Lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives are proposing to slash funding needed to reduce runoff pollution from farms into the Chesapeake Bay. The House Agriculture Committee released released a draft 2013 Farm Bill that would cut money for conservation programs that help farmers pay for the cost of fencing cattle out of streams, plant trees along waterways, and take other steps to create green filters to absorb pollutants. Today (May 20, 2013) the Senate is scheduled to start debating its own version of the Farm Bill -- which also contains cuts, but not as deep as the House version.... Continue reading

The strawberry season has begun. Hooray! We should have strawberries for about a month, and there will be plenty of opportunities to u-pick. Here's the schedule for the next few days: Today (Saturday 5/18), 1pm til dark: Strawberry field open... Continue reading

After repeated delays and political grandstanding, a Senate hearing has been scheduled for noon today on the nomination of Gina McCarthy to become EPA Administrator. McCarthy, currently EPA’s Assistant Administrator for the Office of Air and Radiation, is a former Commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection and an environmental advisor to five Massachusetts governors (including Mitt Romney). But after being nominated by President Obama for EPA’s top post, she drew fire from some conservatives for her efforts at EPA to reduce greenhouse gas pollution. UPDATE at 5:20 p.m.: The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee today voted 10-8... Continue reading

Here's a photo of the farm staff transplanting lettuce & spinach with students from St Stephens & St. Agnes School on April 10th. We’ll be eating this lettuce and spinach this week. Photo taken by Genevieve Fulco. Tomorrow is the... Continue reading

A packed house greeted the Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s recent public forum about the causes of dieseases and die-offs of smallmouth bass in the Susquehanna River and other Bay tributaries. Scientists, activists, anglers, reporters, and representatives of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection and the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission turned out on May 8 to for the forum at the Midtown Scholar Bookstore in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, to discuss a new Chesapeake Bay Foundation report, called “Angling for Healthier Rivers.” The report describes the "perfect storm" of pollution, parasites, warming temperatures, and bacteia that are combining to kill the popular sport... Continue reading

First, thanks to everyone who came out to the Meet 'n Greet on Saturday -- we enjoyed spending a beautiful day on the farm with you. We we pleased (and a little surprised) that we were able to offer all... Continue reading

Sport fishermen and women, clean water activists, and everyone who cares about the health and future of the Chesapeake Bay’s largest tributary -– the Susquehanna River -– are invited to a public forum tomorrow evening (May 8) in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, to discuss the plight of smallmouth bass. The event, hosted by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, will be held at 6 p.m. Wednesday at the Midtown Scholar Bookstore, 1302 N. Third Street in Harrisburg. The forum will feature one of America’s leading research fisheries biologists, Dr. Vicki Blazer of the U.S. Geological Survey. Dr. Blazer and colleagues discovered the existence of... Continue reading

It’s a shell of a wastewater treatment system. As it turns out, oysters remove nitrogen pollution from the waters of the Chesapeake Bay and other bodies of waters at rates that are higher than previously known, according to a new report by researchers at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science and the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. Restored oyster reefs in the Bay can absorb up to 10 times more nitrogen –- which feeds algal blooms and low-oxygen “dead zones” –- than areas of the estuary without healthy reefs, providing new evidence that replanting and rebuilding oyster reefs... Continue reading

Anne Arundel County, Maryland, is moving forward with cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay. The county council voted 5-2 this afternoon to override last week’s veto by County Executive Laura Neuman of a stormwater pollution control fee. The fee is currently scheduled to start on July 1, and is now set at $85 per year for an average home in the county. (However, a proposed new bill was also introduced today by a majority of council members to phase in the fees, and lower bills for some businesses.) The money to be raised by the fee will be used to hire... Continue reading

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A week from Saturday, 1:00-4:00pm, come visit us on the farm! You're invited to our Meet 'n' Greet. If you are a new CSA member or a curious potential customer or volunteer, this is a perfect chance to meet the... Continue reading

Researchers suggest that a “perfect storm” of pollution, parasites, warming water temperatures, and endocrine disrupting chemicals is threatening one of the Chesapeake Bay region’s most popular sport fish, smallmouth bass, according to a new Chesapeake Bay Foundation report. “Smallmouth bass is one of the great sport fisheries,” said CBF President Will Baker. “But in the Susquehanna and other rivers in the region, smallmouth bass are in serious trouble. The good news is that implementing the Chesapeake Clean Water Blueprint can make a difference.” Reducing phosphorus and nitrogen pollution to meet the Blueprint and EPA pollution limits will reduce stress on... Continue reading

Underwater grasses in the Chesapeake Bay declined last year to the lowest levels in more than a quarter century, in part because of storms in 2011 that flushed runoff pollution into the estuary, according to scientists with the Chesapeake Bay Program. Global warming is also cooking a temperature-sensitive species of grass in the southern Bay. Bay grasses declined 21 percent, to 48,191 acres, between 2011 and 2012, Dr. Robert Orth, an aquatic vegetation expert and Professor of Marine Science at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, said during a press conference this morning. Chesapeake Bay Foundation President Will Baker said... Continue reading

A “tax on rain?” Try: “investments in local health and jobs.” Local governments across Maryland are voting to create new stormwater pollution control fees, as required by a 2012 state law and EPA pollution limits for the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore and Anne Arundel counties approved fees yesterday. Some critics have mocked the fees as a “tax on rain” or a “driveway tax” because they are often based on how many square feet of blacktop and other hard surfaces exist on a property. The more blacktop, the more toxic stormwater rushes off a property during rain storms to pollute nearby streams... Continue reading

