For a countless number of painful years, Tom Fisher, now professor emeritus at the Horn Point Laboratory of the UM Center for Environmental Science, didn’t have much good to say about the Choptank River’s ecological health. Year after year, the Horn Point Lab researcher would need to share increasingly alarming news about the Choptank’s vital signs and its devastating impact on the Chesapeake Bay’s ecosystem. It was not a pretty story.

But that didn’t stop Tom from somberly collecting data every year to document the decline of the river, including data points provided by USGS gauging station near Greensboro and MD DNR, and assess for himself how much damage had been done over the past year by looking at phosphorus and nitrogen numbers.

But in the last few years, those numbers have started to change. Rather than see the anticipated decline in water quality, the trend line was reversing. For the first time in decades, nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations were decreasing. But why?

The scientist in Tom kicked in to answer that question. In keeping with the suspense of a murder mystery, Fisher probed and explored evidence to solve the riddle. And, as it turned out, the heroes of the story turn out to be none other than the Clean Air Act of 1970 and the Chesapeake Bay Restoration Act of 2000. These public investments provided funds to reduce smokestack emissions and upgrade wastewater treatment plants.

Years after the legislation was passed, the impact of these legislative actions on the Bay’s health now show their fingerprints:  improving water quality in the Choptank River at the Rt. 50 bridge.

The Spy spoke to Tom by Zoom last week to talk more about these promising results.

This video is approximately four minutes in length. For more information about UM Center for Environmental Science – Horn Point please go here.

A few years ago, when Dorchester County land conservationist Jerry Harris was awarded UM Horn Point Laboratory’s’ prestigious “Chesapeake Champion,” the Spy was anxious to interview him, as we have for almost every preceding recipient before him.

Sadly we had any equipment failure on that particular day, and the interview was lost. While the award ceremony continued, there was a lingering feeling of regret on our part that we were not able to share with our readers the extraordinary contributions that Jerry has made over the last thirty years for land and bird conservation on the Mid-Shore.

Thankfully, a few weeks ago, Jerry agreed to be interviewed again at the WHCP studio on Race Street.

A California native and UC-Berkeley educated engineer, Jerry Harris is not your typical landowner. While running VWR Scientific, which will eventually turn out to be a $1 billion company based out of Philadelphia, the avid duck hunter quickly decided to find a suitable farm to replicate the hunting grounds he had loved growing up in San Francisco. He found that perfect property with the purchase of Mallard Haven in the 1980s.

Since those early days, Harris and his family have now acquired three farms with close to 1,000 acres of land in Dorchester, all of them serving as demonstration sites to protect migrating waterfowl. He has used these lands to teach other landowners how to use their properties to attract more waterfowl and show how a soil management system can attract ducks and feeds their nutritional needs.

Now serving on the boards of Ducks Unlimited and the Eastern Shore Land Conservancy, Harris also talks about the ultimate regional threat of sea level rising in Dorchester and the need for residents to adapt to this new reality but also be proactive, as with ESLC’s new Delmarva Oasis initiative, to protect what we on the Shore consider our unique ecosystem.

This video is approximately seven minutes in length. For more information about Horn Point Laboratory please go here or here for Ducks Unlimited. Additional video footage courtesy of Horn Point Labs. 

The Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF) has named Josh Kurtz as its new Maryland Executive Director. Kurtz joins CBF after serving as the policy and government relations director for The Nature Conservancy in Maryland. Kurtz previously led advocacy campaigns at the Maryland General Assembly and the D.C. City Council to generate support for environmental conservation and policies to reduce climate change.

Josh Kurtz

In his new role, Kurtz will lead CBF staff in Annapolis and Easton as they work on policies and legislation aimed at helping Maryland reach its 2025 Chesapeake Clean Water Blueprint pollution reduction goals. This includes efforts to plant more trees, conserve forested land, help farmers make environmental improvements, green cities, and ensure the state maintains sustainable fisheries. Kurtz will also oversee the Maryland office’s work to add millions more oysters to the Bay and promote regenerative agriculture throughout the state with tree plantings and farm restoration projects. 

“It’s my pleasure to welcome Josh to CBF and our Maryland team,” said Alison Prost, CBF Vice President for Environmental Protection and Restoration. “He brings with him broad experience addressing Chesapeake Bay pollution issues in Maryland at the state and local levels. His work will focus on engaging the community, educating decision-makers, and strengthening the state’s environmental policy and regulations.” 

Kurtz, a Crownsville resident, worked at The Nature Conservancy from 2013 until joining CBF this month. He has a master’s degree in public policy from George Mason University and a bachelor’s degree in wildlife conservation from the University of Delaware. Kurtz will fill Prost’s previous position after she was promoted to oversee CBF’s watershed-wide environmental protection and restoration efforts. 

“Maryland is working hard to meet the state’s 2025 Chesapeake Bay cleanup goals and these next four years will be key to ensuring the progress we’ve made so far becomes permanent,” said Kurtz. “We need to protect forested land, plant trees, minimize stormwater runoff in cities and towns, and ensure farmers continue to reduce polluted runoff flowing off agricultural land. I’m honored to have the opportunity to join the Maryland team in this important work.” 

In just three years, ShoreRivers has brought nearly $10 million of taxpayer money back to the Delmarva to reduce pollution in our waterways. ShoreRivers works for cleaner rivers by stopping pollution at the source—before it enters the water—and by engaging individuals to make small, compounding changes to create a landscape of collective action for a healthier environment.

At this pivotal moment in our nation’s history, we can clearly see the power an individual can add to a movement through their vote. At ShoreRivers, it is evident that we—and you—are part of something greater: each Riverkeeper is a member of the global Waterkeeper Alliance; your single home yard is part of a conservation corridor creating climate resilience; your sustainable farm is a piece of the two million farmed acres in Maryland; each child is part of the next generation of professionals prioritizing green choices across all sectors; and your gift is one of thousands for cleaner, more accessible water. With your help, ShoreRivers has grown its impact from limited to limitless.

We set a goal to become the clean water voice for the Eastern Shore, and we have done it.

We are a multistate technical provider with the expertise and passion to design, fund, and execute pollution-reducing projects on the micro and macro scale. We are not only “boots on the ground” specialists meeting with farmers to find ways to reduce pollution and increase yield; we are also influencing federal farm policy on behalf of clean water. We are not only teaching in the classroom; we are at the table with the superintendent. We are not only on patrol as Riverkeepers; we are leveraging our credibility to bring in well over $250,000 in pro bono legal and expert support to defend our waterways from polluters. We are not only committed to greater inclusion, access, and justice for diverse communities in the environmental movement; we are emerging as a leader on the Eastern Shore in this work.

With federal, state, local, and individual support, ShoreRivers has taken action against this area’s most destructive pollutants by installing 162 projects—the majority on farmland—that prevent 110,000 pounds of nitrogen, 14,600 pounds of phosphorus, and more than 4 tons of sediment from washing into our waterways every single year.

But the work is not over. On the contrary, in many ways, it is just beginning. This year marks my retirement as well as the retirement of two influential ShoreRivers board members. John Vail and Tim Junkin founded two of our legacy organizations and planted the seeds for ShoreRivers’ success today. To nourish and sustain this momentum, we look forward to fresh, talented, and energetic leadership with Isabel Hardesty at the helm.

I will enthusiastically continue to support ShoreRivers and I truly hope you will as well. Our communities deserve it. And remember: We will clean these rivers.

Jeff Horstman
Executive Director, ShoreRivers