. Wheeler) and calibrate the federal-state research is in doubt. One of just two effort’s watershed modeling. urban-focused long-term ecological confidentiality rules prevented him hail from several states. The research has yielded other research projects in the nation, the from doing so. The foundation also The Baltimore project is one of only insights about urban waters. A study Baltimore Ecosystem Study faces what denied a Freedom of Information Act two long-term studies of urban eco- led by Rosi found a mix of pharmaceu- one of its chief scientists calls a “funding request to see any documents related systems. The other looks at sprawling ticals and illicit drugs in the Gwynns crisis.” The National Science Foundation, to its decision, saying they are exempt central Arizona around Phoenix. Both Falls, a tributary of the Patapsco which has provided grants to underwrite from disclosure under federal laws. were launched by the NSF in 1997, River that flows through the city’s the study since its inception, is pulling the Emma J. Rosi, the Baltimore study’s with field work beginning in Baltimore western neighborhoods. While most plug on its financial support. principal investigator, said foundation the next year. of the drugs were at trace levels, they The science foundation notified staff initially rejected the research Because those two research projects found amphetamine concentrations study leaders earlier in 2018 that it had team’s proposal as too complex. So, are in urban areas, they necessarily high enough to alter the base of the denied their request for another six- the team streamlined it, she said. An focus on the interaction between nature food web that supports fish and other year grant, which would have provided NSF advisory panel that reviewed the and people. In Baltimore, scientists aquatic creatures. about $1 million a year. Instead, the revised proposal found it “competi- have studied soil; plants and animals on Urban streams also are very “flashy,” foundation offered the scientists a tive,” meriting funding. But NSF staff both the land and in the streams; and meaning they’re prone to surging three-year grant to write up whatever rejected it again, she said, saying it the quality of water and air. quickly over their banks in storms results they have yet to publish, was too simple. Steward T. A. Pickett, a plant ecolo- because the pavement and buildings archive the data they’ve collected and “We believe that the BES project gist at the Cary Institute and founding covering their watersheds keeps rainfall decommission their field sites. has been…at the cutting edge of an director of the Baltimore Ecosystem from soaking into the ground. Andrew “It’s unclear why they were important area of research,” said Rosi, an Study, said the NSF’s steady support Miller, a professor of geography and unhappy with us,” said Peter Groff- aquatic ecologist at the Cary Institute for has been crucial to the community environmental systems at the University man, a microbial ecologist at the City Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, NY. outreach portion of the project as well, of Maryland, Baltimore County, said University of New York and one of The Baltimore study is part of a net- in its work with area schools, policy his research has found that the built-up the Baltimore study’s leaders. “The work of 28 NSF-funded research proj- makers and community groups. Baltimore metro area has many such project’s been very productive. We’ve ects dedicated to measuring change “The long-term funding — to allow flood-prone streams. learned interesting things, so we’re a over a period of years or even decades the really intensive data collection at “Floods that would be a 100– to 200- little befuddled.” in a variety of ecosystems stretching scale and time — that’s really impor- year flood out in a rural environment Doug Levey, an NSF program from Alaska to Antarctica. Each study tant,” Pickett said. “But time is also might be more like a 10– to 15-year officer, said that the Baltimore ecosys- engages dozens of researchers from important for building those connec- flood around here,” Miller said. tem researchers “have done excellent multiple disciplines — including tions with communities, building the Ellicott City, a historic mill town on work in the past.” But the foundation biology, hydrology and geochemistry, trust, getting people to understand the banks of the Patapsco River, has decided not to continue funding the plus social sciences such as we’re all trying to serve environmental been devastated twice in two years by project, he said, because of what he economics — and even at times artists, quality and quality of life.” flash flooding from severe rainstorms. called “problems with the proposal” historians and philosophers. The Uni- Their work on urban streams has Miller said his analysis suggests there that the research team had submitted. versity of Maryland, Baltimore County shed light on the ways that development are plenty of other streams prone to Levey would not elaborate on what serves as the institutional home for the and failing infrastructure affect water troubled the NSF staff and said that Baltimore study, though its researchers quality. They found, for instance, that Ecosystem continues on page 15 Bay Journal • January / February 2019 15

Ecosystem from page 14 surveys, for instance, and also, by ana- lyzing historical land use and zoning flooding, and there’s been an uptick in records since the 1920s, found empiri- extreme rain events, posing challenges cal evidence of racial bias in the siting for preventing or managing other of polluting industries and facilities catastrophic floods in the future. like landfills and incinerators. Even though urban streams are That unusual aspect of the urban very different from forested ones, ecosystem studies apparently hasn’t Rosi said, the research team has found always sat well with some NSF staff. A that “there’s life in them….If you can couple of years ago, one retiring program restore their physical habitat, there’s officer wrote to Baltimore and Phoenix opportunity for them to come back.” study leaders urging them to scale back Data from the Baltimore study their socio-ecological research, accord- have documented how repairing ing to minutes of the research network’s sewage leaks and taking steps to executive board. Study leaders were reduce stormwater runoff do lead to subsequently assured that was not the better water quality, both locally and view of remaining NSF managers, but downstream. Groffman, noting that it demonstrated the challenges inherent decades-long efforts to restore the in expanding the concept of ecological Chesapeake’s water quality appear to research. be yielding positive results, said, “If Whatever prompted the NSF to we have turned the corner, if we’ve terminate its support for the Baltimore made improvements in the Chesapeake research project, study leaders vow to Bay, those improvements start here, in carry on, saying they’re working to these small watersheds.” replace the funding to be terminated, The Baltimore project also has Claire Welty, director of UMBC’s Center for Urban Environmental Research and which represents about 20 percent of improved the understanding of Education, checks out a water sampling station on Dead Run, a stream flowing the study’s overall budget. It receives land-based urban ecological changes. from Baltimore’s western suburbs into the city. The Baltimore Ecosystem Study other, usually shorter term grants from One study found that neighborhoods has gathered two decades’ worth of data on urban watersheds from field sampling the NSF and other funders. blighted with abandoned homes, for and a network of monitoring stations like this. (Timothy B. Wheeler) “The Baltimore Ecosystem Study instance, are breeding hot spots for will not go away,” said Claire Welty, tiger mosquitoes — making low- professor, has led a study evaluating the and improving stormwater retention. director of UMBC’s Center for Urban income residents more vulnerable to prospects of re-establishing native mead- Researchers have gone beyond the Environmental Research and Educa- insect-borne diseases. ows in vacant lots in the city, beautifying usual ecological research boundaries tion. “We’ve got a lot of irons in the Chris Swan, another UMBC weedy blocks with flowering plants to examine the human environment. fire. We’re trying to figure out where geography and environmental systems while restoring habitat for pollinators They’ve conducted public opinion the funding is going to come from.”

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WWF19_BayJournal-ad.indd 1 12/18/18 3:19 PM 16 Bay Journal • January / February 2019 After millions spent, MD’s solution for excess manure still elusive ≈ ‘Being an early adopter is very ‘Good policy’ challenging and expensive,’ The waste technology fund began as an olive branch to farmers at a time proponents learning. when they were facing greater pressure By Jeremy Cox to limit sources of nutrient pollution. For the last few years, Jason Lam- Farmers typically use poultry litter, bertson’s farm near Pocomoke City, a combination of manure and bedding, MD, has been home to an expensive as fertilizer on their corn and soybean experiment. Jason fields — crops that are fed to future The third-generation farmer Lambertson, generations of chickens. received nearly $1 million in state a grain and But the agricultural sector often funding to build a giant poultry waste poultry spreads more manure than those converter and distribute its main farmer in crops can absorb, particularly on the product: fertilizer. Inside two-story- Pocomoke Eastern Shore, where Lambertson’s tall gray tanks, bacteria eat tons of City, MD, farm is located. The resulting runoff manure collected from four of his launched is a disproportionate part of the Bay’s chicken houses. At the end of a month, Planet overall nutrient overload — which Lambertson is left with nutrient-rich Found triggers massive algae blooms in the fertilizer products and a type of gas Energy Chesapeake Bay, creating a cascade of that powers the entire system. Development ecological consequences. The effort has had its ups and downs. in the hope After decades of halting efforts to Since it started operating in the spring of finding reverse pollution loads from all sources, of 2017, Lambertson’s anaerobic digester alternative Maryland joined a multi-state and has gradually ramped up production. uses for federal campaign in 2010 to implement a But his company, Planet Found Energy the poultry Bay cleanup plan by 2025. It calls for Development, has yet to realize two litter that, the jurisdictions to sharply reduce the key potential profit sources: selling the when spread amount of nutrients — mostly nitrogen fertilizer or generating enough electricity on cropland and phosphorus — as well as sediment to send to the local power grid. as fertilizer, and other pollutants that reach the largest The system is projected to lose can U.S. estuary. about $123,000 a year, rendering it pollute the An important part of Maryland’s “not financially feasible,” accord- Chesapeake effort to reduce nutrient runoff from ing to a January 2018 report by the Bay. agriculture debuted in 2015. The new University of Maryland Environmental (Dave regulation, called the phosphorus Finance Center. Lambertson and his Harp) management tool, required farmers business partners, though, argue that to measure the amount of fertilizer the technology will be profitable once farm or sold to the power grid. Others they spread on cropland based on the it is scaled up to handle manure from simply produce compost in a relatively amount of phosphorus already in their multiple farms. quick, high-tech fashion. soils. Fields already saturated with the Planet Found’s plight underscores Stephanie Lansing, a University of nutrient are barred from adding more. the challenges that have befallen the Maryland agriculture researcher, has From the earliest days of the rule’s projects that like it, were funded by the studied some of the funded projects development, Lawrence recalled, one Maryland Department of Agriculture’s and come to a timeless conclusion: question dominated: What would those Animal Waste Technology Fund. “Being an early adopter is very chal- farmers do with their chicken litter? lenging and expensive,” she said. In many cases, it couldn’t simply be No breakout successes Anaerobic digestion is a tried- sold to farms where phosphorus values Since its 2014 inception, the pro- and-true technology in Germany, for were low, because the transportation gram has handed out nearly $6 million example, where there are more than costs would make the fertilizer too to eight projects that promise to help 10,000 working systems, Lansing said. expensive. farmers find uses for manure beyond But in the United States, where there “We felt it was a good policy to try fertilizing local fields. Its main target: Three 5-gallon buckets hold samples of are fewer than 300, farmers and other to get ahead of it and try to come up the nearly 400,000 tons of chicken different soil amendments produced by users struggle to find replacement with some alternatives for folks who litter generated each year in Maryland, Lambertson’s anaerobic digester. He parts as well as technical support for couldn’t use poultry litter agronomi- too much of which makes its way into hopes to sell the material to farmers maintaining the systems. Furthermore, cally anymore,” Lawrence said. the Chesapeake Bay. and garden centers. (Dave Harp) because of the relative dearth of suc- Four projects received funding in cess stories, U.S. lenders are less likely Mixed results with livestock the last two years and are still get- important questions about how to best to make capital available to construct The MDA began seeking propos- ting off the ground. But independent operate the technologies and develop the systems. als for waste technology projects and assessments and mandatory self- a market for their products, perhaps Many of the Maryland projects funded the first four in 2014. Four evaluations of the other four projects paving the way for the next wave show that what works in a laboratory years later, most of the results are in, depict an trial-and-error environment of attempts, said Louise Lawrence, doesn’t necessarily work out in the and they’re not entirely what officials in which equipment regularly failed who retired recently as head of the field, said Jarrod Miller, who worked had predicted. and financial losses mounted. MDA’s resource conservation office with Eastern Shore farmers for years Green Mountain Technologies, When asked which of the projects but continues to consult on the waste- as a University of Maryland extension based in Washington state, had some ranks as the most promising, the MDA technology projects. agent based in Princess Anne County. modest success with its Maryland official who until recently oversaw the The funded projects represent a mix “We did need to run some of this project, Lawrence said. The company fund replied: “Unfortunately, I don’t think of technologies. Some churn out fertil- stuff to find out,” said Miller, who is received a total of $388,000 to install I would point to any particular one.” izer coupled with methane that can now with the University of Delaware. All, however, have answered be transformed into electricity for the “A lot of people will learn from us.” Manure continues on page 17 Bay Journal • January / February 2019 17

