WHAT YOU SEE: A lot of my furniture is from the ’50s and ’60s, or recreated in that style, and I collect random relics from that time period. I’m a nature girl, so lots of fresh flowers and plants spread around the house, mixed with botanical-themed fabrics and art.

HOUSE-TORY: It was built in 1929, and one of the previous owners was a bit of a carpenter and created the built-in shelves and island. A friend of a friend bought it in 2016, and she now lives on the West Coast, so I’ve been delighted to call this home for the past four years. I love sitting in the living room on a sunny afternoon. The west-facing windows let in beautiful light through the dining room and make the plant collection shine. And my couch is exactly the right size for my pit bull, Betty Mae, and me to curl up on and relax.

MAXIMILLION: I’m definitely not a minimalist. I like things neat and orderly, but with color and kitsch. I’ve collected things that reflect my interests over the years, like retro beauty magazines and pinups, weird taxidermies, posters from shows my friends have performed in, and local art from folks in Baltimore.

THESE ARE A FEW OF MY FAVORITE THINGS: My “Duckvine” taxidermy, a duckling modeled after Divine in Pink Flamingos. I’m a vegetarian, so I don’t even eat animals, but this was a gift and is one of my favorite things. My “Queen of Eggs” sash and tiara; I won the infamous Deviled Egg Pageant in 2022 and it’s basically the pinnacle of success to me. I’ve been riding that high ever since. My “Baltimore Burlesque” collection, including autographed Blaze Starr photos, and entry tickets to the Two O’Clock Club she once owned. And my collection of over 70 plants. They are a labor of time and love and money, but I’m extremely proud of them.

IN THE ART STUDIO: I’ve been making all different kinds of art my entire life, and right now I’m in a dried florals phase. This was originally born out of my inability to waste literally anything, even dead flowers. I like to pick up odd nature bits while walking the dog, too, like dried seed pods or anything that catches my interest. Having this room to rearrange and suit my artistic whims is such a blessing.

GREEN HOUSE: I’ve always been barefoot outside playing with nature; it’s how I was raised. Both my parents are gardeners, and that appreciation of plants never left me. The life and vibrancy they add, their various shapes, colors, really transform a room, making it feel more serene to me. And the act of caring for them is scientifically proven to benefit your brain.

A few hundred cobblestone-covered yards away from the moored boats and mewing seagulls of Fells Point’s harbor stands the circa-1882 brick warehouse that houses Patagonia Baltimore. Inside, skylights illuminate the lofty, 15,000-square-foot, brick-and-beam former boathouse, now filled with racks of Patagonia gear.

Turkish rugs cover the cement floors. A long wooden communal table is at the center, near a model of a boat that’s an attraction for the kids and dogs that sometimes outnumber shoppers. And if you look up, above all the raincoats and fleece vests and puffer jackets, you can see the Steampunk remnants of two enormous metal-and-wood cranes, relics of the building’s shipbuilding origins.

When Patagonia Baltimore opened in November 2022, it became the Ventura, California-based company’s largest store. Of the 70 Patagonia stores worldwide, 40 are in North America, and only six are outlets—hybrid stores where current-season clothing and gear are sold in addition to heavily discounted past-season stock—of which Patagonia Baltimore is the latest.

“It’s the biggest [Patagonia] store in the world,” says store manager Craig Orn, sitting at that communal table on a recent morning.

On a nearby column is a chalkboard that serves as the month’s activity calendar and lists the events the store has organized: community hikes, bike rides, and runs; morning yoga sessions; book club meetings; in-house movie nights; environ- mental clean-ups; and, yes, outlet sales.

“Every weekend, we have some kind of core sport,” says Orn. “If something aligns with our values, we want to be able to support the community.”

He emphasizes the importance of getting out into that community as much as outfitting it, because Patagonia has always been as much about what you do with its gear as the gear itself.

Patagonia was founded in 1973 by Yvon Chouinard, now 85, a former rock climber, environmentalist, businessman, philanthropist, and self-taught blacksmith who was named one of Time’s 100 most influential people in the world last year. Chouinard also made headlines in 2022, when he transferred ownership of Patagonia to the Patagonia Purpose Trust, the profits from which are to address climate change and to protect land.

“Our owner now is technically the Earth,” says Ty Baxter, Patagonia Baltimore’s assistant store manager.

Beyond and above the showroom, there are the offices, meeting rooms, a fully equipped kitchen (recycling, composting), and high-ceilinged storerooms comprising an additional 15,000 square feet of space. Repeating rows of labeled cardboard boxes stuffed with clothing are stacked on shelves that extend from one room to another like an old-school library or government archive.

So why, of all the neighborhoods in all the cities in America, did Patagonia pick Fells Point for their biggest store yet? Baltimore, explains Baxter, sits on the Eastern Seaboard in a storeless gap between New York City and Virginia, where Patagonia has locations, and builds on a store and a market already in D.C.

“They centralized in Baltimore,” he says. It didn’t hurt that our rents are cheaper than D.C.’s and that this is an old port city, built by people who worked on the water and populated by people who—especially after the recent clean-harbor swim and celebration and Katie Pumphrey’s swim from the Bay Bridge to the Inner Harbor—understand its value.

“A lot of big things are based in Baltimore, environmentally speaking,” says Baxter. “The National Aquarium is here, Chesapeake Bay Foundation, [Ocean City-based environmental nonprofit] Surfrider Foundation has a chapter in Annapolis, and then grassroots organizations like Blue Water Baltimore, Backyard Basecamp, Waterkeepers Chesapeake, Pigtown Climbs.

“The outdoorsy people saw a lot of environmental work being done,” he continues, noting the proximity of the Baltimore store to Living Classrooms, the environmental education nonprofit a block away; the light-rail network; and all the new construction along the Inner Harbor. “I think they got into Baltimore at a good time. Our stores are meant to be a resource for the community, so we thought we could do some good here.”

That good translates into a lot more than discounted gear. Every Patagonia retail store has a grant process and an amount of money to award annually.

“It’s really down to the local store level to decide who’s going to be able to apply for those grants, with some guidelines from our corporate structures,” says Baxter of the Baltimore store. “The goal is to connect with local nonprofits at the grassroots level fighting the environmental crisis.”

Before the Baltimore store had even opened, its staff had already connected with Blue Water Baltimore, the environmental nonprofit that acts as a watchdog for the area’s waterways, to be the first nonprofit partner. Since then, five more grantees have been added, a process that happens every year, when new organizations are added or subtracted or grants are renewed. Backyard Base Camp, Chesapeake Legal Alliance, and Waterfront Partnership have been among the grantees.

“We support local, grassroots, environmental organizations,” says Baxter. Grants vary in size, but typically range from $5,000 to $20,000 per year. “Baltimore’s grants are general operating grants; we don’t stipulate what organizations use it for. Grassroots environmental issues are the key thing.”

Patagonia has three ways of funding: through retail stores, through corporate grants, and through international grants. Community work also extends to making product donations, volunteering hours—Patagonia pays for its staff to volunteer 18 hours per year—and hosting events for groups in Patagonia’s large space.

“THE PEOPLE WHO ARE THE MOST OBVIOUS ADVOCATES FOR CLEAN WATER ARE THE PEOPLE ON THE WATER.”

Area cleanups in city parks are a pivotal part of Patagonia’s outreach and community service. Recent cleanups have been organized in Patterson Park, Druid Hill Park, and Middle Branch Park, both on the shore and in the water. Co-hosted by Baltimore City Recreation & Parks and Blue Water Baltimore, the Middle Branch Park cleanup was one of the largest put together so far, with 50 volunteers helping to collect more than 500 pounds of trash and recyclables.

