Shades of Blue
If I told you that within the Chesapeake Bay watershed,
there was a wilderness oasis, devoid of the drone of highway interstate traffic
and the ever-present hum of electricity, where you can run your fingers along
the rigid surface of billion year old exposed granite and relish in your
escapism from modern development knowing you’re surrounded by 80,000 acres of
protected and never-to-be-destroyed-for-any-reason forests, would you believe
me?
I wouldn’t believe myself had I not touched the rocks with
my own fingers, experienced the almost overpowering silence with my own ears
and sighed in relief when I learned that the beauty I was completely
encompassed by was actually safe. Really safe. Like I can bring my own children
here someday and they will see with their eyes exactly what I saw through mine,
safe. Of course, I’m speaking about Shenandoah
National Park and the misty Blue Ridge
Mountains of the great state of Virginia.
As I began my 35 mile trek along Skyline Drive, the
signature route through the Shenandoahs, I travelled through a 700 foot tunnel in
the belly of Mary’s Rock Mountain where I was reminded by a quirky sign that,
‘only 1,300,000,000 years ago this rock was still molten magma’. . . lest I
forget, of course. I occasionally pass the wayward backpacker, no doubt
following the 101 miles of the Appalachian Trail
that transect the park, and I’m offered a casual wave and a glance that I can’t
help but interpret as, “You get it, too . . . this place is special”. Although
I’m visiting the park in the winter, I honestly feel a bit like a peeping tom
but in the best way possible. With the trees having shed the last of the autumn
leaves, I can see deep into the woods and eavesdrop on the inner workings of a
forest from squirrels climbing tall knobby chestnut trees to white-tailed deer nuzzling
through the fallen leaves in search of food.
At the tallest point of my journey, I pulled over at
Thorofare Mountain Overlook which is approximately 3570 feet higher than my
cubicle on the third floor of the Chesapeake Bay Program Office in Annapolis, MD
(not that I’m measuring). It was here that I experienced the deepest silence of
the journey. Sitting on a segment of a stone wall that runs almost the length
of Skyline Drive built with hard work and sweat by the boys and men of the
Civilian Conservation Corps early last century, my feet seemed to dangle on the
edge of the world. To my right, vast, open farming segments nestled comfortably
within the valley. To my left, row after row of misty near-ethereal Blue Mountains, each succeeding into a fainter shade of
blue until the last mountain blends almost artistically into the horizon. Yeah,
I get it. This place is special.
So, if I told you that within the Chesapeake
Bay watershed, there was a place 75 miles from our nation’s
capital where the mountains are enchantingly blue, the silence is deafening, and
you could experience true, unspoiled nature the way nature is intended to be, would
you believe me? Well, I guess you’ll just have to go and found out for
yourself.
South River gets a 33 on latest report card
The South River Federation released its 2009 annual scorecard last night. The river received a score of 33, one point lower than last year. The federation scores the river on 10 key indicators, including nutrients, dissolved oxygen and the abundance of underwater life. Some of the individual scores include a dismal 1 for water clarity and zero for underwater grasses, and a more encouraging 7 for bacteria levels.
In the scorecard, South River Federation Executive Director Erik Michelsen gives people a few quick tips on how they can help improve the health of the South River:
"Everyone living in the South River Watershed can do their own part by trying to keep the rain that falls on their property in their yard, upgrading septic systems to the best available technology, and minimizing or eliminating the use of fertilizers on their yards."
Want some more tips to help the South River and the entire Bay? Check out the Bay Program's comprehensive list of ways people can make a difference.
See a PDF of the full scorecard.
This is the second river report card to be released in recent weeks. The Magothy River released its annual Magothy River Index in February, and it also reflected a decrease in overall river health. Stay tuned for more river report cards in the coming weeks.
Dates of spring 2009 Occoquan River cleanup
If you live in Northern Virginia and you're looking for a way to make a difference in the Bay restoration effort, mark your calendars for the annual Friends of the Occoquan (FOTO) spring river cleanup, taking place on Saturday, April 18 (rain date Sunday, April 19) from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. There will be five cleanup sites at the following locations; make sure to RSVP with the listed contact.
Lake Ridge Marina - 12350 Cotton Mill Drive, Lake Ridge, VA
22192
Renate G. Vanegas, (703) 674-6659
Town of Occoquan - 314 Mill Street, Occoquan, VA 22125
Claudia A. Cruise, (703) 491-1918, Ext. 11
Occoquan Regional Park - 9751 Ox Road, Lorton, VA 22079
Alex Vanegas, (703) 674-7847
Bull Run Marina - 12619 Old Yates Ford Rd., Clifton, VA
20124
John Rothrock, (703) 887-1124
Fountainhead Park - 10875
Hampton Rd., Fairfax Station, VA 22039
Danielle Wynne, (703) 324-5616
Learning the Shades of Green
Krissy Hopkins is the Communications and Education Subcommittee staffer with the Chesapeake Research Consortium at the Chesapeake Bay Program.
Last weekend, I, along with more than 550 other passionate environmental educators, attended the annual Maryland Association for Environmental and Outdoor Education (MAEOE) conference in Ocean City.
The conference kicked off with a keynote from Doug Tallamy, a witty, insect-loving professor at the University of Delaware. I never thought about the connections between birds, caterpillars and oak trees until Doug commented that a single oak tree is a host to over 500 different species of insects. But instead of filling our yards with oak trees, we plant them with manicured green lawns and non-native (sometimes invasive) plants.
Birds and insects native to this region view our backyardsas if they were the surface of Mars. Landscapes dominated by plants imported from around the world serve an ornamental, rather than functional, purpose. We suburbanites have crafted completely sterile landscapes, as we’ve been taught that bugs are a problem and Raid is the solution. Now, hundreds of bird species are declining in number because we have cut out their food source: the bugs we loathe.
So what’s the solution? To turn our lawns back into native habitats that benefit both the birds and the bugs. Many Maryland schools are already taking this advice and landscaping with native plants to create schoolyard habitats.
Some schools take their projects a step further to become certified Maryland Green Schools. One statistic that astounded me was that primary and secondary schools spend $6 billion annually on energy -- more than they spend on books and computers. Imagine if we could cut that cost by 30 percent, or $1.8 billion. Sounds good to me, right? But how?
As I learned in one MAEOE conference session, 30-40 percent of our energy use is at the discretion of the occupants of a building. So by simply raising awareness about our energy use, we can cause substantial deceases in energy consumed. Energy conservation isn’t just about changing light bulbs; it’s about changing behavior.
This conference reaffirmed my belief that simple solutions and engaged citizens can make Maryland grow greener.