Manure from page 16 rent single-farm size. His plan is to test the digester on a small scale dumpster-size composting units at before opening a large facility two farms — a horse rescue farm in that can process litter from farms Howard County and a dairy farm in across the Delmarva region. Frederick County. The technology uses But even if his expansion plans a free-moving augur to stir the manure don’t yield financial fruit, he has a in a large bin, theoretically accelerat- loftier ambition in mind. ing the natural decomposition process “Early on, people would ask, while providing a lighter, more usable ‘What is the benefit?’ and I would compost material. turn it around and say, ‘What is While the systems performed the benefit of the Chesapeake Bay largely as expected, concerns over to the state?’ ” he said. their financial feasibility remained, Lambertson received $676,000 according to evaluations conducted by from the MDA manure program University of Maryland researchers. and $900,000 from the Maryland At the horse rescue farm, they Energy Administration to con- estimated, the composting unit would struct the system. Private investors pay for itself within 14 years. But they have chipped in about $1.8 million cautioned that the estimate is based on as well. a situation in which the farm formerly Maryland isn’t the first state to spent thousands of dollars a year haul- subsidize animal-waste technol- ing manure to a landfill. While common ogy startups, but its focus on in the equine industry because of the poultry litter is unique, Lansing low nutritive value of horse manure, Operations manager Nick Cloyd gives a tour of the room that acts as the central ner- said. It comes down to the nature landfilling is seldom practiced by cattle vous system of the anaerobic digester. Equipment breakdowns have been frustratingly of the manure. and poultry operations. frequent, and replacement parts are difficult to obtain, he said. (Dave Harp) Litter’s dryness can defeat the Meanwhile, at the dairy farm in Fred- microbial process inside anaerobic erick County, researchers predicted that digesters the same way that the drying the original investment cost wouldn’t be effect of the alcohol in hand sanitizers recovered until the 24th year of system’s kills germs, she said. And its high estimated 25-year lifespan. nitrogen concentration can produce Van Calvez, Green Mountain’s less-than-optimal biogas, the system’s composting systems engineer, called the methane-infused energy component. Maryland results “a little disappointing.” Lambertson said he’s intentionally “It’s a thing we deal with,” he said. taking things slow. More than a year “We’re at the mercy of who steps up into production, his staff maintains the first and says, ‘Yes, I want to work system at no more than one-third of its with this technology.’” capacity for processing 3.3 tons per day. The system occupies about a football A governor’s praise field’s worth of space on his farm. It It was a promising day in December represents far more production capacity 2016, when Bob Murphy fired up the than he needs for his farm alone. He brand new, combustion system at his fully expects his expenses, as calculated sprawling poultry farm in Dorchester by the ton, to plummet once he begins County — so much so that Gov. Larry trucking in manure from other farms. Hogan visited the farm in early 2017, In addition to the electricity he will eagerly touting the state’s $970,000 be generating, Lambertson plans to investment. The system, made by sell three types of solid byproducts: Ireland-based Biomass Heating Solu- Nick Cloyd checks on a pile of poultry litter. Planet Found Energy Development is a nitrogen-heavy soil amendment, a tions Ltd., was designed to generate one of the few anaerobic digester users in the country that focuses exclusively on phosphorus concentrate and a potting electricity from poultry litter. chicken waste. (Dave Harp) soil. The MDA recently awarded him “This really is innovative technol- another $220,000 to start bagging ogy,” said Hogan, flanked by his The system draws manure down a chance to run long enough to produce his potting soil, potentially making it Agriculture Secretary Joe Bartenfelder conveyor belt into a chamber, where it a difference, the MDA found. available for sale at garden centers. and other dignitaries. is burned while suspended by jets of “We probably wouldn’t continue to Lambertson plunged his hand into But the sense of promise quickly air. The roiling action leads to better throw money at that,” Lawrence said, a 5-gallon bucket and scooped into his faded. While BHSL has a long track chemical reactions and heat transfer, “but it showed where the potentials and palm a clump of brownish dirt. record with building and maintaining experts say. The process generates pitfalls were.” “I’m not saying you’ll see that on such systems in Europe, its first U.S. electricity as well as ash that can be For his part, Murphy hopes to find Amazon some day,” Lambertson said. foray has all but failed. sold as a soil fertilizer. another vendor to salvage the equip- “But you might.” The system began operating in Before the breakdowns, the technol- ment, so he can give it another try. Louise Lawrence, the consultant and December 2016. But it broke down ogy was yielding a net annual financial “We’re exploring other avenues,” he former MDA official, said the program repeatedly, leading to “lengthy down loss of about $2,500, analysts found. said. “We’re sitting dormant. I haven’t was accepting more grant applica- times,” according to an MDA analysis. Supporters also had hoped that its told BHSL to get it off the farm. It’s tions through Dec. 28, with up to $3.5 By March 2018, it was shut down. production of electricity would elimi- still sitting there, and I hope we can million to be doled out. Its value so far Maintenance was a challenge from nate the farm’s reliance on expensive make things happen because we need shouldn’t be gauged by the success of the beginning, because the parts had propane and encourage more liberal to make things happen.” the projects alone, she said, but rather to come from overseas and required use of the houses’ heaters. More heat the lessons gleaned from them. metric tools, Murphy said, adding that could put extra weight on the chick- Searching for answers “I hope it has the longevity, so we he thinks BHSL is “probably going to ens — and more profits in Murphy’s Lambertson said he never expected get the answers we hoped to get when give up” on the project. pockets. But the system never got a his system to make money at its cur- we started,” she said. 18 Bay Journal • January / February 2019 Farm Bill could increase MD sea level to increase funding to control ag dramatically, report says ≈ Rate of rising water will depend on how well runoff to Chesapeake nations curb greenhouse gas emissions. ≈ While there is more money for programs, By Karl Blankenship there is also more competition from other areas. A new report warns that Maryland will face a By Timothy B. Wheeler dramatic increase in the rate of sea level rise later Farmers in the Chesapeake Bay watershed this century, with nuisance flooding becoming a daily stand to get more financial help from the federal occurrence in many waterfront areas if nations fail to government to reduce polluted runoff from fields curb greenhouse gas emissions. and feedlots under the new Farm Bill passed by If emissions continue to rise, sea level in Maryland Congress in December. would likely increase 2.0 to 4.2 feet by 2100, which is The legislation, which replaces the 2014 Farm two to four times the rate seen during the last cen- Bill, tweaked funding for farm conservation pro- tury, according to the report from the University of grams in a way that significantly increases the pot Maryland Center for Environmental Science that was of federal money for which Bay watershed farmers released in December. There is an outside chance the and partnering organizations can compete. rise could exceed 5.2 feet, the report said. Specifically, it triples to $300 million the funding for If countries meet commitments in the 2015 Paris the Regional Conservation Partnership Program, which Climate Agreement, the sea level would still rise, but at provides financial and technical assistance for multi- a slower rate, with the likely increase ranging from 1.2 state or watershed-scale projects. It also increases from to 3.0 feet, with a 1-in-20 chance that the increase could 35 percent to 50 percent the share of that funding that’s exceed 3.7 feet. available to one of eight designated “critical conserva- “It actually has some good news and bad news,” said tion areas,” including the Chesapeake. Donald Boesch, lead author of the report and former Those provisions track with legislation introduced UMCES president. “The bad news is that there’s more in 2017 by Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-MD, to revive evidence that unless we really limit warming to the federal agricultural funding for Bay restoration. Paris Agreement level… sea level rise could be higher “This new investment will help ensure that our than we thought. The good news is that if we’re on the Bay economy continues to thrive and that Maryland- Bay advocates said that they’re hopeful that the emissions pathway that get us to the Paris Agreement, ers and tourists can enjoy this treasure for genera- level of funding will rebound under the 2018 Farm it’s much more manageable.” tions to come,” Van Hollen said in a statement. Bill. But whether it comes close to replacing what In any scenario, places along tidal waterways will Nevertheless, the amount of federal funding was lost will depend on watershed farmers and become wetter. Nuisance flooding that occurred just a few available to the Bay watershed under the revised their partner organizations submitting competitive times a year in places like the Annapolis city dock during regional conservation program is likely to be sig- proposals. (Dave Harp) the 1950s now takes place 40 or more days per year. Even nificantly less than it had been from 2008 through under the best-case scenarios, according to the report, 2014, when Congress funneled $47 million a year Program, which provides financial and technical flooding there and in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor would on average to the region under a specific Chesa- assistance to install various land management practices become a near-daily occurrence. Meanwhile, storm surges peake Bay Watershed initiative. aimed at alleviating natural resource problems. during hurricanes would become much more dangerous. The 2014 Farm Bill replaced that Chesapeake The legislation also gradually increases the scope The report, which is updated every five years, initiative and its guaranteed funding with the RCPP, of the Conservation Reserve Program, which pays represents the consensus of an expert group of climate which awarded grants on a competitive basis to a farmers to replace crops on highly erodible and scientists from the mid-Atlantic region. It differs from much broader array of applicants nationwide. The environmentally sensitive land with more resource- the 2013 report by including alternative future scenarios amount of funding going to the watershed subse- conserving vegetation. The program will expand its based on whether nations successfully limit temperature quently declined dramatically, to around $13 million support from 24 million acres to 27 million acres increases to 2 degrees Celsius, as called for in the Paris annually. by 2023, though McGee noted that’s still far smaller agreement. Through 2050, the report said, the most Bay advocates said that they’re hopeful that the than the 32 million acres of past Farm Bills. likely range of sea level rise in Maryland would be 0.8 level of funding will rebound under the 2018 Farm The Chesapeake watershed should benefit from to 1.6 feet (measured from a 2000 baseline), though Bill. But whether it comes close to replacing what was yet another provision that enhances what farmers there is a 5 percent chance of it exceeding 2 feet. lost will depend on watershed farmers and their part- can get paid to plant trees along streams and rivers The extent to which emissions are reduced would begin ner organizations submitting competitive proposals. and keep their livestock out of the water. to have a more pronounced impact in the second half of the “It won’t be as easy as it was [until 2014] because The Conservation Reserve Enhancement Pro- century and become even greater after 2100, driven mostly that was literally given to us,” said Beth McGee, gram will increase cost-shared federal payments to by the loss of polar region ice, especially in Antarctica. director of science and agricultural policy at the farmers for putting in stream fencing, water cross- If no further actions are taken to curb global Chesapeake Bay Foundation. But she said that Con- ings and other measures to exclude animals from emissions through the end of this century, sea level gress, in addition to providing more money, changed waterways, McGee said. It also will boost payments rise in Maryland by 2150 would range from 3.4 to 6.6 how the regional conservation program operates to farmers to cover the full cost of maintaining feet, with a 1-in-20 chance it could exceed 8.5 feet. If in ways that she believes will encourage more and forested buffers along their streams. Bay states are the Paris Agreement goals are met, the likely range of better applications for funding from the watershed. lagging in their efforts to plant wooded stream buf- increase would be kept to 1.8 to 4.2 feet. “There is a bigger slice of the pie available to fers, and failure to cover maintenance costs has been A major uncertainty is whether warmer temperatures us,” she said. “So, theoretically, our chances are a factor in keeping farmers from participating. could lead to the destabilization and more rapid loss of better. But, again, it depends on the proposals McGee credited Sen. Bob Casey, D-PA, with major ice sheets, in which case the amount of sea level rise going in, and it’s competitive still.” pushing for those changes and said that they “help in the state could be even greater, exceeding 20 feet in the The new Farm Bill tinkered with other conserva- ensure adequate and fair compensation to landown- next century, the report said. “Back at the beginning of tion programs in ways that might help the Bay as ers willing to implement forest buffers — one of the 20th century, more than 100 years ago, Greenland and well, advocates said. The Conservation Stewardship the most cost-effective ways to reduce pollution Antarctica, were fairly stable,” Boesch said. “They were Program, which according to the Chesapeake Bay from agriculture.” actually building ice. And now the evidence is pretty clear Commission concentrated its activities in the Midwest, Lastly, the new Farm Bill increased funding for they’re losing ice. That process is just likely to accelerate, was cut in favor of more broad-based efforts. Chief purchasing conservation easements on agricultural like literally a meltdown. How fast that meltdown will be among those is the Environmental Quality Incentives land, including those that preserve wetlands. depends on how much more warming there is.” Bay Journal • January / February 2019 19 Middle Susquehanna mascot noses around when pollution is suspected ≈ Sussey, the sewage-sniffing dog, can detect leaks, illegal discharges and broken pipes. By Donna Morelli Carol Parenzan became the Middle Susquehanna Riverkeeper in July 2015 and was charged with protect- ing and improving the health of the river’s watershed between its north and west branches. Shortly afterward, her first staff member came on board: a rusty-colored fluff ball of energy named “Little Keeper” Susquehanna, or Sussey for short. As part of the sniff detection training Parenzan said that the dog is a great process, the search scent is placed mascot for her work. “It’s a connecting inside tins with air holes, which are point. He draws more people to me then placed within the search area. when I’m out.” But Sussey has work The dog is rewarded for locating and to do, too. The Nova Scotia duck signaling the found scent. Some of these tolling retriever is 3 years old and tins contain no scent to prevent the dog is in training to sniff out leaking from searching for tins only. septic systems, illegal discharges into (Ann Nowaskie / Middle Susquehanna waterways and broken sewer pipes Riverkeeper Association, Inc.) — all of which can contaminate local streams and the Susquehanna River. sewage leaks are usually looking for To train Sussey, Parenzen makes human material, because that is the a weekly trip to the wastewater source of pathogens most likely to be treatment plant to get a small vial of transmitted to people. effluent, then dips a cotton swab into The canine ability to sniff out even the vial and places the swab into a minute concentrations of substances small tin with a punctured lid. has served humans for centuries She places the tin among identical — they’ve been trained to detect tins with a different scent or no scent bombs and to search for lost humans, at all. Sussey’s job is to find the cadavers, drugs, bedbugs and cancer. effluent — and he usually succeeds in While turning that talent toward 20–40 seconds. sewage leaks is fairly new, Sussey is In the next step, Parenzan plans not the only one to be enlisted by a on moving the practice indoors and riverkeeper: The Savanna Riverkeeper making the task harder by using in Georgia is training a canine for a buckets of water containing small career like Sussey’s. amounts of effluent. Environmental Canine Services, a Sussey should be offering his ser- company based in Maine, has sewage- vices to local governments or environ- sniffing dogs and handler teams located mental groups in the near future. across the country. In 2015, the Center “I have a pretty good feel for what is for Watershed Protection and the state under our feet,” said Parenzan, who is of Vermont hired the company to see if trained in subsurface utility and envi- the dogs would improve the results of ronmental engineering. “Together, we’ll the state’s illicit discharge detection and make a powerful consulting team.” elimination program. The contamination of surface Sussey signals a found scent through intense eye contact with his handler Middle “The dogs make the field work a waters with raw sewage from septic Susquehanna Riverkeeper Carol Parenzan. (Donna Morelli) lot faster,” said Laurel Williamson, or sewage systems can be a serious a stormwater and watershed planner problem. Pathogens from fecal The source of contamination, time-consuming as the field work. with the center who would like to see material contain bacteria, viruses whether from a point source like a Enter the dog. A trained dog can more dogs available for such work. and protozoa that can cause anything pipe or nonpoint source runoff from visit the same spots and use its 300 “It’s a presence or absence situation. from a brief stomachache to parasitic land, is often difficult to find and olfactory receptors to quickly detect They get an idea at each catch basin infestations and fevers that require control. Traditionally, field staff go the presence of sewage, narrowing and either bark or lay down. We record more care. out with their maps and human eyes down where samples should be pulled. the results and use that information to The problem is more common and can only detect contamination A dog can also sense sewage in prioritize the next move.” than many realize. Pathogens impair after sample after sample of water places where it would be difficult or While Sussey continues his sewage 159,425 river and stream miles in is pulled from stormwater drains, impossible to take a sample, like an sniffer training, he still fulfills the nation, according to the Center outlet pipes and streams suspected of outlet pipe or catch basin that is dry or his role as a mascot of the Middle for Watershed Protection. The U.S. contamination and sent to a lab. If a has very low flow. Susquehanna Riverkeeper, a role for Environmental Protection Agency, positive result comes back, there is A sewage-sniffing dog can even which he needs no training. His bright which oversees drinking and surface still the work of tracing it back to its determine whether the fecal matter expressions and a downy, red-hued water quality, has developed more source, which could be as close as an is from humans or animals. Local coat that begs to be stroked are all he management plans for pathogens than adjacent pipe or miles away. Waiting governments, waste authorities needs to lure new followers to him and any other pollutant. for results can be as expensive and and others who survey an area for his mission. 20 Bay Journal • January / February 2019 MD adult oyster numbers down by half since 1999, study finds ≈ First-ever stock assessment the Maryland Watermen’s Association, sees overfishing as a continued questioned the study’s focus on market- size oysters, ignoring smaller, younger problem in half of state’s waters. bivalves, as well as its use of a mathemati- By Timothy B. Wheeler cal model initially developed for different Watermen overharvested oysters shellfish. He also said the reason so last winter in a little more than half of many areas seemed to be overfished was Maryland’s portion of the Chesapeake because watermen had been forced to Bay watershed, according to the state’s work remaining areas more intensively first-ever stock assessment of the after being forced out of the sanctuaries. commercially and ecologically valuable Ron Fithian, a Kent County commis- shellfish. If those harvest rates continue, sioner and former waterman, put much of the assessment warned, the bivalve the blame for declines in oyster abun- population in those areas could eventually dance on the state’s abandonment in 2006 be wiped out. of an annual program of replenishing The 359-page assessment report, oyster reefs with shells. The subsequent released in late November, estimated expansion of sanctuaries has made it that Maryland’s overall population of worse, he argued. adult oysters in 2017 was half what it “There’s no evidence that these sanctu- was in 1999. aries have helped areas around it,” he said. The assessment, prepared by the “There’s no evidence that anything we’ve Department of Natural Resources in done for the last eight or nine years has consultation with the University of Mary- Some oysters are harvested using hand-operated tongs like these. The assessment’s helped in any way, shape or form.” land Center for Environmental Science, estimated population of market-size oysters in Maryland in the 2017–2018 season was But large-scale oyster restoration sets the stage for a potentially fractious less than 10 percent of what was harvested annually before 1900, according to Paul efforts launched in sanctuaries in Harris debate over the state’s management of Rago, a former federal fisheries scientist who reviewed the study..(Dave Harp Creek, the Little Choptank River and the keystone Bay species, which is also a Tred Avon River on Maryland’s Eastern pillar of Maryland’s seafood industry. harvest slipped to 180,000 bushels. of the Tangier Sound area, the Eastern Shore do appear to be succeeding, Watermen who were briefed on the The study didn’t assess whether the Bay, the Patuxent River and in the according to a recent report by the assessment at a November meeting of state’s oyster population as a whole was Potomac River tributaries, it said. National Oceanic and Atmospheric the DNR Oyster Advisory Commission overharvested, but rather weighed the In 14 areas, though — including Administration. Monitoring in 2017 found reacted skeptically to its findings. But bivalves’ status in each of 36 different most of the Choptank River and the Bay hatchery-spawned oysters that had been Alison Prost, Maryland executive director zones spanning Maryland’s portion of the mainstem — fishing pressure last season planted on restored reefs were surviving of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, issued Bay and its tributaries. was at or below the target for maximiz- and growing, and that there was evidence a statement afterward saying it “con- “What’s happening with oysters in ing harvest and maintaining oyster of natural reproduction. firmed some of our greatest fears about different parts of the Bay is different,” abundance. And in three areas — two The stock assessment was reviewed the Bay’s oyster population. The state explained Mike Wilberg, an associate in southern Tangier Sound and one in by a trio of independent scientists. Paul needs to develop a fishery management professor at the UMCES Chesapeake the Honga River — the harvest rate was Rago, a retired federal fisheries scientist plan that protects existing and restored Biological Laboratory, who worked with below the ceiling for sustainability but who chaired the review, said the panel oyster reefs to significantly increase the DNR scientists to conduct the stock above the target for building or maintain- found that the DNR-UMCES team overall oyster population.” assessment. ing the population. assessed the state’s oyster population in a Mandated in 2017 by the General Oysters tend to be less abundant in Wilberg stressed that the assessment “scientifically credible way.” Assembly, the stock assessment drew on the Upper Bay and its tributaries, such as only looked at the status of the oyster While the Bay’s oyster population DNR surveys and catch data from 1999 the Chester River, where lower salinity in population, not at how it should be man- can benefit from reduced diseases, better through the wild oyster harvest season the water tends to impede reproduction. aged. In reporting to the General Assem- reproduction and continuing efforts to that ended last spring. DNR and UMCES Reproduction and abundance are better bly, the DNR presented, without recom- clean up pollution, Rago said, rebuilding scientists used mathematical models to in saltier water farther south in places mendation, a list of potential measures the stock will also require the enhance- estimate oyster abundance, habitat avail- like Tangier Sound and the Maryland for improving the fishery’s sustainability, ment of reef habitat and control of fishing ability, harvest rates and natural mortality tributaries of the Potomac River, but those including gear, season and size limits, as mortality. from environmental conditions such as also happen to be the areas more affected well as reef restoration and restocking. With the assessment’s findings as a harsh weather and disease. by diseases. That report is certain to revive debate guide, Rago said that “the big challenges The study estimated that Maryland’s For each area of the Bay, the report about how the state’s oyster fishery ought are yet to come.” It won’t be easy, he said, oyster population plummeted from identified a threshold harvest rate that, if to be managed. to follow the science while balancing the about 600 million in 1999 to around 200 regularly exceeded, the report predicted Maryland expanded its oyster sanctu- competing interests of watermen, oyster million by 2002, a period that saw the would lead to population declines. It also ary network in 2010 to cover 25 percent of farmers and those seeking to increase the Bay’s bivalves ravaged by an outbreak set a harvest target for each area that, if state waters, and watermen protested that oyster population because of its ecological of the oyster diseases MSX and Dermo. the percentage of oysters taken regularly the new harvest-free zones took three- benefits to the Bay. Oysters help to filter The harvest hit an all-time low of 19,000 stayed at or below that level, would maxi- fourths of their best oystering areas. They the Bay’s water, and their reefs provide bushels in 2004. mize the catch over time while stabilizing have pressed to get back into at least some habitat for fish, crabs and other marine The diseases abated after that, and or increasing the population. of those areas. creatures. the study estimates that the state’s oyster In some areas, including all of the In early 2017, with wild harvests on the DNR officials said the stock assess- stock rebounded to more than 450 million Western Shore tributaries and Eastern decline, the DNR proposed to open some ment would be used to update the state’s by 2014, with harvests also rising that Bay, the assessment found that almost any sanctuaries. But lawmakers blocked that fishery management plan for oysters. year to more than 400,000 bushels. Since level of harvest would deplete the stock. move, ordering the DNR to do a stock Chris Judy, chief of the DNR’s shellfish then, natural reproduction has been lack- The assessment found that fishing assessment first and figure out a sustain- division, said that process would begin luster, and the assessment estimated that pressure exceeded sustainable levels in able harvest rate. soon, after review of the assessment by the population had declined again to an 19 of the 36 zones into which the state’s Watermen have found fault with the lawmakers and public feedback. He said it estimated 300 million by the 2017–2018 portion of the Bay had been divided. assessment’s methods and conclusions. would be “many months down the road” oyster harvest season. Last season’s Overfishing occurred last season in most Robert T. Brown, president of before the revision would be complete. Bay Journal • January / February 2019 21

Leases from page 1 workgroup offered a multitude of sug- Virginia has had a long history of statistical evidence to prove that there gestions for changes in leasing. DNR leasing its bottom for oyster produc- is a negative effect of construction of of a public resource. Assistant Secretary Bill Anderson said tion, and more bivalves are harvested oyster farms on housing sales prices.” In fast-growing St. Mary’s County, that officials would review them all. from “private grounds” than are “It wasn’t that long ago we had fish MD — a hotbed of oyster farming — Without specifying, he said officials gathered in the wild by watermen. The weirs up and down the Bay. People got local officials responded in December would likely tweak some policies and advent of cage and float aquaculture, used to it,” Rheault said. “Now people to waterfront property owners’ regulations, but didn’t see the need for which can raise shellfish more inten- want to get back into oystering, and complaints by imposing a six-month legislation. sively, has helped make Virginia the about the only way to do it sustainably moratorium on using commercial That may disappoint St. Mary’s top oyster-producing state on the East is through aquaculture. Raising oysters docks to work any new state leases for County officials, who imposed their Coast. Statewide, there are more than in cages or floats is “tremendously raising oysters in cages on the bottom moratorium with or in floats at the surface. hopes of forcing Virginia officials tried a seven- the DNR to give month moratorium on leasing in the local officials Lynnhaven a few years ago while and waterfront mulling how to ease tensions there. homeowners Now, the conflicts have spread. There’s some control over a statewide backlog of 400 lease appli- leasing decisions. cations pending, with protests lodged Oyster against approximately 100. Most of farmers say they the cases are 2– to 3 years old, though feel squeezed some have been held up longer. between watermen User workgroups formed complaining “Anywhere there’s intense residential they’re losing development, whether it’s old or new, is clamming and now causing problems,” said Ben Stagg, crabbing sites who oversees shellfish aquaculture and waterfront leasing and surveying for the Virginia homeowners not Marine Resources Commission. wanting to see or In Maryland, with a smaller indus- navigate around try, the backlog isn’t as great, with 125 cages and floats. pending applications and just 17 under “It’s really official protest. But others have been hard to site an held up for months as Department of aquaculture Natural Resources staff attempt to iron lease anymore,” out differences. said Jon Far- Officials in both states have rington, a St. responded to the escalating friction Mary’s oyster “Hobbyist” oyster gardener Chris Schellhammer holds the shell of a large bivalve from the Lynnhaven by forming workgroups, which met farmer. “Trying River, where he has two leases off his waterfront home. “When people buy on the water, there needs to be through the fall to hash out “user to avoid all more disclosure” about aquaculture, he says. (Dave Harp) conflicts.” Virginia’s 17-member panel those conflicts, recommended legislative and regulatory plus find a piece of suitable bottom, is 5,700 leases to raise clams or oysters efficient,” he said, “but people have to changes intended to cure some of the really tough.” on nearly 132,000 acres, according to let us do it.” chronic problems tying up leasing there. In a sense, the Bay’s aquaculture VMRC data. Matthew Strickler, Virginia’s industry is a victim of its own suc- In Maryland, private oyster cultiva- Requests for applications soaring natural resources secretary, said Gov. cess. Oyster farming is enjoying a tion traditionally was more limited and Both states have struggled to cope Ralph Northam supports the state’s renaissance, after nearly being wiped was even barred in some counties. But with the increased interest in aquacul- booming aquaculture industry but also out by disease. Its comeback was the state revamped its laws in 2010 to ture — and with the pushback. “the ability of people to use the water made possible by the development allow leasing statewide and offered In Virginia, the number of applica- recreationally. We’re trying to balance of “triploid” oysters, a fast-growing financial assistance for startups. tions filed annually surged from 150 in those and keep the industry growing.” variant of native Eastern oysters that Though hampered at first by rigid 2012 to 338 in 2014. The pace has slowed The outcome of Maryland’s discus- can reach market size before disease regulation, Maryland oyster farming is since, with nearly 160 last year, but sions is less clear. That 15-member can kill them. now on the rise, with more than 400 leases Stagg said he’s only had enough staff to covering 6,800 acres. Aquaculture yielded survey about 125 proposed leases a year. Development 74,000 bushels last year, compared with a “Five years ago, certainly 10 years hugs the wild harvest of 180,000 bushels. ago, we didn’t have more than a hand- Lynnhaven The clashes flaring in Maryland and ful get protested per year,” Stagg said. River shoreline Virginia are happening in virtually The VMRC staff try to resolve in Virginia every coastal state, said Bob Rheault, protests, but contested cases often go to Beach. Oyster executive director of the East Coast the marine resources commission, a nine- farming thrives Shellfish Growers Association. member body appointed by the governor. there as “This is the new normal,” he said. The commission generally approves long-running “Permitting was going along swimmingly contested leases, though it has denied cleanup everywhere, and now it’s not. There are some. But in hearing only two or three efforts have lawsuits and people are screaming.” cases per month, the commission isn’t succeeded in The only study he’s seen of aqua- making much headway in reducing reopening half culture’s impact on property values, he the backlog. Applicants denied a lease the Bay tribu- said, was in Rhode Island a few years can appeal to court, and increasingly, tary to shellfish ago. Its conclusion: While owners of frustrated lease opponents are also harvesting. large waterfront properties do care what (Dave Harp) happens off their shore, it found “no Leases continues on page 22 22 Bay Journal • January / February 2019

