Oyster Restoration with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation

For Earth Day, I went to the Chesapeake Bay Foundation's Oyster Restoration Center in Shady Side, Maryland, on the West River. There I spent the morning with about 4 dozen volunteers - adults and children - building artificial reef balls to help restore the oysters in the Chesapeake.

The CBF is building concrete reef balls to provide oyster spat - immature oysters - a place to attach and grow. After growing the oysters in tanks at their facility in Shady Side, they carry the young oysters to various oyster sanctuaries where they will hopefully reestablish healthy self-sustaining reefs. Building the 3 to 4 foot balls was hard work - first a set of finished balls had to be extracted by tearing apart their molds. Then the molds had to be cleaned, rebuilt, and filled with a fresh load of cement. Fortunately we had great weather, not too hot, and the entire crew pulled their weight to finish this job, and a few others by lunch.

Depending on various estimates the oyster population has dropped 96% to 99% from its levels in colonial days. The oysters have been decimated by pollution, historic over-fishing, and perhaps most severely by disease. This is unfortunate for the Bay; as oysters feed they filter 60 gallons of water a day removing algae and sediment, and their loss has certainly not helped the water quality of the Bay. The improved water quality would help bay grasses grow, which in turn would help oxygenate the water and improve habitat for fish, crab, and oyster alike.

Bay Day at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum

Attended the Bay Day celebration at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in St. Michaels yesterday as an Earth Day activity. It was a nice chance to see the museum and visit the dozens of exhibitors at the fair. The Scales and Tales program from the Maryland DNR stole the show with its exhibit of several rescued hawks and owls. (That's an American Kestrel staring at you in the attached image). There were also exhibitors from NOAA, windmill providers, and various local organizations. Very useful were exhibits from the Maryland Native Plant Society and the Adkins Arboretum which had information about planting native plants in our garden to benefit indigenous birds and insects. While talking with a representative of the Talbot Count Creekwatchers about the differences between the Riverkeepers and the Creekwatchers, she made the very noteworthy observation that if there was less fragmentation amongst the various environmental groups, perhaps they would have more clout.

Belt Woods

Drove out to the Belt Woods, a fragment of old growth in the middle of Prince Georges county this morning. I wanted to get some photos of the old woods for a photo essay that I'm working on. The woods are a sad but proud remnant of mature trees wedged between busy Rt 214, Church Road, and the Six Flags amusement park. The 43 acre tract is a National Landmark and is home to 150' tall Tuliptrees and Oaks. The DNR website indicates that it also has a high density of breeding bird breeding and is home to threatened and endangered plants. Sadly, the protected grove is so small almost all of it is visible from the roadside. Actual access to the site is by permit only and I had not called ahead, so this was a look but do not touch experience.

Riverkeeper Roughnecks work the Little Patuxent

Joined the Patuxent Riverkeepers today to work on the Little Patuxent River just outside Odenton, MD. The Riverkeeper Roughneck work crew goes out on the river to clear stream blockages and open the river to paddlers. We hiked up the new WB&A trail to get to the river; the trail is all finished and ready for bikers but not yet officially open. From the trail bridge we hiked upriver about a quarter mile until we came upon a major blockage - about six or seven major tree down almost entirely blocking the river. We waded into the cold water - the air temp was only about 40F - and started to attack the first downed tree with hand saws.
It was a glorious day out. Chilly but sunny. As we worked we saw several blue herons - there is a rookery in the area, a king fisher, and then high overhead a bald eagle.


It took over an hour but we finally were able to cut the tree and winch it out of the channel. We then attacked several smaller limbs and impediments to re-open the channel. One of our members poled his canoe upriver and came back to declare there were no other major blockages for the next half mile up river. Having open this blockage, and in good spirits, we headed back out for a well deserved lunch.

10 Things You Can Do to Help the Chesapeake

1. Save Electricity - Use CFL Bulbs and Energy Star rated appliances

Coal and oil burning electric power plants, both local and as far away as the Great Lakes contribute to local air pollution including nitrogen oxides, sulfur, mercury, and other contaminants. Not only impacting our air quality, these contaminants also deposit into our waters. Of course they also produce CO2 greenhouse gases.

Cutting your electricity usage will not only help the environment but save money too. Replace your old incandescent bulbs with new CFL bulbs. When you get new appliances, make sure they are Energy Star rated. You can even get rebates from BGE when you buy these power saving devices. Also hunt down and unplug unneeded Power Vampires. Turn up the thermostat in the summer and clean your air filters to reduce how hard your A/C works. Read here for more energy conservation ideas.

2. Save Gas - Combine Trips, Telecommute, Get a High MPG Car

With gas at $4 a gallon, you may not need more incentive to reduce gas usage, but doing so also helps the environment. Like coal fired power plants, cars are a major source of air pollution and C02 emissions. Climate change associated with CO2 is also serious threat to the Chesapeake ecosystem.

