More than 2,000 new oyster cages are expected to be added along seven new creeks and rivers as part of a popular citizen oyster restoration program called Marylanders Grow Oysters.
The new tributaries, located on Maryland’s Eastern Shore and in Anne Arundel County, are:
Marylanders Grow Oysters involves waterfront homeowners in oyster restoration by supplying them with cages full of baby oysters, called oyster spat. By raising oyster spat in cages on residential piers, the oysters are protected while they are young and vulnerable to predators.
Participants keep the oyster cages for about nine months. The oyster spat are then planted in a sanctuary located on the same creek or river. Oyster sanctuaries are closed to harvesting, allowing the oyster reefs to filter pollutants in the water and provide habitat for other fish and shellfish.
Through the program, more than 61,000 oyster cages have been deployed off residential piers on 23 Maryland creeks and rivers.
Marylanders Grow Oysters began in September 2008 as a joint effort among the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, the Oyster Recovery Partnership, the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science and several local organizations. The first oyster “graduates” of the program came from more than 800 cages tended to by nearly 200 volunteers, and were planted on a sanctuary on the Tred Avon River in August 2009.
Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley announced the program’s expansion at the recent Chesapeake Executive Council meeting in Baltimore.
“The Marylanders Grow Oysters program has become quite a movement,” said Gov. O’Malley. “It shows how committed Maryland citizens are to cleaning up the Bay and taking care of the tributaries that flow through their backyard.”
Visit the Marylanders Grow Oysters website for more information, including a list of all the tributaries that are part of the program and if you’re eligible to grow oysters.
Former Maryland State Senator Bernie Fowler saw his white sneakers through 34.5 inches of water at his 23rd annual Patuxent River wade-in on June 13. Though this was a 9-inch improvement from 2009 and the highest level since 2004, it is still far from the 60-plus inches Fowler could see his sneakers through during his youth.
Fowler, members of the community and environmental leaders from throughout the state this year welcomed the annual Patuxent wade-in to its new permanent home at Jefferson Patterson Park. Fowler has hosted the wade-in near his childhood home on Broomes Island since 1988.
Fowler hosts a wade-in on the second Sunday of June each year to draw attention to the muddy, polluted waters of the Patuxent River and Chesapeake Bay. He speaks of the days of his youth when he could wade up to his shoulders in his beloved Patuxent and still see the river's bottom, teeming with crabs and fish swimming among the grasses and oyster shells.
The "sneaker index" is a measurement of the deepest point at which Fowler can still see his white sneakers as he wades into the Patuxent River.
The Patuxent River wade-in has spawned community wade-ins on many creeks and rivers throughout Maryland. To find out about a wade-in on your local river, visit Maryland DNR's tributary teams website.
Maryland has awarded $6 million in grants from the Chesapeake and Atlantic Coastal Bays Trust Fund to help local communities and landowners reduce pollution to the Chesapeake Bay.
Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley announced the recipients at the recent Chesapeake Executive Council meeting in Baltimore, noting that the appropriation is the trust fund’s highest to date.
The Chesapeake and Atlantic Coastal Bays Trust Fund was created in 2007 to accelerate Bay restoration by focusing financial resources on the most effective pollution control projects that help achieve the state’s two-year milestones.
“These dollars are targeted in areas and ways that science shows us will have the best results,” said Gov. O’Malley. “This process allows us to select those projects that will deliver the greatest possible benefits to the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries.”
The recipients announced at the Executive Council meeting include:
The projects will be funded for up to three years.
Trust fund grants were available to local governments and non-government organizations that demonstrated an ability to implement projects necessary to help achieve the two-year milestones for Bay restoration.
The first of the two-year milestones – short-term pollution-reduction goals set in 2009 – are scheduled to be met by December 2011. Under the milestones, the six Bay states and the District of Columbia will put actions into place to reduce a projected 15.8 million pounds of nitrogen and 1.1 million pounds of phosphorus.
The trust fund is generated through motor fuel taxes and car rental taxes in Maryland. When fully funded, it is expected to generate $50 million annually. This year’s budget sets aside a total of $20 million for the trust fund for the new fiscal year beginning in July.
Visit the Maryland Department of Natural Resources’ website for more information about the Chesapeake and Atlantic Coastal Bays Trust Fund.