We could use some help at our CSA pick-ups on the farm: Wednesdays 3-7pm and Saturdays 1-4pm. We're looking for someone outgoing and friendly who can lift bins of up to 40 pounds, and can come reliably as often as... Continue reading

Eliza Evans’ family has owned farmland in southern Albemarle County, Va., for multiple generations. They currently own a 200-acre spread that is home to some 30 head of beef cattle, which for years drank water directly from a farm creek, a tributary of the nearby Hardware River and ultimately the Chesapeake Bay. Livestock clambering up and down stream banks causes serious erosion problems, and their manure not only pollutes water for downstream users but also creates unhealthy drinking water for the animals themselves. Reducing this kind of agricultural pollution is among the key goals of Virginia’s Bay Clean Water Blueprint,... Continue reading

In the waning hours of the Maryland General Assembly last night, leaders of the House of Delegates stood strong for the Chesapeake Bay. Lawmakers deserve praise for refusing to approve a bad bill that would have delayed by two years municipal fees to pay for important stormwater pollution control systems. That was just one bit of good news from the 2013 session. The state also approved a record $31.5 million for runoff pollution control projects through an innovative program called the Chesapeake and Atlantic Coastal Bays Trust Fund (compared to $25 million, last year). And (despite fiscally lean times) the... Continue reading

Important stormwater pollution control legislation is under attack in the final hours of this year’s Maryland General Assembly session. The Maryland Senate is considering amendments to House Bill 508 that would halt the state’s progress in creating municipal stormwater pollution control fees. These fees are used to build pollution control systems that filter polluted runoff from our streets, parking lots, and urban and suburban areas. These projects also stimulate jobs for construction workers and engineers. UPDATE: Thanks to the leadership in the Maryland House, the bad bill did not pass or even come up for a vote in the final... Continue reading

You may have heard Chesapeake Bay experts describe the Bay Clean Water Blueprint, the federal-state-local plan to restore the Chesapeake by 2025, as the Bay’s best and perhaps last chance for restoration. The challenge, of course, is to implement the plan so pollution is reduced in the right amounts from the right sources at the right times. Success will depend upon many factors, but local innovation and partnerships will be critical. Today, Bay Daily salutes two such efforts. According to the Chesterfield (Va.) Observer this week, Chesterfield County’s Fleet Management Division has changed its system for washing the scores of... Continue reading

Population densities in coastal shoreline areas across the U.S. (including in the Chesapeake Bay region) are more than four times higher than in inland parts of the country. And this has implications for planning for climate change and sea-level rise, as well as efforts to reduce water pollution from waterfront development. A new report by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) finds that counties next to major bodies of water in the U.S. added an average of 125 people per square mile from 1970 to 2020. By comparison, the average U.S. county added 25 residents per square mile. A... Continue reading

Instead of corn, a strange alternative crop sprouts beside a stream that flows into the Chesapeake Bay. Eighteen thousand bamboo poles, marked with orange, blue, red, and yellow plastic flags, sprout from a farm field in Edgewater, Maryland, about six miles south of Annapolis. The colors signify different species of tree saplings that Smithsonian Environmental Research Center Ecologist Dr. John Parker is planting, including red maple, tulip poplar, American elm, hickory, and a dozen others. He is creating a diverse, native forest to replace a monoculture of corn, which requires chemical fertilizers that seep into the stream and pollute the... Continue reading

The Patapsco River after Hurricane Sandy. Photo by CBF Staff. Some sobering news from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency this week: More than half of the nation’s waterways – 55 percent – are in poor condition for aquatic life. “The health of our Nation’s rivers, lakes, bays and coastal waters depends on the vast network of streams where they begin, and this new science shows that America’s streams and rivers are under significant pressure,” Office of Water Acting Assistant Administrator Nancy Stoner said in an EPA press release about a new national water report. The EPA report, the first comprehensive... Continue reading

Good news this week from Virginia’s shellfish industry and more evidence that a cleaner, healthier Chesapeake Bay is a boon to the economy. “The shellfish aquaculture industry in Virginia continues to grow, adding significant value to the state’s seafood marketplace,” says the Virginia Sea Grant Marine Extension Program in a new report, “Virginia Shellfish Aquaculture Situation and Outlook Report.” Virginia continues to lead the nation in the farming, or aquaculture, of hard clams, producing 171 million market clams in 2012 and generating an estimated $26.8 million in revenues, up nearly $1 million from the year before, the report says. Equally... Continue reading

With islands in the Chesapeake Bay slowly vanishing beneath the waves because of rising sea levels and sinking land, a company plans to build experimental buoy systems to reduce erosion in three locations this year, including on historic Tangier Island, Virginia. The Glen Burnie, Maryland-based Murtech plans to use an innovative design tested in the labs of the U.S. Naval Academy by Dr. Michael E. McCormick, a pioneer of wave energy research and former Chairman of the Department of Naval Systems Engineering, who is also a consultant for Murtech. This summer, the company plans to install 53 buoys –- the... Continue reading

The Bay Daily "Name the Critter" contest has evolved and expanding its range to become a "Name the Species" competition. The first reader to correctly identify this species will win a free CBF T-shift. To compete, you must enter your guess as a comment on this blog. UPDATE: These are eelgrass seeds, and the winner is Rodney Herbert. Congrats! Continue reading