Seasons of the Chesapeake
Autumn makes you think of pumpkin pie, hot apple cider and
the earthy smell of fallen leaves. I am
thankful we get to experience all four seasons here in the Chesapeake
region – even though I’m not as fond of the ice storms winter brings to us in Maryland.
Below are satellite snapshots of the Chesapeake
Bay during each season. It
is amazing how the landscape changes from spring to summer to fall to
winter.
See what the Chesapeake
looks like today by visiting NASA's
website.
Through the Wind and the Driving Rain
You could say the weather was against me that day. I woke up in the morning to pouring rain and a temperature in the 50s. Not exactly the best conditions for planting wetland grasses on an island in the Chesapeake Bay. But nonetheless, the Baltimore Aquarium volunteer packet did say “RAIN or shine.”
So I hopped in the car with some fellow co-workers and began the hour-and-a-half drive from Annapolis to the planting site at Eastern Neck National Wildlife Refuge. I had never been to Eastern Neck before, but I will surely return, preferably on a warm, sunny day! The refuge, located at the mouth of the Chester River on the Eastern Shore, is one of the top five waterfowl habitats in Maryland.
I arrived at the parking lot to find the hardy Aquarium staff ready to load us onto a boat and shuttle us to the planting site. So I suited up in layers and raingear and prepared for an interesting boat ride. The river was a bit choppy, so the ride was a cross between white water rafting and riding a rollercoaster with a bucket of water dumped over your head every five minutes. Taking a ride in a washing machine might be a similar experience.
Thoroughly drenched, I arrived at the planting site ready to get to work. My mission that day was to plant two species of grass on the eroding sandbar separating Hail Creek from the Chester River. We broke into teams and started planting. My team had a diviler, a feeder and a tucker. The diviler dug the hole, the feeder put fertilizer in the hole, and the tucker planted the plug of grass.
A tucker planting a plug of marsh grass
We repeated the process over and over and over until half of the sandbar was planted with new grass. The other half would be planted by more volunteers the next day.
Before and after planting marsh grasses on a sandbar at Hail Cove
After a long day of planting, we boarded the boat back to the mainland. Soaked to the bone, the Aquarium staff was nice enough to give us some trash bags to sit on or in, depending on our preferences. I went home knowing that through the wind and the driving rain, my blades of grass will remain.
Krissy stands in the driving rain at Eastern Neck National Wildlife Refuge after planting marsh grasses at Hail Cove
Into the Wild
Krissy Hopkins, part of the Chesapeake Bay Program's Fostering Stewardship team, writes about releasing the Bay Program's three terrapins into the wild. Bay Program staff have cared for the three terrapins -- Secchi, Runoff and Skipjack -- for almost a year as part of the Terrapin Institute.
Waves lapped against the shore, an osprey flew overhead,
warm sand squished between my toes, and all I thought was, “This is home.”
The sights, the sounds, the smells -- they made me wonder what it was like for
our terrapins to experience these things for the first time.
At Kent
Narrows, the place their
mother laid their eggs, we released our brood back into the wild. Our
tender loving care allowed our three terrapins to grow five times larger than
terps of a comparable age in the wild. They truly have a head start on
life thanks to the Terrapin Institute’s
program
The top photo shows the average size of a terrapin one year after hatching; below, Krissy holds two of the Bay Program's terrapins, which are about five times larger at the same age.
Secchi was the first to be released. I set him down in the
soft white sand and he took off instinctively towards the breaking waves.
Without hesitation he swam through the cove and out into open water.
After swimming about 10 yards he popped his little head out of the water and
looked back at us standing on the shore. It was almost as if he was
saying goodbye.
Krissy releases Secchi onto the beach.
Skipjack was the next to go. Liana set this little
lady down a few feet from the water. Skipjack swaggered her way into the
waves. She swam in the cove for a few minutes before making her way
through the breaking waves and into open water.
Liana, another Bay Program staffer, watches Skipjack as she makes her way into the Bay.
Finally it was Runoff’s turn. I sent her down in the
sand, and she just sat there looking up at me. After some encouragement
and a nudge in the right direction her feet finally hit the waters of the Chesapeake and she beelined
it out of the cove.
Runoff heads toward her new home in the Bay.
We all stood on the beach, watching our little babies all
grown up and out on their own. We scanned the water for their little
heads popping out here and there looking back at us. It was goodbye for
the last time.
Being a part of this program and raising our brood will have
a positive impact on this beautiful species and the Chesapeake
Bay. These terrapins made me recognize all the connections
between the land, the water, the people and the critters that call the bay
their home.