Alice Volpitta, a water quality scientist for Blue Water Baltimore and the nonprofit’s Baltimore Harbor Waterkeeper, was on hand, helping to direct the cleanup. Volunteers, including a large group from Canton Kayak Club, paddled around the park and nearby marina in kayaks and canoes, filling bags with trash, much of it including plastic bottles that were later tallied and recycled. Then Patagonia fed the crowd with a barbecue, presented talks by activists and hosts, and collected signatures to support a proposed state Bottle Bill to incentivize recycling. Patagonia Baltimore hasn’t supported other legislation so far, but the Bottle Bill is something they’re particularly eager to get behind.

“Our partnership with Patagonia began years ago,” Volpitta says, noting how individual store employees are the ones making Patagonia’s grant-allocation decisions. “It’s hyper-local, which is really cool.”

Before Patagonia opened the Baltimore store, Waterkeepers in other areas had gotten funding through Patagonia, but not Blue Water Baltimore, as funding is tied to local stores. As soon as Baltimore Patagonia opened, says Volpitta, her nonprofit was able to get funding, and has since partnered with them on events.

“The other really cool thing about Patagonia is that they’re not afraid to be advocates. Because the people who are the most obvious advocates for clean water are the people on the water,” Volpitta continues. “I think it’s just a really natural relationship,” she says of partnering with Patagonia.

“When we talk among our staff about issues that are important to us, water quality is one of the big ones,” says Baxter. “Obviously, the Chesapeake Bay comes right to our doorstep. It’s all really connected.”

Those connections—between water and land, commerce and environment, gear and what you do with it—are what Patagonia continues to underscore.

It’s worth noting that their stuff is not cheap, in terms of price or quality. These are not the products found in Targets or other big-box retailers’ outdoor clothing sections, but high-quality, long-lasting sports, mountain, and water gear—most of which can be worn casually that is now almost entirely made of recycled materials. Making stuff that lasts and is durable enough to withstand heavy use in sometimes seriously inclement conditions is important, even lifesaving. After all, Patagonia did start as a rock-climbing equipment company.

It’s also good PR, as a recent tongue-in-cheek documentary from Patagonia Films called The Shitthropocene demonstrates. The 45-minute film, which was shown on one of the Fells store’s movie nights, is described as “an anthropological exploration of humanity’s consumption habits, turning a satirical yet brutally honest eye on how everything is turning to shit and why the impulse toward buying more crap might destroy us all.” Imagine an Afterschool Special crossed with District 9—and yes, a clothing company advocating against buying more stuff.

“We really want to be a hub, even if you don’t shop here for our clothes,” says David Smith, the store’s “customer experience guide.” (Patagonia’s hyper-earnest job titles are not parodied in their recent doc, perhaps a missed opportunity.) “That’s why I think all of us are here. That’s why we’re able to throw ourselves into all of these different activities and events.”

With a decade’s worth of previous experience  running bookstores, Smith takes a particular interest in Patagonia’s book club. The club, which meets the last Tuesday of each month and usually draws over a dozen people, features books that Patagonia has under its imprint like Tools for Grassroots Activists by Nora Gallagher and Lisa Myers, a recent pick. The idea is not just to sell books, Smith says, but to engage with both books and readers, inviting speakers and dialog. Smith, who has young kids and is himself a writer, is hoping to feature the one children’s book that Patagonia has so far published, a bilingual storybook in both English and Spanish.

If the Fells Point store serves as a locus for books and movies, it’s Baltimore’s outdoors that is the locus of most of Patagonia’s events. One weekend, the store’s activism lead, Alicia Goodrich, might be bagging trash at the Middle Branch cleanup; another, leading a hike through Druid Hill Park with her dogs.

In her role, she helps support volunteers, heads up events, and coordinates with nonprofits. She also helps connect the nonprofits the company funds to store employees, both in Baltimore and company-wide, like Vincent Stanley, Patagonia’s director of philosophy—yes, that’s his actual title—and one of Patagonia’s original employees, who virtually attended a recent book club meeting.

“If we give more data to legislators,” Goodrich says about the cleanup events, which meticulously document what’s cleaned up and where, “and if we can throw a party alongside it, can volunteering become contagious? Can it be something that we’re just crazy excited to do?”

For Patagonia’s staff, at least, those are rhetorical questions. It’s one thing to organize cleanups and provide free yoga classes, but what of the larger issue of rampant consumerism that Patagonia’s cheeky doc highlights? Patagonia is, after all, a store that sells fancy ski overalls and reversible hoodies for babies.

“The clothing industry at large contributes, like, 10 percent to the climate crisis, which is massive,” says Baxter. “And a main way of changing that is being in the industry ourselves. Patagonia recognizes that we’re part of the problem. We’re really ramping up the worn wear, upcycling, and reusing.”

Goodrich considers Baltimore an ideal community to continue that project. “I think Baltimore is the perfect city to have people come together around [the idea of reuse]—like clothing swaps and learning how to repair. I love working with Bmore Fabric Swap,” she says, calling out the semi-annual event from Baltimore’s sewing community that not only trades materials but donates any leftovers.

“More and more of our line is recycled or preferred material,” says Baxter. “We use some bio-based material, like a natural rubber versus a urethane or oil-based rubber, which goes into our wetsuits. This season something like 94 percent of our line is recycled material. And when we redesign a product, part of the designer’s intention is to make it more repairable.”

Patagonia has a repair service, in which items with, say, a broken zipper or a tear can be fixed and returned for free. The idea, of course, is that the gear and clothing is durable, but also that it’s made so that if it rips or breaks, it can be repaired, which is less and less the case in our disposable world.

In the Fells store on a recent morning, shoppers slalomed around the racks and displays—Patagonia books, tinned fish from Patagonia Provisions, an installation highlighting the city’s waterways and how Blue Water Baltimore works to protect them—checking out deeply discounted merchandise. Some folks, already spent by another August heatwave, lounged on couches arranged around a coffee table. A dog fell asleep on the floor. It all resembled someone’s living room, albeit someone with a lot of very nice, often waterproof clothes.

Alice Volpitta and Theaux Le Gardeur keep a close watch on the health of our waterways.

By Emily Gaines Buchler

Photography by Mike Morgan

Alice Volpitta spent her childhood catching tadpoles and skipping stones in Gunpowder Falls, the freshwater river running through a steep ravine in her hometown, Monkton, in northern Baltimore County. The rat-tat-tatting of woodpeckers echoed in the dense hemlock forest, while the rolling hills were lush with blue and gold wildflowers

Years later, Volpitta’s upbringing on the river compelled her to devote her life to cleaning up the waterways flowing south into the Patapsco River.

Today, she serves as the Baltimore Harbor waterkeeper with the nonprofit Blue Water Baltimore, an organization founded in 2010 with a mission to restore the health of the city’s rivers, streams, and harbor, “plagued for decades by trash, toxins, polluted stormwater, and sewage runoff,” Volpitta explains.

Volpitta’s status as waterkeeper makes her one of roughly 300 waterkeepers (or riverkeepers, they’re sometimes called) worldwide. Licensed through the nonprofit organization Waterkeeper Alliance, Volpitta is part of a grassroots movement dedicated to defending the human right to safe drinking, fishing, and swimming water around the globe.

The movement started in the 1960s along the Hudson River in New York, where fishermen noticed industrial contaminants killing fish they had long relied on as food. Years of activism led to legislation to restore the river—and to other groups uniting in the fight for clean water by forming the Waterkeeper Alliance in 1983.

As Baltimore Harbor waterkeeper, Volpitta harnesses skills learned as a biology and environmental science major at St. Mary’s College to test water at 49 spots across the city.

“My title is a misnomer because I monitor the Gwynns Falls, the Jones Falls—the entire tidal and nontidal tributaries that flow into the harbor and Patapsco River, and my jurisdiction includes the entire Back River watershed,” Volpitta says.

She posts test results on an interactive map on Blue Water Baltimore’s website, where the color red reveals a failure to meet state-mandated water quality standards and green signifies a pass.

At the time of this writing, clusters of red decorate the map along the Gwynns Falls and waters off of Canton Park and Locust Point, while greens garnish the upper Jones Falls and most of the Baltimore Harbor. Volpitta attributes the hard-earned greens to fewer sewage overflows upstream and an increased tree canopy and vegetative buffer along the streams, which mitigate polluted stormwater runoff.

