Chesapeake Bay-area farmers who need help to incorporate methods of reducing nutrient pollution from their farms could get that help from the Federal Farm Bill. But it's not a done deal. Watch this story from WJZ-TV to see what's at stake, then join us in contacting your representatives in Congress to urge them to support the farm bill.
Congratulations Brian Gray! Brian was one of 12 students who participated in CBF's Expedition Susquehanna two years ago. Pennsylvania's Snyder County Conservation District just awarded him its Conservation Wildlife Award and was recently named the 2008 Pennsylvania FFA Star in Agri-Science. Way to go, Brian!
Once again, the Bush Administration is proposing to reduce federal funding for pollution reduction, species preservation, and habitat restoration in the Bay region. This year the proposed decrease is almost 24 million dollars.
With only three years to go to meet the 2010 goals for the Bay, this is a step backwards, just when the Bay states have been stepping forward with unprecedented programs and funding to reduce pollution.
However, there is still opportunity to turn around the President’s proposed cuts. Congress frequently makes significant changes to the President’s proposal before it takes final action. This is where you can help.
Right now and through the middle of this month, your locally elected U.S. Senators and Representative are developing their own list of priority requests for consideration by the all-important Appropriations Committees. These requests are often even more important than the President’s.
You can encourage your elected officials to reverse the trend set by this President and fight for increasing, not decreasing, federal help for the restoration of the Bay and the streams that feed it.
The Bay needs your help. Click here to write to your Senators and Representative to let them know you care.
by guest blogger Frank Rohrer, stream buffer specialist in CBF's Pennsylvania office.
Back in December of 2007, I made the trip to the gently rolling hills of southern Lancaster County, Pennsylvania for my annual deer hunt on the family farm. Since I moved north to the mountains of Clinton County, PA over three years ago I don’t get back to the farm much. Each visit is special because I’m always overwhelmed with childhood memories of baling hay, feeding cows, driving tractors, hunting deer, and fishing in the stream…ah the stream!
As a youngster much of my free time (which is very little when you grow up on a dairy farm) was spent fishing, flipping rocks, catching crayfish, and looking for salamanders in and along Stewart’s Run and a small, meandering tributary that flowed through my grandfather’s farm. What a great way to be introduced to the outdoors. I didn’t know it then, but each time a trout swallowed my bait in that little stream I was actually the one getting hooked on a love for all things outdoors.
So much has changed on the farm during the thirty-two years of my life. My grandparents are long gone now, but Dad keeps the farming tradition alive though much less intensively. The milk house now sits silently through long winters and hot summers. Cows no longer enter the barn for their evening meal and the chores are far fewer. Yes, tobacco still hangs in the shed, corn still grows in the fields and heifers graze in the pasture, but the days of intensive farming for the Rohrer family are now gone.
Of all the changes I know of on the farm, one of the biggest has been the stream itself. Back in 2002, when my wife Kathy and I lived in the little cottage along the stream, Dad decided to build stream bank fencing and plant trees with CBF’s Farm Stewardship Program. Of course, since I just happened to work for CBF as a stream buffer specialist, I was a major influence with that decision!
So, that year we hired contractors to build 5,400’ of fence, install three livestock crossings, and plant 575 trees and shrubs. The fence and crossing set up allow the livestock to cross the stream and drink in various locations, while at the same time it keeps them out of the majority of the riparian areas. This allowed the streambanks to revegetate and helped to keep the stream cleaner. When my grandfather still milked cows, the livestock had full access to the entire stream and the banks were severely eroded, the water was often muddy, and there was no fish or wildlife habitat at all. In total, 5,820’ of streambanks have been restored and 5.3 acres of forested riparian buffer have been created.
Since I only get back to the area a few times a year, I don’t always get time to check out the buffer that I had put so much care and effort into several years ago. This year as I was hunting I decided to take a leisurely stroll along the buffer to really see how it was faring. Although there were trees that didn’t survive, I was so proud to see that there were many trees growing—quite a few of them were well above my six foot tall head. Some ash, maple, and tulip poplar stretched more than twelve feet above the ground. Dogwoods and viburnums were thriving as well, providing cover and berries for birds and other wildlife.