good of the locality,” Chris Schellhammer, a Lynnhaven said Bob Livengood, a waterfront homeowner and self-described marine business owner. “hobbyist” oyster gardener, said riparian “I don’t think the leases give landowners first refusal on people understand that raising oysters in near-shore waters. He’s this is a lease — you raising some just offshore for water qual- don’t own this property. ity and habitat value and has another lease It belongs to all of us.” farther out, where he’s cultivating bivalves Ludford pointed for his own consumption. out that the region’s Schellhammer, a workgroup development, not oyster member, said he believes homeown- farming, is driving ers need to be better educated about navigation problems. leasing and aquaculture. “When The Lynnhaven and people buy on the water, there needs to other major rivers in be more disclosure,” he said. “It’s an the area are “on average emotional thing, and I get that. But if 15 feet shallower than people knew about this situation, then they were 400 years the user conflict would go down.” ago, because of the Virginia, like Maryland, requires sediment [runoff] and leases to be worked, but the rule is not the fill-in,” he said. enforced, and many leases sit dormant. Cruising through That adds to the competition and con- John Korte, who grew up living along the Lynnhaven River, says the proliferation of oyster leases Broad Bay, a Lynnhaven flict in the Lynnhaven and elsewhere. has impaired recreation in one of the state’s most heavily used waterways. “We share the water,” tributary, John Korte Virginia’s workgroup recommended he says, but cages in the water limit where one can boat, ski and swim. (Dave Harp) highlighted homeown- legislation to help Virginia Beach dredge ers’ concerns about boating channels across leased areas. It Leases from page 21 ticularly thorny challenges. Nearly half aquaculture. Coming to a leased shoal also called for increasing the application of its 5,100 acres of water have been area with cages visible at low tide, he and transfer fees, to give the VMRC filing lawsuits. leased, though not all leases are work- said, “This is a nice little sandbar. Before more resources to handle applications Some of the fiercest disputes in both able because of water quality. Some that was there, everybody on kayaks and and possibly deter speculative leasing states have erupted over proposals to claims have been held for decades by the neighbors would get out and basically from tying up productive bottom. raise oysters at the water’s surface. those hoping to work them again — or use it as a park.” Strickler, the natural resources secre- Though still relatively rare, floating to cash in by selling them if the water In Maryland, leases can be no closer tary, said the group also recommended aquaculture operations are drawing is deemed safe for shellfish harvesting than 50 feet to the shore, unless the procedural changes to address com- more industry interest. again. landowner agrees. In Virginia, there is plaints about float and cage aquaculture. In September, the VMRC held State and local officials, along with no setback requirement, but homeowners The changes are intended to make such a three-hour hearing on whether to environmental and community groups, with at least 105 feet of waterfront have applications “more open and intuitive” permit 700 floating oyster cages in have been working for decades to clean the right to a half-acre “riparian lease” and “more transparent,” he said. 5.5 acres of water in Milford Haven, up the Lynnhaven. The U.S. Army that can extend up to 210 feet from shore. Aquaculture produced nearly 40 a waterway that separates Gwynn’s Corps of Engineers has $34 million to million oysters statewide last Island from the mainland at the mouth spend on ecological restoration there, year worth nearly $16 million of the Piankatank River. and the river has been selected as one at the dock, and it provided “None of us are against aquaculture of 10 Bay tributaries targeted for large- around 200 jobs, according to — it’s just the placement,” said David scale oyster restoration. Virginia Sea Grant. Judson, who lives with his wife Rosa- Karen Forget, executive lie and three dogs in a waterfront home Resistance to leases building director of Lynnhaven River overlooking the proposed operation. Meanwhile, bids for new leases are Now, a watershed advocacy Judson and other waterfront facing stiff resistance. Of 16 leases group, and another work- residents worry that the cages, along pending, 11 are under protest. Ludford group member, said “There’s with 1,400 buoys and cables attached has managed to acquire rights to 75 no simple answer to these to the bottom, will hurt Bay grasses acres, but a tract he applied for in 2014 issues.” But getting more and entangle boaters, kayakers and that triggered an uproar is still pending. water-filtering oysters in the even a pod of dolphins that visits in the Even veteran Lynnhaven oyster Lynnhaven will be good for summer. farmers like John Meekins, who’s been its ecological health, and for Kevin Wade, the longtime seafood at it three decades, said he finds it hard the state’s seafood industry. dealer who applied for the permit, said to hang onto his leases. He said he has If leases sitting dormant he was too busy to talk when reached 500 acres under lease, but five applica- are put to active use and the by phone. He didn’t return a follow-up tions have been protested including river becomes clean enough call and email. one applied for in 2011. to open more areas to shellfish At the hearing, Wade said he and “It’s the neighborhoods. They want harvests, Forget suggested that two partner wants to try floating cage to control their view, not just their could ease some of the pres- aquaculture to raise more lucrative yard,” Meekins said, as he and his sure to place cages so close to half-shell oysters. He said they chose helpers tended cages in a cove bor- shore — and reduce conflicts Milford Haven because he has a seafood dered by homes. with boaters and homeowners. processing facility there. The river is prone to silting in, which “I firmly believe there are The commission voted 4 to 2, with poses another challenge. Virginia Beach ways to work these things two abstentions, to approve the permit. dredges channels for homeowners’ out. Everyone has to compro- But opponents have gone to court in a boats. But when the city needs to dredge Oyster farmer Chris Ludford lifts a mesh bag of shells mise a little bit,” she said, but bid to block it — arguing, among other through a leased area, it has had trouble planted by students on a lease he acquired in the “we can have a healthy river, things, that Wade’s Maryland partner getting the holder to move oysters or Lynnhaven. The shells provide a home for baby oysters happy watermen, happy violates Virginia law. agree on compensation for the disruption. to grow, helping to clean up the water and protect a boaters and homeowners. It Virginia’s Lynnhaven poses par- “It needs to be dredged for the nearby patch of marsh from erosion. (Dave Harp) can work for everybody.” Chesapeake Bay Program Science. Restoration. Partnership. Chesapeake Bay Stewardship Fund www.nfwf.org/chesapeake January - February 2019 Record $35 Million for Bay Recovery Announced in Lancaster The National Fish and Wildlife Founda- recipients and friends in attendance. The tion (NFWF) and the U.S. Environmental ceremony and press conference was con- Protection Agency (EPA) announced late ducted in conjunction with the NFWF– last year more than $13.1 million in grants hosted, biennial Chesapeake Ag Forum, to support the restoration and conserva- a conference that brings together the best tion of the Chesapeake Bay watershed in practitioners and partners advancing ag- six U.S. states and the District of Colum- ricultural conservation practices across bia. The 49 grants will generate nearly the Chesapeake Bay watershed. $21.9 million in matching contributions “The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania for a total conservation impact of nearly plays a significant role in the health of the $35 million. Chesapeake Bay watershed,” said Senator The grants were awarded through Bob Casey. “But more importantly, ac- the Chesapeake Bay Stewardship Fund tions taken in Pennsylvania to improve (CBSF), a partnership between NFWF the Bay begin with efforts to restore clean and the EPA’s Innovative Nutrient and water to the Conestoga, the Susquehanna, Sediment Reduction Grants Program and the thousands of miles of rivers and (INSR Program) and Small Watershed streams right here in the Commonwealth. Grants Program (SWG Program). Ad- Financial resources, beginning with our ditional support is provided by the U.S. Federal agency partners like the U.S. En- Department of Agriculture’s Natural Re- vironmental Protection Agency, are crit- sources Conservation Service, the U.S. ical to these ongoing collaborative local Forest Service, the U.S. Fish and Wild- efforts.” life Service, the Altria Group Restoring The projects supported by the 49 grants Bob Fox of Fox Meadows Farm participated in the Lancaster-area farm tour program and America’s Resources partnership and announced at the Ag Forum will support showcased stream bank stabilization and buffers in Lancaster County CSX. methods to improve waterways, restore Grant recipients were announced at the habitat and strengthen iconic species in District of Columbia. The funds will en- ration that supports quality of life in their Cork Factory Hotel in downtown Lan- Delaware, Maryland, New York, Penn- gage farmers and agricultural producers, communities, improving local waterways caster on December 3 with over 150 grant sylvania, Virginia, West Virginia and the homeowners, churches, businesses and and, ultimately, the health of the Bay. municipalities in on-the-ground resto- “EPA is pleased to support innovative Pamunkey Tribe & VIMS to Restore Eroding Shoreline (Continued on page 3) When Kathryn MacCormick moved to the Pamunkey 40 years ago there was enough space to play flag football reservation in 2011 to care for her aging grandmother, a in between her house and the river,” said MacCormick. member of the tribe who was born there and lived there “Now it’s about 20 feet. That is serious visible erosion all her life, she didn’t envision that she would also be in- within half a lifetime.” strumental in bringing valuable expertise that will help “Folks at VIMS are so great and wanted to help when save tribal lands. they heard my talk,” said MacCormick. Scott Hardaway, With a bachelors in biology from Arizona State Univer- Marine Scientist Supervisor, was motivated by their pre- sity, MacCormick was working on her master’s in biol- dicament and echoed the consensus that the shoreline ogy at William & Mary when Dr. Robert Hale from the was the most important priority to tackle. With that Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS), the gradu- collaboration came help in the form of a grant award of ate school in marine science for William & Mary, asked $199,544 in funding by the National Fish and Wildlife MacCormick to participate in a seminar. Foundation to create a plan for 13 miles of shoreline as “I really didn’t have scientific research to present, but I Photo by Kathryn MacCormick well as construct a living shoreline to reduce sedimenta- did have a lot of ideas about the Pamunkey tribe,” Mac- tion to the Pamunkey River and restore freshwater marsh Cormick said. So she based her talk on the history of William County. habitat. Ultimately, this reduces the load of sediment to her tribe as well as her perspective as a biologist. That “Anyone who lives on the reservation has known that the Chesapeake Bay. included some of the urgent environmental concerns for erosion is an issue; everyone there is concerned about the The restoration work will provide a natural buffer to de- the 1,200 acre reservation which sits on the shores of the shoreline, which has been disappearing for some time. crease the erosion that threatens the reservation’s homes Pamunkey River, a tributary of the York River in King There is the case of Joyce Krigsvold’s front yard, where (Continued on page 4)

Supplement to the January - February 2019 Bay Journal Crops Planted for Rain Gardens to Control Anacostia Stormwater Capitol Heights Urban Ag Center Using “Food” Plants to Create their skills can move to a job in the community for gardening and landscape con- struction work.” Rain Garden Buffers That will Help Protect the Anacostia River “All three of my men are hard workers and want to have a better way of life in the Capitol Heights community,” said Harrington, who notes the students must also be The Urban Ag Center, a highly visible and very popular space across from the Cap- able to interpret the landscape architect’s plans and implement design work. itol Heights Metro stop, is helping to meet the fresh produce needs of the Anacostia “You can really tell the difference when you eat fresh vegetables off the plants that community while simultaneously addressing stormwater runoff. you have grown yourself versus something from a convenience store or with pro- The three-acre East Capitol Street Urban Agricultural Center is getting its own gar- cessed green foods,” added Cho. She points out that is understandably also a big part den thanks to the work of young men from the surrounding neighborhood who of the attraction. are gaining new skills as NGIP certified gardeners in the process. The University of “It is wonderful that several of our students found a love of fresh veggies and can say the District of Columbia (UDC) and Seeds for Success, a partnership between Maya they actually grew it themselves!” Angelou Young Adult Learning Center, Department of Public Works, and the De- partment of Employment Services, is training them in all the steps of how to create a Urban Ag and Seeds for Success rain garden which is currently being installed on the site. Work should be completed before the first snowfall. Low Impact Development and UDC received a grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation to construct and plant an urban stormwater control rain garden in the middle of the planted farming space. Low Impact Landscape Architect Suzy Cho believes this is the first time (in her design experience) that farming crops will be used to create a buffer to mitigate runoff into storm sewers in a city environment. “Low Impact is a non-profit that is primarily focused on green infrastructure within urban and nearby areas,” said NFWF Chesapeake Bay Program Grantee Cho. “We do design concepts for green streets work and to retrofit rain gardens, bioswales and simple, low impact practices in communities. I am fairly sure this is the first combination of urban agriculture and green infrastructure and this garden work in Anacostia may be one of the only such projects that uses food crops for stormwater management.” Cho said she believes many lessons will be learned and “hopefully we can replicate some of our findings and best practices into other urban spaces.” Tyrone McNeal is a co-operative student working with University of the District of Columbia and Seeds for Success to become a National Garden Industry Professional (NGIP) certified landscaper. He hails from Marshall Heights, the public housing area bounded by Southern Avenue and East Capitol St., NE in Washington and has lived just over the fence line from the Urban Ag center. “I live in the Public Housing Projects overlooking the urban Ag center,” said Mc- Neal. “I have been looking out at these gardens and watching them develop and grow for all of my teenage years. I thought maybe someday I could be a master gardener and help with that planting and cultivation of these crops for families in my own community. Maybe in a year or two I can have my own landscaping business.” Harris Trobman, project specialist in green infrastructure at UDC, hopes to help McNeal and two other hard-working adult students become certified with NGIP sanctioned classes he is teaching at Maya Angelou High School. Trobman has provided classroom instruction including lessons on pervious rock and in hydro and aquaponics. The lessons come from the District of Columbia’s Department of Water and UDC curricula which together include programming on such topics as how storm sewers and combined sewer overflows work. Understand- ing stormwater management using green infrastructure is part of becoming NGIP certified. “We are presently excavating the raingarden which will reduce over 770 pounds of sediment run-off from the land and over 7 pounds of unwanted nitrogen annually from fertilizer or other wastewater going to the Anacostia River nearby,” said Trob- man. “We are really dealing with what used to be a vacant lot so the excavation takes time. The workers here who are part of my UDC class and other youth volunteers are going to re-use the soil to create some berms along the fence line. They really enjoy going from the classroom to real-world experience and building a bioswale is a very important hands-on training for our gardeners.” Kerry Harrington, with Seeds for Success, is a hands-on expert partnering with Trobman on the project. They are currently overseeing the excavation needed to es- tablish the urban stormwater raingarden which is situated on the East Capitol Street side of the Ag center. Harrington himself works the backhoe to make way for the Photos by Geoffrey Livingston foundation. Harris Trobman of UDC, Tyrone McNeal (center with other students), and Kerry Harrington The group he manages has already learned how to grow wonderful tomato plants in at Seeds for Success leave UDC Campus at the Maya Angelou School to walk to the Urban Ag the aquaponic garden which has produced some vines that are now mature enough Garden to plant a new raingarden comprised of leafy vegetables. The garden is located at to plant in the urban Ag farm. Capitol Heights Metro on E. Capitol Street and Southern Avenue, NE. “We try to minimize the use of all chemicals in growing these plants so starting in the greenhouse works best,” said Harrington. “It is also great to teach my class how UDC Students are working at the Urban Ag Garden to help qualify for NGIP Master Gardener Certifications.

Supplement to the January - February 2019 Bay Journal Prescribed Fire Creates Perfect Ecosystem & Buffers the Nanticoke The Nature Conservancy (TNC) in Mil- “The early successional scrub-shrub ton, Delaware will be working to reforest habitat is a landscape in decline but is 22 acres of land it owns at the Middleford essential for many species like the Amer- North Preserve using prescribed fire to ican woodcock and the Northern bob- ultimately restore the type of young for- white,” said Natasha Whetzel, land stew- est and shrub land that is favorable for ard with TNC. “The other locations that unique bird species like kestrel and the provide this unique environment are Delmarva fox squirrel. along right-of-ways that are maintained TNC will also be providing assistance to because those have to be grassy and open the agricultural community in Delaware’s for the power lines and then along road- portion of the Nanticoke River area wa- sides. Other than those areas, we don’t tershed. have much of this habitat left in the state.” The project is supported in part by fund- These projects together comprise ap- ing from the National Fish and Wildlife proximately 73 acres of lands that are Foundation’s (NFWF) Chesapeake Bay ranked as “high priority areas for both Stewardship Fund which includes plans water quality and wildlife habitat under to increase forest habitat as well as im- the Nanticoke River Watershed Resto- prove water quality by reforesting the ration Plan.” A 64 mile long river, the 22-acre farm field. Habitat specialists are Nanticoke flows directly into the Chesa- implementing reforestation and habitat peake Bay. enhancement work on a total of 45 acres It doesn’t take long for the burn to at the Middleford North Preserve. produce results. Just days after the pre- Natasha Whetzel, land steward with TNC, checks new shrubs near the Gravelly Branch River, a Those 45 acres are being restored to scribed burn on the Hurley Tract, Whet- sub-watershed of the Nanticoke. “early successional scrub-shrub habi- zel observed a pair of kestrels, which are ing in quickly with native grasses includ- lawns and being aware of issues around tat” on the Hurley tract, which abuts the endangered in Delaware, stop in to hunt ing the beautiful “purple love grass” as stormwater runoff, and maintaining buf- Gravelly Branch River, a tributary of the the newly burned area and the more open well as lots of wild turkey. fer zones around waterways like the one Nanticoke River. TNC is employing con- land they prefer. Remediating the land is also important maintained by The Nature Conservancy trolled or prescribed burns to help restore Staff from Delaware’s Division of Fish & as it serves as a conservation buffer, in- in Middleford.” this unique type of habitat which is also of Wildlife had previously installed a kestrel creasing otherwise scarce habitat and in- “Every waterway leads into the next eco- conservational concern in Delaware. nesting box which the pair deferred on creasing the presence of natural pollution system,” said Carter. He traverses so many The Nature Conservancy spearheaded a this year, but the sighting is very encour- filters along the waterways. of Delaware’s waterways—seeing them up prescribed burn this past spring on part of aging. A pair of pretty eastern bluebirds Local business owner Matt Carter of close and personal. “I know many farmers the tract which is not far from Seaford. The raised their brood in the roomy box this Quest Kayaks said, “It’s vital to us as hu- who also recognize the value of waterway fire program was only the second planned summer instead. mans and as a community and as a busi- buffers, purposely keeping a couple acres burn conducted on TNC property. Be- Just a month later, the entire area was ness to keep our waters clean. We can all of woods between river and farms.” cause of its many benefits to wildlife and recovering well with common milkweed help by doing little things that add up relative low cost, fire is one of a land man- growing back in abundance. By early like avoiding putting chemicals on our ager’s best tools to improve wildlife habitat. summer the area surged back to life, fill-

Lancaster From Page 1 and sustainable approaches to improving the health of our rivers gest part of the Bay watershed obligation in terms of the commit- and streams,” said EPA Regional Administrator Cosmo Servidio ment; but this is also about local water quality and cleaning up at the event. “These investments in partnerships with states and streams here in Pennsylvania,” he added. local organizations encourage community stewardship of re- The INSR Program awarded more than $7.3 million to eight sources that will help preserve and enhance healthy waterways projects, with recipients providing more than $10.4 million in throughout the Chesapeake Bay watershed.” match. The program provides grants to accelerate the implemen- Other Pennsylvania state leaders on the rostrum included Sec- tation of water quality improvements specifically through the col- retary of the Department of Environmental Protection Patrick laborative and coordinated efforts of sustainable, regional-scale McDonnell and Assistant Secretary of Agriculture Greg Hostet- partnerships with a shared focus on water quality restoration and ter. Jake Reilly, director of the Chesapeake Bay program at NFWF, protection in local waterways and the Chesapeake Bay. served as master of ceremonies. “The grants announced today will empower communities and “Today we are here with the National Fish and Wildlife Foun- businesses throughout the Chesapeake Bay watershed to become dation announcing 49 grants, 12 of which are right here in the better stewards of natural resources,” said Jeff Trandahl, executive Commonwealth of Pennsylvania supporting farms, stormwater director and CEO of NFWF. “In many cases, these grants fund management and conservation for the Bay,” said Secretary Mc- voluntary efforts to decrease sedimentation and runoff from Donnell. “The foundation has been a great partner for us as we’ve farms and businesses, which boosts water quality throughout been conducting our Bay watershed planning for Phase 3 imple- the 64,000-square-mile watershed and advances long-running mentation in order to meet our Chesapeake Bay watershed goals efforts to improve the overall health of the Chesapeake Bay.” by 2025. The foundation participation on our state steering com- Jake Reilly said at the event people will “see real changes on mittee and NFWF’s on-the-ground support with these grants has farms across the entire Bay watershed from NFWF grantees in- been supporting us in meeting our agriculture and stormwater cluding planting trees near streams, fencing along cattle pastures, Baby calf at Fox Meadows Farm in Lancaster County looks curiously at Ag Networking obligations including our pollution diet for the entire watershed.” making barnyard improvements to reduce runoff, and changing Forum visitors. “The U.S. EPA provides these guidelines for us including six cropping and agronomic practices to help reduce nutrients and other states and the District of Columbia, and we have the big- sediment coming in to the Bay.”

Supplement to the January - February 2019 Bay Journal Interfaith Partners: Faith communities embrace environmental stewardship Faith communities in the Chesapeake grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Odette Compton, a member of Mount region looking to fulfill the call to care for Foundation (NFWF) in 2016. Lebanon Baptist Church said “going on the earth have an ally and leader in Inter- “We are a series of personal trainers for the bus tour of churches with green prac- faith Partners for the Chesapeake (IPC). the congregations—to help them change tices really opened my eyes to the need to Originally conceived in 2004, the group behavior and meet their own congre- take care of the environment.” educates and supports faith communities gants’ vision for addressing environmen- “That congregation has since really em- in taking steps that best fit their congre- tal concerns,” said Rose. braced this program tremendously,” said gation’s needs and desires in helping to “We have learned that no two congrega- Bonnie Sorak, outreach coordinator at protect their portion of the Chesapeake tions are the same; they all have different IPC. “Like many congregations, they watershed so “all our communities, and capacities and different strengths so we didn’t understand the connection be- future generations, may thrive.” provide a menu of ideas and they choose tween what happens on their property Faith communities are a vital part of In the Jones Falls region, a sub-water- what works best for them. We provide and stormwater—often churches are un- Interfaith Partners for the Chesapeake. Mt. shed that extends from Baltimore county direction but we understand they know derstandably focused on other priorities.” Lebanon Baptist Church is providing support. down into the Baltimore harbor, “over the best what their membership will be in- “We are the only ones doing this kind “green day” to educate the congregation, course of two years we engaged 39 con- spired by,” Rose said. of thing—getting into the trenches with evaluating energy use, planting a rain gar- gregations to get involved either through IPC works to engage the faith commu- congregations and helping them imple- den and more. educating members or doing a variety nity through One Water Partnership— ment projects on their grounds,” said In early December, IPC received a sub- of activities including picking up trash which oversees the process and provides Rose. There are different levels of com- stantial new grant for $1 million from the or labeling storm drains in their com- resources through many partners like mitment that begin with a covenant sign- National Fish and Wildlife Foundation to munities,” said Jodi Rose, executive di- Blue Water Baltimore, which helps imple- ing outlining actions the congregation mobilize 100 new congregations across rector, IPC. The work was funded by a ment and locate funding for projects. will take that might include holding a Maryland and Pennsylvania. Pamunkey From Page 1 and land, which happens to be almost completely flat. The wave energy hitting the shore, primarily from recreation- This will restore and enhance the marsh that is there. terrain is only nine feet above sea level at its highest point, al boat use and increased storm frequency. The living “We’re preserving and/or establishing the marsh fringe and the tract is nearly surrounded by the river sharing the shoreline will preserve plants that are already there and which is also good for the fishes and the water quality. Pamunkey tribal name. encourage additional growth on the shoreline side of the Some of the rock will allow shelter for the smaller fish and MacCormick, now project manager for the Pamunkey breakwater. algae will attach to the hard substrate—functioning like a Living Shoreline Project, is staying on the reservation Scott Hardaway explained, “We work off the eroding little reef,” said Hardaway. This in turn will provide addi- even though her grandmother, Jeanette Bush, passed away bank about 10 to 20 feet and put a stack of rock, then bring tional habitat for birds and other native species. two years ago at the age of 86. “While I’m here, I want to sand in behind that, which becomes the marsh planting Assessing the land for its historical value prior to dis- try to do something good,” she said. “Marsh is insurance substrate. The elevation of that fill is on a ten-to-one slope turbing it was an important step. Hardaway said, “Another against flooding, a living buffer. We want to preserve the and that goes up to the bank giving you a planting terrace.” concern is that the high waters and wave action that are swamp and the marsh we do have and we want to add The terrace will be planted with freshwater species in- causing the land to erode means that artifacts can be lost. some marsh habitat as well.” cluding three-square bulrush and a type of panic grass The archeologists at William & Mary have been all over The plan is to build a rock breakwater to slow down the (large, annual or perennial grasses, growing to 1–3 m tall). the Pamunkey land to make sure we don’t damage them.”

[ About NFWF ] [ Program Partners ] The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) protects and NFWF’s Chesapeake Bay Stewardship Fund works with government restores our nation’s wildlife and habitats. Chartered by Congress agencies and private corporations, awarding $8 million to $12 mil- in 1984, NFWF directs public conservation dollars to the most lion per year to help local communities clean up and restore their pressing environmental needs and matches those investments with polluted rivers and streams. Major funding is provided by the private contributions. NFWF works with government, nonprofit U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Altria Group, the USDA’s and corporate partners to find solutions for the most intractable Natural Resources Conservation Service and Forest Service, CSX, conservation challenges. Over the last three decades, NFWF has funded more than 4,500 organizations and committed more than the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.S. $4.8 billion to conservation projects. Learn more at www.nfwf.org. Fish and Wildlife Service.

“The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP) •The Innovative Nutrient and Sediment Reduction (INSR) grant program that supports has a long-standing partnership, through a cooperative agreement, with the National Fish efforts with the Chesapeake Bay watershed to accelerate nutrient and sediment reduc- and Wildlife (NFWF) to provide direct financial support to accomplish both: tions with innovative, sustainable, and cost-effective approaches. This insert was developed under Assistance Agreement No. CB 96331001 awarded by the •The Small Watershed Grant (SWG) program that promotes community-based efforts to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The views expressed in this insert are solely those develop conservation strategies to protect and restore the diverse natural resources of the of the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, its grantees and partners and EPA does not Chesapeake Bay. endorse any products or commercial services mentioned in this publication.”