I grew up in Baltimore County, Md. I spent the first 18 years of my life living full-time in the Chesapeake Bay watershed before going to North Carolina for college. But it was not until this May, at the age of 23 and eight months after starting work at the Chesapeake Bay Program, that I took my first boat trip out on the Bay. I guess it’s better late than never.
Being one of very few people in this office with no science background whatsoever, my first eight months in this job was quite the learning experience. While my focus is in the communications office, I have to have a basic knowledge of the science behind what we’re doing here. I’ve read books and at this point have portions of our website nearly committed to memory, but none of that education compares to what I got out on the water that first day.
As someone who had never been on a boat other than a ferry or water taxi, I was nervous. But once we made it out of the South River into the Chesapeake Bay, my nerves gave way to excitement. I was out on the Bay for the first time, seeing what I’m working 40 hours per week for firsthand. The further into the Bay we got, the more it hit me: This is what I’m working to protect. I observed the shorelines, I watched the birds, and my heart sank when we passed a motor oil bottle floating in the water.
***
During the boat ride out to Poplar Island, my coworker and our U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service captain gave me a brief history of the island.
The island, which was more than 1,000 acres in size in 1847, was once used as a presidential retreat by Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman. But as time went on, Poplar Island eroded to less than 10 acres by 1990.
In 1998, a restoration project led by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began, creating wetlands using dredged material from the Baltimore shipping channel. Since the project began, the island has been restored to more than 1,100 acres of land.
As they gave me my history lesson for the day, I couldn’t help but wonder how I had lived in Baltimore for so long and never knew about this. The fact that this island, once on the verge of disappearing altogether, has been restored so much and yet still has a long way to go to be complete by 2027 and was a complete mystery to me was amazing. I didn’t realize how ignorant I was to the world around me before starting this job.
***
After dropping off half of our passengers on the island to do some bird monitoring, I set off with my two coworkers and our guide, Pete, to do some sampling of submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) or bay grasses. Pete told us about how the water had been “crystal clear” the day before when he was out doing sampling. I was skeptical of this assessment. I thought, “Crystal clear, huh? I can’t wait to see his version of ‘crystal clear.’”
I’ll admit that ever since I spent a semester studying in Australia, I’ve held water in the States to a much higher standard and every beach trip I’ve taken since that semester has been a disappointment. After swimming in clear water, watching fish swim past you and being able to see white sand everywhere you look, everywhere else has some big shoes to fill. But I was pleasantly surprised as we navigated out to some creeks and coves around the island. I was able to look over the side of the boat and, yes, see the bottom, covered in bay grasses.
Many of the areas where we did our sampling didn’t result in much SAV being pulled up with our rake, but it was definitely there. I couldn’t believe it. We could see little fish swimming through the baygrasses, see completely to the bottom and, in my mind, feel completely at ease swimming in that water – something I previously didn’t think about the Bay.
After we spent a long afternoon on the water doing sampling, some more bird watching and chatting, we headed back to Poplar Island to pick up our colleagues. We got to walk a bit around the island and Pete showed me the areas that used to be completely barren, all the progress that has been made on the island. He showed me before and after photos and identified vital habitats that weren’t there a short time ago. It was hard to imagine the island in these different stages – when it was in its peak and when it had hit rock bottom. But I’ll never forget those moments.
***
As we headed back to Annapolis, I felt a bit more adventurous on the boat. On the way out, I had been standing behind the captain’s chair, holding on for dear life and unsure of how I felt about this. On the way back in, I sat on the edge of the boat, still holding on for dear life, but enjoying it far more. I could see the changes in the water on the way back – from the clean and clear waters we’d been working on during the day to the more developed areas, murky and polluted, as we got closer to the shore.
That one day at Poplar Island, I learned what it is I’m working toward. I’m working toward a cleaner bay. That may be a common sense statement, but it’s not something I really grasped until that day because I didn’t know it was possible. Now, I’ve seen it. I’ve seen flourishing habitats and clear water that are fostering biodiversity. I’ve seen it and I’ve felt it and now, I’m working toward it.
I’m looking forward to my next experiences out on the water. Sometimes I think we all forget what we’re working for as we’re sitting at our desks in Annapolis. We go outside and look at Spa Creek when we eat lunch on the docks, but we don’t really see it. I finally saw the Bay that day, and I’m trying to keep that in my mind every day from now on.
