I had that conversation again.
You know the one, where someone says the Chesapeake Bay is hopeless. Efforts to clean it up have fallen short. It’s not going to change.
Starving ospreys. Missed goals. Pistachio tides. Rockfish and crab numbers in free fall. A General Assembly with no bay champion. Backsliding in Washington on the Clean Water Act.
Even if you’ve followed this stuff for years, even if you know the difference between a Taylor float and a Secchi disk, it can be hard to have hope.
Here’s the answer to that bugaboo of despair — you have to take the long view. Celebrate the gains even as you work to solve the problems.
“We knew from the start that we were never going to see progress in a linear fashion,” said Don Boesch, retired head of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science.
The dead zone, that blob of oxygen-starved water in the deepest part of the bay, is 22% smaller than it was when researchers started tracking it in 1985.
Even though the Chesapeake Bay Agreement didn’t hit reduced nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment pollution goals by the 2025 deadline, the coalition of state and federal governments did accomplish their goals on oyster restoration, fish passages, public access and sustainable fisheries.
So, as state and federal leaders gather this week in Baltimore for a meeting of the Chesapeake Executive Council to sign a new agreement setting 2040 goals, Gov. Wes Moore and the others should take heart from the successes.
“It wouldn’t hurt to have some optimism in the list of things that they take into consideration,” said Jessie Turner, an assistant professor of ocean and earth sciences at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia.
Oysters, oysters everywhere
In September, work started on a new bay restoration site, the Truman T. Semans Center for Oyster Restoration and Innovation in tiny Galesville.
The Chesapeake Bay Foundation will use the site, home to a historic ice house and fish processing plant, to breed oysters, to build underwater infrastructure for expanded reefs and involve the public.
“This is a hub where we hope people will come and get involved,” said Julie Luecke, lead scientist on the project.
The bay has seen a massive expansion of human-made oyster bars in the last decade. Bay agreement initiatives planted 2,200 acres in 11 tributaries with 7 billion oysters. More are coming in places like Annapolis and Baltimore.
Oysters filter water, and the bars work as habitat for fish and crabs.
If the notion that these bars would transform the bay was exaggerated, they still make an important difference in the tributaries where they are planted.
Clearly better
The Chesapeake Bay is a murky body of water, but it is far clearer than it was 40 years ago.
A team of researchers in Virginia and Delaware, led by Turner at Old Dominion, found that water clarity — a key indicator of overall health — is better.
“We need to celebrate that,” said Turner, whose paper is set for publication next year.
Reducing nutrients in the form of nitrogen from sewage plants has been the major factor, even as farm and lawn fertilizer runoff blocks progress. Nutrient pollution feeds algae, which clouds the water and sucks up oxygen as it grows and dies.
There are still major swings in the other direction, usually after the intense rainfalls occurring in a warming climate.
Even where cloudy water persists, though, the review of existing data and new research found more light shining through. The trend coincides with a 112% expansion of underwater grasses, an important habitat.
“I’d argue that those two things are linked,” Turner said. “Even if you only see a little bit of improvement in water clarity, sometimes that’s enough to get submerged grasses growing.”
Changing practices
Maryland is paying more than $100 million to farmers and others who reduce nitrogen flowing into the Chesapeake.
Enter giant miscanthus, an Asian grass that grows 15 feet tall and is a possible cure for a number of ills.
Growing more of it is one of 32 projects in the state’s Clean Water Commerce program.
Farmers on the lower shore are replacing corn and soy beans with giant miscanthus. It eliminates manure fertilizer and cultivation that bleed nitrogen and sediment into the bay, and blocks runoff from other fields.
It also grows well on farmland damaged by deer overpopulation, flooding and saltwater intrusion — all growing problems.
A six-year study by the University of Maryland Extension found that the grass grows at about 80% of its performance on prime land. It’s sterile, so it shouldn’t be an invasive problem.
“We were pleasantly surprised at how well it did in really bad land,” said Haley Sater, one of the lead researchers.
All of the giant miscanthus grown on the Eastern Shore is being sold as chicken bedding. Both the Extension agency and AGgrow Tech, a North Carolina company that created the sterile version, are looking for other uses.
“Our next step is really to look at that issue, and we’re working with some other people on campus, like at the business school, at other markets,” said Sarah Hirsh, co-author of the study.
The $1.3 million spent on growing giant miscanthus this year will cut nitrogen from participating farms by 63,000 pounds. Altogether, Clean Water Commerce programs total hundreds of thousands of tons cut.
The Maryland Department of the Environment is accepting new applications for another $20 million.
Five tributaries
What would happen if you took lessons from the bay cleanup and applied them to rivers and streams?
That’s the idea behind the Whole Watershed Restoration Partnership. Pick five watersheds, work with 75 local government, nonprofit and research partners over five years — then measure success, adapt and move on to the next five.
“We are also able to look at different combinations of best management practices and restoration techniques, and also concentrate on those areas where people recreate, where they interact with the water,” said Sarah Lane, head of the watershed team at the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.
As a bonus, these areas are crucial to oysters, crabs, striped bass and other keystone species.
The first five include Antietam Creek, the Baltimore Harbor, the Severn River, the upper Choptank River and, outside of the bay watershed, Newport Bay near Ocean City.
“Whole watershed is looking to improve water quality as well as nearshore habitat. Working in that area, that shallow water habitat area can complement the deep channel,” Lane said.
All five teams have started work on 37 individual projects, and the DNR is setting up ways to measure progress. The state has $22 million to spend on the program this year.
Better tools
Scientists know more about how the Chesapeake works than ever before. One reason is a steady evolution in the tools available.
One new advance is a hyper-resolution hydrography dataset used to create incredibly accurate maps of flowing water.
Created through a partnership led by the Chesapeake Conservancy Innovation Center, the system uses artificial intelligence to interpret lidar laser measurements and create maps with unprecedented detail — right down to roadside drainage ditches.
The result could improve flood and runoff control, stream restoration and efforts to grow aquatic life.
“Stream networks are the primary conduit between the watershed and the bay, and now we can characterize that connection in ways that we’ve never been able to before,” said Matthew Baker, the lead researcher and a professor at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.
Comments
Welcome to The Banner's subscriber-only commenting community. Please review our community guidelines.