At Pickering Creek Audubon Center’s recent Board of Trustees meeting Esther Fleischmann, Dorothy Whitcomb and Andrew Smith joined the Pickering Creek Audubon Center Board of Trustees as new members, elected to a three year term.  They join recent addition Ron Ketter and current trustees Dirck Bartlett, Dave Bent, Tom Kimbis, Cemmy Peterson, Tom Sanders, Stuart Strahl, Carol Thompson and Cheryl Tritt.

Esther Fleischmann has been teaching Human Anatomy and Physiology at UMBC for over 20 years where she has been privileged to work with curious and highly motivated students.  Her academic roots stem from time living on Guam where she learned to scuba dive and decided to become a marine biologist.

Esther only started birding seriously in the last five years and can only imagine what her life lists would look like if they included Guam and other places she has traveled.  Birding and an invitation from long-time colleague, Bryan Mackay, led to her serving on the board of the Chesapeake Audubon Society for the last two years.  It is all she can do to get to work on time during the spring migration, wiping off her muddy boots on the way into the classroom.  Esther is committed to being an educator and a life-long learner herself.

Top: Esther Fleischmann and Dorothy Whitcomb. Bottom: Andrew Smith and Ron Ketter

Dorothy Whitcomb worked in the home furnishings industry for over 30 years.  As a contributing editor and freelance journalist, she covered business and design trends, as well as a diverse range of products. In addition to her work in the home furnishings industry, she is the owner and president of Quarter Cove Associates, a consulting firm that provides communications and business strategy services to small businesses and non-profit organizations.

In 1997, Whitcomb began living part time the Eastern Shore. Two years later, she and her husband, Don Whitcomb, moved full time to a home they built on Presquile Point, just down the road past Pickering Creek. They lived there for seventeen years before moving in 2017 to the town of Easton.

Andrew Smith’s family moved to Easton when he was 14. He grew up on the Miles River where he developed a love for the outdoors. He met his future wife, Sally, in high school, and together they have raised three beautiful children and five wonderful grandchildren.

Before moving back to Easton, Andy spent from 1970-1980 at a family lumber business in Baltimore. He retired four years ago from a twenty-eight year career with O.N.Andrew and Son, a local roofing contractor. Andy has been on the board of the Chesapeake Center, and delights in seeing the accomplishments of the clients there!

Andy enjoys being involved with the wood duck monitoring program at Pickering Creek for several years. It is truly a treat to have seen Pickering Creek develop into an educational asset for the community for young and old.

Ron Ketter and his wife, Janet, moved to the Eastern Shore in 2016, where they live just outside of Easton and enjoy birdwatching, gardening, camping and hiking. Ron has a lifelong interest in nature and conservation, both in his personal and professional life. He retired from the U.S. Forest Service in 2016, where he served in the national office in Washington DC as Director of Strategic Planning, Acting Budget Director, and Chief of Staff to the Chief Financial Officer. He also spent over four years in California as Deputy Regional Forester for the Pacific Southwest Region. In addition to volunteering at Pickering Creek, Ron’s other volunteer activities include assisting with biological surveys and monitoring at Blackwater National Refuge, serving on the Board of the Friends of Blackwater as their Treasurer, monitoring the Tred Avon River quality for ShoreRivers, and serving as a mentor with Talbot Mentors.

A key part of the National Audubon Society network, Pickering Creek Audubon Center funds its budget through contributions and fees secured by the Pickering staff and board. This local funding directly supports science and environmental education programs for students and residents in Talbot, Dorchester, Caroline and Wicomico counties.

Come experience the changing of the seasons at Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) by participating in one of our remaining Guided Birding tours in the fall of 2018.  You don’t need to be an expert to enjoy identifying and learning about the many species of plants and animals that inhabit the refuge.

