Chesapeake Bay Foundation

Historic Savage Mill, Maryland Public Television and MIX 107.3 FM will hold a "GreenLife Festival" May 2 and 3 to celebrate and instruct participants on going "green" and to raise money for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. Events will feature a visit from a MIX 107.3 FM personality, live music, beer tasting by Rams Head Tavern, speakers and exhibitors, "green" offers by merchants at the mill, zip-line rides offered by Terrapin Adventures and a "GreeenScape" art exhibit and auction. An auction and reception are planned May 3 at the Savage Mill Cotton Shed Gallery.

Efforts to pass a "green fund" tax to pay for Chesapeake Bay cleanup during the Maryland General Assembly's special session were thrown into limbo yesterday when Senate leaders said they would study an alternative in January. Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller said he opposes the bill as written, which would impose a fee of about $20 on all homeowners in the state to raise $85 million a year. The money would be used for farm fertilizer runoff control, improvements to urban storm-water management systems, stream reconstruction and other projects.

If the state Senate confirms his appointment tomorrow, Maryland's new agriculture secretary will bring to the job the experience of running a family farm that traces its roots back before the Revolutionary War. "I've been a lifelong farmer; my father, my grandfather and my great-grandfather were farmers," Roger L. Richardson said in one of his first interviews since Gov. Martin O'Malley named him to the post. "We still farm the 60 acres that came into our family in 1767." It is his knowledge and understanding of agriculture, stemming from such a long tradition, along with a love of farming, that the 72-year-old Richardson lists as the major attributes he brings to his new job. His aim, he said, "is to continue the successful initiatives" of his predecessor, Lewis R. Riley, who served as agriculture secretary under three governors before resigning this month.

ST. MICHAELS -- Sidney Dickson is sprawled on his belly, hanging over the deck of his neighbor's 26-foot pontoon boat and dipping a computerized, hand-held meter into the flat-as-slate, greenish-gray water of Broad Creek.As he calls out readings measuring everything from pH and salinity levels to water temperature, the boat's owner, Robert Porter, scribbles the data in a logbook the two friends began compiling two months ago.It is a routine that the Chesapeake Bay Foundation hopes will be repeated some day by a small army of volunteers who will paint a detailed portrait of water quality throughout the bay watershed's labyrinth of creeks and rivers.

Small fee for chicken would help farmers, improve environmentAs The Sun series on Big Chicken, "The new pecking order," clearly documents, independent contractors who grow chickens for multinational chicken companies work on the slimmest of financial margins as they try to meet requirements the companies impose on them.These family farmers must not be asked to shoulder the costs of disposing of the mountains of manure produced by the companies' birds.Sadly, that's exactly what the companies have done historically.

Site 104 dumping may imperil critical fisheries and habitatWe at the Chesapeake Bay Foundation are concerned that The Sun's editorial about Site 104 ("Dredging up the truth on proposed dumping," Aug. 4) left readers with some misperceptions.The Sun is correct that the sediments the state proposes to dump at Site 104 near Kent Island do not come from the Baltimore harbor. But to suggest they pose no threat is misleading.Contaminated toxic material and nutrients are found in most bay sediments.

Opponents of a Maryland Port Administration plan for dumping muck dredged from state shipping channels into open waters near the Bay Bridge and Kent Island are scrambling to block the proposal, which they say would be an environmental disaster.Working in donated space in a Stevensville home, the opponents have started a phone bank and installed an information hot line. They've placed ads in local newspapers and inundated opinion pages with letters. They've conducted a direct-mail campaign.

Advertisement shows who stands to profit with deregulationThe four-page Baltimore Gas and Electric advertisement in the March 24 issue of The Sun should clarify for the people of Maryland exactly who stands to gain from electric utility deregulation: BGE.Utilities and big industries that buy a lot of power are fighting hard for deregulation because they will make even greater profits.Residential consumers in Maryland, however, will not benefit. This legislation provides none of the important consumer and environmental protections, such as community choice, which Maryland needs, the voters expect and the governor has said is necessary.

The Chesapeake Bay Foundation and America's Cup Charters are offering companies and individuals around the Chesapeake Bay an opportunity to improve teamwork skills and enjoy the splendor of a day on the bay.Participants will trim the sails, grind the winches and take the helm of one of three racing boats that contributed to the longest winning streak in the history of sports, the United States' 132-year retention of the America's Cup up to 1983.Weatherly, American Eagle and Nefertiti are available for full-day charters out of Annapolis from Oct. 19 to Nov. 2. Sailing experience is not necessary.

The Chesapeake Bay Foundation and Ducks Unlimited Inc. are chipping in to help Maryland farmers adopt conservation practices to help clean up the Chesapeake Bay.The environmental group and the waterfowl conservation organization have reached a final agreement with the state to contribute $5.5 million to help cover the costs of farmers protecting environmentally sensitive land along streams and rivers feeding into the bay.The funds will be added to the...