Weather also influences water quality in urban environments, with rainfall often leading to higher bacteria readings throughout the watershed. But the reds and greens can change in a day, and no site id pollution-free.

“Our waterways are teeming with life, but they’re sick and need our help,” Volpitta says. “The problems are many: chlorides caused by over-salting roads, a legacy of factories using our waterways as dumping grounds, a crumbling sewage infrastructure, and lack of proper stormwater drainage—all of this spells trouble.”

Pathogens from sewage overflows carry one of the biggest public health concerns. From mild cases of diarrhea to life-threatening conditions like cholera and dysentery, potential illnesses from sewer water make contaminated water unsafe to swim in or touch.

To combat this, Volpitta holds community meetings and events to generate awareness. “The last thing I want to do is tell people not to come in contact with water, but the community deserves to know,” she says.

“Our waterways are teeming with life, but they’re sick and need our help.”

 

While Volpitta keeps an eye on the harbor, her colleague Theaux Le Gardeur keeps his sights on Baltimore’s watershed areas, including waterways that supply the city’s drinking water.

Waterkeepers like Volpitta and Le Gardeur spend as much time monitoring contamination levels as they do advocating for clean water and holding polluters accountable.

“Our responsibility as waterkeepers is to enforce the Clean Water Act passed in 1972 by the Nixon administration,” explains Le Gardeur, who is riverkeeper of the Bush and nearby Gunpowder River and their watersheds, which include the Prettyboy and Loch Raven Reservoirs that supply drinking water to the 1.5 million residents in and around Baltimore.

“People think we work for a state or federal agency, but we do the opposite: We make sure government agencies and all others— small businesses, big businesses, even people out on the water having fun—follow laws that protect water and ultimately the communities.”

“Clean water
benefits everyone
involved, and
resolutions like
this are a win-win
for us all.”

Like Volpitta, Le Gardeur grew up frolicking in the playground of the great outdoors. Originally from Covington, Louisiana, Le Gardeur vacationed as a child with his parents in North Carolina’s Appalachian Mountains, learning to fly fish on the Cullasaja River, brimming with waterfalls—and trout.

His passion for fly fishing brought him to Volpitta’s hometown, Monkton, where he now operates a fly-fishing shop, Backwater Anglers, and is the executive director of the nonprofit Gunpowder RIVERKEEPER® (GRK).

On top of running the store and leading fly-fishing expeditions, Le Gardeur patrols waterways in his canoes and skiffs and works with pro bono attorneys to craft legal arguments against violations of the Clean Water Act.

In 2020, for instance, GRK issued an intent to sue the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), arguing that the EPA failed to enforce the Maryland Department of the Environment’s timely cleanup of polychlorinated biphenyls, a toxic chemical banned in 1979, in parts of the Gunpowder and Bird Rivers, which flow into the Chesapeake Bay.

In another case, Le Gardeur argued against a permit allowing a wastewater treatment plant in Carroll County to discharge water into a stream flowing into Baltimore County’s Western Run that would eventually end up in the Loch Raven Reservoir. Le Gardeur dropped the lawsuit after two years of deliberation in exchange for the plant adhering to tighter testing and transparency in reporting—a precedent that changed the public notice requirement for more than 150 similarly sized wastewater plants statewide. The plant also  agreed to contribute $20,000 to GRK’s work to promote clean water.

“Clean water benefits everyone involved, and resolutions like this are a win-win for us all,” Le Gardeur says.

Planting a tree is almost like giving birth. They start out really tiny, get bigger and bigger, branch out (literally), and hopefully begin to blossom. It’s a cool but daunting process. But where to begin?

“It’s important for people to think about the future when they think about trees,” says Leanna Powell of Blue Water Baltimore. The nonprofit organization, which aims to maintain and restore the health of local waterways, plants trees throughout the region’s watersheds—everywhere from schools and private institutions to streets and yards.

“Trees can affect the foundation of homes and sidewalks,” says Powell. “They require watering and maintenance and pruning. So we absolutely want people to plant trees and be well-prepared to take care of them [long term.]”

Once the hands-on, decades-long commitment has been established, you’re ready to start the tree-ownership process. But you’ll want to wait to plant until the timing is just right.

“Trees can be planted any time the ground is workable—that is, not frozen or too soggy,” explains Miri Talabac, a horticulture consultant with University of Maryland’s Home & Garden Information Center.

According to Powell, this means early spring, with finer soil and warmer weather for planting. But in Talabac’s opinion, autumn is also pretty ideal when it comes to tree planting. “Air temperatures are cooling, rains tend to be reliable, and the soil remains warm to support good root establishment.”

However, when purchasing a tree, it doesn’t hurt to get an early start. “Nurseries tend to begin stocking up on new supplies in March, so from the perspective of options, early spring is an excellent time to browse,” Talabac says.

Like Powell, she suggests prioritizing native species, such as oak and serviceberry, adding that for those who plan to plant multiple trees at once, diversity is key—particularly when it comes to navigating weather fluctuations. But beyond this—save for picking up important tools including round- tipped shovels, mulch, tarp, and hand cultivators for detangling roots—Talabac and Powell agree that choosing the right tree comes down to knowing the dynamics of the chosen planting space.

“One of the most important things to think about is how big this tree is going to get,” Powell says. “Also, how wet is your soil? How much sun or shade is this tree going to receive? Some species like sycamores love wet environments and low-lying land, where another tree might not do as well.”

Above all, Talabac advises newcomers to “do research and avoid impulse buying.” And when in doubt, Powell suggests attending volunteer tree-planting sessions, like the ones hosted by Blue Water Baltimore.

“You can plant a couple of trees in an hour, and that hour of your life will make a permanent difference,” says Powell. “Those trees will probably outlive you, and that’s an amazing thing.”

OTHERWORLDLY ART

This Earth Day, Wednesday April 22, American Visionary Art Museum founder Rebecca Hoffberger will lead viewers through a free virtual tour of AVAM’s brand-new exhibit, “The Secret Life of Earth.” Now extended through January 2021, the environmentally focused exhibit speaks to the importance and interconnectedness of nature. Filled with a range of whimsical artworks, expect the likes of paper flowers, driftwood sculptures, intricate beaded animal sculptures, recovered plastic litter installations, satellite images from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, and a brief pollinator film by Fantasic Funghi director Louie Schwartzberg.

GREEN LIVESTREAMS

Blue Water Baltimore is evolving in the times of coronavirus with a schedule of virtual events. This week, the local environmental nonprofit is hosting an Earth Day Q&A happy hour, featuring conversation with Baltimore Harbor waterkeeper Alice Volpitta and the launch of their 2020 Baltimore Water Watch report on the health of the Gwynns Falls, Jones Falls, Baltimore Harbor, and Patapsco River. It takes place this Wednesday from 4-6 p.m. via Zoom with a $10 suggested donation. Check back each week for more Facebook Live Q&As on Wednesdays at noon, featuring topics like native gardens, tree plantings, and water health, as well as Fridays at noon, for all things flowers with Herring Run Nursery.

CRABS IN THE TIME OF COVID

On April 1, Maryland’s commercial crab season opened to an unusual start in the wake of the global coronavirus pandemic. With many restaurants closed under Governor Hogan’s social distancing restrictions, one of the industry’s main markets—crab houses touting the state’s iconic crab feast—virtually disappeared overnight. Meanwhile, three of the state’s nine crab-picking houses have received a portion of their seasonal guest workers, who arrive each spring on H-2B visas from Mexico and elsewhere in Latin America, with new safety measures in place such as six-foot workspace spacing, daily temperature checks, and personal protection equipment. Failing to receive workers in the federal lottery system, the other six processing houses remain closed. Meanwhile, seafood markets remain open, with some sighting similar business to years past, while watermen are looking for new ways to distribute their catch, with eateries like The Local Oyster now selling steamed crabs for carry-out. Some watermen fear decreased demand will lead to increased supply and effectively lower crab prices, though with crabs largely not inundating Maryland waters until late spring and early summer, it is unclear how the industry will be impacted long-term.

