Cleaning Up the Magothy, One Stream at a Time
Jim Edward is the
deputy director of the Chesapeake Bay Program
Office.
It was a Saturday morning at 9:00 a.m., and already it was in
the mid-70s and humid. After getting lost, I arrived at the Magothy River Day
and Watershed Clean Up, an event organized by the Magothy River Association
(MRA) to celebrate John Smith’s discovery of the Magothy River
on June 12th more than 400 years ago.
Once I arrived -- 15 minutes late -- the 25+ volunteers that
had gathered at Chelsea Beach in Pasadena,
Maryland, were already working
hard and craving the water cooler and ice that I was in charge of bringing. The
enthusiastic, hard-working (and sweaty!) volunteers, who ranged in age from 7
to 70, were helping to clean up Indian River Creek, which was riddled with hundreds of tires and
other debris from more than 25 years of neglect. The creek was
at the bottom of a steep ravine, and rolling huge truck tires up the hill was a
muddy and sweaty challenge for many of us (including me!!!!). But over the next
couple of hours we managed to nearly fill two 20-foot-long dumpsters with old
tires, rims, rusty lawnmowers, water heaters (???) and other “junk.”
Jim (right) and other volunteers clear some strange items of trash from the area, including a water heater and an old lawn mower.
The trash was located at the bottom of a steep ravine, so the voluteers had to push the tires uphill -- exhausting work!
MRA President Paul Sparado was there and working as hard as
anyone. But the real organizers for the
day were Juliet Page and Tom Hampton of the MRA Stormwater Committee, of which
I am a member. Along with other members of the committee, they worked with Anne Arundel
County to identify sites along the Magothy River in need of clean-up and restoration.
These before and after photos show what a difference this small band of people
made that morning and the value of citizens and government working together to
achieve a common goal.
Before: A pile of tires sat at the bottom of a steep ravine near Indian River Creek, which drains to the Magothy River.
After: The creek bed is clear of tires and other trash.
I just recently joined the Chesapeake Bay Program Office as
its deputy director after more 20 years of working for the EPA in Washington, D.C.
Not only has my carbon footprint become smaller, but my professional and personal
worlds have become one. I have done volunteer work for many years with MRA, the
Chesapeake Bay Foundation and the Earth Conservation Corps, and now Bay-related
work is my everyday job, too. But I am only
one of the nearly 17 million people who live in the Bay watershed. It will take
efforts from each and every one of us to restore the Bay we all know and love.
President Obama and his family of five (remember, his
mother-in-law lives with him!) are among the newest residents of the Bay watershed,
and it did not take him long to embrace his new home and recognize the Bay as a
national treasure by issuing an Executive Order. It charges the EPA to lead a renewed
federal effort to restore the Bay by working with its state and local partners
and others throughout the watershed. But it is important to remember that the
government can’t do it all. The MRA cleanup and its volunteers are a prime
example of that. So lets each do our part…one by one….it’s a new day for the
Bay!
A Little Goes a Long Way
Last week, a family friend who teaches at a local middle
school invited me to her classroom. She
wanted someone to teach her sixth graders about sediments, nutrients, and the
Bay. I agreed, and took Krystal, one of
my co-workers, along. We had an amazing
day. All in all, I think we talked to
about 300 incredibly smart 6th graders!
They knew that sediment clouds the water and covers any organisms on the
bottom, that the watershed is made up of six states (naming them was more challenging),
and that oysters used to be able to filter the entire volume of the Bay in
three days. (It now takes almost a year!) The kids had a great background of
information, so we added to it a little bit.
We’ve all heard that nutrients in the Bay are harmful and
cause algal blooms and dead zones. The
best question of the day, however, came from a student who asked, “If plants
need nutrients to grow, why aren’t the bay grasses growing a lot and providing
oxygen for the animals at the bottom?” I
had been waiting for someone to ask that!
He was right, the plants have all the nutrients that they could ever
want; the problem is that the plants don’t get enough light. Algae float near the surface, soak up
sunlight and nutrients, and form a layer over the water’s surface. That layer, (plus the murkiness due to sediment),
blocks sunlight. Not enough reaches the
bottom to let the grasses grow. As the
plants and older generations of algae die, they sink to the bottom and
decompose. Decomposers use oxygen. Without plants to provide oxygen, whatever
was left in the water is sucked out by decomposers, leaving an anoxic or “dead”
zone every summer.
Krystal and I had a wrap-up discussion with the students,
where we all listed things we could do
to help the Bay. They knew the basics, like recycling and car-pooling, and that
every little bit helps. They were
excited to hear other opportunities, though.
Some students live on waterfront property, and were eager to go home and
ask their parents if they could grow
oyster spat for a year. Some have
yards that are fertilized twice a year, and were concerned when it was
suggested that they skip the spring treatments and wait until fall. Several students even asked if there was
someplace they could volunteer.
Krystal and I left that day feeling like we’d made a small impact,
but apparently we did more than we thought.
The next day, I was handed a hundred or so thank-you letters from the students. Most were the typical “thanks for coming,”
but several got me really excited! One
said that they went home and told their dad not to fertilize this year. Another said that she’ll make sure her
parents clean up after the family dog. A
third got permission from her parents to raise oysters and wanted more
information. All of this reaction came
out of a 30-minute talk! The kids were
so eager to help, once they saw the real problem. It didn’t take much; an explanation of what’s happening, a picture of the Bay from last summer, and some easy tips to help
out. All they needed was to know what they
can do.
I sincerely hope they continue their enthusiasm through adulthood,
and I hope it’s as contagious for everyone else as it was for Krystal and me!
What are you doing to help the Bay?
Are you doing your part to help the Bay or your local river? Have you installed a rain garden at your home? Do you volunteer for a wateshed organization?We're looking for great examples of people making a difference in the Bay cleanup effort, one small step at a time. If you'd like to tell us your story, send me an e-mail at apimenta@chesapeakebay.net. Or you can add your photo or video to our new Flickr group. If you're chosen to be featured on our website, you'll get a Bay-friendly freebie, such as a reusable mug or shopping bag.
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
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.