Good Ol' River Mud

"Tributaries Matter: Investigating the Biogeochemical Cycling of Reactive Constituents
in Sub-estuaries of the Chesapeake Bay"

I'll be honest. I wasn't sure exactly what I was in for with a lecture titled, "Tributaries Matter: Investigating Biogeochemical Cycling of Reactive Constituents in Sub-estuaries of the Chesapeake Bay." I was pretty confident I knew what a tributary was...and an estuary, but all that stuff in the middle? Not a clue. Yesterday we were fortunate to host Commander Joseph Smith from the US Naval Academy who was going to answer all my questions. We settled in to Litrenta, sat back, and learned some astonishing things about watersheds and sediment movement.

CDR Smith began his discussion with the Hudson River. All the way back to his time as a graduate student he has been studying the movement of sediment in estuaries. What he has learned has astonished his advisers and the wider scientific community. Instead of being like a pipe that dumps water into the oceans, estuaries experience constant movement of sediment toward the ocean and back toward the land. One example in particular encapsulated the importance of this multi-directional movement. In 2006 the Navy attempted to relocate the legendary World War II aircraft carrier USS Intrepid, but after a half hour of effort from a small fleet of tugboats, it became apparent that the ship was stuck in the mud! CDR Smith explained that this was a result of sediment being deposited in the harbor from upriver and from the ocean. The amount of sediment that settled around the ship worked out to be about 20 inches a year. This event, which confirmed CDR Smith's theory of high sedimentation rates, astonished the scientific community.

USS Intrepid with tugboats

Taking what he has learned about the tendency for estuaries to pick up materials, CDR Smith has focused his studies on nearby Blue Plains Advanced Waste water Treatment Plant to determine what sort of impact the waste water is having on the Chesapeake Bay. Specifically CDR Smith has been looking at a specific element Iodine 131. He was quick to point out that the levels at which he studied I131 were well below the levels that would cause any harm to surrounding populations. CDR Smith has been tracing I131 because it has comparable qualities (radioactive half-life) to other more harmful substances. This means that CDR Smith can more accurately model what would happen if one of the more harmful materials (heavy metals, pesticides, certain nutrients etc.) were to be released into the Bay's Watershed.

Among the many insights that Smith has gained through his work is the fact that environmental factors have a huge impact on the movement of these potentially harmful materials. Wind speed, wind direction, temperature, and pH are just a few of the factors that can influence the spread of these materials. In order to form a more complete model CDR Smith and CES Associate Director Doug Levin are working together to monitor every aspect of the Chester and the Severn. Among the many pieces of technology being used in this ambitious project are buoys that constantly collect data, and autonomous kayaks that will be able to independently patrol the rivers. This project, when completed, will make these two rivers the best known rivers in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed and potentially the entire United States.

Chesapeake Bay

Article written by Rachel Field, Program and Intern Coordinator for Washington College's Center for Environment & Society. 

Sandy Visits Downrigging Weekend

Photo courtesy of "Behold the Earth"

This past weekend some of us were priveledged to hear David Conover and Tim Eriksen present at the Prince Theater. Conover spoke of the intersection between society and nature that he explores in his forthcoming documentary "Behold the Earth." In this film Conover uses breathtaking scenery, haunting folk melodies, and poignant interviews to explore America's divorce from nature. While sitting in my house this morning watching the trees groan in the winds of Hurricane Sandy, I couldn't help but hear the soulful notes of Eriksen's song "Every Sound Below" and consider the power of this storm.
Rain lashing, candles sputtering, birds calling, the street cleaner slowly driving by. These were the sounds reaching through my "cocoon." Conover described Americans as a people who travel between a series of cocoons, forgetting to spend time outside of our meticulously managed environments. Today, Sandy is forcing the people on the east coast out of their cocoons.

Satellite image of Hurricane Sandy

Since agriculture became the modus operandi for humankind we have slowly moved to create more distance between ourselves and our surroundings. This process was much enhanced by the dawn of the technological era. Humans now have so much power over their environment that some suggest we have entered an "anthropocene," or geological period defined by human action disrupting the surface of the Earth. Socially this technology has moved children away from the outdoors and in front of screens. Conover noted that in the last decade children have spent an average of over 7 hours a day in front of a screen.