Supplement to the January - February 2019 Bay Journal Bay Journal • January / February 2019 27

Oysters, which grow on reefs, and waste. This creature is found in play an important role in filtering the the Mid to Lower Bay and is tolerant Chesapeake Bay’s water. But oyster of water pollution. reefs also provide habitat for a large variety of marine life. Here are seven 6. You might be fooled into thinking of the more unusual creatures that are that this creature, which can grow 3 feet found on oyster reefs. Can you match Bay Buddies tall, is a plant. Its stalk of many slender them up with their descriptions and branches range in color from yellow photos found on this page? Answers and orange to red and deep purple. are on page 44. These long branches are covered with rows of translucent white polyps. Each GHOST ANEMONE of these polyps has eight feathery, HOOKED MUSSEL jagged tentacles that pop out to capture Reef Sweet Reef plankton and other food bits floating by. OYSTER PEA CRAB It is found in the Bay’s brinier waters, REDBEARD SPONGE 2. This creature grows in thick that the oyster draws in for itself. where it provides shelter and protection bunches on oyster reefs in the Mid and for such marine life as sea bass, gobies, SEA SQUIRT Lower Bay’s deeper waters. It is a filter 4. Look, but don’t touch! This seawhip shrimp and nudibranches. SKILLETFISH feeder and sucks in water, while hair- jellylike creature, a relative of sea like cilia in the creature’s pores capture nettles, has 40–60 stinging tentacles 7. Research suggests that this filter WHIP CORAL food particles. Waste and unused that encircle its mouth. These petal-like feeder can more than double the over- water are ejected through another hole appendages stun passing plankton all filtration capacity of a reef, where 1. This common, 3-inch-long at the top of the creature. The animal’s and fish, which they then push into its it can sometimes greatly outnumber creature gets its name from its shape. holes are, themselves, home to tiny mouth. This round, pinkish to whitish the oysters. It is also twice as effective Its other name, oyster clingfish, refers crabs, worms and shrimp. transparent animal’s “face” is at the end as oysters when it comes to filtering to the large suction disc on its under- of a 1.5-inch-tall stalk attached to a picoplankton — the tiniest of marine side, which the animal uses to attach 3. This small (less than half an inch hard surface; even so, it is able to move plankton. It can grow 1–2 inches long, itself to oyster shells and rocks. There, long), white to translucent creature several inches in just a few hours. with a ridged gray to dull black exterior it waits for its food — amphipods and lives in the gills of an oyster and is con- and a shiny interior of pinkish brown isopods (small crustaceans) as well as sidered a delicacy, should one crack 5. Clumps of this leathery, to purple. It attaches itself to hard bristle worms — to pass by. Its mottled open the oyster and find this animal yellow to greenish brown creature surfaces using thin “byssus” threads. pale gray to dark brown coloring there. Its legs are not well-developed, are sometimes called sea grapes, It also moves, albeit very slowly, by camouflages the creature amid the and the creature has limited mobility. because that is what they look like. releasing some of these strong threads, reef, which provides small crevices for Thus the oyster provides this animal This 2-inch-long filter feeder has two reattaching them to a hard surface and the animal to hide in when predators with shelter from enemies and a siphons, one to draw in water and pulling itself forward. are lurking nearby. source of food: It takes its pick of food food, the other to eject unused water — Kathleen A. Gaskell

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C F A E

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Credits A - Andrew Cannizzaro / CC BY 2.0 // B - niclan7 / CC BY-SA 3.0 // C- Naturalis Biodiversity Center/Wikimedia Com- mons // D - Freshwater and Marine Image Bank at the University of Washington // E - www.bbmexplorer.com / CC BY 2.0 F - perezoso / CC BY-SA 3 // G - National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration // The author would also like to acknowl- edge Wikimedia, which was the source of these images. 28 Bay Journal • January / February 2019

Rain from page 1 almost year-long high precipitation,” Phillips said. Rainfall — and the associated increase in river flows — is often bad news for Bay water quality because it washes large amounts of nutrients and sediment from fields, parking lots and lawns that foul water quality. The ensuing cloudy water can cause dramatic diebacks for underwater grass beds, and the sediment can bury bottom-dwelling creatures, while nutrients fuel algae blooms that draw oxygen out of the water, which leads to “dead zones.” Prolonged spells of freshwater inputs can also kill oysters and other salt-loving creatures that cannot move. How many nutrients reached the Bay last year won’t be known for some time. But more than 500 million pounds of nitrogen were washed into the Chesapeake in other years with similarly high river flows, Phillips said. That’s more than two-and-a-half times the region’s cleanup goal for an “average” year. Last year’s deluge will be the greatest test to the staying power of Bay restoration efforts since flooding associated with Tropical Storm Lee in late summer 2011. Since then, the Bay The Susquehanna River, laden with debris, overflows its banks at Port Deposit, MD, during a high flow period in Septem- has experienced six years of normal or ber 2018. By early December, 3,400 tons of debris were collected upriver at the Conowingo Dam, ranging from beverage below average river flows. That led to containers to floating docks. That haul dwarfs the 600 tons normally gathered there. (Dave Harp) noticeable improvements in its health, including the near-disappearance of Although flows weren’t extraordi- Chronic downpours caused a rash of test early last year when, after a wet anoxic water — areas with no oxygen narily high, they were unusual in that sewage spills throughout the watershed, spring, many beds appeared to be in at all — and a widespread comeback in they remained higher than normal for releasing hundreds of millions of gallons good condition. “We had probably the underwater grasses. months at a time, including when it of wastes into rivers and streams. best water clarity that we’ve ever seen Bay advocates point to such is usually dry. Those conditions are The downpours posed other chal- in the Tangier-Smith Island area since improvements as evidence that the making it hard for scientists to predict lenges as well for restoration efforts. we started the imagery,” said Bob Orth multibillion-dollar cleanup effort is their impact. Here are brief reports on some of the of the Virginia Institute of Marine producing tangible results. They are Not only were high river flows bigger issues the drenching of 2018 posed Science, who has overseen an annual optimistic that a healthier Chesapeake prolonged, but rains were so pervasive for the Bay: aerial survey of underwater grasses is better able to withstand periodic that they soaked the entire watershed since it started in 1984. high-flow events, which inevitably — from southern Virginia to New Underwater grasses But after river flows picked up in leave the Chesapeake awash with York, and from West Virginia to One of the biggest concerns is how mid-July, much of the Bay couldn’t be pollutants. Delaware. The District of Columbia’s submerged grass beds fared. These surveyed because of rain and clouds. On “The Bay is resilient,” said Bruce record wet year resulted from measur- underwater meadows provide impor- days when the sky was clear, the water Michael, director of the resource able rain falling on more than one in tant habitat for juvenile fish and crabs, was often too murky to spot grass beds. assessment service for the Maryland three days throughout 2018. plus many types of waterfowl. “All you would see is mud,” Orth said. Department of Natural Resources. The rain flushed huge volumes of Because they, like all plants, depend Still, the aerial survey yielded “We’ve made tremendous progress and debris off the landscape, in addition to on sunlight to survive, their abundance glimpses of robust grasses surviving success in reducing our nitrogen and the nutrients and sediment. By early is considered a prime indicator of the even late into the summer in places phosphorus.” December, Exelon Corp., operator Bay’s overall water quality. After six such as the upper Chester, the Severn, Rainy as it was, 2018 could have of Conowingo, reported that it had “normal,” or low-flow years in a row, the upper Patuxent and the Pamunkey been worse. Very high flows on the collected 3,400 tons of debris at the grass beds passed the 100,000-acre rivers, Orth said. In other places, photos Susquehanna River — source of half dam, ranging from beverage contain- mark in 2017, the most seen in decades. showed patches of grass still popping of the Bay’s freshwater — can scour ers to floating docks. That haul dwarfs But heavy rains can turn water up through expanses of muddy water. sediment that has built up behind the 600 tons normally gathered there. cloudy with sediment, blocking the The massive grass beds in the Conowingo Dam and send it into the But it wasn’t the only place awash sunlight the plants need to grow. But Susquehanna Flats, where the river Chesapeake, adding even more misery with junk: The updated stormwater scientists are cautiously optimistic empties into the Bay also seemed intact. to the ecosystem. management system in the District many beds were large and robust Landry said satellite photos showed But flows at Conowingo peaked captured more than 700 tons of trash enough to survive a setback, though a plume of muddy river water split- at 375,000 cubic feet per second in and debris flowing off streets last year. they may be smaller next year. “We ting when it reached the underwater July — less than half of the highest Still, a lot of debris went uncollected, had so much grass in 2017, that you meadow there. flow caused by the 2011 tropical storm. creating a hazard for boaters during kind of reach the points of resilience,” Cassie Gurbisz, an assistant professor USGS scientists said they saw little much of the summer. The waterborne said Brooke Landry, a biologist with of environmental studies at St. Mary’s evidence last year of significant sedi- clutter was so bad at times that charter the Maryland DNR. ment scouring from behind the dam. boat captains canceled fishing trips. Grass beds survived an initial Rain continues on page 30 Bay Journal • January / February 2019 29 Climate change poses a challenge for Bay cleanup goals ≈ Trend toward more and But the computer models the Bay inflow amount is increasing, we need to David Flores, a policy analyst with heavier rainfall and warmer Program used to estimate the neces- essentially protect our investment.” the nonprofit Center for Progressive sary nutrient reductions were based on Mark Bennett, director to the U.S. Reform who has been tracking the weather in region threaten to precipitation observed in the 1990s, and Geological Survey’s West Virginia and Bay Program’s efforts to incorporate overwhelm current actions. did not account for the gradual rainfall Virginia Water Science Center and climate change, acknowledged that By Karl Blankenship increase when Bay nutrient reduction co-chair of the Bay Program’s Climate the science is too incomplete in many This year’s persistent high river goals were set in 2010. Based on past Resiliency Workgroup, cautioned that cases to know how specific control flows into the Bay prompted many of trends, average precipitation from the it will be a daunting task to re-examine practices should be modified to adjust those working on Chesapeake issues 1990s to 2025 would be expected to the effectiveness of the dozens of best to climate change. But, he said, he to ask the question: “Is this the new increase by a bit more than 3 percent. management practices implemented would like the upcoming state plans normal?” With that factored in, the models in the region to meet Bay goals under to make firm commitments to help fill The good news is that this year’s now show that further nutrient reduc- future climate scenarios. that knowledge gap. extreme precipitation is not likely to tions would be needed to offset the Not only will increased rainfall For instance, he said, states could become “normal” anytime soon. But it increased flows — 9.1 million more compromise the effectiveness of some pledge to evaluate and monitor how does highlight an inconvenient truth: pounds of nitrogen and When it comes to the weather, the 490,000 more pounds future won’t be like the past. of phosphorus. That It most likely will continue a trend would be a 19 percent that’s been going on for decades: nitrogen reduction, wetter weather in general and heavier and a 73 percent rain in extreme storms. phosphorus reduc- That has ramifications for meeting tion beyond what the Bay nutrient reduction goals. When region already needs it comes to runoff, “flow is fate,” said to accomplish between Lewis Linker, modeling coordinator now and 2025. with the state-federal Bay Program Those figures partnership. More rain moves more represent an “initial esti- nitrogen off the landscape and into the mate,” Linker cautioned, Bay, while heavier storms dislodge and may be refined in sediment particles — and the phospho- the coming year based rus that binds to them — and moves on new information. them downstream as well. Further complicating When they reach the Bay, nitrogen cleanup efforts, the and phosphorus contribute to cloudy changing climate condi- water, algae blooms and oxygen- tions will also hamper starved “dead zones.” the effectiveness of The Bay Program is taking its first practices commonly steps toward addressing how Chesa- used to manage runoff. peake-related cleanup actions will adapt Manure storage to climate change, which is critical as facilities on farms and some runoff control actions implemented stormwater detention now may be in place for decades. ponds in cities — all States have until April to provide designed to manage the U.S. Environmental Protection “typical” rainfall events Agency with written descriptions of of the past — will how they will address climate as part increasingly be over- of their updated Bay cleanup plans. In whelmed as rainfall 2021, they will be required to adopt increases, especially as additional measurable nutrient reduc- more arrives in storms. The weather trend from previous decades is expected to continue: wetter, with more rain coming in tion goals needed to offset the impact “I’ve been hear- extreme storms. (Dave Harp) of climate changes expected through ing from some of the 2025 cleanup deadline. the conservation districts that we’re control measures, but changes in tem- different stormwater and other runoff For the Bay, climate change isn’t seeing erosion in areas where we never peratures and growing seasons could control practices are performing a future concern. Monitoring shows previously saw it,” said Mark Dubin, also reduce the effectiveness of buf- during storms and to commit to rainfall in the watershed has increased agricultural technical adviser with the fers, cover crops and other practices incorporate that information into new about 10 percent over the last century, Bay Program. “That’s an indicator that that rely on vegetation. In some cases, design standards. though the changes have differed from the rainfall we’re getting is challenging the types of plants or trees being used “The plans should really lay out, in place to place with precipitation in the our previous standards for, and designs may need to be changed to get optimal detail, certain things that set up some northern part of the watershed increas- for, conservation practices, whether it results under future conditions. accountability,” Flores said. ing faster than in the southern portion. be tillage or crop residue management In their updated cleanup plans, Other ways the plans could factor There’s also been an increase in the or water control structures.” states are supposed to explain how in climate change, he said, would be to number of severe storms. The National Investments being made today in they will plan for the future, as well as avoid putting runoff control practices Climate Assessment released by the things like costly stormwater control how they can promote nutrient control in places likely to be inundated by sea federal government in October said the systems need to anticipate the impacts practices that offer dual benefits by level rise in the next few decades, and amount of precipitation during heavy of more severe storms in the future. helping to address problems caused to prioritize those that would also help rainfall events has increased by about “We have a lot of investment in by climate change. For instance, mitigate damage in flood-prone areas. 50 percent since 1958 in the nation’s stormwater management that is designed streamside forest buffers that help “I am optimistic in that I think that Northeast region, which includes most for a particular capacity and inflow reduce runoff can also help control of the Bay watershed. amount,” Linker said. “And as the flooding during heavy rains. Climate continues on page 30 30 Bay Journal • January / February 2019

Climate from page 29 there will be jurisdictions that step up and adopt a serious scope of work to address climate as part of their respec- tive implementation plans,” Flores said. One already has. The District of Columbia has agreed to go beyond the written explanations required in new cleanup plans and is adopting numeric nutrient reduction goals for 2025 — three years earlier than required. That means an 6,000 additional pounds of nitrogen and an additional 1,000 pounds phosphorus reductions by 2025. Stormwater The district has already exceeded overwhelms its existing 2025 goals, in large part a leaf- because of better-than-expected per- choked formance by the Blue Plains Regional drain Advanced Wastewater Treatment near the Plant. But it has committed to not Choptank count the Blue Plains overachievement River in toward its additional climate reduc- Cambridge. tion goals. Instead, it will achieve (Dave them by putting more actions on the Harp) ground, said Katherine Antos, chief of the Partnering and Environmental Rain from page 28 water, leading to so-called dead zones. Scientists usually predict the amount Conservation Branch of the district’s Strong flows dispersed algae blooms of low-oxygen water they expect in the Department of Energy & Environment. College, was doing field work in the flats before they could grow large, while Bay each summer based on the amount She said the district will target addi- when the river ran high in August and murky water blocked the sunlight that of water that flows in from January tional efforts, largely through incentive said, “the water was crystal clear in the microscopic aquatic plants need to grow. through May. But the unusual nutrient programs, in watersheds that have middle of the flats. It was just amazing. “We didn’t have as many significant spike late in 2018 may fuel an earlier- their own local water quality problems It was like there was no flood at all.” algae blooms this last year because the than-normal onslaught of hypoxia — or and in areas that are more vulnerable On the outer edges of the grass bed, she algae basically didn’t have time to set low oxygen — in the spring. to climate impacts — such as flood added, “I couldn’t even see my hand in up with prolonged periods of sunny, There’s not much precedent for this risks or urban heat island impacts. front of my face underwater.” warm conditions,” said DNR’s Bruce situation, but in 2012, the year after That means promoting actions that But even where the beds persisted, Michael. “They need light, and there’s Tropical Storm Lee hit the Bay in late provide multiple benefits, like increas- there is a danger they may not bounce not a lot of light with all that runoff.” summer, hypoxic conditions did show ing tree canopy cover, increasing back next year. In late summer and While oxygen levels have been up earlier than expected, Testa said. stormwater retention and doing more fall, many underwater grass spe- worse in other years, poor conditions stream restoration in those areas. cies found in the Bay typically use persisted longer into the fall than is Struggles for farmers “These are not only going to improve photosynthesis from the sun to build typical, with a near-record amount Besides causing problems for the our local waters and the Chesapeake up energy reserves, which are stored of low-oxygen water — 1,200 cubic Bay, the wet weather made it difficult Bay, but they’re also going to help us in tubers and rhizomes in the bottom meters — reported in Maryland’s for the region’s farmers to help reduce be more resilient to those changing sediment. They need that stored portion of the Bay in October, Michael the flow of nutrients and sediment. weather conditions,” Antos said. energy to survive winter and start said. Only October 2011 had more, in Growers had to work in the mud to get The district is also revisiting whether growing in spring. the wake of Tropical Storm Lee. smaller yields, and sometimes poorer stormwater design standards are “If there is chronic light limitation Normally, the Bay has little quality crops as well. In some instances, adequate to handle more frequent or from all of this flooding, then those “memory” from year to year when it fields couldn’t be harvested at all. more intense rainfall events in the future. tubers and rhizomes are not going to comes to nutrients. Those that enter The ruts left in fields from working “It’s only going to become more dif- be as big and robust,” Gurbisz said. in a given year are usually either used in the mud need to be addressed, or ficult to achieve water quality standards “So, you might have problems the up, buried or washed into the Atlantic else erosion and runoff could increase in the Bay over time,” Antos said. following year where the grasses might Ocean, and do not feed water quality next year, said Mark Dubin, agricul- Not only will more precipitation not come back in certain places.” problems the following year. tural technical adviser with the Bay and severe storms drive more nutrients With so many nutrients continuing to Program. “It just touches every aspect into the Bay, she noted, but rising sea Oxygen levels & ‘dead zones’ pour into the Bay late in 2018, though, of the agricultural industry,” he said. levels will drown tidal wetlands at Dissolved oxygen levels in deep waters scientists say it could promote an unusual The muddy fields that delayed an increasing rate, eliminating their of the Bay were poor during much of the growth of algae blooms this winter, and harvests and ongoing rain also made ability to absorb nutrients and mitigate summer, but not record-setting, despite possibly into the spring, which could it difficult for farmers to plant cover some of the impacts. the massive input of nutrients delivered affect conditions this summer. crops, Dubin said. Cover crops are a “That means that much more nitro- by the rains. Strong winds accompanying At a monitoring site near Annapolis, widely used practice that helps absorb gen and phosphorus is going to need some of the midsummer storms helped nitrate concentrations in the Bay in late excess nitrogen left on fields after to be reduced from the watershed. We by mixing oxygen-rich freshwater on the October were nearly six times the normal crops are harvested. need to start planning for that now, surface with oxygen-starved saltwater on levels, said Jeremy Testa, an assistant Even where cover crops did get because what we need to do by 2025 is the bottom. professor at the University of Maryland planted, they probably won’t soak up as small compared to the impacts by 2050 But the chronically high flows and Center for Environmental Science. much nitrogen as they would in a typical or 2080, so let’s start putting ourselves murky water reduced algae growth, “It suggests that the nitrate out there year, Dubin said. Heavy rains can push on the right path now,” Antos said. which also helped. Algae blooms deplete is really high right now, and having nitrogen deeper into the soil and beyond “And while the district is doing our oxygen levels when they die and sink to those concentrations is what can help the root zones of the cover crops, so they part,” she added, “we’re only going the bottom. They decompose there in a support the bloom in the spring if they to be successful as a watershed if the process that draws the oxygen out of the persist,” Testa said. Rain continues on page 31 partnership does its part.” Bay Journal • January / February 2019 31

Rain from page 30 can’t absorb the nutrient, he explained. Farmers also had trouble installing new pollution controls such as stream- side buffers, Dubin said. Some existing controls may have been washed away by flooding, or else didn’t perform as expected because of the sheer volume A torrent of of rain. In some cases, he added, rainwater manure storage facilities are maxing from a out because farmers have had little parking opportunity to spread the animal waste lot and as fertilizer on the fields. highway “I don’t think its catastrophic, but courses I think it’s definitely stressing the its way system,” Dubin said. to a stormwater An ‘awesome’ success outfall pipe Not everyone was disappointed by at Woods the rain. “It was awesome!” exclaimed Road and Carlton Ray, director of the Clean Route 50 in Rivers Project with DC Water, which Cambridge, manages stormwater and sewage in and MD. around the nation’s capital. “We were (Dave hoping for wet weather, you know?” Harp) Ray oversees a $2.7 billion effort aimed at capturing and treating Oysters take a hit A mixed bag for other species into rivers where it hasn’t previously effluent from the District’s antiquated Oyster surveys in much of the Bay The surge of freshwater lowered been reported. combined sewer system, built more were still going on in December. But salinities throughout the Bay, Biologists have been concerned that than a century ago, in which storm in the Potomac River, where they were essentially pushing stinging jellyfish the voracious predator could disrupt drains funnel rainfall runoff into sani- complete, the news was bad. out of most areas last summer — a the Bay’s food chain. With salinities tary sewers. In wet weather, the system Oysters on bars in low-salinity relief for anyone trying to swim or low almost everywhere last year, Gary typically overflows, sending diluted areas of the Potomac suffered mortal- work in the water. said, “blue catfish have gone pretty much but raw human waste, into local rivers. ity rates upward of 90 percent, and “There have been some years anywhere they wanted to go.” In a partial fulfillment of a federal con- on one bar “they didn’t find a living where we had to go and get wetsuits,” Meanwhile, populations of dark sent decree to stop the overflows, seven oyster,” said Martin Gary, executive said Dave Secor, a professor with the false mussels, a native species that miles of tunnels went online in March to secretary of the Potomac River Fisher- University of Maryland Center for likes lower salinities, surged in several capture and hold most of the stormwater ies Commission. Environmental Science. “But this year, Western Shore rivers in Maryland. and sewage that would normally spill “The Potomac has a history of it was an absolute zero. I’ve never Clearer water was also reported into the Anacostia when it rains. After freshets, but this was a bad one,” Gary encountered that before.” in some of the areas where robust the storms pass, the stored wastewater said. Bars farther downstream took Strong flows can also be beneficial numbers of the water-filtering bivalves gets treated at the Blue Plains Advanced hits as well, he said. to anadromous fish, which live in were found. Regional Wastewater Plant before being High flows can sometimes be the ocean but return to freshwater “In the past, when we’ve seen these discharged into the Potomac. good for spat sets — when oyster to spawn. Maryland DNR surveys mussel blooms in response to fresh- Officials hoped the tunnel would larvae settle on the bottom and begin showed striped bass, American shad water events, it has actually spurred capture and temporarily store 80 percent growing. Good spat sets usually yield and blueback herring all had good underwater grass recoveries in a lot of of the stormwater that normally flowed abundant oyster harvests a few years reproduction and survival this year. cases,” said the DNR’s Landry. in the Anacostia. As of mid-December, it later. The status of blue crabs won’t be That could help grasses bounce was outperforming that expectation, Ray But that wasn’t the case this year, known until the annual winter dredge back in places like the Magothy, said, capturing 89 percent, despite record at least not in the Potomac. Gary said survey is complete, but fishery manag- Severn and other rivers where the rainfall in the District. oyster reproduction there last summer ers said some strong blue crab catches mussels were reported, she said. “This large source of pollution was “dismal.” were reported in early fall, especially Scientists say they aren’t surprised that that’s been going on for years and But oysters that survive the fresh- in the lower Bay. They think high last year’s deluge seems to have produced years and years is now being taken off water will face less of a chance of flows may have pushed the crustaceans a mixed bag of results in the Bay. the table,” he said. dying from two lethal oyster diseases, down the Chesapeake and helped to “That’s the really interesting part,” From March 20 through mid- MSX and Dermo, which have devas- concentrate them. said Peter Tango, monitoring coordina- December, even though the system tated the Bay’s oyster population in the But lower salinities associated tor with the state-federal Chesapeake captured 4.48 billion gallons of storm- past, but prefer high salinities. with strong river flows could have Bay Program. “Estuaries by their water and sewage, 540 million gallons Ryan Carnegie, an oyster disease other implications as well. Gary said nature are dynamic and experience still went into the Anacostia, Ray said. researcher with the Virginia Institute fishermen were catching blue catfish, a these sorts of fluctuations.” But that should change when of Marine Science, said he is seeing nonnative species that doesn’t like high Indeed, estuaries are places where another tunnel segment is completed in “very low levels” of MSX, and salinities, at the mouth of the Potomac freshwater and saltwater meet and mix 2023. Then, nearly all of the storm- infections by Dermo are the lowest late in the fall, when salinities were so the species that live in them tend to water-diluted sewage that once went observed since 1989. just 7 parts per thousand — less than tolerate a range of conditions. Some fare into the river will get treated. A future “We’ve seen the parasites being half of what’s normal. better than others whatever the natural expansion will capture other overflows basically knocked back,” Carnegie That’s bad news because the high conditions, but most eventually bounce that now go into the Potomac. said. “So, if there is a silver lining, freshwater flows may have enabled back from weather-related setbacks. “My neighbors probably didn’t want that’s one. If [oysters] can survive the the blue catfish to escape the Potomac, “It is going to be interesting in 2019, to see so much rain, but it was good for freshwater, they are going to gain an where they are normally trapped by because it will be the test case of how me because we got to test the tunnel, added benefit from reduced disease higher salinity water near its mouth, resilient the Bay was with all of this fresh and the whole system,” Ray said. pressure.” and spread throughout the Bay and water runoff,” VIMS’ Bob Orth said. 32 Bay Journal l Tr avel l January-February 2019

