Chesapeake Bay Foundation

Benefit concert -- The Chesapeake Bay Foundation will present "Bands in the Sand 2007" from 5 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. tomorrow at its Philip Merrill Environmental Center, 6 Herndon Ave. in Annapolis. The event will feature grilled food, beverages and live reggae music. Tickets are $100. 410-268-8816.

On April 22, 2007 in Vienna Austria, THIA RUTH (nee McNabb). Loving daughter of the late Samuel and Mabel McNabb; beloved mother of Craig, Scot and Anne Everhart; treasured grandmother of Kelly, Alan, Ian, Philip, Gregory and Brigit Everhart; dear sister to the late Arline Keller, Elsa McNabb, Wayne McNabb and Pam Shannon; devoted aunt of Doug and Kevin Keller, Colin McNabb, Arden Stoermer and Rich Shannon. Interment will be held at Loudon Park Cemetery, 3620 Wilkens Avenue, Baltimore on Wednesday, May 30 at 10 AM. Funeral services will follow at Towson Presbyterian Church, 400 W. Chesapeake Avenue, Towson at 11:30 AM. Contributions may be made to Chesapeake Bay Foundation's "Save the Bay" or to the National Stroke Association.

Environmentalists and groups of elementary school children delivered 1,300 green plastic piggy banks full of change to the General Assembly yesterday in hopes of persuading the state Senate to enact new fees on development to clean up the Chesapeake Bay. It was a step that advocates say is the only way for Maryland to meet court-ordered requirements for reducing pollution in the estuary by 2010. Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller, who has previously said the bill has no chance this year, shifted his position slightly yesterday, saying such a landmark bay cleanup needs to pass within the next four years.

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.

If state officials want to restore the Chesapeake Bay's once-thriving oyster population, they need to provide more funds for producing oysters, building reefs, encouraging aquaculture and preventing poaching from oyster sanctuaries, environmental experts said yesterday. Representatives from the University of Maryland, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and the Oyster Recovery Partnership laid out several ways to bring back the bay's moribund oyster population at a hearing yesterday before the House of Delegates Environmental Matters Committee.

What kind of legacy do our children deserve? Rivers, streams and a Chesapeake Bay with "dead zones," fish kills and beach closures? Or a restored bay with clean water, abundant fish and safe beaches and recreational opportunities? For years, the Chesapeake Bay has languished in critical condition, but last year we witnessed a glimmer of hope. After years of no improvement, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation's "State of the Bay" health index improved two points, to 29 out of 100. This small, positive change was long overdue.

PEACH BOTTOM, Pa. -- Every spring, Scott Brinton pumps about a million gallons of hog manure onto farm fields overlooking the Susquehanna River - the largest source of water for the Chesapeake Bay. Brinton feeds 3,000 pigs in a metal building a few miles north of the Maryland line, and their waste fertilizes his 375 acres of corn and soybeans. He is frustrated that two Pennsylvania environmental groups sent him a letter threatening to sue if he didn't apply for a permit that would require him do more to prevent runoff into the river.

He stands 5-feet-7 and wouldn't top 170 pounds unless he was holding an "oven stuffer" roast chicken. Yet Lewis R. Riley, the soft-spoken Eastern Shore poultry farmer turned state agriculture secretary, is viewed as a giant by many in Maryland farming, the state's largest industry. Riley, 71, who served as secretary under three governors, recently announced his retirement and is expected to leave office this week. When Lynne Hoot, executive director of the Maryland Grain Producers, said, "He will be missed," she echoed the thoughts of farmers throughout the state.

The lights are always on at Campbell and Co.'s offices in Towson. Across time zones in a dozen countries, its traders are betting on the world's financial markets, millions of dollars at a time. Those transactions have made Keith Campbell a rich man. Now they are helping to clean up the Chesapeake Bay. Since 1998, when he started the Keith Campbell Foundation for the Environment, the 64-year-old investment manager has given away more than $20 million - much of it to fund the bay cleanup.