Photo courtesy of "Behold the Earth"

Conover does not seek to provide a particular answer to this problem, rather he is making an attempt to understand why our divorce from nature started and exactly what that divorce looks like. The fierce embrace of Hurricane Sandy brings this question right into our homes, through leaky windows, flooded basements, and loss of power: electrical and otherwise.

The Oyster Question Since 1880

March 22, 2012
4:30 PM
Litrenta Lecture Hall
On Thursday, March 22nd, Dr. Christine Keiner will discuss her book, The Oyster Question: Scientists, Watermen, and the Maryland Chesapeake Bay since 1880, at 4:30 PM in Litrenta Lecture Hall at Washington College. Dr. Keiner’s outlook challenges standard interpretations of the local oyster fishery as the epitome of the “tragedy of the commons.” The lecture will be followed by a brief Q&A, and autographed copies of The Oyster Question will be available for sale.
Christine Keiner earned a B.A. in biology from McDaniel College and a Ph.D. in the history of science from Johns Hopkins University. She is an associate professor in the Science, Technology, and Society/Public Policy Department at Rochester Institute of Technology. Her book won the 2010 Forum for the History of Science in America Prize and co-won the Maryland Historical Trust’s Heritage Book Award, as well as Honorable Mention for the Frederick Jackson Turner Award from the Organization of American Historians.
This event is sponsored by the Center for Environment & Society at Washington College and is free and open to the public. For more information, please contact tholste2@washcoll.edu or 410-810-7162. Litrenta Lecture Hall is located in the Toll Science Building along Campus Avenue. Parking is available in the campus lot beside Goldstein Hall.

Hunting Events this Weekend!

November 4-5, 2011

Hunting: A Matter of Life and Death
November 4, 6:30 PM
Litrenta Lecture Hall
Dr. Marc Boglioli, Associate Professor of Anthropology at Drew University and author of the book A Matter of Life and Death: Hunting in Contemporary Vermont, will give a lecture on how contemporary hunters, women as well as men, understand their relationship to their prey. He shows how hunters' attitudes toward animals flow directly from the rural lifeways they have continued to maintain in the face of encroaching urban sensibilities. The result is a rare glimpse into a culture that experiences wild animals in a way that is at once violent, consumptive, and respectful, and that regards hunting as an enduring link to a vanishing past. Free and open to the public. Sponsored by the Center for Environment & Society. Please contact tholste2@washcoll.edu or 410-810-7162 for more information.

Wild Charcuterie: Making the Most of Your Quarry
November 5, 2:00 PM
Rose O'Neill Literary House Kitchen
Hunting, butchering, and cooking wild animals is an excellent way of connecting to your local environment and gaining access to high quality and nutritious food. However, many of us keep only a relatively small percentage of the animal and in the process discard some very healthy and delicious portions. This cooking demonstration will teach you how to transform these often discarded parts into great foods that can be stored and enjoyed throughout the year. There will be a $15 fee for the registration. $5 for WC faculty/staff, WC students may attend for free. Advanced registration is recommended as space is limited. Please contact tholste2@washcoll.edu or 410-810-7162 for more information or to register. Sponsored by the Center for Environment & Society.
Recipes to be demonstrated (all recipes are subject to change):

1. Venison sausage
2. Goose confit
3. Venison and goose liver pate
4. Braised deer heart
5. Venison roast braesola (cured and air/dried meat)

The fall program on hunting will be a precursor to the second annual Locavore Lit Fest, March 29-April 1 2012, which will focus on wild foods, from plants to animals to bacteria.

Downrigging Weekend Lectures

October 27, 2011
The Politics of Climate Change- with Dr. Ryan Lizza
5:00 PM
Prince Theater
On Thursday, October 27, veteran magazine writer Ryan Lizza, who covers the 2012 Presidential campaign and national politics as Washington Correspondent for The New Yorker, will share his insights into how and why Congress and the White House failed to reach agreement on breakthrough energy legislation designed to be both business- and consumer-friendly.
The free public lecture, “The Politics of Climate Change,” is based largely on a major feature article Lizza published in the October 2011 issue of The New Yorker. His talk will be held at 5 p.m. in The Prince Theatre of the Garfield Center for the Arts, 210 High Street, Chestertown, MD.