On July 13, 2009, Carol Ann Fales The family will receive friends on Friday, July 17, 2009 from 3 to 5 P.M. and 7 to 9 P.M. at WITZKE FUNERAL HOME, INC., 5555 Twin Knolls Road, Columbia, MD. Funeral services will be held on Saturday, July 18th at 11:00 A.M. at Linden-Linthicum United Methodist Church, 12101 Linthicum Lane, Clarksville, MD. Interment will be private. In lieu of flowers contributions may be made in her memory to: Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Attention DSS, 6 Herndon Avenue, Annapolis, MD 21403.

Environmentalists and residents sparred with state officials and the owner of the Sparrows Point steel mill on Friday over what's being done to curb air, water and soil pollution from the 2,300-acre industrial complex. Disputing complaints from environmental groups, a statement issued by Severstal North America Inc. said its steel mill is in compliance with a 12-year-old agreement to clean up contaminated soil and groundwater there. The company vowed to "vigorously defend" against the lawsuit that the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and the Baltimore Harbor Waterkeeper organization have threatened to file alleging that the plant has done little of the remediation promised in 1997 and continues to pollute.

The Savage library, 9525 Durness Lane, will offer classes for preschool children to foster language development and early literacy. "Just for Me," for children ages 3 to 5 who are ready for an independent class, will be offered at 1:30 p.m. May 5 and 12, and "Play Partners," for infants through toddlers up to age 23 months with an adult, will be offered at 10 a.m. and 11 a.m. May 6 and 13. "Pajama Time," in which children are invited to come in pajamas...

Historic Savage Mill, Maryland Public Television and MIX 107.3 FM will hold a "GreenLife Festival" May 2 and 3 to celebrate and instruct participants on going "green" and to raise money for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. Events will feature a visit from a MIX 107.3 FM personality, live music, beer tasting by Rams Head Tavern, speakers and exhibitors, "green" offers by merchants at the mill, zip-line rides offered by Terrapin Adventures and a "GreeenScape" art exhibit and auction. An auction and reception are planned May 3 at the Savage Mill Cotton Shed Gallery.

A former Maryland natural resources secretary has been tapped to oversee the Environmental Protection Agency's Chesapeake Bay restoration effort, an appointment activists say they hope signifies an increased commitment by the Obama administration to cleaning up the troubled estuary. J. Charles Fox, who has held a variety of posts in state and federal government and with environmental groups, will be a special assistant to the EPA administrator for the bay and for the Anacostia River in Washington, according to sources familiar with the matter, who requested anonymity to avoid upstaging the official announcement.

The Chesapeake Bay Foundation and several fishing groups will file suit today accusing the federal government of shirking its legal responsibilities to clean up the troubled estuary, officials of the Annapolis-based environmental group said yesterday. The lawsuit, to be filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, contends that the Environmental Protection Agency has failed to comply with the Clean Water Act and with multiple interstate agreements the agency has signed over the past 25 years aimed at restoring the bay. The suit contends that the federal government's inaction has led to the continued decline of the bay's water quality and harmed its crabs, oysters and fish - and the people who make a living from the bay or seek to enjoy its diminished bounty.

On December 16, 2008, ALICE (nee Wainwright) GARY; wife of the late James Albert Gary, III; mother of Alice Melyn Gary, Ann Keyser Gary and James A. Gary, IV. Also survived by three grandchildren. A memorial service will be held on Tuesday, December 30 at 11 A.M. in the Chapel of the Church of the Redeemer. In lieu of flowers contributions may be sent to the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, 6 Herndon Avenue, Annapolis, MD 21401. Arrangements Henry W. Jenkins and Sons Funeral Home.

Pollution and overharvesting in the Chesapeake Bay have devastated the blue crab population by killing crab feed and eroding key habitats, a leading environmental group said in report released yesterday. And, the group said, the federal government has failed to enforce environmental laws that would help remedy the problem.To prevent the dead zones that kill clams and worms that crabs eat and the algae blooms that kill crab habitats, the Environmental Protection Agency must impose a regulatory cap on the amount of pollution entering the bay and enforce the Clean Water Act, according to the Chesapeake Bay Foundation's report.

The Chesapeake Bay Foundation is co-sponsoring two forums on growth and land-use issues in Frederick and Harford counties next week. Meetings will be held at 7 p.m. Monday at the C. Burr Artz Public Library, 110 E. Patrick St., Frederick, and 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Bel Air Library, 100 E. Pennsylvania Ave., Bel Air. Terry Cummings, manager of advocacy for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, and Jennifer Bevan-Dangel, deputy director of 1000 Friends of Maryland,...

Closing Rosewood will open new doors I am troubled that The Sun would print a one-sided report of a few families' efforts to keep the Rosewood Center open ("Families fight for Rosewood," June 1). I care deeply about this issue because I am the mother of a profoundly disabled 25-year-old man in Montgomery County. My son will move later this year into a house he will share with two other disabled men. I know that he is among the lucky ones: Many people are waiting for such community supports.