Growing up in Baltimore city

That is why I was thrilled to be part of today’s announcement to make Baltimore a Community Wildlife Habitat® — the largest along the Chesapeake Bay. We don’t usually think of wildlife in cities but cities and surrounding areas are home to two-thirds of all North American wildlife species. National Wildlife Federation’s investment in Baltimore is not only about wildlife, though, it is about creating gardens that will make neighborhoods more beautiful, improve water quality of local streams and provide opportunities to get kids outside.

Like many people, my summer days were long and usually resulted in grass stains and being called in for dinner. Unfortunately, childhood has moved indoors during the last two decades. This is not only a lost connection to the outdoors but something that has contributed to the childhood obesity rate as well as declining creativity and concentration.

To address this issue we will focus on sustainable foods and healthy living at six Baltimore City public schools.  We plan to install edible food gardens on schoolyards and create opportunities for families to spend more time outdoors.

Baltimore has always been a city of for the birds, now we can make it official.  I can’t wait to add it to my list of special things about my hometown.

Let’s say you visit the same spot on the same ocean every year. You take a swim, and it feels pretty much like the last time. The temperature doesn’t seem all that different. You certainly can’t tell that the pH is changing.

Yet just as the global climate is changing, so too is the ocean’s chemistry. Alongside atmospheric climate change, ocean acidification is one of the most serious issues affecting the waters of our planet and all of its inhabitants.

Blue crab, Flickr photo by Jeremy Thorpe.

Though the media has taken to calling ocean acidification our “new climate threat,” it is not a new problem. Since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, carbon dioxide has been increasing in our atmosphere and therefore our seawater. Now, over 200 years later, we can no longer ignore the threat. Even conservative estimates suggest that by 2100, global ocean waters will warm by close to 2 degrees Fahrenheit on average and acidity will increase by 150 percent.

Chesapeake Bay Wildlife at Risk

So what does this mean for ocean wildlife? Clearly, the sea’s complex food web will be disrupted. Highly mobile animals will be forced to expand their home ranges as they search for more hospitable waters. Sadly, coral reefs as we know them will be forever altered and could even disappear. Animals will struggle to build skeletons and shells in waters that literally dissolve them. And growth and reproductive capabilities of numerous marine animals will be at risk.

The National Aquarium’s location in the heart of the Chesapeake Bay watershed forces us to face the possibility of drastic changes to this iconic ecosystem that encompasses six states and the District of Columbia. According to NOAA’s Chesapeake Bay Office, the Bay is being affected at a faster rate than the global average because land in this region is already subsiding naturally. Bay temperatures have already increased almost 2 degrees Fahrenheit since 1960 and are projected to increase by an additional 3 to 10 degrees by 2100—a tremendous change that will have a profound effect on the nation’s largest estuary.

Increased acidification of the Bay will alter its delicate balance in other ways. For example, according to marine geologist Justin Ries of the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, blue crabs could grow larger, while the creatures they eat, including oysters and clams, could suffer from weaker, slower-growing shells. These bivalves, in addition to being an integral part of the food chain, also contribute to healthier water quality by filtering huge quantities of Bay water. The moral: damage one small species and you affect the entire Chesapeake Bay.

What We Can Do

We cannot simply undo the impacts of ocean acidification. The carbon dioxide we are putting into the atmosphere today will continue to accumulate for decades. There is hope, however, and as always, it starts with each of us. Reducing our consumption of fossil fuels and minimizing our collective carbon footprint isn’t just the best way forward, it’s the only way. As Fyodor Dostoevsky said in The Brothers Karamazov, “For all is like an ocean. All flows and connects. Touch it in one place and it echoes at the other end of the world.”

For more information about the National Aquarium, visit www.aqua.org. Also, be sure to read our recent report, Wildlife in a Warming World, to find out how climate change is already impacting wildlife across the country.

Sea otters in Morro Bay, CA (via Flickr's MikeBaird)

Clean Water Act Faces Challenges

Murky Supreme Court decisions in SWANCC (2001) and RAPANOS (2006) and conflicting agency guidance are eroding the Clean Water Act and putting millions of acres of wetlands and streams at risk for contamination and destruction. Tributaries and wetlands that provide clean water to iconic systems like the Chesapeake Bay, Great Lakes and the Mississippi River Basin and Delta are at risk. These at risk waters supply at least some of the drinking water for 117 million Americans. These water bodies provide important fish and wildlife habitats that fuel local economies and support outdoor traditions across the country. As these resources are polluted and diminished, so are the tremendous natural and public health benefits they provide, including food, drinking water and flood protection.