October 28, 2011
Longitude - with New York Times best-selling author Dava Sobel
8:00 PM
The Prince Theatre, 210 High Street, Chestertown - FREE
The true story of a lone genius who solved the greatest scientific problem of his time. How did one man in the 18th century change the way we envision the vastness and the boundaries of our physical world? What led one self-educated man to solve a problem that Newton and Galileo could not? And how can studying the scientific leaps of the past help us envision our future? In this elegant talk, Dava Sobel weaves a powerful historical narrative to show us how Henry Harrison’s invention of the chronometer changed the way we look at the world and how it continues to shape our concept of distance and place. Sobel is one of the most influential science writers of our time. A former New York Times science reporter, she is the author of Longitude, Galileo’s Daughter -- which spent five weeks as the #1 New York Times non-fiction best-seller -- and The Planets. Co-sponsored by Sultana Projects and the Center for Environment & Society. For more information contact jfairchild2@washcoll.edu or 410-778-7295.

For a full listing of Downrigging events visit http://www.sultanaprojects.org/downrigging/index.htm.

The Dirty Life: On Farming, Food, and Love

April 13, 2011
7:30 PM - Hotchkiss Recital Hall
Gibson Art Center

Join author Kristin Kimball in discussing her new memoir, "The Dirty Life: On Farming, Food, and Love." Kimball and her husband, Mark, farm 500 acres near Lake Champlain in northern New York. "Against all odds, I fell deeply for him, and for farming...At the end of the first growing season, we got married in the loft of our shabby red barn. We've farmed here for seven years now, and have become parents to two little girls."
The Kimballs raise almost everything they need for a year-round diet, including 50 kinds of vegetables, herbs, grains, and fruits, plus pigs, chickens, and dairy and beef cattle. They use no pesticides or herbicides, and most of the work is done with draft horses instead of tractors. The farm feeds 150 people, who come each week to pick up their share of our produce, flours, milk, meats, and eggs.

Prior to farming, Kimball worked as a freelance writer, a writing teacher, and an assistant to a literary agent. A graduate of Harvard University, she has run Essex Farm with her husband since 2003. She grew up near Rome, NY, where she didn't even have a garden as a child. Kimball says: "Farming asks a lot of a person, physically, emotionally, and intellectually. It keeps you close to the dirt and humble. I've gained many skills on the farm that I couldn't have imagined needing in the city...But the best lesson farming has taught me is the deep pleasure of commitment—to Mark, to our farm, to a small town."

The program is sponsored by The Center for Environment & Society, The Joseph H. McLain Program in Environmental Studies, The Sophie Kerr Committee, and Farm Dinners on the Shore. For more information, call 410-778-7295. The event is free and open to the public.

Earth Week Events

Thursday, April 22
EARTH DAY CELEBRATION
11am – 2pm
Hodson Hall Commons and Cater Walk
An open community event for students, staff, faculty and friends of the college featuring foods from local farmers on our menu. We will be hosting a farmers market along Cater walk and showing the film "2 Angry Mom’s" in the Center Stage.
Fee to general public for lunch buffet $6.00

Friday, April 23
"Nourishing Traditional Diets for the 21st Century", a talk by Sally Fallon
7PM
Author Sally Fallon Morell exposes the dangers of low-fat diets and urges a return to traditional food choices and preparation techniques. She will speak in Hynson Lounge, Hodson Hall, Washington College. Sponsored by the Anthropology Department and the Center for Environment & Society.

