Vote on Name for Chesapeake Bay Trust's Heron

The currently nameless heron appears on Maryland license plates.

Officials at the Chesapeake Bay Trust are looking for input to help name its blue heron mascot. The heron, which also currently adorns "Treasure the Chesapeake" Maryland license plates, is nameless at the moment. But through April 26, the organization is asking Marylanders to vote on its website for one of three finalists: Hattie the Heron, Seemore D. Bay and Wade. More than 550 names were submitted to the organization's contest, according to a press release. "Submissions ranged from names that rhymed with heron, to ones that represented famous Marylanders, to others that held a personal story or connection the submitter had with the bay," Molly Alton Mullins, director of communications at the trust, said in the release. "It was incredibly…

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Bottle Tax: Improve Recycling Rates Around Chesapeake Bay, or Inconvenience?

The General Assembly is considering bills in the House and Senate that would require consumers to pay a refundable deposit on all cans and bottles.

By Caroline Woodall, Capital News Service In an effort to reduce trash and increase recycling, the General Assembly is considering bills in the Maryland House and Senate that would require consumers to pay a refundable deposit on all cans and bottles.  

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Population Growth Makes Stormwater Runoff a Challenge for the Chesapeake

Urban and suburban stormwater runoff is an environmental indicator that worsened in the bay in 2012, according to a recent report.

By Jessica Wilde, Capital News Service The Chesapeake Bay Foundation will focus its efforts this year on improving urban and suburban stormwater runoff, which is the one environmental indicator that got worse in the bay in 2012, according to the annual State of the Bay Report. As population increases, natural filters such as forested buffers are turning into hard surfaces, and more litter, toxic materials and sediment from roads are ending up in waterways, said Alison Prost, the foundation’s executive director for Maryland, in a House Environmental Matters Committee hearing Wednesday. “Controlling the amount of runoff, the speed of runoff and what is in that runoff is very important,” Prost said. While new development is built to minimize …

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River Watch

On the Trail of the Chesapeake’s Dead Zone

The evidence leads out of the bay and up the rivers, including the Potomac.

Back home, the Potomac River was pulsing with life. Minnows were darting through the stargrass while mussels serenely filtered water down below. Insect nymphs shucked their shells to emerge at the surface as gossamer mayflies. But here in the waters off Annapolis, we were about to make acquaintance with a dead zone. Capt. Paul Bayne plugged one end of a long, black cable into his hand-held dissolved oxygen meter. “Who wants to read out the numbers?” he asked. A woman stepped forward and took her position. Bayne lowered the probe on the other end of the cable into the surface water. “What does it say?” he called out. The rest of us edged a little closer. “10.8,” the woman replied. This was 10.8 parts of oxygen per million parts of water (…

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Katie Griffith

12:36 pm on Thursday, July 19, 2012

When River Watch comes in for an edit, it's the best part of my day! I love reading Roger's work.   more ›

Maryland on Track to Meet Chesapeake Bay Goals

Gov. Martin O'Malley said the state has reached milestones while also accounting for growth.

Maryland has met its milestones to protect and restore the Chesapeake Bay, Gov. Martin O'Malley announced Monday. The 2009-2011 milestones are part of the state's Watershed Implementation Plan (WIP), which puts the state on track to achieve its next two-year goal, as well as the 2017 goal. “There are some challenges so large that we can only tackle them together. Restoring the Bay is one of them. And all of us are here today because we understand that the choices we make together for our Bay matter for our health, our environment, our quality of life, our economy and for future generations," O’Malley said, according to a statement. “We have worked closely with our local partners to create and carry out a Watershed Implementation Plan that …

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Possible Doubling of Flush Tax Worries Some Legislators

High-volume water users could pay upwards of $60 a year.

By Ellen Stodola, Capital News Service A number of legislators are concerned that Gov. Martin O'Malley's proposal to raise the flush tax from $2.50 to $5 a month to help clean up the Chesapeake Bay could be too much for constituents to handle, especially in a bad economy. The flush tax, which raises funds for updates of wastewater treatment plants, as well as septic systems and stormwater management, costs each household a total of $30 a year. But O'Malley's proposal for the Bay Restoration Fund ties the fee to consumption, with $5 being the average that most people will pay per month. Those who use less water could pay less, but high-volume users could pay upwards of $60 a year. Though many legislators agree that the Chesapeake Bay is a …

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Call for Oyster Moratorium Fails to Sway Watermen, Officials

Study shows that the oyster population in the Chesapeake Bay has declined 92 percent since 1980.

By Greg Masters Capital News Service ANNAPOLIS — The Chesapeake Bay's oyster population has plummeted since the late 1960s, when Willy Dean, a Maryland waterman since the age of 17, would go hand tonging with his father and "load the boat with oysters." "The catch is way, way down from what it was back then," Dean said. The population is so low that several scientists recommended a complete halt on oyster harvesting in a study published in August by the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. But a moratorium has not gained traction among watermen and state officials, who see the industry as an important tradition and a small but significant part of the state's economy. "People would have to get other jobs, leave the …

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