Great Egret (via Flickr's MikeBaird)

We cannot protect our drinking water or restore the Great Lakes, Chesapeake Bay, or Florida’s clear springs and bays unless we commit to strengthen, not weaken, the Clean Water Act. It is time for the Administration to move forward and sustain that legacy by restoring longstanding Clean Water Act protections for the Nation’s wetlands, lakes, and streams.

The Time for Action is Now

New guidance from the Administration will clarify which waters are protected under the Clean Water Act, removing confusion for landowners, conservationists and state and local agencies. Providing a stronger, clearer definition of “Waters of the United States” through new guidance and rulemaking is a policy based on commonsense and common ground between conservation and industry interests.

The Corps and EPA took a positive first step this year by submitting draft guidance for public comment. Their proposal respects the Supreme Court’s rulings and related science. The agencies received over 230,000 comments on the guidance. To protect America’s waters, in keeping with the Clean Water Act, this guidance must be finalized quickly. The agencies must also initiate a vigorous and transparent rulemaking process to clarify and reinforce the safeguards and scope of the Clean Water Act for landowners, developers, conservationists and state and federal agencies.

The Corps and EPA are now prepared to take final action – but time is running out.

Send a message to the Obama Administration, urging them to act now to restore Clean Water Act protections to small streams and wetlands.

Clean water sustains lives and livelihoods and habitat for fish and wildlife. Renewing America’s commitment to a strong and effective Clean Water Act also strengthens our country, our quality of life and our commitment to our children and grandchildren.

Gray wolf on the banks of the Gardner River in Yellowstone (photo by Beth Pratt)

But as a new report details, House Republican leadership has abandoned that tradition this year. They’ve taken an incredible 191 votes to weaken environmental protections:

The House of Representatives averaged more than one anti-environmental vote for every day the House was in session in 2011. More than one in five of the legislative roll call votes taken in 2011 – 22% – were votes to undermine environmental protections. [...]

The anti-environment votes cut across a broad array of issues and included 27 votes to block action to address climate change, 77 votes to undermine Clean Air Act protections, 28 votes to undermine Clean Water Act protections, and 47 votes to weaken protection of public land and coastal waters.  The Environmental Protection Agency was the target of 114 of these votes; the Department of the Interior was the target of 35 of these votes; and the Department of Energy was the target of 31 of these votes.

The report (PDF) from Rep. Henry A. Waxman, Rep. Edward J. Markey, and Rep. Howard L. Berman of the House Energy & Commerce Committee comes as House Republicans are working to benefit their Big Oil donors by attaching even more anti-environment riders to must-pass economic & budget bills.

Of those 191 anti-environment votes, 47 were “to weaken protection of public lands and coastal waters, including votes to curtail environmental review of offshore drilling; to halt reviews of public lands for possible wilderness designations; and to remove protections for salmon, wolves, and other species.”

Bear catching salmon in California (Flickr's Rose Robinson)

• “In H.R. 1, House Republicans included language to block implementation of two biological opinions intended to ensure the recovery of threatened and endangered salmon, steelhead, green sturgeon, and other species in the San Francisco Bay-Delta ecosystem.”
• “The [House GOP has] proposed cutting funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund, which acquires new lands for recreation and wildlife protection, by 78% in 2012.”
• “[H.R. 1] cut in half funding for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, a multi-agency effort to clean up pollution and combat invasive species in the Great Lakes. Funding for similar restoration programs for the Puget Sound and the Chesapeake Bay were reduced by a combined 40%.”
• “The final FY2011 funding bill that passed on April 14, 2011 directing the Secretary to delist the gray wolf [from Endangered Species Act protections] in Montana, Idaho, eastern Washington, eastern Oregon, and north-central Utah.”
• “In May 2011, House Republicans voted unanimously to pass H.R. 1229, the “Putting the Gulf of Mexico Back to Work Act.” … Rep. John Garamendi (D-CA) commented that the bill ‘seems to ignore every one of the recommendations that the [National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill] made about how to conduct deepwater drilling in a safe manner.’“

Ask your members of Congress to prioritize our wildlife & public health over polluter giveaways.

I walked into the National Aquarium in Baltimore, Maryland and instantly turned into my 8-year-old self; all giddy inside, I rounded the corner in anticipation of my first animal sighting.

And there she was: Calypso. A 450-pound green sea turtle.

Meet Calypso: a 450-pound green sea turtle who lives at the National Aquarium in Baltimore, Maryland. MBlevins/NWF

At first, I didn’t notice that Calypso only had three fins, as it didn’t stop her playful demeanor. She swam amongst the sting rays and zebra sharks, cruising around—almost like she was saying hello to all the aquarium guests.