A cabin waits for you along the Appalachian Trail was located at a guesthouse at the University of Virginia.” That’s at the Morris Cabin, according to the club’s helpful guidebook, which provides a history of the cabin network, photos and details about each cabin, as well as practical information such as how to operate a woodstove, and cer- tain caveats, all delivered through clear and occasionally wry prose. For example: “Most bathrooms are outside and don’t flush. They don’t smell like the toilet at home.” And, “There will be games, but the deed for Park Place may be miss- ing.” And, “Those who fear snakes should not rent a cabin. Renters are not allowed to harm or kill snakes.” (Snakes are not the only potential wildlife encounter. According to the history book in our cabin, a mountain lion was frequently sighted at dusk at the local spring in 1999 and 2000.) Included in a $40 annual membership fee, all of the cabins are available to rent year-round to PATC members, while 17 of them are open to the public. Many are pet- friendly. The cost varies from cabin to cabin and depends on several factors, including how far in advance you make the reservation and whether it’s for a weekend or week- day. Typically, the cabins cost from $35 to $65 per night, although some are more expensive (up to $155 per night). My friend Alison, who is a member, takes her family off the grid every year to spend several days over Thanksgiv- ing in one of a range of their favorite cabins in and near Shenandoah National Park. They schlep pounds of food and gear through the woods, sometimes through snow, to bunk together, play board games by candle and oil lamp, go hiking and exploring, blissfully ignore the “real” world, The Robert Humphrey Cabin, (there’s no electricity or cell-phone coverage), and prepare nestled among Virginia For years, my friend Alison has been telling a Thanksgiving meal using an open fire and, on occasion, a mountains, is one of many me, “You’ve gotta rent a Potomac Appalachian traditional cast-iron cookstove. cabins available for rent from the I was not so ambitious. I wanted a taste, not a full im- Potomac Appalachian Trail Club. Trail Club cabin! You’ll love it!” mersion, without extensive planning. And when I called So here we were, my husband and I, on a late winter the club’s cabin coordinator, she agreed that the “semi- afternoon so dank and foggy we could have driven into the primitive” Robert Humphrey was a great choice. side of a mountain without knowing it. We were follow- “I call it a starter cabin,” she told me. “It’s great for ing the west branch of the Naked River, a tributary of the first-timers, because it has electricity and a driveway.” We Shenandoah, traveling up a dirt road in what seemed like wouldn’t have to hike in, although, as at the majority of the the Middle of Nowhere, VA, until we rounded a slight cabins, we would need to provide our own water or purify Story & Photos by water from a local source — in this case, the spring — use Wendy Mitman Clarke bend, and there in the woods was the unmistakable outline of a small, old log cabin. a privy and heat the place with the woodstove. This was it: the Robert Humphrey Cabin, built in the I made the reservation for a December weekend and late 1700s and one of 42 dwellings that the Potomac Ap- about 10 days before the date, a packet arrived with my palachian Trail Club maintains along and near the trail renter’s form, the key, written directions, pertinent details from southern Pennsylvania to Charlottesville, VA. From about the cabin and a return envelope in which I would completely primitive one-room cabins that require a vigor- ous hike-in to the beautiful and commodious Highacre House in Harper’s Ferry, WV, where Presidents Grover Cleveland and Bill Clinton have visited, the club’s cabins are an extraordinary collection of dwellings that tell stories of the Chesapeake Bay’s headwater region in a completely unique and personal way. Some were built by Prohibition Era moonshiners, and others by the Civilian Conservation Corps, forest rang- ers, farmers, and even PATC members. They range in era from the late 1700s to the 1970s and encompass styles from one-room log or stone structures to traditional frame farmhouses. Some are nestled deeply in the woods along tumbling creeks; others, perched in high mountain mead- ows, offer stunning views. Each has its own story and features, such as “an ac- tive and reliable spring that feeds into a cast-iron bath- tub, which, according to legend, T. S. Eliot, W. H. Auden, Winston Churchill and Bertrand Russell bathed in when it A sign points the way to the spring at the Humphrey Cabin. 33 Bay Journal l Tr avel l January-February 2019

The Humphrey Cabin, named in honor of a longtime member and cabin volunteer with the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club, has electricity and a warm-weather, spring-fed sink, but guests need to heat with a wood stove and use a privy. The cabin was built in the late 1700s, and the adze marks made when the logs were first shaped are still visible.. send back the key and my renter’s when they started. After some restoration work in year-round neighbor who owns roost- report once we were back home. “We’ve redone all the chinking, all the 1980s, the PATC had been using ers and has a penchant for nonstop All of this organization (42 cabins the exterior wood on the front deck, the cabin for storage when Thomas loud classic rock (we only heard are rented year-round by hundreds of built a new outhouse and the walkway Jorgensen arrived in 1995 with his the creek running during our visit), people) and maintenance is handled to the outhouse,” Jorgensen said. “The then 13-year-old son, Dave, and found where to find good pie (at the IGA by the PATC, an all-volunteer orga- old chimney fell down. That’s what the “the porch roof off its supports, rot- supermarket in the town of Shenan- nization formed in 1927 to build and outdoor kitchen is pretty much built ten porch boards, snake heaven from doah), the ongoing battle against mice maintain the Appalachian Trail from of. We redid the stone hearth inside.” the chimney rocks in the yard…birds, (“P.S. There is mouse poop in the red central Pennsylvania through West Actually, that was a very short list, squirrels, and a raccoon (go figure) liv- kettle”), and what renters did for fun, Virginia, Maryland and into Virginia. which I learned once we settled in to ing on the second floor and five years which included hiking in Shenandoah All told, the PATC oversees more than the cabin, lit the woodstove (no prob- of accumulated dust. Over the next 3 National Park, tubing on the river, 1,000 miles of trails in all four states, lem, because a primary rule is to leave years, Dave & I became best friends visiting neighboring Mountain Top including 240 miles of the AT, and a full wood bin and some kindling for life … PATC and [this] cabin have Ranch to go horseback riding, tour- more than 80 shelters and cabins. for the next renter), and dug into the provided a bond between my son and I ing Luray Caverns, fishing in Naked According to its website, the treasure trove of history in the cabin’s that will go on for eternity.” Creek, playing games, eating (lots of club has more than 7,000 members, logbook and a couple of binders that Over time, they and a small army eating and drinking) and stargazing. around 2,000 of whom volunteer Thomas Jorgensen had put together. of volunteers have steadily worked to Entries ranged from short and annually for all kinds of work, from Made of chestnut, pine and oak maintain and upgrade the cabin, work- businesslike to full-blown narratives, maintaining trails to repairing shel- (chestnut on the lower beams, to resist ing on projects ranging from the mun- but one written in January 2016, by ters, building or upgrading cabins, termites), the cabin has wooden-peg dane — such as ongoing mouse battles someone who seemed to be chan- writing guidebooks and staffing desks. construction for its roof beams and and sweeping up ladybugs upstairs — neling their furry canine friend, The name and contact information dove-tail notches at the log ends. The to the complex, including building an seemed to sum it all up: “I rode in of Dave Jorgensen, an Annapolis- adze marks made when the logs were excellent walkway to the privy (by far the back seat, staring at the deep based volunteer who tends the Robert first shaped are still plainly visible. Its one of the nicest privies I have visited), vast of wilderness in the Shenandoah Humphrey cabin, was provided in my original chinking was made with mud an outdoor kitchen and a clever out- Mountains. I explored the Robert packet. Jorgensen has stayed in nearly mixed with hogs’ hair. door sink at the end of the porch with Humphrey cabin grounds, and I spied every cabin in the network. “Each one Sometime after the Civil War, running water that in warm months is on the classic rock/rooster neighbors. has its own special ambiance, which is the cabin was moved from a nearby plumbed from the spring. I chased the mice in the cabin, peed the cool part,” he said. original site to where it sits now, hard Tucked by the fire, we cooked our on the trees, and enjoyed the roaring Jorgensen has been a PATC volun- by the Naked River’s west branch and homemade tomato soup and grilled wood burning stove. When it snowed teer since he was a teen. He and his sheltered under the shoulders of the cheese sandwiches on the stovetop and on Sunday, I ice skated on the Appa- father, Thomas, now a regional super- surrounding mountains. For 140 years, read aloud from the cabin’s logbook, lachian Trail. I wish I could live here visor for the club, worked for years it was the homestead of the family of to which each renter is encouraged to forever.” to repair and restore the Humphrey Joe Lamm, who filed as a settler there contribute. For information about the PATC cabin, which was “a complete mess” in 1880, and the Weaver family. Here, we learned about a nearby cabin network, visit patc.net. 34 Bay Journal l Tr avel l January-February 2019

Snow geese take flight over the water at the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. The geese migrate south Snow geese extravaganza hits home from the Canadian Arctic to spend When birdwatchers flock to Blackwater Na- Canada geese, tundra swans and, of course, snow geese. the winter along the coast between One of the biggest attractions at Blackwater is its 4-mile Massachusetts and South Carolina. tional Wildlife Refuge on Maryland’s Eastern Wildlife Drive, a two-lane road that bisects the most Shore this winter, they are likely to witness avian-populated portions of the refuge. On any given day from October to April, visitors might one of the most dramatic sights nature has to see up to 11,000 snow geese (Anser caerulescens atlanti- offer in the Chesapeake Bay region. cus) inside the southern Dorchester County refuge. The Story by Jeremy Cox federal government established Blackwater in 1933 as a Snow geese will gather by the thousands in marshes sanctuary for waterfowl like the snow goose, and that mis- Photos by Dave Harp and farm fields and on the water. Then, it will happen: an sion continues more than eight decades later. explosion of noise and color as the birds honk in unison and dart into the air at once. Many of the management decisions made by the Fish “If you’ve seen them in a large flock in an agricultural and Wildlife Service, which operates the refuge system, field, they fly in unison like blackbirds do. When they’re revolve around rolling out the welcome mat for those swirling and shimmering on a field, it’s an amazing sight birds. About 800 of the refuge’s acres are designed and to see, a pretty large group of birds working together like maintained specifically to make those birds feel at home, that,” said Josh Homyack, waterfowl program manager for Whitbeck said. Maryland’s Department of Natural Resources. That acreage includes land where crops such as corn, “You tend to hear them before you see them,” said Matt clover and winter wheat are grown but not harvested — so Whitbeck, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist based they can become food for the birds. And it includes water at Blackwater. impoundments, which are drawn down in the summer to There’s a story behind the abundance of snow geese at encourage the growth of marsh plants for the birds to eat Blackwater and other sites across the mid-Atlantic, one in the winter. The refuge’s workers also keep the area clear that casts the species’ showy displays in a different light. of phragmites, a stalky nonnative plant that chokes out To understand how there came to be so many, it helps to nutritious natives. start at Blackwater itself. “We think of it as setting the table for these waterfowl,” The refuge lies about 12 miles south of Cambridge Whitbeck said. along a swath of low-lying, soggy land dominated by tidal White-bodied with black wing tips, snow geese cut marsh and loblolly pine forests. Coupled with its proxim- a distinctive figure whether flying or foraging along the ity to corn and winter wheat farms, Blackwater is a prime ground for tubers or roots. They spend their winters in resting and feeding area for winter waterfowl, such as a strip near the coast between Massachusetts and South 35 Bay Journal l Tr avel l January-February 2019

Carolina. Come spring, they migrate existence in 1914. to the Canadian Arctic, where they Commercial hunting was taking breed. a heavy toll on snow geese numbers The dominant species in this in Canada and the Eastern United Atlantic flyway is the greater snow States. In the early 1900s, researchers goose. But sometimes birdwatchers estimated their population to be little may spot its cousin, the lesser snow more than 3,000 birds. goose, which is more common in A snow goose hunting ban went the middle of the continent and in into effect in 1931. Within a few years, the West. Indeed, they are smaller, the federal government began setting but the difference in size is nominal, aside more than a dozen refuges, in- Whitbeck said. The tell-tale sign of a cluding Blackwater, to preserve marsh lesser snow goose flock is the pres- and farmland feeding grounds for ence of a blue or dark version of the the snow goose and other wintering species sprinkled in with its other- waterfowl species. wise white mates. The creation of the refuges trig- The snow goose population at gered a chain of events that, slowly at Blackwater varies substantially from first and hent accelerating toward the year to year, he added. end of the 1900s, brought snow geese “They can be very hit-or-miss,” back from the brink of extinction, re- Whitbeck said. “Some years, we have searchers say. The result was the kind 5,000 or 6,000 snow geese that will be of turnaround that conservationists present all season on the refuge, and dream about, Homyack said. other years we have zero.” But there was a problem: The ac- As of mid-December, Blackwater tions worked too well. was still awaiting the full-scale sea- “Eventually, it hit a certain point sonal return of its snow geese. Whit- where [the snow goose population] beck recalled glimpsing a couple of just exploded,” he said. flocks roosting on the water around The refuges and hunting pro- sunrise for a few mornings in late hibition stabilized the snow goose November or early December. After population, setting the stage for it to dawn, they’d be gone, off to gobble surpass 100,000 birds by the 1970s. up spilled corn in agricultural fields During that decade, snow geese began north of the refuge. But the birds changing their behavior in a way that soon disappeared as suddenly as they ignited a gosling boom, Homyack had appeared. said. They increasingly began feeding Weather seems to dictate where on the harvested cropland adjacent these nonhuman “snowbirds” settle to the refuges instead of the marshes for the winter, experts say. During inside. That coincided with a sharp in- warmer years, they may “short-stop” crease in corn production, giving the in southern Quebec. Colder tempera- geese more opportunities to forage. tures may send them winging deep Wildlife managers responded to into the Carolinas. the snow goose’s growing numbers The snow goose population in Canada and the Eastern United States has “A lot of these birds, they’ll only by reinstating hunting for the species. rebounded from a low point in the early 1900s to approximately 1 million today. come as far south as they have to,” But the effect on the U.S. population Whitbeck said. was muted, according to background water and beyond. Their arrival draws Refuge, 2145 Key Wallace Drive, The time they spend in the south- information in a Canadian Wildlife birdwatchers and wildlife photogra- Cambridge, MD: Visitors can drive, ern portion of their range is no winter Service report. By then, warmer win- phers from near and far. Unlike bald bike or walk the length of the ap- vacation, he said. Because the nesting ters had driven flocks farther north eagles and resident Canada geese, proximately 4-mile Wildlife Drive, as season is so short, snow geese begin in the winter, where hunting is less which live in the Chesapeake region well as hike on the associated trails, bonding into pairs before heading prevalent. year-round, the snow goose’s pres- dawn to dusk every day. The road north. They also use the time to pack During the 1980s and ‘90s, the ence is fleeting. offers stunning vistas of waterfowl on as much fat as possible. The energy population was doubling every eight “If you want to go out and see the roosting on water impoundments and they store up over the winter enables years. In 1998, Canadian and U.S. snow geese in all their glory, there’s the Little Blackwater River. them to complete the long trip back wildlife officials jointly declared that no better time than now to do it,” l the species had become “overabun- Middle Creek Wildlife Man- north and to concentrate on nesting Homyack said. 100 Museum Road, dant.” Today, there are up to 1 million agement Area, preparations once they get there. Stevens, PA: A 5,000-acre tract that’s “The birds are exploiting the pro- snow geese criss-crossing the flyway, Where the snow geese are home to tens of thousands of snow ductivity of the Arctic, but it’s only according to the Canadian Wildlife Here are some prime places to spot geese in February and March. Record available for a short period of time,” Service. snow geese in the Chesapeake Bay The snow goose’s comeback has numbers of geese have arrived in said Kevin McGowan, a bird expert region: been so pronounced that scientists recent years. with the Cornell University Lab of l l Ornithology in New York. are now concerned that the birds may Back Bay National Wildlife Prime Hook National Wildlife By the 1930s, many waterfowl be setting themselves up for ecologi- Refuge, 4005 Sandpiper Road, Virgin- Refuge, 11978 Turkle Pond Road, species were spiraling toward extinc- cal disaster. For the last two decades, ia Beach, VA: A 10,000-acre barrier Milton, DE: More than 100,000 snow tion. Without action, conservationists their habitat in the Canadian tundra island on the Atlantic Ocean, the ref- geese are at the refuge during peak feared that the Canada goose, the has been showing signs of exhaustion uge abounds with winter waterfowl. migration. The refuge hugs Dela- snow goose and other water birds under the stress of so many geese. The population peaks in December ware Bay on the opposite side of the would soon go the way of the passen- For now, though, these are heady and January. Delmarva Peninsula from the Chesa- ger pigeon, which was hunted out of times for snow goose fans at Black- l Blackwater National Wildlife peake Bay. 36 Bay Journal • January / February 2019 Your generosity helps us cut a swath to the Chesapeake’s issues There’s no greater sign of Mr. & Mrs. Ervin Gazy the Bay Journal’s success than Perry Hall, MD the compliments and dona- Thomas F. Geary tions received from readers Washington, DC like you. 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Continued from page 36 Rodney Stark Pocono Lake, PA In Memory of Peter Craig Breen Friend from Kevin & Renee Breen Thomas Klein Camp Hill, PA Pasadena, MD Thomas Fisher III Ivor Knight Chestertown, MD Hagerstown, MD Kurt Stephenson Ruth Knott Blacksburg, VA Marriottsville, MD Andy Nichols Charles & Eric Kubit Frederick, MD Monroeville, PA Mrs. Paul Crowl Street, MD Richard Kurtz Ithaca, NY Mr. & Mrs. R. Charles Woods Springfield, VA John Latsha Lewisberry, PA David Biser Hagerstown, MD Tom Ledvina Easton, MD Steven P. Alpern Towson, MD Donald Leisch Arlington, VA Mary & John Baer Annapolis, MD Abby Lewis Easton, MD Mike & Sheila Bishop Centreville, VA Todd Lipcsey Manassas, VA In Honor of Rosy, beautiful friend & lover of water Michael Logothetis from Julie Flaherty & Bob Cukla Newark, DE Boonsboro, MD Linda Lucas Joseph & Deborah Buppert Virginia Beach, VA Marriottsville, MD Ed Lucas Reno Carbonetta Philadelphia, PA Taylors Island, MD Bob Lyter Gary & Kristine Chirlin Snow falls on Beaverdam Creek along the Tubman Trail at Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge. (Dave Harp) Gettysburg, PA Derwood, MD Sonya MacFarland Rolan Clark Al Granholm Lin Klein Ken Newman Mullica Hill, NJ Adamstown, MD York, PA Oxford, PA Prince George, VA Ken Maize Don Hammerlund Margaret L’Hommedieu Joan M. Comanor Geri Nicholson Knoxville, MD Woodstock, VA Charlotte Hall, MD Deale, MD Annapolis, MD Paul Harvey Joan Lausman Robbin M. Nighswander David B. Martin Joseph Curran Lancaster, PA Elkridge, MD Carrollton, VA Rock Hall, MD Grasonville, MD Bill Herrmann Len Lazarick James Olfson Hayden W. Mathews Thomas DeKornfeld Winchester, VA Annapolis, MD Potomac, MD Columbia, MD Edgewater, MD Margaret Hindman Stanley Lehman Thomas Pakurar Derek McGuirk Russell Dick Bel Air, MD Westminster, MD Frederick, MD Clarks Summit, PA Midlothian, VA Dee Hockman David Lenker Oliver W. Perry George Frank Meyerle Craig Dranbauer Easton, MD Baltimore, MD Strasburg, VA Camp Hill, PA Chambersburg, PA Bertha Hollway Edward Lumsden Greg Rider Milleson’s Walnut Grove Campground Guy & Geraldine Edwards Springfield, WV Chestertown, MD New Freedom, PA Baltimore, MD Severna Park, MD Todd Jessen Larry Markle J. Thomas Savage Gerald Mingis John M. Elkin, Jr. Portsmouth, VA Urbanna, VA Middle River, MD Bel Air, MD Cape Charles, VA Matthew E. Ellis James Jones Bradley L. Martin Dale Schumacher Patrick Murphy USN (Retired) Baltimore, MD Baltimore, MD Manchester, MD Elkridge, MD Port Republic, MD Carol Fanshaw Chris Kidd Joseph McGurrin Scott D. Schwenk Ann Murray Lutherville Timonium, MD Vinton, VA Stevensville, MD Reading, PA Chestertown, MD Lyle & Dorothy Feisel William Killinger Howard Metzger Walter Scott Ken Noble Chestertown, MD Berlin, MD Baltimore, MD Richmond, VA Worton, MD James P. Flannery Nancy Kimmel Ray Moses J. L. & R. L. Sherald Anne C. O’Brien Bowie, MD Harrisburg, PA Virginia Beach, VA Alexandria, VA Olney, MD Carolyn Gomez-Foronda John W. King George Murray Bill Spanos Hardyville, VA Blades, DE Wilson, NC Arlington, VA Continued on page 38 Thank You To These Philanthropic Donors The Curtis and Edith Munson Foundation 38 Bay Journal • January / February 2019