Saturday, April 24
Mutt Strut & Earth Day Festival
9:00 AM to 1:00 PM
Fountain Park & Memorial Row
Chestertown

The Kent County Humane Society, the Town of Chestertown, and Washington College's Center for Environment & Society will present the annual Mutt Strut & Earth Day Festival in downtown Chestertown on Saturday, April 24, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Festivities begin in Fountain Park with the Farmers' Market, live music, and registration for the 13th annual Mutt Strut. The dog parade starts at 10 a.m. and winds through Town, finishing at the Courthouse where Shelter Associate Courtney Phelps presides over a series of "pawsitive" pet tricks, canine competitions and agility contests. There is a $10 registration fee for Mutt Strut, while Earth Day and pet fair festivities are free and open to the public.
Earth Day features eco-friendly exhibitors, crafters and vendors; free paper shredding; free recycling of fluorescent bulbs; free recycling of rechargeable- and alkaline batteries; environmental education, and opportunities for kids of all ages to learn why it is important to take care of Mother Earth's air, land and water. "The social, environmental and economic choices we make today have real consequences for the planet," says Mayor Margo Bailey.
For more information, call 410/778-7295 or visit ces.washcoll.edu and www.kenthumane.org.

* 8:00 AM - Farmers' Market opens in Fountain Park
* 9:00 AM - music begins on Memorial Row
* 9:00 AM - dog walkers register in Fountain Park
* 10:00 AM - dog parade begins
* 10:30 AM - dog agility contests begin in Fountain Park
* 1:00 PM - festival ends on a happy note

Mutt Strut & Earth Day is a community event sponsored by the Town of Chestertown, the Kent County Humane Society, and the Center for Environment & Society at Washington College.

Sunday, April 25
Taste of the Town
Featuring sampler plates of the signature dishes of 15 of Chestertown’s finest restaurants and caterers, including the beneficiary of the event, the Culinary Arts program of the Kent County High School.

Participating restaurants and caterers range from nouvelle gourmet to those famous for regional classics such as Maryland Crab Soup.

The tented event will take place from 12:00 noon to 3:00 p.m in Chestertown’s waterfront Wilmer Park.

In addition to food, Taste of the Town will offer beer, wine from the local Cassinelli Winery, beverage stations, a cookbook sale, raffles for restaurant gift certificates and
a live auction of select premier items donated by restaurants and sponsors.

"Skipjack: America's Last Sailing Oystermen", Christopher White and the Watermen of Tilghman’s Island
5pm – 6pm
Decker Theatre, Daniel Z. Gibson Center for the Arts
Join us for a powerful discussion about the decline of the oyster harvest and the future of the oystermen's way of life. The event will include a talk by Christopher White, author of the critically-acclaimed new book, Skipjack: The Story of America's Last Sailing Oystermen, and a unique public conversation with four legendary senior skipjack captains: 89-year-old Arthur Daniels, Jr. and his son Stan Daniels, both of Deal Island, and Wade Murphy, Jr. and Stanley Larrimore of Tilghman Island.
You are invited to "Meet the Captains" at the post-program Oyster Reception and book signing. Attendees will also have an opportunity to explore a remarkable exhibition of skipjack-inspired art, including photography, paintings and models by Chesapeake masters Marion E. Warren, A. Aubrey Bodine, John Barber, Carolyn Egeli, Tim Bell, the CBMM Modeling Club, and many others.
The event is co-sponsored by the C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience and the Center for Environment & Society at Washington College.

Skipjack: America's Last Sailing Oystermen

April 25, 2010

Skipjack: America's Last Sailing Oystermen

Christopher White and the Watermen of Tilghman & Deale Islands

Decker Theatre, Daniel Z. Gibson Center for the Arts, 5:00 p.m.

Book signing to follow.

Author Christopher White spent two years living on Tilghman Island and working with three legendary captains of the traditional wooden Chesapeake Bay oyster boats known as skipjacks. Through a discussion with a group of these lively characters, we will begin to understand the challenges of living on the Bay and sailing a traditional skipjack. The event will bring the audience face-to-face with a critically endangered tradition that reaches back over 100 years. Sponsored by the C.V. Starr Center for the American Experience and the Center for Environment & Society. Contact Michael Buckley at mbuckley3@washcoll.edu for more information.