Through Calypso, I saw how the work of the National Aquarium and the National Wildlife Federation (NWF) can come together to protect and restore the wildlife and habitats of the Chesapeake Bay.

Joining Forces to Support the Chesapeake

In November 2011, the National Aquarium in Maryland became NWF’s newest affiliate (an affiliate is a voluntary relationship between independent statewide organizations which support the purposes and objectives of NWF). The partnership will link conservation efforts from Appalachia, to the Chesapeake Bay, and the Atlantic Ocean.

Specifically, the Chesapeake Bay is home to hundreds of native plants and wildlife, as well as important wetlands that support migrating birds and other species. In 1999, the National Aquarium realized it needed to strengthen the connection between the natural world and its visitors.

“Our conservation program [at the National Aquarium] helps make that wildlife connection not only in our building, but out in the region through large scale projects and community involvement,” said Laura Bankey, Director of Conservation at the National Aquarium.

This is a floating wetland outside of the Aquarium in the Baltimore Harbour. The wetland is man-made from all recycled materials. MBlevins/NWF

Education for All Ages

Through educational tools, inside and out of the classroom, the National Aquarium brings schools and communities together to learn about the Chesapeake Bay.

At the Aquarium itself, visitors can instantly learn about Maryland and the Bay area. The outside landscape has Bay themed plants and natural habitats, including native plants found on the Chesapeake coast like ferns, trees and grass-like plants. Inside, the second floor of the Aquarium features four Maryland exhibits that demonstrate how water unites different parts of the natural world; from the mountains to the sea.

Out in the “field,” locals and volunteers have learned the importance of the Bay—for animals and humans alike. In fact, I learned that channels in the region are dredged for boats, and the materials –traditionally dumped into the ocean—are used to recreate wetlands, such as areas in Blackwater and Eastern Neck National Wildlife Refuge.

In more than 12 years, the National Aquarium’s conservation efforts have resulted in 155 more acres of wetlands in the Chesapeake Bay. Each acre has 18,000 plants that were planted by hand for a total of 1.4 million plants.

“It’s about being able to connect local citizens and students to the areas that they are most likely to care about,” said Bankey.

“What animal weighs 450-pounds and eats nothing but vegetables?”

Click here to view the embedded video.

As I weaved through the Aquarium taking in the jellyfish, dolphins, snakes, frogs and endless amounts of exotic fish, I couldn’t help but overhear a group of student’s chatter about finishing the scavenger hunt first –one kid whispered to her competitor that she wouldn’t give away any of her answers.

For students, the National Aquarium provides opportunities to learn about the species and habitats that exist right in their own backyards. From September to February each year, Maryland students (Pre-K-12) can visit the aquarium for free. Outreach education with the Aquarium includes terrapins in the classroom, planting native plants, maintaining fish and plant ponds, and a variety of classroom presentations such as marine mammals and squid dissection lab.

“There are animals down the street that you may not know are there and we are helping kids make the connection that these animals in that water rely on healthy environments, like good quality of water,” said Bankey. “And your health is tied to this too—we all need to do our part to create a healthy Chesapeake Bay and be healthy neighbors.”

Protecting the Chesapeake for Years to Come

An animal ambassador is a rehabbed animal that is unable to live in the wild, but helps to educate the public. MBlevins/NWF

At 2:30 p.m., volunteer divers feed Calypso her daily diet: romaine lettuce and Brussels sprouts. For Breakfast, she ate green peppers.

As I watched Calypso bob her head for the Brussels sprouts, I learned that turtles traditionally don’t use their back fins for swimming (they serve mostly as rotors for navigation), but to help compensate for only have three fins, Calypso uses all three fins equally.

It’s through animal “ambassadors” like Calypso and the National Aquarium’s conservation efforts that students—and adults—are learning how education and volunteering goes a long way in protecting species, wetlands and habitats in the Chesapeake Bay region.

This new “wildlife-friendly” friendship has created a united front on behalf of every single creature that calls the Bay region home. And though Calypso is only one example of an animal ambassador in the National Aquarium, she will always be the 450-pound green sea turtle that opened my eyes to what can be achieved when two organizations work toward the same goal of protecting the Chesapeake Bay.

Wildlife-Friendly DMV: Keep it Local, Keep it Wild

Best helmet ever. (Courtesy Greg Fiume, Maryland Athletics)

The University of Maryland’s football team—the Terrapins—is popularly known for three things: hosting the Queen of England at her first American game (they beat North Carolina), winning a couple of national championships in the 1950s and integrating the predominantly southern Atlantic Coast Conference in 1963.