Fall birding tours at Blackwater highlight the returning migratory waterfowl, and you will not want to miss the opportunity to observe and identify our diverse array of feathered friends, from warblers and wading birds to numerous species of waterfowl and raptors, including the bald eagle.  The three remaining dates for Guided Birding are: Sunday, November 18, led by Harry Armistead; Sunday, November 25, led by Dave Palmer; and Sunday, December 2, led by Terry Allen.  Participants will meet at the Blackwater NWR Visitor Center at 8:00 a.m. for each bird walk, which may last 3 to 4 hours.  The birding party usually car pools, stopping at various points around the refuge’s Wildlife Drive.

Binoculars and field guides are highly recommended for an enjoyable experience, and be sure to dress for the weather!  There is no fee or advanced registration for these activities.  For further information, please call the Blackwater Visitor Center at 410-228-2677.

Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge, located on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, protects over 29,000 acres of rich tidal marsh, mixed hardwoods and pine forest, managed freshwater wetlands and cropland for a diversity of wildlife.  To learn more, visit our website at www.fws.gov/refuge/blackwater or follow us on Facebook @BlackwaterNWR.

The mission of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is working with others to conserve, protect and enhance fish, wildlife, plants and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people. We are both a leader and trusted partner in fish and wildlife conservation, known for our scientific excellence, stewardship of lands and natural resources, dedicated professionals and commitment to public service. For more information on our work and the people who make it happen, visit www.fws.gov.

Support from Chesapeake Bay Trust (CBT) and the CBT Chesapeake Conservation Corps program has made several exciting projects possible at Adkins Arboretum.

In 2016-2017, Corps member Kathy Thornton (now the Arboretum’s Land Steward) organized an All Hands on Deck workshop for the Conservation Corps to learn from renowned landscape designer and author Claudia West and to help her install a 4,500-plant plug design for the Arboretum Entrance Garden. What used to be mostly mulch was transformed into a living matrix of purple love grass, butterfly milkweed, aromatic asters, nodding onion, broomsedge, columbine and small’s ragwort. A CBT Chesapeake Conservation Corps mini grant and a CBT All Hands on Deck award provided funding for plants, and Conservation Corps members volunteered to plant the garden in early summer 2017. Now, a year after its installation, the garden is lush, thriving and a haven for birds and pollinators. West, North Creek Nurseries, New Moon Nurseries and numerous private donors also made generous contributions to help create the garden.

From left, Chesapeake Conservation Corps member Nathaniel Simmons, Adkins Arboretum Land Steward Kathy Thornton and Chesapeake Conservation Corps member Emily Castle.

Earlier this year, Corps member Blake Steiner created a citizen-scientist phenology program at the Arboretum. With support from a CBT Mini Grant, Steiner held two training workshops for volunteers interested in phenology, the study of cyclic and seasonal natural events. He also developed a phenology walk that included eight species of focus. Data collected by staff and volunteers are submitted to Nature’s Notebook, the National Phenology Network’s data platform, to be shared and publicly accessible nationwide.

The Chesapeake Conservation Corps program has also matched the Arboretum with two full-time Corps members for 2018-2019. The Corps is a green jobs program created by the Maryland Legislature, and administered by the Chesapeake Bay Trust, to educate and train the next generation of environmental stewards. The program matches young people ages 18–25 with nonprofit and governmental organizations for paid one-year terms of service that focus on improving local communities and protecting natural resources. Corps members Emily Castle and Nathaniel Simmons joined the Arboretum staff in August. Both are 2018 graduates of Washington College in Chestertown.

Castle served as president of the Washington College Campus Garden initiative, which created a flourishing sanctuary for wildlife and hands-on learning. She also has worked at Mt. Cuba Center and Longwood Gardens, and she is co-founder of the college’s Food Recovery Network, a program that transports leftover food from the dining hall to a local church to serve members of the Chestertown community at weekly dinners.

Simmons spent his college tenure working with Dr. Aaron Krochmal on a multi-year mark and recapture study on eastern painted turtles and snapping turtles. In addition to working year-round on his family’s Christmas tree farm, he worked as an intern for the college’s Foreman’s Branch Bird Observatory and is a certified 4-H Leader Volunteer.

