Recession A Boon For Bay

The Slowdown Means Pro-environment Innovations And Less Pollution

Others, like Pat Naugle of the Land Conservancy of Adams County, see growth as more dangerous to their town than Lee's invading army ever was; they see the recession as a time to prepare for what may be "the second battle of Gettysburg."

On Maryland's Eastern Shore, organizations like the Salisbury-based Wicomico Environmental Trust have been trying to grasp any opportunity to stop the development juggernaut that is rampaging through the region. "The economic slowdown has cut down on the rate of new development starts," says environmental advocate John Groutt. "But we have an uphill fight on our hands to preserve the rural heritage and the natural landscape of the Eastern Shore."

The recession may help some developers in the long run. Developers function in a Darwinian world. The best ones survive hard times, and the recession, argues Michael Stevens, a Washington developer, "will give them time to position themselves for the next wave of development." LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification and green roofs are now an accepted part of architectural practice, he noted, and low-impact development and will be part of our riverfronts and communities in the future.

Some environmentally targeted federal windfalls will come to the Chesapeake as the government pumps money into local environmental initiatives to create jobs. Van Jones, author of "The Green Collar Economy," writes that "Joe Six Pack with a hard hat and a lunch bucket ready to install solar panels" can be part of a resurgent job force retrofitting buildings in our cities and elsewhere to meet new environmental standards. Mr. Jones argues that "it's time to bail out both the people and the planet."

While it is still too soon to see if the recession will have a long-range impact on our environmental thinking, there are hopeful signs. The recession has given environmentalists and developers alike a chance to look at the full life cycle costs of projects in the Chesapeake region. Also, notes Jim Connolly of the Anacostia Watershed Society, the recession has given many of us "a chance to reexamine the consumption model that governs a lot of our behavior."

John R. Wennersten is the author of numerous books on the Chesapeake Bay and regional environments in the Mid-Atlantic. This article is distributed by Bay Journal News Service.