The thing that struck me the most was the numerous songbirds that were along the stream. A tremendous diversity of birds flitted about all around me as they grabbed seeds from the tall grass, landed on the growing trees, and swooped down to the water. Chickadees, tufted titmice, sparrows of all kinds, and more. The stream buffer has gone from a grazed area with little habitat to a birder’s paradise in a very short time. Being a birder, I was thrilled.
As I walked and gazed over the pasture and farmstead, I was awed by the memories that flooded me…the big hill that we would ride our plastic and metal runner sleds on every winter, thinking nothing of running back up to the top and doing it all day long just as I’m sure my Dad did when he was young…the “deep hole” as we have always called it, where every year the neighbors and Dad and I would gather during the dawn hours of April’s opening day of trout season to try to hook those brown, rainbow, and brook trout, which were courtesy of the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission…the old stone farmhouse built in the 1700’s, where every day my grandmother would make grilled cheese sandwiches for my grandfather and I as we rested from the morning barn chores…bringing in new born calves from the meadow as their mother trailed along behind…baling hay in the sweltering 100 degree heat of August…harvesting corn in the much cooler days of November as a hint of old man winter blew into the air…and of course, those delicious dinners served by my grandmother as the family gathered around the coal stove on those snowy Christmas days. My simple buffer tour had stirred up so many memories from a 120 acre piece of ground!
As I neared the end of my walk, my mind gradually got back to the real task at hand—hunting deer! One year I filled my deer tag right there in the buffer (I was doing my part to ensure those new trees would survive) but my luck was not to be this year. I went back north that weekend without a deer but I took home something more valuable—new memories and the knowledge that the stream that hooked me so many years ago was healthier than it has been for several generations. As I left the farm that day, I realized that my career today with CBF has brought me full circle with my childhood of yesterday.
To learn more about streamside buffers in Pennsylvania, you can contact the Chesapeake Bay Foundation at 717-234-5550. If you live in Clinton, Centre, or Lycoming Counties, PA, you can contact the author directly at 570-295-6164.
Due to icy conditions, the panel discussion I mentioned Tuesday has been rescheduled for Tuesday, February 26. Same time, same place.
Pennsylvania newspapers are filled with articles about municipalities who are frustrated about the costs of cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay. The cleanup is federally mandated--but unfunded, and if a 2010 deadline for meeting these mandatory water quality standards isn't met, the federal government could come down harder with even stricter standards. But local jurisdictions don't know how they're going to come up with the hundreds of millions of dollars it will take to comply. CBF has joined the call for the Rendell administration to provide funds to municipalities struggling to meet sewage treatment upgrade requirements.
If you live near Harrisburg, you might want to attend tonight's panel discussion on the Chesapeake Bay cleanup and its effects on sewage bills. The discussion will be held from 5 - 7 p.m. at the Holiday Inn West, 5401 Carlisle Pike, Mechanicsburg. Panel participants include Kathleen McGinty, secretary of the Dept. of Environmental Protection; John Brosius, deputy director of the Pennsylvania Municipal Authorities Association; and Scott Wyland, lawyer for the Capital Region Council of Governments.
In December, CBF lost a friend, trustee, and one-of-a-kind donor. In 1988, G.R. “Randy” Klinefelter made an unusual gift to CBF: a 250-acre island. In doing so, he and his family established CBF’s largest residential education center, Port Isobel, and opened up a treasured and historic piece of the Chesapeake to thousands of students, teachers, and citizens.
Named after his wife, Isobel, the former family getaway is a stone’s throw away from its sister island Tangier, home to one of the Chesapeake’s last remaining watermen’s communities. Over the past 20 years, students, teachers, and decision makers have traveled by boat to Port Isobel to explore the island’s marshes, beach, and woodlands. Often, visiting Tangier to learn about the nearly lost way of life is part of the trip.