I left that morning feeling I was a part of something much
greater than myself; I had made a true Chesapeake
connection.
Get Involved this Earth Day
The Earth Day tradition began on April 22, 1970, when 20
million Americans celebrated the first Earth Day. Over the past 39 years, Earth
Day has grown into a global event.
Earth Day in the Chesapeake
region is a day to take action to help restore the Chesapeake
Bay. You can celebrate Earth Day by planting a tree, picking
up trash in your neighborhood or attending an event.
Many Earth Day events are taking place throughout the Chesapeake Bay watershed this April. Check out this
sampling of Earth Day cleanups, festivals and celebrations to find an event
near you. And if you know of an Earth Day event that we have not included on
this list, add it in the comments!
Washington,
D.C.
- April
17-19: Green Apple Festival,
Earth Day on the National Mall
- April
18: Anacostia
Watershed Earth Day Cleanup and Rally, Bladensburg
- April
18: Earth
Day Clean Up at National Zoo
- April 18: Clean-up at bald eagle habitat (4660 Martin Luther King Jr. Ave SW) by EPA and Earh Conservation Corps
- April 22: Shoreline cleanup at Anacostia Park by Earth Conservation Corps (9 a.m.-1 p.m. -- meet at parking lot near skating rink)
Maryland
- April 11: Litter Pickup at Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge
- April 11: Planting at Loch Raven Reservoir, Towson
- April
18: Bay Day at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime
Museum, St. Michaels
- April
18: Earth Day Celebration of the Baltimore Aquarium, Baltimore
- April
18: Baltimore
EcoFestival at Druid Hill Park,
Baltimore
- April
18: GreenScape at Amos Garrett Park sponsored by Spa Creek Conservancy, Annapolis
- April
18: West/Rhode Riverkeeper’s Spring
Paddle, Annapolis
- April
18: Earth Day Festival at Quiet Waters Park, Annapolis
- April 18: Walk for the Woods by Scenic Rivers Land Trust, Crownsville
- April 18: Earth Day Event, Severna Park
- April
25: Oxford Day, Oxford
- April
25: Label the
Watershed, Bethesda
- April
25: Big Green
Trail Day, Annapolis
- April
25: South
River Watershed Snapshot, Annapolis
- April
25: West/Rhode
River Snapshot, Edgewater
Virginia
Pennsylvania
West Virginia
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.
Ferrying plants for a cleaner Potomac River
Krissy Hopkins is the Communications and Education Subcommittee staffer with the Chesapeake Research Consortium at the Chesapeake Bay Program.
Last week, I volunteered with the National Aquarium in Baltimore for a day of
shoreline buffer planting at the Naval
Support Facility at Indian Head, located along the banks of the Potomac
River in Maryland. Over
the course of five days, Aquarium staff, the Maryland Conservation Corps, Charles County
Master Gardeners and local residents planted over 5,000 native grass plants
and 1,500 native trees along 4,830 feet of Potomac shoreline.
I’m pretty sure the trees I planted that day are among the
most protected in the state of Maryland. After
successfully passing through several security checks to enter the Naval
facility, I met up with Aquarium staff at the marina. We then piled into
vans and passed through yet another security checkpoint before entering what I
was told was a highly restricted area of the base (think ‘explosive
deliveries’ signs and mysterious steam hanging in the air). We soon arrived at
the drop-off and scampered down a steep hill to our planting site along the Potomac River.
When I arrived at the site, I was given the job of ferrying
plants from the center of the site to their new and permanent home along the
shoreline. There were low, medium and high marsh plant species that had to
be placed accordingly. After ferrying the plants to their new home, the
planting brigade -- mostly Maryland Conservation Corps folks -- dug holes and
planted the trees.
After a short lunch break, I informed those in charge that I
wanted to participate in the planting so I could have a more well-rounded day
of volunteering (and because ferrying the plants was a lot of walking!). Soon
after I began planting, I truly realized how difficult it is to successfully plant
a tree. For some holes I had to use a pick ax to get through the tough
soil! After about three hours of planting, we had completed our section
for the day and all the trees were securely in the ground.
I climbed back up to the top of the hill where I had been
dropped off in the morning and looked down upon the section we had planted. It
was amazing to see the sea of plants below me and the hard work of everyone
volunteering that day. I’m curious to see what the site will look like in
five, 10 and 20 years when the plants have established.
I especially enjoy these days of my job when I’m able to
leave the office and experience watershed restoration first-hand. I
walked away from that day with muddy boots, sore arms and a greater
appreciation for ferrying plants.
Thanks to the National Aquarium in Baltimore for both of these photos!