Adkins Arboretum is a 400-acre native garden and preserve at the headwaters of the Tuckahoe Creek in Caroline County. Open year round, the Arboretum offers educational programs for all ages about nature and gardening. For more information, visit adkinsarboretum.org or call 410-634-2847, ext. 0.

The Chesapeake Bay Trust is a nonprofit grant-making organization established by the Maryland General Assembly dedicated to improving the natural resources of Maryland and the Chesapeake region through environmental education, community engagement and local watershed restoration.

Washington College fired up its first electric vehicle charging stations this week, hosting a cruise-in that drew half a dozen electric and hybrid-electric vehicles to plug in behind Bunting Hall, as car owners, faculty, staff, students, and local residents stopped by to learn more about electric vehicles, compare notes, and even go for a test drive.

“The plan at the Center for Environment & Society, which started this concept, was to build forward,” says Greg Farley, the College’s director of sustainability. “This is the infrastructure that students and parents will come to expect. I’ve already had one parent call me and say, ‘Can I charge my car while I’m here visiting with my student?’ and it was great to be able to say, ‘Yes!’ ’’

Greg Farley, Director of Sustainability at WC, plugs in a Ford C-Max hybrid.

The network, comprised of four chargers behind Bunting Hall, one in the Gibson parking lot near the footbridge, and another in parking lot D next to the residential halls known as the quads, marks a great step forward for the College’s sustainability efforts. The charging network was made possible by $10,000 in donations, while Tesla donated four of the six charging units. Chesapeake College also donated two non-Tesla units.  Three of the units are for charging Tesla model vehicles specifically, while the other three can charge all models of electric vehicles including the Chevrolet Bolt and the Nissan Leaf.

Students, faculty, staff, visitors, and others will be able to use the chargers for up to four hours at a time after purchasing a $25 annual permit from the Department of Public Safety (the fee helps offset the electricity use).

“The College’s commitment to creating this charging network sends the message to everyone in the College community, from parents and students to faculty and members of the Board of Visitors and Governors, that if they choose to make the switch to EVs, we will support them in that,” Farley says.

Shane Brill, assistant director of the College’s Eastern Shore Food Lab, showed up at the charge-in with his Chevy Bolt, which he purchased in June. He says that using the Bolt has enabled him to save about $150 a month in fuel, while the power to charge the car at home costs about $50 a month. Other than rotating the tires on a typical schedule, he says, the car is virtually maintenance-free.

Joining Brill with another Chevy Bolt was Jon Hanley, chair of the Chestertown Environmental Committee, and other car owners included math Professor Gene Hamilton, who topped off the charge on his Ford C-Max hybrid, and Mark Emon of Easton, Md., who brought his Tesla Model 3.

Also in attendance were two officers from the College’s fledgling Automotive Club, Xaeza Olt ’20, a physics major and club president, and Jared Kovacs ’20, a pre-med biology major and club secretary.

Shane Brill, Assistant Director of the College’s Eastern Shore Food Lab (left) and Jon Hanley, chair of the Chestertown Environmental Committee.

Many people are choosing electric vehicles over traditional internal combustion engines to reduce the country’s reliance on fossil fuels, improve air quality, and lower greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to the accelerated warming of the planet. However, finding places to charge the vehicles, especially in rural areas like the upper Eastern Shore, can be a challenge. Farley says that while he expects usage at the College’s stations to initially be low, he predicts it will accelerate rapidly as more people choose electric vehicles—a decision that the College’ new network may encourage. Farley also has a vision to expand the charging network in the future.

To obtain a charging pass for the EV charging network, contact Public Safety at 410-778-7810. For more information about the charging network and the College’s sustainability initiatives, contact Greg Farley at gfarley2@washcoll.edu.

About Washington College

Founded in 1782, Washington College is the tenth oldest college in the nation and the first chartered under the new Republic. It enrolls approximately 1,450 undergraduates from more than 35 states and a dozen nations. With an emphasis on hands-on, experiential learning in the arts and sciences, and more than 40 multidisciplinary areas of study, the College is home to nationally recognized academic centers in the environment, history, and writing. Learn more at washcoll.edu.