Continued from page 37 Edward & Helen Powers San Antonio, TX Arthur Oplinger John Pritts Spring Grove, PA Devon, PA Robert S. Pace Grantley Pyke Norristown, PA Baltimore, MD Geoffrey Parker Richard Rowan Prescott, AZ Chambersburg, PA Robert Pawlowski Joan S. Schmidt West Mifflin, PA Bowie, MD Timothy J. Peck Scott Sewell Parkville, MD Baltimore, MD C. H. Permut Randall Shaffer Baltimore, MD Rochester, PA Sheila Perry Leon L. Thompson Annapolis, MD Wilmington, DE Sally Pierce Ronald Treptow Catonsville, MD Baltimore, MD Harry Pontius W. M. Tress Burke, VA Hanover, PA Jill Poskaitis Leonard & Connie Tritt Severna Park, MD Carlisle, PA Barry Pounder Willy Max Uhlig Sinking Spring, PA Halethorpe, MD Thomas & Sally Price Mark Wynn Sperryville, VA Arnold, MD Walter Priest III Lee Yohn Bena, VA Mechanicsburg, PA I. J Profaci Nancy Zearfoss Chestertown, MD A skein of geese flies over Eastern Bay near its confluence with the Wye River at Bennett Point in Bushwood, MD W. D. Pruden Maryland. (Dave Harp) Nathan & Brittany Shroyer Edenton, NC Chestertown, MD John Rady Richard Shores Dean & Peggy Troyer Jodi Christman Patrick Alfiero Charlottesville, VA Glen Burnie, MD Norfolk, VA Mechanicsburg, PA Reading, PA Alan Raflo Matt Show Catharine Tucker Doug & Sandra Clow James P. Aubry Blacksburg, VA Mill Run, PA Richmond, VA Solomons, MD Quarryville, PA Gary Reinoehl Jeffrey Shuman Richard Van Aken David Drew Jon Bauer Klingerstown, PA Mechanicsburg, PA Holland, PA Annapolis, MD Rose Valley, PA Walter & Deborah Reiser Laura Simms Paul G. Voelker Marty Garrell Walter Bell Yorktown, VA Parkville, MD Timonium, MD Churubusco, NY Jacobus, PA Megan Rice Kenneth & Diane Smith Donna Volger Arthur G. Geigley Charles W. Bower Frederick, MD Lynchburg, VA Oneonta, NY Mount Joy, PA Media, PA Tom & Karen Riley Jerry Smrchek James W. Voshell Rachel Gorr James M. Bowman Ocean View, DE Longs, SC Parkton, MD Sykesville, MD Ocean View, DE Joan Ripley Steven Snyder Jacqueline Waite Janet Griffith Kenneth Bradley Charlottesville, VA Middle River, MD Washington, DC Reston, VA Princess Anne, MD Philip Robbins Ted Snyder, Jr. Robert Walls Mary Hammond Russell Brown Newport, PA Oley, PA Manassas Park, VA Cape Coral, FL Joppa, MD Norma Roberts David Sorflaten Bob Webster Jack Hardy Van Button Alexandria, VA Rock Hall, MD Tyaskin, MD Essex, MD Kensington, MD Daniel Roff Shelly Sparks Dave White Barbara S. Heistand Sandra Canepa Frederick, MD Bel Air, MD Ambler, PA Elizabethtown, PA Hampton, VA John Rothert Jim Spontak James Williams Paul & Maria Jozik Ron & Sheila Cassidy Powhatan, VA Etters, PA Sylvania, GA Hagerstown, MD Jarrettsville, MD Zolna Russell Steven Lee Stengler Ronald Wilner Steve Lay Virginia Coggeshall Baltimore, MD Windsor Mill, MD Baltimore, MD Havre De Grace, MD Gloucester, VA John Russell Robert Stewart A. W. Wintz Joe Lee Tanya Cohen Middletown, DE Onancock, VA Silver Spring, MD Pacific Palisades, CA York, PA David H. Schafer Robert Stover David York David Lucas Jessie A. Coleman Hampton, VA Lancaster, PA Akron, PA Emporium, PA Mardela Springs, MD Janice & James Scheler Ida Swenson Frances & Richard Younger Brian MacElroy Visty Dalal Rosedale, MD Palmyra, VA Lusby, MD Pottstown, PA Baltimore, MD Jane Schlegel R. Michael Tabor Janise Zygmont Mike Madden Wayne Davis Hydes, MD Middletown, MD Harwood, MD Salem, VA Alum Bank, PA David Schober, Jr. Judith Tanner Gerald Abrecht Bill May Daryl Decesare Lancaster, PA Mapleton Depot, PA Washington, NC Catonsville, MD Princess Anne, MD Lou Schroeder Stephen & Carole Tevault Sue Allen James J. McCann Steven Dix Virginia Beach, VA Reedville, VA Columbia, MD Crownsville, MD Collegeville, PA Alvin Seubott Rob Timmins James Amory Allen & Patricia McLaughlin James E. Egan Catonsville, MD Richmond, VA Endicott, NY Kane, PA Cobbs Creek, VA Dan Sheehan Rosemary Toohey Rebecca Brashears Richard Ochs Susan B. Eley Washington, DC Baltimore, MD Lanexa, VA Baltimore, MD Mathews, VA Catherine Sheppard Craig Tower Don Carren Jon Paulette Bowie, MD Baltimore, MD Annapolis, MD Charlottesville, VA Continued on page 39 Bay Journal • January / February 2019 39

Continued from page 368 Norma Swope Williamsburg, VA Vivian Ellison Jule Szabo Farmville, VA Fairfax, VA Frederick & Anna Erdle Paul Termini Tyrone, NY Amity, OR Kristen Ferry Catherine M. Urbanek Salem, MA Silver Spring, MD Maurice Forrester Marshall I. Waring Williamsport, PA Henrico, VA Ray Gallagher Larry & Sue Weaver Baltimore, MD Bealeton, VA Grace P. Grigg Mechanicsville, MD Guy Wilkerson Sterling, VA Henry G. Grigsby Front Royal, VA Ed W. Wirth Newark, DE Jack Hall Blacksburg, VA Charlotte Wozniak Linthicum, MD James E. Hausamann Chincoteague, VA Robert L. Case Easton, MD Joe Horchar Nottingham, MD Loretta Barbee-Dare Harrisburg, PA Charles Ingram, Jr. Princess Anne, MD Andrew Farkas Ellicott City, MD Ron Jacobs Laurel, MD James Florentine, Jr. Westminster, MD Robert Jump Neavitt, MD Lloyd Hartman Lebanon, PA Christina Kaminski Wilmington, DE William Hook Palm Coast, FL Linda Keefer Barboursville, WV A ring-billed gull hunkers down during a cold, windy January morning. (Dave Harp) Milton & Judy Hudgins Hayes, VA Matthew Kershner Maynard Nichols Patricia Tommasello Robert F. Goldman Jacksonville, FL Richard Hunter Gloucester, VA Pylesville, MD Waynesboro, PA Hebron, MD John P. Kirby Robert Pierce David Turner David Hafer Parkville, MD Sandra Mitchell Joppa, MD Mechanicsville, MD Lewisburg, PA La Plata, MD Kathleen Kiselewich Hugh Pocock Barry W. Vickers Ronald Hagarman Baltimore, MD Charles R. Neal Baltimore, MD Salisbury, MD Hanover, PA Cody, WY Barbara Lafferty Adam Priestley Carol Wathen Terrance L. Higgins Pasadena, MD Earle Roberts Newport News, VA Nanjemoy, MD Marydel, DE Middletown, CT Dorothy L. Lancaster Joan Quigley Tonya Marie Watts Grant Holly La Plata, MD Richard Saville Baltimore, MD Grand Canyon, AZ Roanoke, VA Royal Oak, MD Janet Landers David S. Ray Ernie Willoughby David A. Karpa Baltimore, MD Chris Surowiec Baltimore, MD Solomons, MD Hampton, VA Gwynedd, PA Tony Langbehn Jack Renner Bowie, MD Ross Wilson Jeanne Labuda Dennis Tomaszewski Colonial Beach, VA Saint Stephens Church, VA Hampton, VA Saline, MI Carol Larkin Loretto, PA Karen & Mike Robitaille Gray & Diana Wooten Megan Lehman Donald Merryfield Enola, PA Hayes, VA Williamsport, PA St. Michaels, MD Louis C. Lesaski Stanhope, NJ Dick Ryan Barbara Yeaman Harold Long Claire Tripp New Kent, VA Charlottesville, VA Wilmington, DE Bethesda, MD Janice Mackinnon Chincoteague, VA Irwin Sacks Jan Hohman Edmund McConnell Ed Whitesell Virginia Beach, VA Ocean View, NJ Altoona, PA Halethorpe, MD Ann McRee Richmond, VA Eric Salmi Mitchell Band Linny Miles Walter Golembiewski Hampstead, MD Montello, WI Providence Forge, VA Virginia Beach, VA Frank Melhus Newton, NJ Fred Schaefer Kathleen M. Bell T. S. Murphy Jack Holcomb Annapolis, MD Montgomery Village, MD Clarksburg, PA In Memory of R. Michael McMaster West Reading, PA from Jean J. Merritt Paul Scheibe Tim Blakely Thomas O’Brien Isaac Lynch, Jr. Philadelphia, PA Kennett Square, PA Towson, MD Kingsville, MD Petersburg, VA Kevin Mick Renate & Eckart Schutz Dave Browne Robert Oppitz George Balas Westminster, MD Blacksburg, VA Virginia Beach, VA Berlin, MD Bastian, VA Kathleen S. Miller Robert Schwaab Eli & Anne DePaulis Mary L. Pipkin John Geddie Cambridge, MD Mount Airy, MD York Springs, PA Parkville, MD Albuquerque, NM Don Misselhorn William Scott Joseph Derlunas Melvin Poling Rodney Pursell Lancaster, PA Gettysburg, PA Baltimore, MD Winchester, VA Kintnersville, PA Robert E. Murphy Dawn Shank Kyle Dierolf Marty Reefe Annie M. Holley Catonsville, MD Walkerton, VA Church Hill, MD Libertytown, MD Rocky Mount, VA George Nardacci Chris Smith Enrico DiPaolo Ed Reisman, Jr. Steven & Rebecca Thur Lancaster, PA Essex, MD Richmond, VA Camp Springs, MD Columbia, MD Ed Nawrocki Joseph Strakna Charles Dye Joanne Rudy David Cooper Columbia, MD Columbia, MD Williamsburg, VA Dauphin, PA East Petersburg, PA Joseph L. Newell Janice Stringer John Engle Marie Scannello Sally Murray James & Daryl G. Kimball Noxen, PA Stevensville, MD Seven Valleys, PA Glen Burnie, MD Washington, DC Kym & Russell Newlen Richard Swanson Philip Farall Kim Sonderegger Lisa Wainger & Gordon G. Rush Jacksonville, FL Mount Airy, MD East New Market, MD Minneapolis, MN Hollywood, MD 40 Bay Journal • January / February 2019

Commentary • Letters • Pers pectives Don’torum let the bounty of the Chesapeake become only a memory By BFill Bartlett you, Mr. Ernest Lane.) In 1954, Hurricane Hazel came You get to a certain point in your right up the river and tore down the life and you know that your days are trees and brush and killed all of the numbered. You have a lot of years to freshwater fish in the pond. The river look back and reflect on the parts that then flowed into the pond at high tide you enjoyed the most. One of those and went out with the low tide. There things for me is the Chesapeake Bay. was one good thing: I could pull my I have traveled all around to 12-foot aluminum boat out to the river. different parts of the Bay. I have swam One of my greatest experiments was and fished in many areas, but most raising oysters in floats off the end of of my memories are on the lower my pier. When the pond was open to the Potomac River, about 18 miles up from river, it stayed salty. I bought floats with the Bay. oyster spat that were about the size of I was born and raised in the end of my thumb. I even got a break Washington, DC, for my first 9 years, on my taxes by buying these floats. a big city boy. I didn’t know about the I asked when the spat was set so I Bay or any of its tributaries. could gauge how long it would take My first trip to Southern Maryland for the oysters to get to 3 inches, the was for a week’s vacation on the legal size. I was completely amazed Patuxent River. My first fishing when I found that some of my oysters attempt was with a hand line; a piece had reached 3 inches in 14 months. It of wood with the line wrapped around usually takes about three years in the it with one hook and a lead sinker. river. When I contacted my supplier It didn’t matter because there were about this he said that was about right. so many fish that you were always It was such a great convenience to catching something. Sometimes it was get oysters out of the float any time fish you didn’t want to catch like eels I wanted. On one occasion when my and toadfish, but mostly it was spot sister and her daughter-in-law came to and croaker. My first fishing trip and I visit from Minnesota, I told them about was hooked (pun intended). my oyster operation and showed them The spot were small and bony but I how to shuck an oyster. They asked liked the taste after having eaten only what I did with it after it was shucked. frozen fish from the grocery store. The I picked up the shell and slurped the croaker were big enough to be filleted oyster into my mouth. They were not and my mother fried them in bacon very receptive. grease. Yum yum! I learned that I Things were great for a couple of really liked to fish and eat them, too. years and I bought more floats. Then Somebody suggested that I try to the little creek that ran in and out with catch some crabs. What were crabs and the tide closed off. As the rains came, how would I catch them? There was an the pond became fresher and fresher. old wooden row boat where we were All of my oysters died. staying. I placed a basket on the front As I got older, I learned to do things seat, tied the rope around my waist, better. I got some nice fishing gear. I and waded into the water. I was given learned to troll for rockfish and how a crab net and told to scoop up the Will the youth of tomorrow be able to wade into the Bay and scoop out blue crabs to use artificial lures to catch white crabs with the net. using only a net? (Dave Harp) perch. I enjoyed catching perch on Of course, all of my first efforts light tackle as much as I did catching were for naught. The grasses kept claws first. They were the easiest. You on weekends and vowed that one day I big fish on heavy tackle. I used to walk getting stuck between my toes and the just had to whack them with a wooden would have a place of my own. the beach early in the morning with a crabs were pretty fast. hammer. Then you had to open the I came to know a farmer who used bucket and a crab net. I could usually Eventually, I got the hang of it and crab up to get to the chunks of good to farm a long strip of shoreline that he catch all the crabs I needed this way. caught a few crabs. The water was to crab meat. I just watched others who had decided to sell as lots. I was only As the years passed, the crabs became my chest, about 4 feet deep and I could knew what they were doing remove the 19 at the time and could not afford a more scarce. I had to look on the jetties still clearly see the bottom. When I dead man’s fingers. That term might be lot on the river but there was one lot and the pier poles. Now I don’t see any talked to old-timers, they said that you enough to turn some people off from on a tidal pond. The lot on the tidal crabs when I walk the beach. used to be able to see 12 feet down. eating crabs. They are the lungs, which pond had a patch of land with trees and I used to fish for perch at just about The grasses are mostly gone from just do not taste good. brush that separated the pond from the any place on the beach. I used to get where I remember them. After my first time experiencing what river. He said that all I had to do was just enough for a meal because I knew The crabs were steamed in a big pot the Chesapeake Bay had to offer, I told to pay him the interest, which I did I could always get fish any time I with what I learned later was Old Bay my mother that one day I would have a until I went into the military service, at wanted. Not so any more. seasoning. Eating crabs was another place on the river. I had a friend whose which time I made my final payment. Once in a while I get lucky and thing I had to learn. I think most people parents bought a place on the Potomac (He knew that he could not hold me to did what I did and started eating the River. I used to come down with them a contract because I wasn’t 21. Thank Bounty continues on page 41 Bay Journal • January / February 2019 41

Commentary • Letters • Pers pectives Bay orumcrossing study needs to consider importance of Shore farms ByF John Piotti including a state policy score card. We must protect our most produc- Some might not think of it this way, tive, versatile and resilient farmland. but farmland is critical infrastructure Farms Under Threat identified that akin to roads and bridges. only about 17 percent of all It is the source of the food that the land in the continental United sustains us. In addition, farmland States is suited for intensive food and provides open space, areas for recreation crop production. Maryland’s Eastern and habitat for wildlife. It also controls Shore is blessed with a high percent- floods, suppresses fires, filters water and age of prime farmland and must be represents a vast carbon sink to mitigate protected — as much as 77 percent for and even help reverse climate change. counties like Kent and 55 percent for Think Maryland’s Eastern Shore. Queen Anne’s counties. As Americans — blessed with a Highway expansion is a significant remarkably productive agricultural driver of farmland conversion. landscape — we need to take a While establishing a new bridge holistic vision of the future: one that corridor or expanding a current one acknowledges farmland as irreplace- followed by the expansion of necessary able infrastructure we cannot afford to highways may be the most obvious lose, supports environmentally sound approach to addressing traffic conges- farming practices and views farmers tion, there is growing consensus that as the stewards of that land, worthy this approach is ineffective. of our fervent support — because, at Alternative solutions to traffic con- heart, what farmers do is for all of us. gestion have been proposed and should That’s why we are asking the Mary- be considered — a regional transporta- land Department of Transportation to tion authority and system, managed consider farmland among the impacts demand strategies, and land use policies in the Chesapeake Bay Crossing Study, Farmland contributes a trillion dollars a year to the U.S. economy. (Dave Harp) that promote compact growth and which is exploring the feasibility of a walkable communities to name just a third span across the Chesapeake Bay. against climate change and can help ≈ Between 1992 and 2012, almost few. These alternatives are in line with Farmland is essential infrastructure Maryland meet its 2020 goal to reduce 31 million acres of farmland were lost, the Maryland Commission on Climate for Maryland’s economy and efforts to greenhouse gases by 34.66 million 3 acres a minute, 175 acres per hour no Change’s recommendations, which combat climate change. tons. According to the 2017 annual longer available to produce food, fuel emphasize the need to avoid or reduce Farmland contributes a trillion report of the Maryland Commission on and fiber. future growth in vulnerable coastal areas dollars a year to the U.S. economy — Climate Change, “Land conservation ≈ Nearly twice the area of farmland (like the Chesapeake Bay region). more than $8.25 billion from Mary- and sustainable management offers an was lost than was previously shown. In the trust’s analyses, development land’s agricultural land, and $3 billion important mechanism for mitigating ≈ Development disproportionately has been shown to follow highways of value add. Farming is a critical and adapting to climate change…[help- occurred on agricultural lands, with 62 and thus is a significant driver of economic engine for The Shore. Queen ing] to avoid or diminish additional percent of all development occurring farmland conversion. Development Anne’s County alone boasts the most greenhouse gas emissions which would on farmland. has unintended and often unobserved farmland acres and the largest farm- be associated with development.” ≈ Expanding urban areas accounted consequences on farming. It uproots ing economy in Maryland. Kent is the Farmland loss is serious and for 59 percent of the loss. Low-density farmers, pushes food production to county with the largest percentage accelerating. In May 2018, the Ameri- residential development, or the build- more marginal lands and hampers of land — 76 percent — devoted to can Farmland Trust released the most ing of houses on 1– to 20-acre parcels, the ability of remaining farmers to do agriculture. Talbot and Caroline coun- comprehensive assessment undertaken accounted for 41 percent. what they do productively. ties are similarly reliant on farming on the loss of U.S. farmland, Farms A subsequent report will analyze We need to save the land that sus- and farmland. Under Threat: The State of America’s state-level data on past farmland tains us. No farms, no food, no future. Importantly, well-managed farm- Farmland. conversion and the effectiveness of John Piotti is president and CEO of land is a one-of-a-kind-tool in the fight Key findings include: state-level farmland protection policies, American Farmland Trust.