MPT’S CHESAPEAKE BAY WEEK RETURNS

In the midst of coronavirus quarantine, Maryland Public Television’s annual Chesapeake Bay Week, now in its 16th year, couldn’t have arrived at a better time, with a full evening lineup of local programming on the nation’s largest estuary, on air through April 25. Learn about the likes of the bay’s iconic lighthouses with the brand-new Chesapeake Beacons, rising sea levels with Tidewater, local river-keepers with A Voice for the Rivers, the state’s historic shad fishery in Shad Run, and all things oysters with Oysterfest, as well as some of MPT’s highest viewed specials, Eatin’ Crabs: Chesapeake Style and Eatin’ Oysters: Chesapeake Style. The programs are also available for livestream viewing via mpt.org.

FERRY SERVICE

The Maryland Department of Transportation has struck down the proposal of a publicly operated car ferry as an alternative to a new third crossing of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. In a recently released 43-page report, MDOT argues that, as a stand-alone option, a ferry would not alleviate congestion at the current spans along Route 50 between Anne Arundel and Queen Anne’s counties, and would also cost up to $3.4 billion to build and operate. (Past estimates project a third span could cost upwards of $7 billion.) Officials have recommended that such operations be considered in combination with other transportation alternatives. Several car-carrying ferries used to operate on the Chesapeake before ceasing operations in 1952 following the completion of the first existing span.

TOXIC TAKEDOWN

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, this spring’s Maryland legislative session was adjourned early for the first time since the Civil War. But while some eco measures fell to the wayside, such as a push for sustainably designed state buildings, the General Assembly did pass a win for environmentalists during the final minutes on March 19 with a ban on chlorpyrifos, a harmful pesticide linked to brain damage in children, as well as disorientation and death in wildlife. The European Union, plus California, New York, and Hawaii, have also banned the chemical, making Maryland the fourth state in the U.S. to do so. Though final amendments included a sunset clause for June 2024, as well as waivers for particular green bean growers and orchardists, advocates feel the legislation is still a step in the right direction.

TRASH TALK

As coronavirus-related quarantine orders are creating positive environmental impacts across the globe, the Order of the Wheel, a secret society of Baltimore’s beloved Mr. Trash Wheel, has returned to recruit its third pledge class of green stewards who will work to protect local waterways. Run by Waterfront Partnership—which oversees the garbage-eating, water-cleaning receptacles around the region—applications are open through May 11, with participants required to complete five green tasks over five weeks times. Each is tailored for at-home or socially distanced outdoor activities, such as recycling used goods and creating your own water filter. As of Monday, some 470 residents have signed up, with approximately half being new pledges.

BAY UPDATES

The Chesapeake Bay Program has released its annual Bay Barometer health report with a new look. Focused on updates to the goals and outcomes of the multi-state Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement, the report now highlights only the latest indicators of progress, many of which have been previously reported. For the 2018-2019 year, seven key takeaways include that record rainfall led to the highest amount of freshwater entering the estuary since monitoring began in 1937, contributing to lower salinity levels in parts of the bay and the largest observed dead zone in the past five years. Meanwhile, the Department of Natural Resources’ 2019 winter dredge survey suggests the population of blue crabs increased nearly 60 percent last summer—news that incited a flurry of headlines at the time—while harvests were below the overfishing threshold. The 2020 survey is due out in late spring. In addition, underwater grasses are slightly down, but still make up an estimated 91,559 acres of the Chesapeake Bay and its tidal tributaries. The report also pointed to increased efforts in land conservation, pollution reduction, and public access.

HARBOR REFRESH

This fall, Baltimore City approved a $17-million redevelopment of Inner Harbor’s Rash Field Park between the Maryland Science Center and the Rusty Scupper restaurant. The first phase of the urban greenspace’s major makeover will include the creation of a children’s nature park, kinetic playground, shade lawn, a dedicated skatepark, and a pavilion with an overlook and outdoor café. Construction is set to begin in January 2020 and completed by spring 2021. Fundraising efforts are also underway for Phase II, which is slated to include an updated beach volleyball court and beach, jogging lanes, and a bird and butterfly lab. The goal is to create “a safe and central place for families city-wide,” according to the Waterfront Partnership website. The nonprofit has been working on this 7.5-acre project since 2015.

NO BAGGAGE

In late November, the Baltimore City Council approved a citywide plastic-bag ban, which will prohibit single-use plastic bags at retail locations. Shoppers will now be chargeda five-cent fee per bag taken at checkout, including plastic, paper, and compostable bags, which lawmakers hope will reduce plastic bag waste and encourage the use of reusable bags. After eight prior attempts at plastic bag reduction ordinances since 2006, the current bill passed 13 to 1, and it now advances to the desk of Mayor Jack Young, who has expressed support for the initiative.

FOAM FREE

In late October, Baltimore’s ban on Styrofoam containers went into effect, prohibiting the use of polystyrene foam to-go boxes, trays, bowls, cups—we’re looking at you, snowballs—and more, with fines for restaurants, grocery stores, and other food providers failing to comply starting at $200. Maryland will become the first state in the country to take such measures when its statewide ban, approved in late May, goes into effect next year on July 1, 2020. Maine passed similar legislature a few weeks prior, with its bill going into effect on January 1, 2021. The moves are seen as a win for environmental advocates as the material often ends up in the Chesapeake Bay and does not break down.

UP, UP, AND AWAY?

Months after the Eastern Shore’s Queen Anne’s County passed a legislation that imposed a civil fine of $250 on the release of helium-filled balloons, becoming to the first county in Maryland to approve such measures, Senator Clarence Lam of Baltimore and Howard counties introduced legislation in late November that would impose similar sanctions statewide. Advocates argue that released balloons are an environmental hazard, often polluting nature and waterways, with the potential for harming wildlife if ingested. The bill will be considered during the next legislative session, beginning in January 2020.

BIRDS IN FLIGHT

Shortly after it was announced that the Trump administration is considering dramatic cuts to the Endangered Species Act of 1973, a new study published in the journal Science reported that North American bird populations have plummeted by nearly 30 percentsince 1970. That’s the loss of some three billion birds over the past half century, which avian experts have called a “full-blown crisis.” Myriad causes likely include habitat loss, building construction design, and use of pesticides. The Endangered Species Act is noted for helping to recover wildlife such as the bald eagle—an icon of the Chesapeake Bay whose populations had been dramatically impacted by the use of pesticide DDT. According to the study, two out of five Baltimore orioles have disappeared.

TREES OF LIFE

In late October, Blue Water Baltimore planted more than 70 trees in honor of late Baltimore native, Congressman Elijah Cummings, who passed away in October. In collaboration with the Port of Baltimore and the HeartSmiles youth program, nearly as many volunteers, including the likes of Congressman John Sarbanes, planted oak and evergreen saplings along Broening Highway. “Congressman Cummings advocated for all of Baltimore and for a greater degree of civility and compassion in all our collective work,” said BWB executive director Jenn Aiosa. “Coming together for this tree planting represents his vision and what he stood for.”

It has taken Baltimore City a little longer than some of its national counterparts to come around on banning plastic bag use in retailers across town. But, with a widely supported new bill that is likely to advance in the city council Monday, that’s about to change.

Baltimore has tried with no avail to pass several different versions of a bill that, at one point, would have banned plastic bags altogether. Now, with the new Comprehensive Bag Reduction bill, a ban on plastic bags and a five-cent fee on paper and compostable bags would be imposed to help the city and retailers recoup costs.

“We’ve reached a point where most people accept the fact that this issue is one where the time has come,” says city councilman Bill Henry, a champion for this issue. “In previous iterations, there were people who raised the issue over whether we needed to do this at all. That has not been part of public debate this time.”

