Educación ambiental

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Darius Stanton, left, of the Chesapeake Bay Program illustrates the human impact on the Chesapeake Bay watershed using a bead activity at the Festival del Río Anacostia in Bladensburg Park on October 14, 2017. (Photo by Caitlyn Johnstone/Chesapeake Bay Program)

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A boat tour heads out into the Anacostia from the Festival del Río at Bladensburg Park on October 14. Boat tours run every 30 minutes throughout the event. (Photo by Aubin Maynard/Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments)

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A cheerful line stretches back several tables awaiting fried yucca and other delicious dishes including, from left, pupusas, thick tortillas stuffed with cheese and carne asada. (Photo by Caitlyn Johnstone/Chesapeake Bay Program)

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Festival-goers use pink post-its to decorate a map at the U.S. Forest Service booth with their names and home countries. The U.S. Forest Service works in 90 countries around the world. (Photo by Caitlyn Johnstone/Chesapeake Bay Program)

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Attendees at the Festival del Río Anacostia visit the booth of the U.S. Forest Service and participate in activities about the importance of trees and forests. (Photo courtesy of Chispa Maryland)

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The Parks and Recreation Department of the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission, an agency for Montgomery and Prince George's counties in Maryland, brings an exciting assortment of wildlife. (Photo courtesy of Chispa Maryland)

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Children stop by the Alice Ferguson Foundation booth throughout the day to decorate a rain barrel, which will later be used in the community. (Photo by Caitlyn Johnstone/Chesapeake Bay Program)

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One exhibit at the festival features the message "Guardianes por la paz de la madre tierra"—"Guardians for the peace of mother earth"—with a second display bearing the message "The earth is in our hands." (Photo courtesy of Chispa Maryland)

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Ramon Palencia-Calvo of the Maryland League of Conservation Voters smiles during a brief rest at one of the festival tables. (Photo courtesy of Chispa Maryland)

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Black-and-white nature scenes adorn picnic tables with centerpieces of crayons and markers at the Festival del Río Anacostia, where children and adults of many backgrounds connect through artwork. (Photo by Caitlyn Johnstone/Chesapeake Bay Program)

by Caitlyn Johnstone

October 18, 2017

Bladensburg Waterfront Park in Bladensburg, Maryland, is a picturesque and peaceful patch following the curve of the Anacostia River. Pavilions and trees offer shade over a path that wanders the riverbank, and piers stretching into the river invite visitors to feel the water’s breeze. Under particularly clouded mid-October skies, the paths and piers played host to vibrancy in the form of families out for a festival.

October 14 marked the second annual Festival del Río Anacostia, an event that is half-environmental education and half-cultural celebration. Exhibit tables featuring fascinating macroinvertebrates or activities of climate questionnaires rub shoulders with native dancers in traditional costume and booths offering sizzling carne asada.

Any language barriers are treated as yet another good-natured activity: exhibitors, visitors, scientists, young families and elderly couples play a round of linguistic telephone as they gesture and laugh their way through conversation. The occasional passerby rolling through the park by bicycle would invariably lean their wheels aside and join in the celebration.

When not meandering through the tables in the park proper, attendees get to discover the water. Boat tours run every 30 minutes throughout the day, and each fills to capacity. Fishing poles protrude through pier railings as scores line up to learn the trick to casting and try their hand with a line.

One of the reasons for an environmental festival along the Anacostia is that this particular river needs its citizens to be interested in environmental health – the Anacostia River is one of the most polluted in the Washington D.C. area. The Anacostia Watershed Society, a key planner in the Festival del Río, has assessed Anacostia health since 2010. Though it still received a failing grade in 2017, water quality in the Anacostia is trending up as citizen awareness and engagement increase.

Prominently displayed on the pier with the fun-loving anglers is a large Chesapeake Bay Program infographic in both English and Spanish, providing guidance on how to prepare fish safely and warning of the health concerns associated with eating contaminated fish. Attendees provide written feedback on the draft images, which will be edited with the community’s input and eventually distributed across the watershed.

Back on land, the buses shuttling visitors to the festival from local neighborhoods and back again was running into a bit of a problem: no takers for the midday return trip. A bus driver mimed turning a wheel across the crowd to Ramon Palencia-Calvo, Maryland program director for Chispa and a main organizer of the festival. The bus driver mimes driving again and points to the empty bus, then raises her hands. “They said they don’t want to come!” shouted Palencia-Calvo, hands cupped around his mouth to combat the lively music. “No one wants to go back.”

With the festival’s second year just as successful as the first, it is certain to continue for years to come – bringing the community together with both nature and neighbor.

For more information or to get involved with the 2018 festival, contact anacostiariverfest@gmail.com. 

About Caitlyn Johnstone - Caitlyn is the Outreach Coordinator at the Chesapeake Bay Program. She earned her Bachelor's in English and Behavioral Psychology at WVU Eberly Honors College, where she fed her interest in the relationship between human behavior and the natural world. Caitlyn continues that passion on her native Eastern Shore by seeking comprehensive strategies to human and environmental wellbeing.