Bounty from page 40 protested loudly about the spot and Today there are few to be seen. fish are filter feeders scooping up perch that they had to debone. There is less wildlife in and around phytoplankton and zooplankton by the come across a school and catch enough It is very sad for me when I look the Bay. I used to see large flocks of ton and they are food for many other for a meal. People today catch a few back at how things have changed. The seagulls waiting on piers to watch fish and birds. fish and are satisfied that they have water is not as clear and clean as it rockfish and bluefish feeding on I am thankful for the time that I have accomplished something. used to be. menhaden before flying out to pick up had on the Chesapeake Bay and all of When I started my family, I had the We used to head over to the Ragged the scraps. the food that it has provided. I only opportunity to share all of the good Point lighthouse to fish. There would In the fall, there were many schools wish that many more people would have things about the Bay with my wife and be many boats there on weekends of menhaden all over the river, now the same opportunities I had. two daughters. They learned to swim along with the marine police checking they are mostly gone. It is said that the There are people working to make in the river. They did crab and fish them out. We always wondered if they reduction fleet that catches millions of things better. I hope they succeed. some but never with the enthusiasm would get to us, but they never did pounds of menhaden is not hurting the Bill Bartlett, a longtime Bay that I had. They liked to eat crabs but because there were so many boats. Bay. That is just not possible. Those observer, lives in Valley Lee, MD. 42 Bay Journal • January / February 2019

Commentary • Letters • Pers pectives Trickleorum up effect: Reducing Bay’s nitrogen will lower greenhouse gas level F the University of Virginia and the By Tom Horton Chesapeake Bay Foundation have devised the first nitrogen calculators A tale of two gases: both colorless, (go to n-print.org or the CBF website). odorless and essential to life; now also A cautionary note: My students at both imperiling life as humans boost Salisbury University figured out that them to unnatural levels. a very low-nitrogen, Bay-healthy diet Carbon dioxide (CO2) gets the would be vodka and french fries three most press, though it’s a mere trace of times a day. Earth’s overall atmosphere, at about That is so bad for human health that .04 percent. But that’s now around 40 it might actually solve the biggest and percent higher than natural, enough to least talked-about way we can get CO2 risk calamitous climate change if we and nitrogen reductions: stabilizing and don’t soon change our habits. reducing population. Nitrogen virtually is the atmo- Deciding to have one fewer child sphere, some 78 percent of it. Humans cuts CO2 by 60 tons a year, versus have dramatically increased the amount about 2.5 tons saved by going car-free, that is biologically available to Earth’s one ton by going veggie and a quarter lands and waters by 100 percent higher ton by recycling, according to a 2017 than the natural level, overfertilizing Science Magazine study. and degrading the Chesapeake Bay and I haven’t seen similar numbers done other coastal waters worldwide. for population and nitrogen. But people If there’s good news here, it’s that have to eat, and given agriculture’s resolving our excesses of these two very big contribution to excess nitrogen, I’d different elements often involve similar expect an impact similar to CO2. actions. So a climate change denier bent In fact, a critical difference between on restoring the Chesapeake Bay would our two chemicals of concern is that we almost have to support big reductions can legitimately strive for a prosperous in CO2. Climate warriors who wouldn’t society that is virtually carbon-free, but know a sook from a jimmy crab will we will always need lots of nitrogen to nonetheless be helping to revive our feed ourselves, maybe more than we oxygen-poor estuary. use now, given hundreds of millions of The most straightforward synergism people who are malnourished now and a with CO2 and nitrogen is the burning of population projected to add billions more. fossil fuels to power our industries, run Next there’s heat — not just the hotter our vehicles and heat and cool our homes. days that climate change predicts, but It’s the biggest driver of climate hotter water already witnessed in places change, releasing CO2 that traps the like the Chesapeake Bay. Hotter water is planet’s heat and destabilizes climate. already threatening eelgrass, a valuable It’s the second biggest source of excess aquatic habitat. It’s also going to make nitrogen, stripping it from its inert, oxygen depletion in the Bay worse and harmless dinitrogen (N2) form in the toxic algae blooms more likely — all this atmosphere to create the nitrogen oxides Planting trees not only helps the Bay, but the world as well.(Dave Harp) in combination with excess nitrogen. that poison the Bay — and our lungs. Back on land, hotter weather means Burning coal in particular is also Agriculture is the Bay’s leading more heat-related deaths, particularly a major source of the mercury that source of polluting nitrogen, covering in cities. Stepping up urban tree plant- has led to so many health advisories about a third of the watershed. It was ing both cools cities and absorbs CO2 on eating everything from crappie to the invention of industrial processes a and nitrogen. largemouth bass and walleye around century ago to pull unlimited nitrogen Finally, there’s a lot we don’t know the Chesapeake region. from the atmosphere for fertilizer that about the combined effects on the Reject fossil fuels, save the Bay, made farming a major source of excess nature of more CO2 and hotter weather save the world — same same. nitrogen in coastal waters worldwide. — the two may offset one another in “Trees are the answer,” my forester The way we manage ag land can have some cases. Throw nitrogen into the friend Larry Walton always said. significant, positive benefits for keeping mix and calculating impacts can get Indeed, they sequester carbon, buffer- Chesapeake Born nitrogen out of the water and CO2 out even more complicated. ing the Bay against nitrogen. And they of the air — minimal plowing, winter Generally though, the message is are way better looking and more full of plantings of cover crops after the harvest, clear: Healthy Bay, healthy planet — life than parking lots. Ellicott City comes to mind) and more vegetated buffers between farms and two for the price of one. So plant and protect trees Baywide/ intense droughts. waterways can help with both. Tom Horton has written about worldwide for those reasons — and Forests let the rains soak in and Online calculators are a good way to the Chesapeake Bay for more than increasingly to solve another problem meter them back through groundwater see the carbon/nitrogen overlaps. Many 40 years, including eight books. He of climate change. Our weather is pro- during droughts, in effect stabilizing are familiar with the ones that let you lives in Salisbury, where he is also a jected to become “flashier,” meaning the Bay against flashy weather better plug in your lifestyle and tote up your professor of Environmental Studies at with more intense rainfalls (Maryland’s than any other land use. individual CO2 “footprint.” Recently, Salisbury University. Bay Journal • January / February 2019 43

elementary students around the park for adult. Info: 410-612-1688, 410-879-2000 a hands-on nature experience. There x1688, otterpointcreek.org. is no minimum time commitment. WorkdayMake sure that when Wisdom you par- Training is scheduled 10 a.m.–1 p.m. ticipate in cleanup or invasive plant Ruth Swann Park Feb. 5–8. This season’s topics include removal workdays to protect the Help the Maryland Native Plant Society, Sierra Club and Chapman maple sugaring, butterflies, reptiles and Chesapeake Bay watershed and nature apps. The fee is $20 for first-time Forest Foundation 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. the its resources that you also protect second Saturday in January, February attendees. Info: 410-887-1815, yourself. Organizers of almost every [email protected]. and March remove invasive plants at Volunteer Opportunities workday strongly urge their volun- Ruth Swann Park in Bryans Road. Meet teers to wear long pants, long-sleeved CBL Visitor Center at Ruth Swann Park-Potomac Branch Paradise Creek Nature Park Volunteer docents, ages 16 & shirts, socks and closed-toe shoes Library parking lot. Bring lunch. Info: Volunteer Service Days at Paradise older, are needed at the Chesapeake (hiking or waterproof). This helps to Marc Imlay at [email protected], 301- Creek Nature Park in Portsmouth, Biological Laboratory’s Visitor Center on minimize skin exposure to poison ivy 283-0808, (301-442-5657 day of event). VA, are scheduled 9–11 a.m. Jan. 19 Solomons Island, MD. Volunteers must and ticks, which might be found at Carpoolers meet at the Sierra Club MD & 26, Feb. 16 & 23 and March 16 & commit to a minimum of two, 3– to the site. Light-colored clothing also Chapter office at 9 a.m. and return at 5 30. Help pull invasive species and 4-hour shifts each month in the spring, makes it easier to spot ticks. Hats are p.m. Carpool contact: Laurel Imlay at care for edible plants or maintain trails summer and fall. Training sessions are strongly recommended. Although 301-277-7111. and recreation amenities. All ages are required. Info: [email protected]. some events provide work gloves, welcome, ages 11 & younger must be not all do; ask when registering. Floatable monitoring program accompanied by an adult. Dress to Events near water require closed- The Prince William Soil & Water Adopt-a-Stream program Conservation District in Manassas, VA, get dirty; closed-toe shoes and long- The Prince William Soil & Water toe shoes and clothing that can get needs volunteers to help assess and pants are recommended. Bring insect Conservation District in Manassas, VA, wet or muddy. trace trash in streams as part of an effort repellent and water bottle. Registration wants to ensure that stream cleanup Always bring water. Sunscreen is required. Info: Kat Fish at and an insect repellent designed to to reduce nonpoint source pollutants volunteers have all of the support and in urbanized and industrialized areas [email protected], 757-392-7132. supplies they need for trash removal repel both deer ticks and mosquitoes help. in relation to the County’s Municipal projects. Participating groups receive Separate Storm Sewers (MS4) permit. Annapolis oral history project an Adopt-A-Stream sign from the PWC Lastly, most organizers ask that The Annapolis Maritime Museum is volunteers register ahead of time. Cleanup supplies are provided. Info: looking for volunteers to help archive Public Works Department in recogni- [email protected]. tion of their stewardship. To learn more, Knowing how many people are and expand its Oral History Project. going to show up ensures that they Twenty-five years of more than 200 adopt a stream or get a proposed site, visit [email protected]. Groups will have enough tools and supervi- esources interviews of Eastport residents collected R can also register their events at trashnet- sors. They can also give directions to by local historian Mike Miron were work.fergusonfoundation.org. the site or offer any suggestions for donated to the museum upon his death. Creek Critters App apparel or gear not mentioned here. The Audubon Naturalist’s Creek Miron’s recordings focused heavily Little Paint Branch Park Critters App empowers people to check on the stories of local boat builders. Help the Maryland-National Capital on the health of their local streams The museum’s project is designed to Park and Planning Commission remove hours are available. Meet at Sherwood through finding and identifying the small more fully preserve his contributions invasive species 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. the House parking lot. No registration is organisms — or creatures — that live while also adding to it. New interviews last Saturday in January, February and required. Info: Laurie Taylor-Mitchell at in freshwater streams, then generating focusing on the area’s broader maritime March at Little Paint Branch Park in [email protected]. stream health reports based on what history are being conducted by museum Beltsville. Learn about native plants. Sign they find. The free app can be down- volunteers. Each new interview is in for a safety orientation. Gloves and Magruder Woods loaded from the App Store and Google recorded using digital technology, then tools are provided. Info: Marc Imlay at Help Friends of Magruder Woods Play. Info: anshome.org/creek-critters. To archived. The museum posts audio and [email protected], 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. the third Saturday in learn about partnerships or host a Creek word searchable versions of transcripts 301-442-5657. January, February and March remove Critters event, contact on its research portal, amaritime.org. invasive plants in the forested swamp [email protected]. Info: Caitlin Swaim at Cromwell Valley Park in Hyattsville, MD. Meet at farthest end [email protected]. Cromwell Valley Park near Towson, of the parking lot. Info: Marc Imlay at Watershed education capsules MD, needs volunteers for Habitat [email protected], 301-283- Prince William (VA) Soil and Water Oregon Ridge guide training Restoration Team / Weed Warrior 0808, (301-442-5657 the day of event); Conservation District’s Watershed The Oregon Ridge Nature Center Days: 2–4 p.m. Jan. 16, 26 & 30 and or Colleen Aistis at 301-985-5057. Capsules, which teach students in Cockeysville, MD, needs adult Feb. 6, 9, 23 & 27. All ages (12 & about the important functions of volunteers to help with school field younger w/adult) are welcome. Remove American Chestnut Land Trust watersheds, are available, first-come, trips, Tuesday through Thursday, year- invasive species, install native plants The American Chestnut Land Trust in first served. Info: pwswcd.org/educators, round. Volunteers lead small groups of and maintain restored habitat. Service Prince Frederick, MD, needs volunteers [email protected]. for invasive plant removal workdays 9–11 a.m. Thursdays and 10 a.m.–12 Park passes for 4th graders p.m. Wednesdays. All ages (16 & The Maryland Department of younger w/adult) are welcome. Training, Natural Resources is partnering with tools and water are provided. Preregis- the U.S. Department of the Interior’s tration is required. Info: 410-414-3400, Every Kid in a Park program to provide acltweb.org, [email protected]. fourth-grade children and their families free admission to national public lands Anita Leight Estuary Center and state parks. The Maryland Park Anita C. Leight Estuary Center in Service will honor the federal passes, Abingdon, MD, is looking for volunteers, valid through Aug. 31, 2019, at all 75 ages 14 & older, to become Invasinators state parks. The passes are also valid at 1–3 p.m. Jan. 13. Participants will remove 16 national parks, six national natural invasive species and plant native ones. landmarks, five national wildlife refuges Dress for the weather and be prepared and two federal heritage areas in the to work at either Leight Park or Bosely state. The program’s goal is to increase Conservancy. If there is frozen ground access to public lands and facilities or snow accumulation, the workday is canceled. This program is for ages 14 to Bulletin continues on page 44 44 Bay Journal • January / February 2019

Program’s Education Workgroup, the Bay Backpack is an online resource for educators with information about New Submission Guidelines funding opportunities, field studies, The Bay Journal regrets it is not advance. See below. curriculum guides and lesson plans always able to print every notice it ≈ Submissions to Bulletin Board related to the Chesapeake. Contact: receives because of space limita- must be sent either as a Word or baybackpack.com. tions. Priority is given to events or Pages document, or as simple text programs that most closely relate to in the body of an e-mail. PDFs, VA water monitoring test kits Bulletin from page 43 The Virginia Department of Environ- the preservation and appreciation of newsletters or other formats may be mental Quality is distributing a limited the Bay, its watershed and resources. considered if there is space and if for children at an impressionable age number of water monitoring kits to test Items published in Bulletin Board information can be easily extracted. to ignite their interest and love for for dissolved oxygen, pH, turbidity and are posted on the online calendar; ≈ Programs must contain all of the outdoors. It also offers teachers temperature. These kits are available for unpublished items are posted online the following information: a phone resources for planning field trips, free to schools and organizations that do if staffing permits. Guidelines: number (include the area code) or including free access for classes and not have water-monitoring equipment. ≈ Send notices to e-mail address of a contact person; eligibility for federal transportation The DEQ requests that participants use [email protected]. Items sent the title, time (online calendar funding. In addition, the DNR offers these kits as part of the EarthEcho Water to other addresses are not always requires an end time as well as a start educational resources for teachers. The Challenge (formerly known as World forwarded before the deadline. time), date and place of the event or pass covers admission, but does not Water Monitoring Challenge. See world- ≈ Bulletin Board contains events program. Submissions must state if cover amenities and services, such as watermonitoringday.org). Groups with that take place (or have registration the program is free, requires a fee, boat rentals, camping or staff-led tours. their own monitoring equipment can deadlines) on or after the 11th of the has age requirements, has a registra- For details or to print a pass for this year, also participate in the event. Teachers, or month in which the item is published tion deadline or welcomes drop-ins. google Every Kid in a Park and follow those who work with a large number of through the 11th of the next month. ≈ March: February 11 the directions on the website. students, can request a free kit. Contact: Deadlines run at least two months in ≈ April: March 11 Stuart Torbeck at charles.torbeck@ Wildlife education trunks The Maryland Department of deq.virginia.gov and provide a mailing Natural Resources is offering a variety address, the number of monitoring comes in a self-contained packet with implementation strategies to improve of wildlife education trunks for use locations and the number of partici- a detachable hang-tag for use in any water quality; rain gardens and other by teachers, homeschool educators, pants from the organization or school vehicle. Proceeds from passport sales homeowner-scale stormwater manage- naturalists, scout leaders and other expected to participate in the EarthEcho fund the operations and maintenance ment techniques; riparian forest buffer instructors. These free, interdisciplinary Water Challenge. This information helps of state parks, including conservation, restoration; stream health and local trout tools are designed to interest students to determine how many kits a group education and interpretation of cultural, waters; tree care and pruning for storm in local wildlife while building on needs. The Virginia Water Monitoring historical and natural resources. resilience; an overview of the USDA disciplines like art, language arts, math, Council provided the kits for this effort. Maryland’s 75 state parks include more Areawide Tick Integrated Pest Manage- physical education, science and social than 900 miles of trails for biking, hiking ment Project; the interrelation between studies. Each trunk contains an educator Baltimore biodiversity toolkit and horseback riding, water access and bees and trees; choosing the best trees The Baltimore Biodiversity Toolkit camping facilities. The cost is $75/MD for pollinators and tips on how to protect guide with background information, addresses the need for high-quality and lesson plans and hands-on K–12 residents and $100/non residents. bees and other pollinators when applying accessible green space in the city, not pesticides. Several breaks throughout activities, as well as activity supplies, only for native plants and animals, but books, furs, replica tracks and videos. the day will provide an opportunity for for residents as well. It helps communi- Forums / Workshops meeting the speakers and visiting exhibi- Trunk subjects include aquatic invasive ties identify a suite of ambassador ani- species, bats, black bears, furbearers, tor tables. Morning coffee and pastries, mals that represent habitat types within, MD Master Naturalist Training snacks, a hot lunch and workshop materi- white-tailed deer and wild turkeys. and historic to, this area; shares practical The University of Maryland Trunks are available at seven locations Extension invites adult volunteers als are included in the registration fee of resources for supporting specific wildlife $50/individual or $75/couple. Register at: around the state and can be borrowed needs; monitors and encourages the interested in becoming a Maryland carrollcountyforestryboard.org by March on a first-come, first-served basis for collection of citizen science data; and Master Naturalist to attend a training 15. Info: Donna Davis at 410-848-9290, up to two weeks. Info: Google Wildlife develops a culture of conservation program 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Mondays, Education Trunks. and stewardship. The toolkit highlights March 18 through May 20 at Oregon [email protected]. 20 ambassador wildlife species from Ridge Nature Center in Cockeysville, Marine debris toolkit MD, a host site for the Piedmont Region The National Oceanic and four different habitats. These animals Native Plant Symposium Program. Participants will complete 60 The Prince William County (VA) Atmospheric Administration’s Office of represent a variety of conditions that are hours of hands-on learning in natural Native Plant Symposium for Beginners National Marine Sanctuaries and the present in high-quality environments for history, environmental interpretation takes place 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Feb. 23 at the NOAA Marine Debris Program have human, plant and animal health. The multi-platform toolkit is designed to help and conservation stewardship with McCoart County Administrative Building developed a toolkit for students and in Woodbridge. Participants will learn educators in coastal and inland areas to partners prioritize community green- expert instructors. Final certification is ing projects based on representative awarded after 40 hours of volunteer about landscaping with native plants and learn about marine debris and monitor creating habitat for birds and pollinators their local waterways. This toolkit is a species, citizen science data and spatial service at Oregon Ridge. The fee for the analysis that includes social, economic program is $250. To apply, stop by the as well as why native plants help to collaborative effort to reduce the impact save money on fertilizers and pesticides, of trash on marine ecosystems through and ecological indicators. Info: fws.gov. Nature Center for an application or visit extension.umd.edu/masternaturalist. improve water quality and curb erosion. hands-on citizen science, education The fee of $15 includes coffee, donuts, and community outreach. Info: Google MD 2019 state park passes The Maryland Department of Watershed Moments workshop lunch and materials. Preregistration is marine debris monitoring toolkit for Natural Resources’ 2019–2020 Annual The Carroll County Forest Conser- required, Info: pwcgov.org. educators. State Park and Trail Passport, which vancy District Board invites the public, provides unlimited day-use admission ages 16 & older (18 & younger w/adult) Bilingual educator resources Events / Programs Bilingual lessons are available in and boat launching at state parks, to its Spring Thaw Workshop - Watershed English and Spanish for Interstate and a 10 percent discount on state- Moments, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. RVA Environmental Film Fest Commission on the Potomac River operated concessions and boat rentals March 23, at Wesley Freedom United The 2019 RVA Environmental Film Basin educational programs. Info: is available. The annual passport is Methodist Church in Sykesville, MD. Festival takes place Feb. 4–13 & 16 at potomacriver.org/resources/educator. valid for a full year from the month of Experts from private, state, federal and various sites in the Richmond area, purchase, instead of by calendar year. local government agencies will present including Lewis Ginter Botanical Bay Backpack (For example, a passport purchased in topics covering flood risk management; Provided by the Chesapeake Bay April 2019 will expire in April 2020. It the Ellicott City floods; stormwater Bulletin continues on page 45 Bay Journal • January / February 2019 45