As city leaders and concerned citizens search for ways to curb pollutants across town, reducing the amount of plastic bags has become widely accepted as the prudent thing to do.

The piece of legislation—which will be brought to a second reading vote Monday night should the city council agree upon amendments relating to agency jurisdiction and fees—is a concrete step to doing just that. Henry’s hope is that the bill will be brought to a vote on Monday, however, in the off chance that procedural issues aren’t sorted out (technically the council is not advised to vote on a bill the same day it comes out of committee) it could be further delayed.

From there, there are a few more hoops to jump through before it reaches the mayor’s desk, but Mayor Bernard C. “Jack” Young has voiced support, and Henry is optimistic that the issue he’s been championing since 2008 will finally see the light of day: “This is how civilization works,” Henry says. “We ban the things that are not good.”

Under the law as currently written, businesses would have a year to go through their current stock of plastic bags and make the necessary adjustments. Retailers have come out in support of the initiative, taking their own steps to adjust to its parameters. Local grocery store Eddie’s of Roland Park, for example, has already begun offering shoppers a five-cent credit for each reusable bag they provide for their groceries.

“As we continuously look to improve the shopping experience at Eddie’s with an eye towards environmental responsibility, we felt this was a natural place to make an impact,” says Andrew Schaffer, co-owner of Eddie’s in a press release. “We want to reward customers for supporting green efforts.”

If the bill passes, Henry expects that the city will do its part to educate citizens on how to reduce their plastic bag usage. He hopes that officials will also encourage shoppers to bring their own reusable bags, and even go as far as handing them out to those who might not have the means to acquire their own.

Under the ban, a five-cent fee will be applied to paper or compostable bags, with the city keeping one cent of the fee and retailers retaining four. Henry thinks that the city could start to see the effects of the ban by late next year. When it comes to the city’s current intake, Baltimore’s Mr. Trash Wheel has collected more than 650,000 plastic bags since 2014. Activists hope that the famed garbage collector will see less work should a ban be instituted.

“We’re now looking for ways to be more proactive for sources of some of the pollutants entering our streams, streets, and harbor,” says Jenn Aiosa, executive director of Blue Water Baltimore, an organization that takes a holistic approach to promoting clean waterways in the city. “Folks are having to consider what the alternatives might be to plastic bags, and they’re thinking about the impact of their choices on a daily basis.”

Baltimore’s pollutants don’t just come in from the city, but also its surrounding areas, and this ban is the start to fixing a larger problem. With this in mind, Aiosa is also quick to caution that a piece of legislation isn’t going to be a be-all-end-all solution.

“Sometimes it takes several tries before an idea catches on,” Aiosa says. “This is an awesome opportunity to reconnect with the notion that simple changes can have an impact on the world around us.”

Those of us who are city residents tend to regard our relationship with nature as an afterthought. Our interaction with wildlife typically involves securing our trashcan lids to deter rats and the occasional smell of fresh-cut grass feels like nothing short of a revelation.

But, in truth, people living in urban areas are surrounded by nature—whether we realize it or not. And the National Wildlife Federation (NWF) wants to remind city residents there are things they can do to protect biodiversity and watershed health right in their own backyard. For the second year in a row, the national organization is hosting Baltimore Wildlife Week from May 3-11, a chance for community members to come together to increase green space, mitigate nuisance flooding, improve water quality, and beautify neighborhoods.

“We were really inspired by similar events in Los Angeles and Seattle, but this is the only event like this on the East Coast,” says Holly Gallagher, NWF regional education manager. “In Baltimore, specifically, it will be a lot about focusing on pollinators, the Chesapeake Bay watershed and iconic species that people can relate like orioles and oysters.”

The organization has worked with a number of partners over the past eight months to plan the week-long program including the National Aquarium, Waterfront Partnership, Blue Water Baltimore, neighborhood associations, and what may seem like an unlikely partner in Charm City Meadworks—which has really embraced the cause and ran with it.

“We produce a product that relies heavily on clean water, bees, and other pollinators every day,” says Derek Vaughn Brown, marketing coordinator at Charm City Meadworks, which is making a special mead with local ingredients for the occasion. “It’s hard to sit idly by when you make something that relies on nature and so we’ve help take the lead on bringing people together and creating some fun events.”

Those events kick off these weekend in the Meadworks taproom, first with a dance party where urban creature costumes are encouraged and a portion of the proceeds go to Baltimore Wildlife Week. The taproom will also feature a pop-up exhibition curated by local artist Bridget Parlato, a show where scientists will discuss their research and get “gonged” if it gets too wonky, and a Jones Falls Watershed walking tour on Sunday that benefits Blue Water Baltimore and Baltimore Heritage.

“The easiest way to physically show people how close we are to nature is take this two-mile walk from Druid Hill Park down to Round Falls,” Brown says. “The idea is to walk along the river, ask thought-provoking questions, and realize nature is all around us.”

Beyond that, there are a ton of other environmental events throughout the week, including a volunteer cleanup on May 6 at Camden Yards, where NWF created a 10,000-square-foot oriole habitat to try and attract the real birds to the stadium. Plus, community conservation forum will take place at Whitelock Farm in Reservoir Hill, the B’More Wild Fest & GreenScape will take over Middle Branch Park, and the first community-preserved forest in Baltimore City will be celebrated in the Glenham-Belhar neighborhood.

“Our big goal is to make these events accessible to different neighborhoods and utilize underused space in the city,” Gallagher says. “We try to focus on issues that are important to people—whether it’s reducing trash, saving money on energy bills, or improving your mental and physical health by having a green space to walk to.”

Gallagher stresses that, while this is a wonderful week to focus on the environment, NWF is working on these initiatives in urban areas all year-round. In fact, last year the organization helped establish Baltimore City as a certified Community Wildlife Habitat, something that may come as a surprise when you choose to only see brick, Formstone, and concrete.

“The more we work with community residents, the more these neighborhoods will change,” Gallagher says. “If kids grow up with that change already instilled in them, there are more likely to have that environmental stewardship as a priority from the start.”

BAD GRADES
After records rains and subsequently excessive runoff pollution in 2018, the Chesapeake Bay’s biennial report card was released earlier this month with a downgrade to a D+ from a C- in 2016. At the time, the grade was the highest grade received since the assessment was launched in 1998 by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. While the recent change was the first time the score had declined in a decade, there were some signs of improvement, such as increased oxygen levels throughout the estuary’s waterways and survival of underwater grasses despite the weather-related diluge. The CBF continues to stress the importance of watershed-wide cleanup efforts and the persistence of environmental regulations currently threatened by the Trump administration.

FARMERS UNITED
In mid-December, Congress approved the 2019 Farm Bill, which will allocate some $867 billion in federal subsidies to American farmers. In addition the bill legalizes hemp and provides permanent funding for programs such as farmers’ market promotion, organic farming research, and organizations working to train the next generation of farmers. The state of Maryland has more than 12,000 farms across some two million acres of land. The bill has also preserved the Conservation Stewardship Program, which works with farmers to strengthen their conservations efforts. It also triples the amount of funding available for the Regional Conservation Partnership Program, which locally works to reduce farm runoff into the Chesapeake Bay. The Farm Bill is the largest source of funding to help with such efforts throughout the watershed, providing upwards of $130 million to regional farmers each year to improve their environmental impact.

DNR CHANGES
Earlier this month, Governor Hogan nominated Jeannie Haddaway-Riccio to be Maryland’s new secretary to the Department of Natural Resources, which oversees fishing, hunting, boating, parks, wildlife, waterways, and forests throughout the state. Scheduled to start in February following confirmation by the Senate, she will replace Mark Belton, who stepped down from him position shortly after the New Year to resume his former post as Charles County administrator. Haddaway-Riccio currently serves as Hogan’s deputy chief of staff, where she advises on environment-related issues. She also represented the Eastern Shore in the House of Delegates from 2003 to 2015.