Sally Fallon Morell

April 23, 2010

Author Sally Fallon Morell exposes the dangers of low-fat diets and urges a return to traditional food choices and preparation techniques. She will speak in Hynson Lounge, Hodson Hall, Washington College. Sponsored by the Anthropology Department and the Center for Environment & Society. Email Dr. Bill Schindler wschindler2@washcoll.edu for more information.

Zero Waste Events

Wednesday, January 20 @ 7 PM
"Garbage Dreams"
Award-winning documentary
Litrenta Hall
John Toll Science Building, Washington College

January 21 @ 5:30 PM
"Green Drinks Reception"
McLain Atrium
John Toll Science Building, Washington College

January 21 @ 7 PM
"Zero Waste Communities"
Lecture by Rick Anthony
Litrenta Hall
John Toll Science Building, Washington College

Events are sponsored by the Town of Chestertown, Infinity Recycling, Kent County Recycling & Waste Disposal, MidShore Regional Recycling Program, and the Center for Environment & Society.

More information at ces.washcoll.edu

Poisoned Waters

On October 30 at 5:00 PM at the historic Prince Theatre in downtown Chestertown, Hedrick Smith will explore how the Chesapeake Bay and Puget Sound are indicators of a larger national problem. Mr. Smith is a Frontline producer and a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, formerly with the New York Times. What's shocking about his latest feature on the water crisis is how well-known the problems are. Scientists for years have been scooping up samples with chemicals, mostly from everyday household products. They've been pulling PCB-riddled salmon out of the water for decades. There are documented cases weirdly mutated frogs with six legs, intersexed fish (males carrying eggs), and drinking water loaded with contaminants— two-thirds of which are so new they elude modern filtration methods. By focusing on the home of the blue crab and the playground of the orca, which aren't overwhelmingly similar, Smith highlights a pervasive decline in the nations waterways and he takes us beneath the surface to see the terrible trouble caused by sprawl-related pollution and unregulated toxic industrial, agricultural and municipal runoff.
Both events are free and open to the public. Sponsored by the Center for Environment & Society, the Chesapeake Semester at Washington College, and Sultana Projects. For more information, visit www.ces.washcoll.edu or www.sultanaprojects.org or call 410-778-7295.

Caretakers of Creation

Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Rabbi Nina Beth Cardin will lecture on "Caretakers of Creation: Jewish Perspectives" on Tuesday, October 13, at 10:30 a.m. at Emmanuel Church located at 101 N. Cross Street in Chestertown. The lecture is free and open to the public. Immediately following the program, discussion will continue over lunch in the Parish Hall. Lunch is $15 and reservations are required by October 7th by contacting jfairchild2@washcoll.edu or 410-778-7295.
Ordained in 1988 from the Jewish Theological Seminary, Rabbi Cardin now serves as Director of the Baltimore Jewish Environmental Network (BJEN) at the Pearlstone Conference and Retreat Center. She is also an environmental activist and educator, an author, and a freelance sustainability consultant. In 1978 Rabbi Cardin co-founded the Jewish Women's Resource Center, which is now part of the National Council of Jewish Women—NY Section; and in the mid-1990s she co-founded the National Center for Jewish Healing and the New York Jewish Healing Center. She most recently served as General Consultant to COEJL, the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life (2007-2009).
This program is presented by the Center for Environment & Society at Washington College, the Chestertown Havurah, and the Chester Valley Ministers Association as the kickoff event of the "Caretakers of Creation" lecture series. Father Allen LaMontagne, the Reverend of St. Paul's Parish, Kent, says the public forums will feature different faith perspectives in the context of the community's relationship with the land. "Discussion will center on our role as people of faith in the care of creation," he says.

Environmental Author Diane Dumanoski

Wednesday, Septermber 23, 2009

Environmental journalist and author Dianne Dumanoski will discuss her latest book, The End of the Long Summer: Why We Must Remake Our Civilization to Survive on a Volatile Earth, at Washington College's Litrenta Lecture Hall on Wednesday, September 23, at 7 p.m. Dumanoski has been a pioneer in reporting on such issues as ozone depletion, global warming and the accelerating loss of species since 1970. The event is presented by the Center for the Environment & Society and the Chestertown Spy.