Clean water comes at a price, but why can't you have fun while doing your part? The Baltimore Harbor Waterkeeper is holding its second annual Trash Bash on Saturday, Sept. 19 to raise awareness and funds to support the nonprofit effort to clean up the harbor.

There'll be open-air music by Can't Hang, S.T.O.R.M., and Derek Sholl, a selection of eco-vendors to browse and booths selling beer and food. The bash is to run from 2:30 to 8:30 p.m., so paddle, pedal, walk or drive over to Nick's Fish House, 2600 Insulator Drive, on the Middle Branch off Hanover Street.  For directions, go here.

Tickets are $25 general admission or $100 for a VIP party featuring a seafood dinner, drinks and a silent auction. But you can get discounts of $5 or $25, respectively, if you buy tickets online by 3 p.m. Friday. Just click here to do that. 

That way you can help Eliza Smith Steinmeier, the waterkeeper, seen at left in her boat, get trash, sewage and other gunk out of the harbor without getting your hands dirty - provided you don't fall in the water!

(Baltimore Sun file photos by Elizabeth Malby & Glenn Fawcett)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 3:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

It's not too late to head to the beach. Why not plan on hitting Assateague Island National Seashore on Saturday (Sept. 19) and spend a few hours picking up butts and other trash littering the sand?

The ponies, birds and fish will thank you, and you'll be in great company. Last year, 2,600 volunteers collected something like 20,000 pounds of trash - everything from cigarette butts and drink cups to bicycles, porch blinds and a lawnmower.

The Assateague trash roundup, sponsored by Delmarva Power, is part of the 2009 Coastal Clean Up Day, in which volunteers police beaches all around the country. Trash bags will be provided, so  just bring work gloves, sunscreen and bug spray. For more info, go here or contact Assateague Coastal Trust by phone 410-629-1538 or email mail@actforbays.org

(July 2009 photo by Kim Hairston of The Baltimore Sun)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 6:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Who knew there was a creek in the Baltimore area with the savory-sounding name Bread and Cheese?

Well, there is, sure enough, in Dundalk. Unfortunately, as the photo above shows, this tributary of Back River and the Chesapeake Bay could use some help looking more appetizing.

There's a stream cleanup planned between Merritt Boulevard and Plainfield Road on Saturday, rain or shine, from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Baltimore County is providing dumpsters and some gloves and hand tools, and area businesses have pledged water and snacks. All that's needed are volunteers like you, willing to wade in and reclaim a stream from bottles, bags, shopping carts, concrete blocks and assorted other human flotsam.

If you want to pitch in, wear boots or tennis shoes you don't mind getting a little wet. Long pants, gloves, hat, sunscreen and insect repellant also are recommended. A few more rakes, shovels, saws and axes wouldn't hurt, either. Nor would wheelbarrows or wagons.

To get there, go to Merritt Boulevard, turn on to German Hill Road headed east, then turn left (North) onto Plainfield Road. At the bottom of the hill you will see the three large dumpsters. Parking is available on the street or in a parking lot at the top of German Hill Road.

For more information, contact the cleanup's organizer, creekside resident John Long at (410) 285-1202 or Clean_Bread_And_Cheese_Creek@yahoo.com  And for more on the stream, go here.

(Photo by Kharstin, used here with permission of John Long)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 3:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

It's gardening time on the Chesapeake Bay - oyster gardening, that is.

With the bay's oysters depleted by disease and habitat loss, the state Department of Natural Resources and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation separately are trying to enlist waterfront residents in bringing the pollution-filtering bivalves back.  Oysters are one of the keys to the bay's restoration, since each large one can filter up to two gallons of water an hour.

After an initial tryout getting residents along the Tred Avon River to raise oysters, the state is expanding its "Marylanders Grow Oysters" campaign to 11 new rivers around the bay. Up to 5,000 cages with baby oyster "spat" bred in a state hatchery are to be distributed to pier owners willing to tend the shellfish over the next 10 to 12 months, so that they can be "planted" on the bay bottom next summer. For details on which rivers are being targeted and how to participate, go here.

The Annapolis-based bay foundation, meanwhile, is offering oyster gardening workshops in September and October for residents with water access.  Volunteers will be given several thousand "seed" oysters for cultivation, and taught how to build four wire-mesh cages in which to grow them. Once the oysters grow to one or two inches across, they're returned to the foundation, so its staff can plant them with volunteers' help in sanctuary waters off limits to commercial harvest. CBF has a brief video about its program that you can see here.  For details on the workshops and to sign up - there's a $75 fee - go here.

Growing oysters doesn't require special talent, just some dedication - mostly rinsing the cages every couple weeks to make sure they don't get fouled with marine organisms that keep water from flowing freely past the oysters inside.  You can get an idea what's involved in the photo above, of a cage hung off a pier a couple years back at the Captain Sam Avery House Museum in Annapolis.

Sadly, there probably aren't enough piers out there to put a big dent in the bay's oyster problems. But it's a great way to enlist waterfront residents in the effort to restore the Chesapeake, which needs all the help it can get.

(2007 Baltimore Sun Staff Photo by Amy Davis)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 6:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Chesapeake Bay, Going Green, News, Volunteer
        

Want to feel cleaner and greener? Volunteer this Sunday from 9 a.m.-noon for the Western Run Stream Clean Up. 

For the last 10 years, Comprehensive Housing Assistance Inc. and the Jones Falls Watershed Association have partnered to sponsor the event. There are five more community associations involved, but they could still use some more volunteers. Organizers say in years past, people have come from all over the city to help.

In addition to stream clean up, this year the groups are sending out teams of volunteers to label storms drains to warn people about dumping pollutants -- there's no filter. All the stuff dumped goes right into area waterways and the harbor.

The goal is to label 50 to 100 drains and clean the Western Run Stream from Gulley Road (in Cross Country) to Mt. Washington Village. Both goals depend on the number of volunteers that show up.

If you're ready and able, e-mail or call Barry Kaminetz, CHAI Community Development Coordinator at bkaminetz@chaibaltimore.org or 410-318-8311 x15 or 410-382-2800. He needs to plan and have sufficient supplies.

Volunteers will meet in front of Cross Country Elementary/Middle School. Keep reading for directions. 

Continue reading "Free on Sunday? Go to a stream clean-up" »

Posted by Meredith Cohn at 4:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Volunteer