OUT OF THIS WORLD
We’ll consider space news environmental news for the time being as, just this week, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft mission released the first detailed images of the Ultima Thule—a small, two-sphered object located on the edge of our solar system and the most distant object ever explored in space. While Ultima Thule is located in the Kuiper Belt some four billion miles from Earth, the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in in our backyard of Laurel designed, built, and currently operates the New Horizons spacecraft, and also manages the mission. With the first photographs received around 5 a.m. on January 1, the lab celebrated with flyby festivities on New Year’s Day.

URBAN FOREST
Blue Water Baltimore has worked to transform a controversial stretch of highway median into a verdant greenspace in the heart of West Baltimore. Over the past two years, the local nonprofit and other citywide volunteer efforts have planted nearly 500 trees in the middle of U.S. Route 40 between Fulton Avenue and Martin Luther King Boulevard, aka Baltimore’s “Highway to Nowhere,” which historically displaced more than 1,000 residents, most of whom were African-Americans, in the mid-20th century. The first two phases were completed with help from Volunteering Untapped, community residents, and local school groups, while the third and final phases were completed this past November with the Baltimore Tree Trust and Bon Secours Clean and Green Landscaping Team. The trees will be watered in the summertime by the Baltimore City YouthWorks program.

IN SESSION

As a new legislative session began in Annapolis last week, a number of environmental issues are on the docket for consideration by local lawmakers. The Chesapeake Bay Foundation is seeking legislation to protect Chesapeake Bay tributaries selected for large-scale restorations from future oyster harvest, as well as the development of a new fishery management plan for the bivalves. Meanwhile the Clean Energy Jobs initiative aims to increase the state’s renewable energy goals, which currently includes receiving 25 percent of Maryland energy from renewable sources such as solar and wind by 2020, to half of statewide energy being renewable by 2030, followed by all by 2040. Following similar legislation in states such as Pennsylvania, local environmentalists are also pushing for a state constitutional amendment that guarantees Marylanders the right to uncontaminated water, breathable air, and a healthy environment.

GOING GREEN

Late last month, Maryland helped form the Transportation and Climate Initiative, a landmark coalition of Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states, along with Washington, D.C., that aims to set regional limits on emissions from cars, trucks, buses, and other modes of transportation. The agreement aims to recognize the role of transportation in climate change and to create a regional policy that would cap and reduce the emission of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, through initiatives such as new bike lanes, improved public transit, and zero-emission vehicles. In similar news, Maryland utility companies have just received approval to install more than 5,000 electric vehicle charging stations throughout the state.

CLEAN WATERS

Just weeks after the Trump administration announced plans to rollback protections for some of the nation’s waterways, Maryland, along with five other Chesapeake Bay watershed states and Washington, D.C., received $13.1 million in grants for environmental projects, including water quality improvement and wildlife habitat, from the Environmental Protection Agency and National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. Maryland received approximately $5.9 million of these funds for environmental efforts, many of which include farmland runoff reduction, the largest source of pollution in the estuary.

Recently, locals have been noticing something different about the way that their cocktails and cold brews arrive across the bar. As the city’s food and drink scene continues to become more sustainable—ditching Styrofoam, and plastic straws and six-pack rings—Monument City Brewing in Highlandtown is strengthening its own environmental ethos with a new beer series dedicated to cleaning up our waterways, parks, and streets.

“It’s always been part of our core values to get involved in our community and give back where we can,” says Monument City co-founder Ken Praay. “It’s about more than just creating a cool community space here. We want to keep the city in mind and make the neighborhoods where we live, work, and play clean and enjoyable.”

Monument City’s commitment to the environment has been on display previously at large-scale events like Light City and Artscape, where Praay worked closely with the Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts to add accessible recycling and garbage collection systems throughout the festival footprints.

Now, the brewery is continuing that mission with its three-part Haven series. A portion of all proceeds from limited-release double IPAs will be donated to local environmental organizations Blue Water Baltimore, which works to restore the quality of the city’s rivers, streams, and harbor, and Trash Free Maryland—a nonprofit focused on preventing garbage pollution throughout the state.

The campaign was largely inspired by Monument City’s sales manager Jack Obermaier, an avid litter collector who recently joined the board of Trash Free Maryland.

“I do a lot of trash cleanups in my neighborhood, and I think it’s frustrating when you go out the next day and the area is just as littered as it was before,” Obermaier says. “We really want to increase awareness and hopefully work toward a day where we don’t have to do as many cleanups.”

The team debuted the first of the three beers, a West Coast-style IPA called Waterways, earlier this month. Praay says that the brewing process was meant to reflect the mission of Blue Water Baltimore: “It’s not a hazy style,” he says. “We purposefully wanted to make it as crystal clear as we could to reflect the idea of clear water.”

The second beer, Greenspaces, will be a juicier New England-style double IPA brewed with a higher hop presence to pay homage to its name. Its release will coincide with a city-wide trash pickup on September 8, which Trash Free Maryland and Blue Water Baltimore are organizing in partnership with the Brewer’s Association of Maryland.

From 9 a.m. to noon, eight breweries across the city will be leading cleanups in their neighborhoods and rewarding volunteers with post-parties at their taprooms. Participating spots include Waverly, Union Craft, Peabody Heights, The Brewer’s Art, Charm City Meadworks, Oliver Brewing, Checkerspot Brewing, and Monument City.

“I really love that there are so many breweries sharing this information across the board,” Obermaier says. “We all have pretty large audiences, and together, there are a lot of people that we can touch to make a big change.”

In October, Monument City will unveil the third and final beer of the Haven series, Roadways, which will use the brewery’s flagship 51 Rye as a base: “We thought that the balance between the citrus and that spicy rye played well with the idea of roadways,” Praay says. “It’s a harder working beer.”

The can art for each of the brews, produced by local graphic design studio White Coffee Lettering, features maps of the city that highlight each of the causes. Obermaier hopes that the cans themselves will serve as conversation starters to get more patrons on board with the sustainable mission.

“We want to do everything we can to protect the city and keep it clean,” he says. “And I think you can see that in the cans. When you look at them, it makes you think of how we’re all connected in different ways.”

BeLeaf 

In our city’s ever-evolving effort to become a “cleaner, greener” version of itself, the Flowering Tree Trails of Baltimore initiative is the beautiful, fragrant next step. The effort—organized by a coalition of city governmental departments, environmental groups, and volunteers—aims to plant 6,000 flowering ornamental trees along 39 miles of Baltimore trails. In the spring, when they flower, the trails will be visually connected and become a source of splendor for residents and tourists alike. 

“In time, our city could be as famous for its Flowering Tree Trails as Washington, D.C., is for its cherry blossoms and New York is for the High Line,” says the initiative’s website. The plantings, which can range from—crabapples and cherry trees to dogwoods and silverbells—will contribute to the city’s goal of increasing its tree canopy from 28 percent to 40 percent by 2037. That is the level of coverage the U.S. Forest Service recommends if Baltimore wants to improve its air quality. The first trees went into the ground on November 11, during a ceremony in Druid Hill Park. Organizers estimate that, when all is said and planted, the initiative will cost somewhere in the low seven figures. Fundraising efforts are underway.

Bay Watch

Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen has introduced legislation to increase funding for a program that helps farmers prevent agricultural runoff from entering the bay. According to the Chesapeake Bay Program “agriculture is the single largest source of nutrient and sediment pollution entering the Chesapeake Bay.” The bill, officially titled the Chesapeake Bay Farm Bill Enhancements Act of 2017, would triple funding—from $100 million to $300 million—available to farmers for mitigating practices such as constructing secure manure storage, installing cover crops, practicing no-till farming, and maintaining forested stream buffers. 

Van Hollen’s bill has already garnered multiple sponsors, including one Republican, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia. According to The Washington Post, Congressman Robert C. “Bobby” Scott of Virginia’s 3rd District will introduce an identical bill in the House, but is still gathering support. Separately, Congress continues to debate 2018 funding levels for the Chesapeake Bay cleanup program—a six-state, $73 million agreement to curb pollution that President Trump has proposed eliminating.   