The Klinefelter family owned the property for 30 years before donating it to CBF, and during that time instituted soil conservation measures and other environmental improvements. Residents of Ephrata, PA, the Klinefelters recognized the connection between their home state in the northern watershed and the downstream Chesapeake Bay.
Mr. Klinefelter served on the CBF Board of Trustees from 1988 to 1999.
Memorial gifts in his honor will be accepted at:
Randy Klinefelter Memorials
CBF
6 Herndon Ave.
Annapolis, MD 21403
I visited Port Isobel for the first time last fall. It's a beautiful place and a wonderful place to learn about our Bay. To see photos, visit our Flickr page. To share your own Flickr photos, tag them "CBF Port Isobel."
We'd love to hear your stories about Randy Klinefelter and your experiences at Port Isobel. Feel free to post your own comments below.
On December 8, CBF's president, Will Baker, will join hundreds of others across the country and take the Chesapeake Climate Action Network's third annual Polar Bear Plunge into the fridgid waters of Chesapeake Bay. Won't you join him?
CCAN's annual polar bear plunge draws prominent elected officials and journalists and allows us to dramatically communicate the dire threat to our planet’s environment – and to the Chesapeake Bay. We have one planet and it has a fever, and we need clean energy solutions now.
Join Will and other CBFers at this event and fundraiser. It all begins at 11 am on Saturday, Dec. 8th on the beach at CBF's Merrill Center headquarters in Annapolis. CCAN will have heated tents on the beach plus hot chocolate and donuts and even a trio of polar bears who sing rap songs for the Earth. It’s fun for the whole family for a cause that couldn’t be more vital.
Can't get to Annapolis? Check CCAN's Keep Winter Cold website for a plunge near you.
Register online at keepwintercold.org
And, again, keep in mind that this is also a fundraiser for CCAN and their work to fight global warming, such as the campaign to pass the Global Warming Solutions Act here in Maryland. Participants are simply asked to get their friends and family members to give pledges to sponsor their plunge. It’s easy, and CCAN will take care of all the details.
1.866.666.9260
Write that number down.
The news this summer has been dismal. Three-hundred-thousand fish dead in Mattox Creek off the Potomac River in July. Twenty thousand in Weems Creek in June. A six-mile-long algal bloom in the Potomac.
We want to know more about what's going on in our rivers and Bay, and we need your help to do it.
If you see or hear about something troubling on the water —like an algal bloom, fish kill, or "crab jubilee"—inform the proper authorities and call CBF'S Bad Water Strike Force Hotline at 1.866.666.9260.
When you call, you'll be asked for some basic information, including:
At the end of the summer, CBF will use your data to develop a report on bad water events in the region. We will share the report with government officials and urge them to support funding for Bay restoration. We'll also share the report with you.
Last night, the Pennsylvania General Assembly and Governor Rendell passed the Resource Enhancement Protection Act (REAP), the innovative transferable tax credit program that will help farmers clean up our waters. What a proud moment for Pennsylvania! What a victory in CBF's work to save the Bay!
Together we are making a difference!
"We’ve been following the Intracoastal Waterway for two days and have reached the point where the Albemarle and Chesapeake Canal meets the southern branch of the Elizabeth River, a tributary of the Chesapeake Bay. And as we enter the Chesapeake Bay Watershed, into which flows the Quittapahilla, I realize that I’ve never simultaneously seen two herons along the creek’s banks." Read the rest of Marie Bongiovanni's expedition in the Lebanon Daily News.
A documentary about last summer's Expedition Susquehanna was filmed in High-Definition by the PBS Scranton/Wilkes-Bar re region affiliate, WVIA.
“Expedition Susquehanna” will premiere on WVIA during PBS’s “Chesapeake Bay Week,” beginning April 19th. As part of the premiere, the eleven students, Don Baugh, CBF Vice President of Education, Harry Campbell, CBF’s Pennsylvania Staff Scientist, and Cindy Dunn, Director of the Bureau of Recreation and Conservation of the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR), will all participate in a one-hour live call-in program called “State of Pennsylvania.”