- Restoration Strategies for the walk to put new skills to the test. Free. Ages: 6+ Learn to identify trees without Chesapeake Bay: Feb. 14. M. Stephen ≈ Winter Bird Walk: 9–10 a.m. Feb. leaves during hike. Fee: $5. Ailstock, director of Anne Arundel Com- 2. More than 150 species have been ≈ Winter Wonderland Hike: 9:30 munity College’s Environmental Center. spotted at the park. Bring binoculars, or a.m. Jan. 26. Ages: 5+ Fee: $3. ≈ Maritime Annapolis - A History of borrow a pair. Free. ≈ Spring or Snow? The Groundhog Watermen, Sails & Midshipmen: Feb. ≈ Beginner Winter Wilderness Survival Knows! 4–5 p.m. Jan. 31. Ages: 6+ 21. Journalist & author Rosemary Wil- for Children: 9–11 a.m. Feb. 9. Learn how Learn about Punxsutawney Phil, PA’s liams will share local lore about the to build shelters, find your way, leave legendary weather forecaster. Make a Bulletin from page 44 birth of the grittier side of Annapolis. trail markers, basic wilderness first aid. top hat to wear on the big day. Fee: $8. ≈ Restoring Spa Creek: Feb. 28. Supplies provided. Will meet some Girl Preregister by Jan. 17. Gardens; public libraries in Chesterfield Donna Jefferson of the Spa Creek Con- Scout and Boy Scout wilderness survival ≈ JR Scientist / Homemade Ice Cream: and Henrico; the Science Museum of servancy will discuss taking an urban badge requirements. Cost: $10. 4:30 p.m. Feb. 1. Ages: 5–14. Learn about Virginia, University of Richmond, Vir- creek from endangered to swimmable. ≈ River Star Homes Workshops: the freezing temperature of water during ginia Commonwealth University; and Admission is $10 per lecture. 9–11 a.m. March 2. Residents in the homemade ice cream experiment. WCVE Studios. The festival showcases Registration is not required; pay at the Elizabeth River area who commit to Preregister by Jan. 18. Fee: $4. local and national films for all ages that door. Info: amaritime.org. seven steps at their homes to help the ≈ Fly Tying for Fly Fishing: 7–8:30 raise awareness of issues relevant to river can join the group’s Project’s p.m. Feb. 5. A local fly fishing group Richmond, the United States and Earth. CBEC School’s Out Camp River Star Homes program. Free. Info: will offer instruction, guidance on Attendees can see the premiere of The The Chesapeake Bay Environmental riverstarhomes.org. popular fly patterns to people of all Swamp\, the story of both the destruc- Center in Grasonville, MD, invites Preregistration is required for all experience levels. Materials, tools tion and possible resurrection of the children to its Winter Wonderland program. Info: Kat Fish at 757-392-7132, provided for those who don’t own Everglades. Other feature films include School’s Out Camps 9 a.m.–3:30 p.m. [email protected]. them. Ages: 8+ Fee: $5. Hometown Habitat; Stories of Bringing Jan. 21 (Hibernation Heroes); Jan. 31 ≈ Nature Storybook Art: 12:30-2:30 Nature Home, which explains why (Wonders of Fire); Feb. 1 (Feathered MD Arbor Day poster contest p.m. Feb. 6, 13 & 20. Ages 6-12, parents native plants are critical to the survival Friends); and Feb. 18 (Up in the The Maryland Department of Natural do not attend. Art techniques include and vitality of local ecosystems; Air) for a day of hands-on nature Resources and Forest Conservancy drawing, painting, collage, crafting/ Minimalism: A Documentary About exploration and play. Activities include District Boards invites all Maryland constructing. Fee: $44 for the series. the Important Things; A Man Named environmental lessons and games, fifth-graders students to compete in the ≈ Track & Trails: 10:30 a.m. Feb. 7. Pearl; and The Devil We Know. While hiking trails and exploring the woods, 2019 Arbor Day Poster Contest, “Trees Ages: 6+ Look for animal tracks, signs the Festival is free, attendees may need arts & crafts and healthy snacks. Are Terrific…and Forests are Too!” They on short hike. Fee: $5. to download tickets for some films to Participants must bring a lunch and must be drawn in acrylic, crayon, ink, ≈ Snake Board: 9:30 a.m. Feb. 9. ensure seating. For film titles, detailed water bottle and dress for the weather. marker, paint pens, regular or colored Ages: 5+ Help build a snake board for synopses, dates and venues, google Dress in layers and bring a change of pencils, tempera paint or watercolor. the center’s corn snakes to get some RVA Environmental Film Festival. clothes in case your child gets muddy. All entries must be delivered to a local exercise. Free. Details will be sent by email to all Maryland Forest Service office by ≈ Nature’s Sweet Treat: 10:30 a.m. noon Feb. 1. Poster sizes must be no Feb. 21. Ages: 6+ Fee: $5. Learn how Annapolis Museum lectures registrants a few days before the camp. The Annapolis Maritime Museum Fee: $45. After-care, which is available smaller than 8.5 by 11 inches and no maple syrup is harvested, made and invites the public to its Winter Lecture until 5 p.m., is an extra $10. Preregister larger than 22 by 28 inches. Posters what weather’s role is. Make a treat. Series. Lectures take place at 7 p.m. in the at bayrestoration.org/schools-out-camp. will be judged on a county level and ≈ Paracord Crafts: 9:30 a.m. Feb. museum’s Bay Room. The schedule is: Info: email [email protected]. then submitted to the Maryland Urban 23. Ages: 5+ Create survival crafts with ≈ Memoir of a Skipjack: Jan. 17. and Community Forest Committee to paracord. Fee: $6. Preregister by Feb. 9. Author Randolph George will discuss Mix art, science at CBMM compete at the state level. The top three ≈ Cabin Fever Hike: 10:30 a.m. Feb. how these vessels are a window into The Chesapeake Bay Maritime posters will receive tree plantings at the 28. Ages: 6+ Learn how trees prepare Bay heritage. Museum in St. Michaels, MD, invites artists’ schools: first place wins 15 trees; for spring. Fee: $8. ≈ Exploring the Water Trail of Capt. young mariners, ages 4–9, to participate second place, 10; and third place, five. ≈ Skull Detectives: 3 p.m. Feb. 15. John Smith - 1,800 Miles in Capt. Smith’s in its Winter STEAM (Science, Info: Anne Gilbert at 410-260-8510. Ages: 5+ Learn about animal skulls, Wake: Jan. 24. John Page Williams of the Technology, Engineering, Art, Math) how to identify predator from prey, the Team. Two sessions take place each Eden Mill Nature Center many uses of teeth.Fee: $5. Chesapeake Bay Foundation. Upcoming events at Eden Milll ≈ Human Impacts on the Chesa- Saturday in February. The first, which ≈ Winter Hiking Series / Nature meets 10 a.m. to noon, is for ages Nature Center in Pylesville, MD, include: Journalist: 3:30 p.m. Feb. 20. All ages. peake - Smithsonian Environmental ≈ DIY Winter Wreath: 9:30 a.m. Research Center Studies of the Rhode 4–6; the second, from 1–3 p.m., is for Create a drawn or written journal entry ages 7–9. Program themes are Digging Jan. 12. Hike to collect evergreens, while hiking. Fee: $3. River Ecosystem: Jan. 31. James G. pinecones to create a wreath. Ages: 5+ Gibb of the Smithsonian Environmental Down & Digging it Up - Practicing Except where noted, minors must a Little Archaeology! (Feb. 2); Star Fee: $8. Preregister by Dec. 29. be accompanied by an adult. Pre- Archaeology Laboratory will speak. ≈ Winter Wildlife Hike: 10 –11:30 ≈ Island Life - Chesapeake Bay: Feb. Power—Astronomy Is Looking Up! (Feb. registration is required 24 hours in 9); Rock-ing it with Geology! (Feb. 16); a.m. Saturday, Jan. 12. All ages. Explore advance for all events; except where 7. Photographer Jay Fleming will speak. park habitats, search for signs of activity. ≈ Submerged Aquatic Vegetation and Build a Boat & Make it Float! (Feb. noted otherwise. Weekend program 23). The fee is $15 per class. Need- Dress for weather. Fee: $5. registration closes at noon on the based scholarships for individual classes ≈ Preschool Nature Series: 10 –11 prior Friday. Info: 410-836-3050 are available. Advance registration is a.m. Jan. 15 (Winter Adaptation - Here [email protected]. Chesapeake Challenge required. Info: cbmm.org/steamteam. to Stay); Jan. 29 (Hibernation - Where & Bay Buddies Have the Groundhogs Been?); Feb. Oregon Ridge Nature Center Answers to Paradise Creek Nature Park 12 (I Heart Nature); Feb. 26 (Special Upcoming programs at Oregon Upcoming events at Paradise Creek Snowflakes). Ages 2–5 w/adult. Nature Ridge Nature Center in Cockeysville, Reef Sweet Reef Nature Park in Portsmouth, VA, include: games & activities, story, craft hike. Fee: MD, include: quizzes on page 27. ≈ Guided Ranger Walks: 2–3 p.m. $10 per date. ≈ Critters Up Close: 1–2 p.m. Jan. 12, Ghost anemone: 4 & D Jan. 19 & 26 and Feb. 16 & 23. All ages ≈ Winter Foragers: 3:30 p.m. Jan. 15. 13, 19, 20, 26 & 27. All ages Naturalist’s Hooked mussel: 7 & C (11 & younger w/ adults) Learn about Ages: 5+ Short hike, learn how animals choice animal encounter, activity Oyster pea crab: 3 & G native plants and wildlife, look for signs survive in winter. Fee: $5. such as story, craft or related outdoor Redbeard sponge: 2 & A of winter wildlife. Free. ≈ Winter Hiking Series / Animal exploration. Free; no registration. Sea squirt: 5 & F ≈ Trees of Virginia: 2–3 p.m. Jan. Detectives: 3:30 p.m. Jan. 23. All ages. ≈ Shoots & Letters: 10–11 a.m. Jan. Skilletfish: 1 & B 13. All ages (11 & younger w/ adults) Learn how to find, identify animal 17 (Foxes & Coyotes); Jan. 24 (Beavers); Whip coral: 6 & E Workshop begins in the new River tracks. Fee: $3. Academy classroom, ends with a short ≈ Winter Tree ID: 3:30 p.m. Jan. 24. Bulletin continues on page 46 46 Bay Journal • January / February 2019

the center or check website, Facebook Cromwell Valley Park Anita Leight Estuary Center page for updates. Free, no registration Upcoming programs at Cromwell Programs at the Anita C. Leight required for individuals, families. Groups Valley Park’s Willow Grove Nature Estuary Center in Abingdon, MD, of 10 or more must preregister. Center near Towson, MD, include: include: ≈ Annual Pancake Fundraiser ≈ Night Hike: 6–7:30 p.m. Jan. 18. ≈ Critter Dinner Time: 1:30 p.m. Jan. Breakfast: 8 a.m.–12 p.m. March 2 & Ages 8+ Hike to the old stone shelter 26. All ages. Watch turtles, fish, snakes 3. All ages. Menu includes hotcakes to listen for “Mr. Hooty.” Fee: $4. eat while learning about them. Free. No drizzled with maple syrup, grilled ≈ Edible Greens & Pizza in Winter: registration. Bulletin from page 45 sausage, orange juice, milk or coffee. 1–2:30 p.m. Jan. 19. All ages. Head ≈ Meet a Critter: 3:30 p.m. Jan. 27. Raffles, live music, sales of flower, out outside to find natural toppings All ages. Meet a live animal up close, Jan. 31 (Groundhogs); Feb. 7 (Rocks honey and maple syrup. Fee: $8/adults; for a pizza. Fee: $6. learn what makes it special. Free. No & Minerals) Feb. 14 (Fossils); Feb. 21 $4/ages 2–8; free/ages 1 & younger. ≈ Dead Leaves, Cheese, Butter & registration. (Maple Sugaring); Feb. 28 (Winter Children 12 & younger must be Kimchi: 1–2:30 p.m. Jan. 20. Ages 8+ ≈ Let it Snow! 10:30 a.m.–12 p.m. Scavenger Hunt). Ages 3+ Activities, accompanied by an adult. Except where Learn how fermentation allows the Jan. 12. Ages 3–6. Stories, crafts, walk outdoor adventures. Fee: $2 per child. noted, preregistration is required for all planet to work, make kimchi. Bring a in the woods celebrate snow. Includes No registration. programs and payment must be made Mason jar if possible. $Fee: $7. hot chocolate, treats. Fee: $3/child. ≈ Owl Prowl: 6–8 p.m. Jan. 19. Adults, within five business days of registration ≈ Gourd Bowls with Stone ≈ Dugout Canoe Workshop: 1–3:30 ages 6+ Learn about native owl species All programs take place rain or shine. Tools: 1–3 p.m. Jan. 26. This event p.m. Jan. 12. Ages 13+ In three-part & how to recognize their calls, meet a Programs are designed for individuals takes place in the Primitive Tech series, participants will carve a dugout resident barred owl, dissect an owl pellet and families, not groups. To arrange a Laboratory. Adults. Gourds were canoe out of a tree for the center using (one per family), head outside to see if we program for a group, contact the park some of mankind’s earliest containers. Native American methods. Fee: $3. can call in any owls. Fee: $5. office. Info: 410-887-1815, Use flint to open, shape containers. ≈ The Mystery of John Smith’s ≈ ORNC Council Speaker Series / [email protected]. For Decorate them with ocher. Fee: $7. Chesapeake Cross Markers: 3–5 p.m. Hopkins Hydrology Research at Oregon disability-related accommodations, call ≈ Where Do They Go? 1–2 p.m. Jan. 13. Ages 13+ Capt. John Smith, on Ridge: 7–8:30 p.m. Jan. 21. Adults. 410-887-5370 or 410-887-5319 (TTY), Jan. 27 Adults. Streams, rivers seem his 1612 map of the Chesapeake Bay, Ciaran Harman, assistant professor & giving as much notice as possible. devoid of fish in the winter. Learn marked the extent of his explorations Russell Croft Scholar at Johns Hopkins what happens to them, where they with 27 Maltese crosses. Ed Haile and University will discuss studies by her Patuxent Research Refuge go. Dress for weather. Free. Connie Lapallo, with the Chesapeake Upcoming events at the Patuxent research group on how rain travels ≈ Whistle Pigs: 1–2:30 p.m. Feb. Conservancy, have embarked on a Research Refuge’s National Wildlife underground and in streams; how that 2. All ages. Whistle Pigs, pasture project to pinpoint and mark the cross Visitor Center in Laurel, MD, include: water shapes the surface topography; poodles, land beaver, woodchuck locations in today’s landscape. The ≈ Screech & Kestrel: 12:15–12:45 hidden topography below ground; how and groundhog are all the same pair will weave a tale of exploration, rain becomes streamflow, how land p.m. Jan. 12, 19, 26. All ages. Meet two animal. Learn about this animal, look of North America’s smallest birds of geography, research, cartography, preserves the memory of the rain that for a den. Free. Chesapeake mystery. Free; donations fell. Free; no registration. prey Learn how the American kestrel ≈ Visit the Nature Center Day: 11 uses its acrobatic prowess to hunt, welcome. ≈ Nature Book Club / The Inner Life a.m.–3 p.m. Feb. 3. All ages. Visit All About Owls: 1–2 p.m. Jan. 19. while the eastern screech owl is a the animals, have a free cup of hot ≈ of Animals: 7–8 p.m. Jan. 28. Adults. Ages 4+ Learn what makes owls such stealthy silent hunter. No registration. chocolate or coffee. Free. Drop-in Peter Wohlleben’s book shows that successful predators, craft a snowy owl animals think, feel and know in much ≈ In the Theater - Green Fire: program; no registration. 11 a.m., 12 p.m., 1 p.m., 2 p.m. Jan. 11 ≈ Happy Hearts! 1–2:30 p.m. Feb. from pinecones. Fee: $3. the same way as humans do. Light ≈ Owl Prowl: 5–6:30 p.m. Jan. 19. refreshments provided, feel free to bring & 12. All ages. One-hour film, Green 10. Ages 3–10. Make heart-shaped Fire, explores the life, legacy of famed pizzas, heart-shaped bird feeders for Ages 8+ Meet at Bosely Conservancy a snack to share. Free, preregistration to listen, look for owls. Fee: $5. appreciated. conservationist Aldo Leopold, the ways our feathered friends. Fee: $6. his land ethic philosophy lives on. No ≈ Full Maple Moon Night Hike: ≈ Bosely Winter Wonders ≈ Bookworm Story Time: 11–11:45 Photography Hike: 1–2:30 p.m. Jan. a.m. Feb. 1, March 1. Toddlers to age 6. registration. 6–7:30 p.m. Feb. 15. Ages 5+ Native ≈ Tiny Tots: 10:30–11:15 a.m. Jan. people made sugar during this moon. 20. Ages 10+ Search the woods, Nature story & activity. Dress for brief waters of Bosely Conservancy for outdoor experience. Free; no registration. 13 & 14. Ages 16–48 months w/ Hike to the sugar bush, then head participating parent. Learn about the back to the center for maple-flavored flora, fauna. Capture those images on ≈ Wake Up Groundhog! 1–3 p.m. camera using tips, techniques shared Sunday, Feb. 3. Adults, ages 5+ Learn refuge’s wildlife through interactive hot chocolate. Fee: $5. songs, stories, activities. ≈ Fat Lamps: 1–3 p.m. Feb. 16. by photographer/author Dave Gigliotti. lore, natural history of groundhogs. Fee: $3. Dress for a short hike to look for ≈ Family Fun: Winter Wonderland: Event takes place in the Primitive If a Woodchuck Could Chuck... animals. Fee: $3. This drop-in program (come & leave as Tech Laboratory. Adults. Make a ≈ ≈ Woolly Bear Club: 10–11:30 a.m. you wish) takes place 10 a.m. –1 p.m. soapstone lamp that burns deer tallow 10:30 a.m.–12 p.m. Jan. 26. Ages 3+ Feb. 6, March 6, April 3, May 1, June Jan. 25 & 26. All ages. Learn about ice, fuel. Fee: $5. Learn about groundhogs through story, 5. Ages 3–5 (non-mobile siblings only, snow, wintry weather through hands-on ≈ Nature Quest Winter Hike: 1–3 play, craft. Fee: $3. adult is an active participant). Explore activities, crafts, games. No registration. p.m. Feb. 17. All ages. Pick up a ≈ Family Paint Night: 6–7:30 p.m. seasonal topics, outside adventures, ≈ Bicycle Ride on Patuxent Research Nature Quest Passport at the center, Jan. 26. Ages 5+ Guided paint night crafts, theme-related snack. Fee: $20 Refuge’s North Tract: 1–3:30 p.m. then join a naturalist to find the includes hot drinks, cookies, creatures, for series. Jan. 27. Ages 10+ Experience the markers. Dress for the weather. Free. firelight. Fee: $10. ≈ Fall in Love with Snowflakes: natural area’s local wildlife, plants and ≈ Maple Sugaring Weekend: ≈ Hibernation Hideaway: 1–2 p.m. 1–3 p.m. Feb. 9 & 10. Adults, ages 5+ historical sites. Learn the importance Drop-in program takes place 11 Jan. 27. Ages 5–9 w/adult. Find out Learn how snowflakes form, Snowflake of reducing your footprint and leaving a.m.–3 p.m. Feb. 23 & 24 All ages. which animals make a nice comfy bed Bentley’s snowflake research. Make a no trace on this 12-mile guided bicycle Tap a tree, boil some sap, make a to sleep away the winter and what snowflake. Fee: $3. ride. Bring your own bike, snack, water pancake. Free. those hideouts look like. Later, build a ≈ Maple Sugaring Weekends: 11 bottle and helmet. Ride is weather Ages 12 & younger must be cozy fort to curl up in and read a story a.m.–4 p.m. Feb. 16, 17, 23 & 24. All dependent. accompanied by an adult. Except where while inside the center. Hot chocolate ages. Learn about how maple syrup is Except where noted, all programs noted, preregistration is required for all included. Fee: $3/child. made. Hike to the sugar bush to tap a require preregistration. They are also programs. Info: cromwellvalleypark, Ages 12 & younger must be accom- tree, see how the sap is processed with free; donations are welcome. Programs campbrainregistration.com. panied by an adult for all programs. current & antique technology, taste are designed for individuals/families. [email protected], Events meet at the center and require maple syrup, sugar. Watch The Maple Adverse weather may cancel or change cromwellvalleypark.org, 410-887-2503. preregistration unless otherwise noted. Sugaring Story (20-minute film); Sugar a program. Notify the refuge of any For disability-related accommodations, Payment is due at time of registration. on the Snow demos (12:30 & 3:45 p.m.); special needs. Info: 301-497-5887, call 410-887-5370 or 410-887-5319 Info: 410-612-1688, 410-879-2000 In the event of inclement weather, call fws.gov/refuge/Patuxent. (TTY), giving as much notice as possible. x1688, otterpointcreek.org. Bay Journal • January / February 2019 47 Black scoter’s secretive ways part of this sea duck’s mystique By Mike Burke

Sandy Point State Park sits at the northwestern foot of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. It was nearly deserted on a clear, cold morning last January when we arrived to view some of the area’s bountiful winter bird life. We weren’t disappointed. At our first stop, we set up the spot- ting scope to scan the open Bay waters for waterfowl. Thirty yards offshore, a dozen black (male) and brown (female) ducks bobbed in the gently rolling waters. I focused the scope on a black one first, but it immediately dove under- water. My attention shifted to another nearby male. It was compact and all black except for a butter-yellow knob at the base of its shortish black bill. There was no mistaking what it was: a black scoter (Melanitta americana). The second bird quickly dropped out of sight. These birds were actively feeding. Although the flock was composed primarily of males, a trio of females was included. They are brownish overall with pale cheeks and a clearly defined dark cap. No tell-tale yellow bulb on the bill, though. In flight, black scoters show a very dark wing lining with silvery pale gray outer feathers. They appear plump, almost pot-bellied, as they furiously flap by. This small raft was typical of black scoters in the Chesapeake. They tend Black scoters start to arrive in the Chesapeake region in mid-October, but the biggest groups show up a bit later. They’ll stay to keep to themselves, not joining the until late March. (Howard Wu / travelerathome.com) big mixed flocks of waterfowl that are common in the winter. of northern Quebec. In the West, standing by the open waters. Although Black scoters start to arrive in the black scoters primarily inhabit the most people know Sandy Point because Chesapeake region in mid-October, but Pacific coastal waters down through of its inviting beaches and picnic areas the biggest groups show up a bit later. Washington. But as is the case with in the summer, the park covers 800 They’ll stay until late March. their Atlantic relatives, small flocks acres. Heading inland a bit would get There are three scoters that inhabit will continue well down the coast, us out of the wind without diminishing the Chesapeake Bay waters: white- including Baja, Mexico. They breed our bird watching. winged, surf, and black. Although in the arctic tundra of northern and In addition to the open Bay, habitats their plumages vary, these similarly western Alaska. here include jetties, sandy and rocky shaped sea ducks are all diving ducks. The black scoter has a cousin beaches, a marina, meadows, fields, Only a few nests of this little- in Europe. Known as the common marshes, ponds and an extensive studied bird have been analyzed. The scoter (Melanitta nigra), it appears forested tract. nests appear to consist of a hollow in to be descended from the same More habitat means more birds. In the ground, lined with grass and down. ancestral species. They have become fact, the park has hosted more avian The nests rest atop grassy areas near geographically isolated for so long that species than any other Maryland small ponds and lakes. they are considered a separate species. location: 294! Scoters are born with full feathers A remote Russian arctic bay appears to We folded up the spotting scope and and an impressive appetite. As soon as have some overlap between the black headed ashore for a little more warmth, the natal feathers dry, these chicks are deep. They also take mussels, razor and common, but it is not known for hopeful that we would see a lot more busy eating insects. Within minutes, clams, scallops, the occasional semi- sure if they interbreed…just one of the birds. they will be diving underwater for submerged crab and even a small many questions that scientists have Out on the Bay, the black scoters their dinners. amount of Bay grasses. about this enigmatic waterfowl. continued to dive and call. As they Because of their diet, the birds There are two populations of black Over the smooth waters of the disappeared into the inky waters, I are looking for rocky bottoms where scoter in North America. Chesapeake, we could hear the thought about how these mysterious the substrate is home to aquatic Most of the Atlantic population plaintive whistles of the males. The birds continued to hide most of their invertebrates. winters in New England waters, ethereal tones seemed a perfect match secrets. Like the beckoning environs Black scoters are excellent divers. but small groups will spread out for this little-understood visitor from behind us, they hold avian wonders The birds we were watching were sporadically all the way down to the north. still to be discovered. most likely feeding on clams in water northern Florida and the upper Gulf A slight wind was stirring and Mike Burke, an amateur naturalist, that was probably more than 30 feet Coast. They breed in the tundra we were beginning to feel the cold lives in Cheverly, MD. January-February/2019 Volume 28 Number 10 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 Cry Fowl! Winter months may seem and wetlands for habitat and devoid of wildlife, but each food critical to their survival. year thousands of swans, You may be familiar with geese and ducks leave mallard ducks and Canada northern breeding grounds geese that are at home in and migrate south to the cities, suburbs and farms. Chesapeake Bay region. Birds But you may not be aware of with a day full of beautiful from Alaska, Canada, north the vast variety of wintering birds. central United States, and waterfowl here. Venture out to New England are lured here a park, wildlife management — Kathy Reshetiloff / as they seek out the open area or wildlife refuge and Chesapeake Bay Field Office, water of the Bay, its rivers, you will likely be rewarded U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

The canvasback is the largest diving duck in North America. (Eugene Hester / USFWS) The buffle- head, left, is small enough to nests in cavities created by northern flick- ers. (Donna Dewhurst / USFWS)

Green-winged teals (pair below) are frequently found among other dabbling duck species. The surf scoter will dive to capture its food, such as bivalves or slow-swimming crustaceans. It can (Tom Koerner / eat its prey underwater. (Gary Kramer / USFWS) USFWS) The long- tailed duck uses its wings when diving. This helps the bird to dive into deeper water than many other ducks. (Glen Smart / USFWS)