Sewer Followup

When last we checked in with Baltimore City’s $1.6 billion plan to upgrade its failing sewer system, the city was locked in a dispute with water quality advocacy group Blue Water Baltimore over the scope of the federally mandated consent decree. Blue Water Baltimore wanted the work to continue until water quality met a certain benchmark, even if that meant performing repairs and upgrades outside the purview of the initial agreement. The city—and the federal government—argued that this was not feasible or necessary. In October, a federal judge sided with the city and federal government. The first phase of the project, which will address 83% of sewer overflows, is supposed to be completed by January 1, 2021. All remaining work is to be completed by 2030. The consent decree can be viewed in full here.  

Park Places

• The ribbon cutting of a redeveloped baseball field in West Baltimore provided the setting for a classic Orioles reunion last week as Cal Ripken Jr., Eddie Murray, and Brooks Robinson gathered at the newly dedicated Eddie Murray Field at BGE Park. The park, a project of the Cal Ripken Sr. Foundation, now features a synthetic turf baseball diamond, dugouts, a backstop, and a digital scoreboard. The field is located behind James Mosher Elementary School and will host after- school programming in addition to James Mosher Baseball—the oldest continuously operating African-American youth baseball league in the country.
• Users of the Stony Run trail that snakes through many of North Baltimore’s most coveted neighborhoods had cause for celebration in early October. After nearly 10 years and $1 million in investment, two footbridges opened creating the final linkages in the trail that runs between Roland Avenue and North Charles Street from just below Northern Parkway to Remington.  
• In October, the state announced it will allocate $23 million to protect parcels of farmland, forest, and open space in 17 conservation districts around the state. The funds are part of the Rural Legacy Program, a program of the state Department of Natural Resources, that works “to preserve large, contiguous tracts of land and to enhance natural resource, agricultural, forestry and environmental protection while supporting a sustainable land base for natural resource based industries.” This year’s recipients include the Manor and Piney Run areas in Baltimore County, and the Deer Creek area of Harford County. 

Babies in a Half Shell: Turtle Power!

In late September, the National Park Service announced that a nest of loggerhead sea turtles successfully hatched on Assateague Island National Seashore. The approximately 100 hatchlings emerged from one nest site in the Maryland Over Sand Vehicle zone and successfully made their way out to sea. This is the first successful hatch of loggerhead sea turtles on Assateague, though other attempts have been noted in recent years. The species generally does not nest north of North Carolina. Bill Hulslander, chief of resource management for the National Seashore says, the hatch “underscores the increasing importance of undeveloped beaches along Assateague Island to sea turtles and other federally threatened and endangered species.”

When the first Earth Day was held on April 22, 1970, America’s natural landscape seemed under siege. There was not yet an EPA, and key environmental regulations like the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act were in their infancies. The previous year, in Ohio, an oil spill—and decades of unchecked pollution—caused the Cuyahoga River to catch fire, and not even for the first time. Here in Maryland, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation was just two years old. We’ve come a long way since then—or maybe we haven’t—but one thing is for sure, it’s always a good idea to spend some time in nature. So whether that means a hike in the woods, attending a street festival, or rolling up your sleeves for a stream cleanup, we’ve got an local Earth Day event to help you connect with Mother Earth. 

Cleanup Events 

Patterson Park hosts a park cleanup beginning at 9 a.m. Participants should meet at the white house prepared to mulch trees, pick up trash and leaves, garden, and edge walkways.

Oregon Ridge Nature Center marks Earth Day with a “Love Your Mother Earth” celebration with trail cleanup and a tree-hugging contest complete with prizes. Event is free and runs Saturday and Sunday from 1-3 p.m. 

Carrie Murray Nature Center in Leakin Park will host an all-ages “Clean up the Gwynns Falls Trail” event on Saturday from 12-2 p.m. 

Civic Works, a local job-training and sustainability nonprofit, invites volunteers to its campus in Clifton Park for several Earth Day activities from 10 a.m.-1 p.m. Volunteers can help mulch pathways, plant new trees, remove invasive plants, build a pollinator garden, or assemble decorative mosaic stepping stones.    

Druid Hill Park will host its monthly 4th Saturday workday from 10 a.m.-12 p.m. Come prepared to clear debris/leaves/trash off the paths and mulch a garden (in preparation for next weekend’s Charm City Bluegrass Festival). 

Pigtown will host its 5th annual Bloom the Boulevard on Saturday from 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Attendees are invited to help collect litter, plant flowers and trees, and spread mulch along the 700-1300 blocks of Washington Boulevard. Participation will earn you a $10 credit toward your city stormwater fee, and there will be an after party at Cheat Day Bar & Grill.

Blue Water Baltimore, Baltimore City’s watershed watchdog group, will host several events, including a cleanup at Herring Run Park on Saturday, from 10 a.m.-12 p.m. and a make-your-own rain barrel workshop at Herring Run Nursery from 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m.  

Many of these cleanup events are part of Project Clean Stream, a bay-wide effort to collect 100,000 pounds of trash from local waterways by June 9. Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay has an interactive map that lists all area cleanup sites and events. 

And next weekend, on April 29 from 9 a.m.-1 p.m., is the Mayor’s annual Spring Cleanup. Participating residents can earn credits toward their stormwater fee. Communities and individuals are encouraged to register by calling 311.   

Plant Sales

Concurrent with Pigtown’s Bloom the Boulevard, the neighborhood will host its annual Flower Sale offering annuals and perennials for gardens or planters. Everything is under $7. 

Herring Run Nursery is Blue Water Baltimore’s native plant nursery, and a great local resource for eco-conscious gardeners. In honor of Earth Day, the nursery will be giving away native species of trees to its customers on Saturday morning (while supplies last). There will also be 250 native species of trees, shrubs, vines, flowers, and plants for sale. Hours are 10 a.m.-3 p.m. 

Festivals

University of Maryland Baltimore is throwing its 2nd annual Neighborhood Spring Festival, Saturday, April 22, 2017, on the 800 Block of W. Baltimore Street, from 11a.m.-2 p.m. Festivities will include live music and dance performances, taekwondo and outdoor zumba, local food and craft vendors, and Earth Day activities, as well as free health and dental screenings, HIV and Hepatitis C testing, mental health resources, and legal advice. 

Hikes 

Scenic Rivers Land Trust and the Anne Arundel County Department of Recreation and Parks are partnering for the 12th Annual Walk for the Woods on Saturday. From 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., the public is invited to the Bacon Ridge Natural Area in Crownsville for feature guided hikes, educational programming, and a chance to explore the county owned property that is not always open to the public. The event is free and dogs are welcome after 10 a.m. Rain date is Sunday, April 23. 

Kids

After the grownups finish tidying up Patterson Park, kids can convene at the playground at 10 a.m. for fun and games. 

Francis Scott Key Elementary/Middle School in Locust Point will host a free Earth Day Mommy and Me class on Saturday from 10:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. The event is geared toward children ages 2-5 who are not already enrolled in the school. There will be a craft, snack, and playground activities. 

What’s your role in the organization? I am the Director of Advocacy and the Baltimore Harbor Waterkeeper, so I run our waterkeeper program. I started full-time in January.

What’s a waterkeeper? Overall, a waterkeeper is an advocate for clean water, someone who really is a watchdog for our watershed. I honestly don’t think there is one cookie-cutter model for how to be a waterkeeper. I happen to be an attorney. You don’t have to be an attorney. We see people who have more of a background in science. But the person who holds the title waterkeeper really is the spokesperson for those waterways. We are part of an international organization, the Waterkeeper Alliance. There are over 300 waterkeeper organizations in 35 different countries.

So what does Blue Water Baltimore’s waterkeeper program do? We have a couple of scientists on staff and we go out [into streams and the harbor] to do water quality sampling. We post all of the data that we get on a website called Harbor Alert. The general public can go online and learn about the water quality. Then we also have an advocacy program, where we work directly with government agencies. We work in Annapolis on legislative initiatives and then, in some cases, we bring lawsuits that hold polluters accountable when they’ve broken the law.