This week, the Terps introduced new uniforms that may well end up being item number four. They are, setting aside any pretense of objectivity, awesome. Take a look at the Flash photo gallery of the unveiling shindig.

One of Maryland’s new helmets pays direct visual homage to an iconic brackish water reptile—its pattern is meant to mimic the ringed shelltop arrangement that gives the diamondback terrapin its name.

While terrapins have been abundant (by one name or another) at Byrd Stadium for nearly 120 years, the non-helmeted variety has sometimes struggled to maintain a foothold in the Chesapeake Bay and elsewhere in its traditional East- and Gulf-Coast home range, rebounding from over-harvesting by turtle-soup-hungry Americans in the 1700s and 1800s only to contend with destruction of coastal marsh habitat, boat and automobile traffic, nuisance crab traps and other obstacles (not to mention climate change) in recent years. In 2002, the University of Maryland began to donate a portion of proceeds from the sale of its popular “Fear the Turtle” merchandise to fund terrapin research and conservation efforts at the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.

A diamondback terrapin, 'protecting this house' in the traditional fashion (flickr | ben.wurst)

I love the idea of an animal-focused football jersey (and not the usual pugnacious and/or cheerful animal wearing a sweater). The only other college team I can think of (believe me, I spent some time) whose uniform features this kind of semi-authentic wildlife body ornamentation is the Oregon Ducks, whose myriad wacky uniforms sometimes feature stylized shoulder wings.

Can anyone come up with other examples? Comment below. (Or: tell me why the new Terps getup is not the greatest wildlife-themed sports uniform of all time. I dare ya).

Volunteers of all ages at Truxton Park

Annapolis Recreation and Parks and National Wildlife Federation’s Chesapeake Mid-Atlantic Regional Centercollaborated on a restoration project at Truxtun Park on Aug. 16, spreading woodchips along two heavily used trails, cleaning up trash along the water trail, and placing grass seed and straw at the entrance to the trail.

Kids at Work

No fewer than 35 Cub Scouts from Annapolis Pack 366, kids and parents brought shovels and rakes to get the work done.  The project is part of a larger initiative to certify Annapolis, MD as an NWF Community Wildlife Habitat.

As we gathered at the head of the trail, Marisa Wittlinger, Environmental Programs Coordinator for City of Annapolis, highlighted the importance of the restoration work. She talked of erosion and how sediment and trash enters the local waterways through run-off. She spoke of solutions to erosion problems and gave examples of how the work they would be doing would impact the health of the Bay. After thanking the kids and handing out gloves, shovels, and rakes, we set out on the first trail.

Trash clean-up along an eroded water trail.

Never Too Young to Start!

For most of the kids, some as young as 3 years old, it was the first time they had volunteered. Speaking with parents as we moved along the trail, I heard the same message, “It feels great getting my kids outside doing this kind of work. I would have never guessed they could have so much fun with a shovel!”

Throughout the morning I overheard kids talking about erosion and pollution, sophisticated topics for 7- and 8-year-olds.

“This is really sad how people leave their trash. Don’t they know it is going in the water?”, asked one of the boys.

“In the end, we will conserve only what we love, we will love only what we understand, and we understand only what we are taught.” – Baba Dioum

Planning for Our Future

Throughout the morning, teachable moments presented themselves. NWF and Annapolis Recreation and Parks’ staff answered questions about what kids were seeing in the nature around them. Using nature as an “outdoor classroom”, staff pointed out areas of extreme erosion and how it impacts trees’ root systems. At the conclusion of the morning’s work, we gathered at the trail head.  It was clear from looking at these proud kids that we had started them on a journey of becoming future stewards of our environment.

Learn more about attracting wildlife to your garden and how to create a National Wildlife Federation Certified Wildlife Habitat^® >>

My work at National Wildlife Federation focuses on federal policy – the people who make it and the people who try to influence it – to protect the Chesapeake Bay.  It’s an incredible job, and one that I am thankful for all the time, but not one that gets me out on the water very often.  I spend a lot of time at meetings and on conference calls working on policy strategy, trying to figure out what laws will give us the best shot at clean water in the region.  What is missing sometimes is remembering why I started down this path and chose this profession out of  thousands of options.

Sunday afternoon when the tide was flooding, we took our kayaks and headed south out Tyler’s Creek to what the islanders  call “Refrigerator gut” through Fishing Creek – planning the trip just right so we worked hard against tide and wind on the way out and sailed back to Tylerton.  The trip, which straddled the Maryland-Virginia line, was punctuated with many signs of spring including several oyster catchers and diamond back terrapins peaking over the smooth, calm waters we found in the creek.   The dance of winter jelly fish around our boats proved the water still cold.  We hugged the marsh islands back to Tylerton basking in the warm afternoon sun.

