Bay Journal

Mattawoman watershed at a tipping point

If there was a place in the Chesapeake watershed where people might have learned to grow greenly, it was Southern Maryland's Mattawoman Creek, a lesson in sustainability long begging to be learned.

Forty years ago, the 19-mile-long tributary of the Potomac, 25 miles downstream and a world away from Washington, DC, was known to state and federal natural resources departments and national environmental groups as a special place.

It remains such, but now, with the lesson still unlearned, is less so, and is far more threatened than it was on a day in 1976, when proof of its special status was easy to come by.

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Tom Horton
April 28, 2013
Conservation + Land Use, Fisheries, Politics + Policy, Pollution, Wildlife + Habitat

Chesapeake SAV plunges to lowest levels since 1986 - Karl Blankenship | 05/01/13

Male-to-female blue crab ratio in Bay at sustainable level - Karl Blankenship | 04/30/13

Bay’s blue crab numbers drop; robust female population offers hope - Karl Blankenship | 04/30/13

Potomac cleanup collects 286,500 pounds of litter - Rona Kobell | 04/30/13

Initiative hopes to prevent development near wildfowl hotspot - Rona Kobell | 04/30/13

Invisible microplastics a threat to bottom of marine food web - Karl Blankenship | 04/28/13

It’s time to pay the piper as cities’ aging infrastructures need updating - Rona Kobell | 04/28/13

Many Bay-related programs fare well under proposed budget - Karl Blankenship | 04/28/13

More News

Maryland, Pennsylvania name new leaders for environmental department positions - Rona Kobell | 04/30/13
Flyway winter waterfowl survey counts more geese but fewer ducks - Staff and Wire Reports | 04/30/13
New techniques sharply reduce cost of controlling stormwater runoff - Karl Blankenship | 04/28/13
Legislators fund windpower in MD, water quality projects in VA - Rona Kobell | 04/28/13
Chesapeake Bay stewardship grants available - Staff and Wire Reports | 04/28/13
OspreyWatch seeking volunteers to observe birds - Staff and Wire Reports | 04/01/13
EPA won’t appeal ruling on cleanup plan for Accotink - Rona Kobell | 04/01/13
Harriet Tubman National Monument created on MD Eastern Shore - Karl Blankenship | 04/01/13
Development likely culprit in degradation of fish habitat - Karl Blankenship | 04/01/13
States poised to offer break to farms that install BMPs - Rona Kobell | 04/01/13

Features

Journey of shorebirds, horseshoe crabs to shore linked through the ages

What has an armored body; five pairs of legs; a long, pointed tail; is related to spiders; and has changed very little over the last 360 million years? The horseshoe crab!
Kathy Reshetiloff | Bay Naturalist 05/01/13

Canada warbler: right place at right time in right frame of mind - Michael Burke | On the Wing 05/01/13
Mountains! - Kathleen Gaskell | Bay Buddies 04/30/13
Peak Performance - Kathleen Gaskell | Chesapeake Challenge 04/30/13
Vernal ponds spring to life with peepers’ serenades - Kathy Reshetiloff | Bay Naturalist 04/01/13
Yellow warbler’s song means mellow days of spring can’t be too far behind - Michael Burke | On the Wing 04/01/13
Look up! - Kathleen Gaskell | Chesapeake Challenge 04/01/13
Trees - Kathleen Gaskell | Bay Buddies 04/01/13
Spring is in the air, as are the Chesapeake Bay’s osprey - Kathy Reshetiloff | Bay Naturalist 03/01/13
Be it bug or ball of seeds, it’s no match for acrobatic Carolina chickadee - Michael Burke | On the Wing 03/01/13

Opinion

Choose plants to honor those you’ve picked as friends

Planted a little shadbush in my front yard the other day for Larry Simns, a Chesapeake waterman friend, recently deceased.
Tom Horton | Chesapeake Born 05/05/13

It’s time for us to go to war again over American shad - Kate Livie | Forum 05/05/13
New rules for stormwater expected to increase reductions - Lee R Epstein | Forum 04/01/13
Energy-to-manure: Megawatts, mega-bucks without mega-pollution - Tom Horton | Chesapeake Born 04/01/13
Omega Protein makes good on threat to cut jobs; but it doesn’t have to - Alison Fairbrother | Forum 03/31/13
Signs of resilience amid Chesapeake’s troubles cause for optimism - Nick DiPasquale | Around the Watershed 03/01/13
Shelling out more oysters to improve the Chesapeake Bay - Cari Ruppert | Forum 03/01/13
You see a pile of poultry litter; I see a phosphorus mine - Tom Horton | Chesapeake Born 03/01/13
Innovative practices, funding helping to cut cost of reducing pollution - Kim Coble | Forum 01/01/13
Film’s mutant isopods not as scary as real horrors facing the Bay - Al Todd and Margaret Enloe | Forum 12/01/12

Travel

Fort Washington now a peaceful oasis just outside DC

From the heights of Fort Washington Park, the shores of the Potomac River frame the skyline of the nation's capital with the Washington Monument jutting toward the sky.
Lara Lutz | Chesapeake Bay Gateways Network 04/30/13

Visitors learn it’s all about the wildlife at Patuxent Research Refuge - Rona Kobell | Chesapeake Bay Gateways Network 03/01/13
Snow better way to camp - Tom Horton | Bay Journeys Article 01/01/13
Duck, Duck, Goose - Rona Kobell | Bay Journeys Article 01/01/13
Sotterley’s river of freedom - Lara Lutz | Bay Journeys Article 01/01/13
At Calvert Cliffs, visitors look forward to encountering sharks’ teeth - Lara Lutz | Chesapeake Bay Gateways Network 11/01/12
At Chippokes Plantation, visitors feast on slices of natural, agricultural history - Leslie Middleton | Chesapeake Bay Gateways Network 10/01/12
Skipjacks dredge up nautical heritage for guests - Lara Lutz | Bay Journeys Article 07/30/12
The forgotten war that turned us into Americans - Lara Lutz | Bay Journeys Article 07/30/12
Tour of swamp to Chesapeake takes you back in time - Tom Horton | Bay Journeys Article 07/30/12