The waterkeeper program is just one of many programs Blue Water Baltimore runs. What are some of the other initiatives? We also have an urban forestry program where we go out and plant trees. We run the Herring Run Nursery that sells native plants. Stormwater—or rainwater that comes down over hard surfaces and washes chemicals and trash directly into the harbor—is a big problem. So we often work with faith-based organizations, places of worship, churches, schools, to help them design rain gardens and install less asphalt, things like that. All of our volunteer and education outreach programs are free. We have a calendar of different volunteer events.

You mentioned working in Annapolis. The state legislature is in session right now. What are Blue Water Baltimore’s legislative priorities for this session? We really focus on the main threats to the greater Baltimore area: stormwater runoff, sewage spills, and trash. Trash is a huge source of pollution in Baltimore, and there are steps that we can take to reduce that trash. One is the bill that’s in front of the legislature right now to phase out what’s called expanded polystyrene [aka Styrofoam food packaging]. It’s the second-most collected form of trash that we see in Mr. Trash Wheel and Professor Trash Wheel. The first is cigarette butts.

Why polystyrene? What’s so bad about it, aside from its abundance? Not all trash is created equal. [Polystyrene] is almost impossible to clean up because when it gets wet it breaks down into smaller and smaller pieces. Those tiny pieces have chemicals in them and they absorb 10 times more chemicals than other forms of plastic. So what you end up with are tiny little toxic balls of polystyrene that really never leave the environment. The marine animals do eat them and then absorb the toxins and then if we fish and we eat them it can come back to us. There’s a lot of interest in this, the idea of the traceability: Do the chemicals bio-accumulate and then get passed to humans? Frankly, as a mother, I would just follow the precautionary principle. If I had the option to feed my child a fish that ate plastic and one that didn’t, I would choose the one that didn’t. I don’t have to wait for a study to tell me.

What’s the chance of the bill passing? It’s hard to speculate. We have a lot of great bipartisan support. It’s been heard in two committees, so we’re expecting a vote. It is important to note that [polystyrene] laws are in place in Price George’s County and Montgomery County, so Baltimore is really the remaining large populated area in Maryland that doesn’t have this. The bill that would really just level the playing field across the state.

In some ways, it’s curious that we have the trash problem that we do. The vast majority of Baltimoreans probably would say they love the harbor and the bay, but that doesn’t necessarily translate into action and behavior. What’s the disconnect? Yeah, I think a lot of people don’t necessarily understand the way our storm drain system works. We’ll see some folks who are trying to be helpful sweep trash down into the storm drain and assume that the storm drains go to a collection system, but that’s not true. We have a three pipe system underground in Baltimore. We have a drinking water pipe. We have our sewage pipe, and then we have our storm drains and storm water collection pipe. And our storm water collection system literally goes, untreated, directly into the harbor. So it takes all of the trash, all of the chemicals that get washed down from cars on the road. So a lot of it, I think, is an education campaign to try to get people to understand how the system works.

How do you reach people who think that this is boring, do-gooder stuff? It’s a multi-pronged approach and we try to meet people where they are. We try to get them to understand that it does affect us all. So some people might not be concerned that the trash is getting into the harbor, but if they learn that their children in school are being served hot lunches on these expanded polystyrene trays and the EPA has found that [those trays] leach styrene, which is a suspected carcinogen, into the food, then they might care very much because they care about the health and safety of their children. I think it’s trying to identify what issues are important to people and helping them to understand that the work that we do really does touch every aspect of your life, even if you don’t necessarily go out and fish and swim.

How much of a problem are sewage leaks in Baltimore City? We hear about them all the time. It is a huge problem. As I mentioned, Baltimore does have a three pipe system, so there is a separate pipe for sewage, but it is extremely old and the pipes do burst a lot. In 2016 there were 484 reports of sewage overflows in Baltimore City, so that’s more than one a day. It was something like 11 million gallons of raw sewage. We also have many instances of raw sewage backing up into people’s basements. The city is currently working on upgrading its sewage system.

Right. The city was supposed to have it done by 2016. The city entered into a public consent decree agreement with the EPA and Maryland Department of the Environment [MDE] in 2002. They were supposed to have completed the work by 2016, but they failed to meet that deadline and they’ve asked for an extension. Blue Water Baltimore, along with some partners, submitted very robust comments regarding that consent decree in 2016, and we actually filed a motion in court to formally intervene. That motion was approved, so we are now considered a third-party intervener to that case. We are currently in confidential settlement negotiations to work that out.

Negotiations for what, exactly? The negotiations are for a new set of plans, which include not just deadlines but interim deadlines, water quality monitoring, there are a lot of specifics. So that’s currently being worked out and we’re happy to have a seat at the table. Ultimately, all parties share the same goal, which is to clean up the sewage as soon as possible.

What has been the hold up on the city’s part? Is it mismanagement? Is it a lack of funding? Because it’s before my time I wouldn’t want to speculate. It’s certainly a sensitive topic.

Turning to national news, the Trump administration’s proposed 2018 federal budget would eliminate funding to the Chesapeake Bay cleanup program, which doles out grants and coordinates cleanup efforts among the six states and District of Columbia whose waterways feed the bay. What effect would this move have on the bay, which is finally showing signs of improvement? Obviously, that’s a serious concern. I think it’s important to note—not that I’m not alarmed by it, because I am—but that budget is largely symbolic and expresses the direction and priorities of the new administration. That in and of itself is very concerning. That said, it really is Congress that sets the budget, so all hope is not lost yet. But without having strong federal leadership to get all of the different states to enforce and comply and meet the benchmarks that they need, reaching our goal will be much more difficult.

It’s not just the Chesapeake Bay Program that would be cut. The EPA itself would sustain deep cuts. Furthermore, Scott Pruitt, the EPA’s new administrator, doesn’t believe the EPA as we know it should even exist. In general, how bad a time is it to be a clean water advocate? The news coming out of Washington every day is certainly bleak. And yes, it can be very overwhelming at times—just the number of threats that we have to clean water. It’s a unique situation. But again, I think it just underscores how much more important it is to focus on the local level and the changes we can make here—and there’s a lot we can do.

Will Baker was literally standing in a tree when he was asked to join the Chesapeake Bay Foundation some 40 years ago. As a tree surgeon, he was working on the property of a CBF trustee (and now mentor) who looked up at him and said, “Will, would you like to save the bay?”

Baker, who went on to become CBF president at age 27, has watched the now 50-year-old nonprofit, which focuses on education, advocacy, litigation, and restoration for the Chesapeake, blossom from a 22-person team in an old church annex in Annapolis to a 200-person staff with more than 200,000 memberships across the mid-Atlantic.

“Since we started, the Chesapeake Bay has really emerged as a national treasure,” says Baker. “I often say the bay sells itself, both in terms of reasons for concern and worry, and for love and determination to make it better.”

CBF, known for its blue-and-white bumper stickers and biennial State of the Bay reports (last year: a slightly encouraging C-), has become the largest organization dedicated to saving the bay. Through the decades, it has helped protect tidal wetlands, create critical areas for shoreline development, and drastically reduce pollution throughout the watershed, including here at home with Blue Water Baltimore and the Waterfront Partnership.

“We’re lobbyists in the broadest sense,” says Baker. “You have to be determined and keep fighting.”

And while there have been some positive changes, including improved water clarity and regrowth of underwater grasses, Baker says more work needs to be done. “We’re starting to see major, systemic improvements, but it’s nowhere near enough.” He hopes Gov. Hogan will place more emphasis on pollution reduction, fisheries and habitat restoration, and oyster sanctuary protection in the months ahead.

“I love this job because it’s big enough but small enough to think you can really make a difference in a lifetime,” he says. “I am so glad I looked down from that tree and said yes.”