“State of Pennsylvania” will air at 7:00 p.m., with the full-length premier of “Expedition Susquehanna” at 8:00 p.m. “Expedition Susquehanna” will also air during Maryland Public Television’s Chesapeake Bay Week programming on Sunday, April 22nd at 5:00 p.m. Additional stations and air times are contingent on local PBS schedules.
Bring a Cup. Save the Bay.
CBF and Starbucks Coffee Company have joined forces to bring awareness to what people can do to protect the Chesapeake Bay, its rivers, and streams. All you have to do is come to one of the 400 Starbucks company-owned stores in Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, West Virginia, or Washington, D.C. and buy your favorite drink. If you bring your own tumbler, Starbucks will fill up your cup AND donate 10 cents from the purchase price to CBF. The offer runs from April 3 to May 14, 2007.
If you don't have a tumbler, get a free one (while supplies last) from 6 to 9:30 a.m. April 3 outside select Washington, D.C.-area Metro stations, including Bethesda, Metro Center, and Farragut North.
Lancaster, PA farmers Bill and Nanette Furina are partnering with EnergyWorks alternative energy company to use waste from their 400,000 chickents to generate electricity for their farm. The project is one of three EnergyWorks is planning for Lancaster County.
Last year, CBF's "Waters at Risk" report called Lancaster County a "manure hotspot" because it generates about 12 percent of all the nitrogen produced from manure in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. (Intelligencer Journal)
| Matthew Ehrhart, Pennsylvania Director of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, comments on proposed Resource Enhancement & Protection Tax Credit Program legislation pending in the Pennsylvania Senate and House. (From PA Environmental Digest) “I introduced House Bill 2878 because I firmly believe that this new and innovative approach to encouraging the implementation of best management practices merits serious discussion by all stakeholders,” said Rep. Stern. “As the Representative from a district where there is a large and viable agricultural sector dominated by family farms, I am very aware that the vast majority of these farmers put a high priority on managing their farm operations in an environmentally friendly manner. | |
If you're looking for a good article about the importance of wetlands and the challenges they are facing in the Chesapeake Bay watershed this article from The Daily Times is a must-read.
An article in today's Washington Post includes the following quote from J. Charles Fox, a former head of the Maryland Department of Natural Resources about efforts over the past 19 years to clean up the Chesapeake Bay:
"We have done a truly tremendous job of defining the problem, and we have done a truly tremendous job of defining the solution. But we have not yet succeeded in actually implementing the solution."
National and local legislators throughout the Chesapeake Bay watershed will be tackling tough questions during this session. Keep David Fahrenthold's article in mind when the time comes to decide what efforts need your support.
More from the Washington Post:
CBF has opened registration for "Confluence 2007--Preparing for the Storm: Stormwater Solutions for Pennsylvania Communities," to be held April 5 & 6. If you're a PA engineer, consultant, developer, municipal official, conservation professional, or watershed stakeholder interested in finding out more about the benefits and challenges of good stormwater management, check out the details.
American Rivers and Green Mountain Coffee Roasters have set National River Cleanup Week for June 2-10, 2007. Organize a cleanup or find a cleanup near you.
| CBF - Helping Farmers Help the Environment. A new, invovative proposal would give farmers tax credits for installing best management practices which reduce stormwater runoff, sediments going into streams and nutrients running off fields of up to $150,000 and to other landowners who install forested riparian buffers. (Video from the PA Environmental Digest Video Blog) Lamonte Garber, Senior Agriculture Consultant with CBF, talks about the Resource Enhancement and Protection Act at the Keystone Farm Show in York. The Resource Enhancement and Protection Act was introduced last year as Senate Bill 1286 by Sen. Wenger (R-Lancaster, now retired), Sen. Waugh (R-York), Sen. O'Pake (D-Berks) and others and as House Bill 2878 by Rep. Stern (R-Blair), Rep. Hershey (R-Chester) and Rep. Daley (D-Washington). It is expected to be reintroduced shortly in the new legislative session. | <>|