Every dip of my paddle was a personal celebration of Earth Day and the harsh beauty of the marsh environment’s turn from winter to spring.  But it was also a 4.5 mile reminder of what made my childhood special and why I spend my days at a desk, on the phone or trying to make the case to a decision maker about an important vote that will protect water quality.  And a reminder that I need to do it more often.

Chesapeake Bay photo by Scott Bauer

The government shutdown clock is ticking away furiously in Washington, D.C. as Congress wrestles with a budget agreement.

While many Americans have no choice but to ride out the storm, bad water riders in the house-passed Continuing Resolution, or H.R.1, continue to cloud the budget battle.

These harmful and unnecessary pieces of legislation have little to do with the budget bill or spending cuts and more to do with handcuffing the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and creating giant loopholes for big polluters.

Bad water riders will:

• Ban EPA from closing recent Clean Water Act loopholes that remove protections for many waters,  jeopardizing the drinking water for 117 million Americans, threatening over half the nation’s stream miles, and opening 20 million acres of wetlands and prime wildlife habitat to polluters and developers. The Clean Water Act gives the EPA the authority to hold polluters accountable for oil spills, sewage and animal waste dumps, and other pollutants that go into rivers, lakes streams, estuaries, and wetlands.
• Ban EPA from protecting municipal water supplies, fisheries, and other critical water resources from being destroyed by large-scale mining, public works, and development projects that dredge, fill, and pollute productive waters.  EPA’s use of its Clean Water Act “404(c)” authority, a deliberative and open process rarely used, has saved taxpayers millions of dollars on wasteful and destructive public works projects, and saved Americans some of their most precious bays, rivers, and streams. This authority has only been used 13 times, and most recently to block the Yazoo Pumps project in Mississippi, which would have destroyed valuable wetlands and wasted billions of taxpayer dollars.
• Endanger the Chesapeake Bay by blocking efforts to clean up the Chesapeake Bay just as progress is finally being made to limit allowable pollution in the waters that feed the Bay through fair and effective measures. The Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the United States, covering 6 states and Washington, D.C. The watershed supports rural economies and the $730 billion-a-year outdoor recreation industry.
• Endanger Florida Waters by blocking recently issued water quality standards for Florida’s lakes and flowing waters that are necessary to protect Florida’s waters from excess pollution from sewage, manure and fertilizer.  Excessive nutrient pollution from these chemicals and waste has created toxic algae blooms in Florida waters that can spread for over a 100 miles. The blooms undermine water quality in Florida, which lowers properties values, hurts waterfront businesses, and serves a major health risk to people, pets, and wildlife.
• Endanger the San Francisco Bay Delta by blocking key measures to protect imperiled salmon, Delta smelt, and the health of the entire Bay-Delta ecosystem, which is reliant on its life-giving water supply.
• Endanger Klamath salmon restoration by blocking a study critical to rebuilding what was once the Nation’s third largest salmon-producing river systems, while also accommodating fisheries, landowner, and electric utility stakeholders.
  
• Allow more stream dumping of coal mining waste by blocking EPA from restricting water pollution from proposed mountain top removal and other coal-mining projects, and from the toxic coal ash waste that is contaminating our streams and water supplies.

Speak Up for Wildlife

You can help stop the attacks on water and wildlife in the Continuing Resolution by speaking up for wildlife at NWF’s Action Center. Don’t let these bad water riders wash away America’s bedrock environmental safeguards.

Lake Erie (Mark Hogan/Flickr)

Here is a list of some of the successful regional initiatives that will be cut significantly by the continuing resolution:

• $441 million from the Army Corps construction budget that includes projects to restore coastal Louisiana and the Florida Everglades
• $250 million from the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative
• $10 million from the Chesapeake Bay Program
• $20 million from Puget Sound restoration
• $2 million from the San Francisco Bay Program
• $4 million from the Long Island Sound Program
• $2.6 million from Lake Champlain restoration
• $1.5 million from the Gulf of Mexico Program
• $5.6 million from the National Estuary Program ($200 million per watershed)
• $2.1 million culled from all of the other geographic restoration initiatives

In additon to cutting programs that keep our waters clean and safe, the continuing resolution also severely handicaps the Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to enforce the Clean Water Act. Cuts to clean water mean more pollution, fish kills, dead zones, invasive species, health threats and less tourism, fishing, and recreation jobs and dollars.

Visit the National Wildlife Federation’s Action Center to tell Congress to stop making cuts to clean water jobs and programs. Water is the lifeblood of this country, and we can’t afford to let lawmakers drain us dry.