Plan your car trips to combine errands. Keep your tires properly inflated. Slow down. Bike or walk when you can. See http://www.wikihow.com/Save-Gas for more tips. When you do buy a new car, get one with better gas mileage.

Talk to your boss about telecommuting. Most government agencies and many companies have policies for letting employees work from home rather than drive into the office. See the Telework Resource Center for tips. Imagine how much gas, money, time, and pollution you would save if you just telecommuted one day a week.

3. Reuse and Recycle

By 2006, Maryland was recycling or composting over 3 million tons of materials. Many counties have now implemented mixed stream recycling to simplify the process. Even with this success, millions of tons of reusable materials still end up in the trash filling up landfills. When a landfill is full, new land needs to be acquired to open a new land fill or else garbage needs to be trucked to distant landfills creating even more environmental degradation.

Avoid buying items with extra packaging. Try to reuse items before throwing them away. Recycle all paper, glass, and (#1 and #2) plastic containers. Get reusable cloth grocery bags or at least take your old plastic bags back to the store for recycling. Drop off your old electronics for e-cycling.

4. Install a Rain Barrel

A 1000 square foot roof sheds 150 gallons of water in a quarter inch rainfall. That water gushes off your property and into a storm drain. Combined with all the storm runoff from every other house, this causes soil erosion and sediment buildup in the rivers and bay which in turn chokes underwater grasses destroying habitats for crabs and fish.

Installing a rainbarrel at your downspouts captures much of this water both preventing the excess runoff and providing a ready source for watering your garden and lawn. It will even save you on your water bill. For more info on where to get a barrel or build your own, see
http://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/Content/DEP/Rainscapes/barrels.htm. Note: do take care with the design and placement of the downspout diverter and overflow port to handle those heavy downpours.

5. Replace your Lawn with a Native Plant Garden

Lawns require a tremendous amount of maintenance. Studies indicate that grass is the single-largest irrigated crop in the country. Seeking the perfect lawn, homeowners pile on fertilizer, and the excess ends up being washed into the river and bay causing algae blooms and dead zones. Americans use 70 million pounds of pesticides every year on their lawns. A gas powered push mower emits as much pollutants per hour as 11 cars; a riding mower as much as 34 cars. On top of all that, a lawn provides almost no useful habitat for birds and other wildlife.

Replacing part or all of your lawn with native plants, flowers, groundcover, and shrubs is much healthier for the environment. It absorbs more rain and reduces storm runoff. Its more drought resistant and saves water. Native plants also provide habitat and food for wildlife. Overall such a garden saves homeowners time and money.

For more information, see
Audobon Society: Reducing the Lawn
Chesapeake Bay Program: Better Backyard

6. Take Your Kids to the Park

Research from the Nature Conservancy shows that kids are spending less time outside than ever before. The concern is that kids will grow up with less appreciation for the beauty and importance of our natural world and how it directly affects their lives.

Take your kids to the park. Canoe at Jug Bay. Hike at along the Blue Ridge. Bike the C&O Canal. Go fishing on the Bay. Visit a nature center. See how many birds you can identify. Share a sunset. Have fun.

7. Support your Local Farmers Market

The Chesapeake Bay Foundation calculates that over 140,000 acres of natural lands are lost to development every year in the Bay watershed. Much of this is farmland converted to suburban subdivisions. Farmers are struggling with high costs and often far-flung competition. It is too often more profitable to sell the land than to farm.

You can help farmers by buying locally grown produce. Visit farmers' markets held throughout the region . See http://www.localharvest.org/ for more information.

8. Help Conservation Groups Protect the Environment

"Many hands make light work". Conservation is a community effort and conservation groups need your support to succeed. Become a member of your favorite groups. Participate in events and activities. Volunteer - groups have need for a wide variety of work from stuffing envelopes to computer programming to outdoor field work. Lend a hand.

Find a directory of environmental groups at the NWF.

9. Consume Less, Share More, Live Simply

More is not necessarily better. We tend to judge our lives by how much stuff we collect rather than the quality of stuff we do. Consider whether you really need something before you buy it. Re-use stuff you already have. Join a Freecycle group to give your old stuff a second life. Donate used goods to charity. Spend more time with your friends and loved ones. Enjoy life.

10. Learn more about Environment Issues and Solutions

The issues facing our world and great and intertwined. The solutions are many and varied. Become informed. Learn where your elected officials stand. Understand the options.

Some starting points:
Yahoo! Green
Chesapeake Bay Foundation
1000 Friends of Maryland
State of Maryland - Bay Stat
Maryland League of Conservation Voters
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