Chesapeake Bay Trust

Under overcast skies with light winds and water temperatures in the 70s, 644 swimmers plunged into the bay last weekend for the Toyota Great Chesa peake Bay Swim. The 4.4-mile route, from Sandy Point State Park to Steven sville, raises money for the March of Dimes and the Chesapeake Bay Trust.

When Chesapeake Academy built a parking lot over the summer, the school got a bonus.The bulldozers scooped out two small ponds in an adjacent field, creating an educational wetland where marsh grasses, bullfrogs and insects could flourish.The students had their first chance to dig in the mud and begin shaping their wetland habitat last week.They planted elderberry shrubs, silky dogwoods and buttonbushes. Adding the wetland plants is the first step in attracting birds and wildlife to study, said Holli Quillin, curriculum coordinator and science teacher.

The Chesapeake Bay Trust awarded three grants last week for environmental projects in Anne Arundel County.The Maryland Ornithological Society and Anne Arundel Bird Club will share $1,450 for a "Birds and the Bay" program for county schools; the Alliance for Community Education will receive $1,000 toward a conference on land use and transportation in the county; and Folger McKinsey Elementary School in Severna Park will get $1,390 for field trips with the...

Names in the newsPeter Engel has been named deputy director of the Community Development Administration of the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development. He also is director of housing development programs for the department, where he manages the state's rental housing programs. Before working for the state, Engel was an associate with the law firm Hale and Dorr in Boston. There, he participated in real estate transactions ranging from the purchase and sale of residential units to the development of large commercial projects.

A well-intentioned effort at public financing of Maryland elections has had the apparent effect of robbing Green to pay Clean.Figures released by the state comptroller's office yesterday showed that a new checkoff option on Maryland income tax forms for the Fair Campaign Financing Fund raised $75,942.That figure almost exactly matched the decline in taxpayers' voluntary contributions to the Chesapeake Bay and Endangered Species Trust Fund.The 8-year-old environmental fund collected $892,270 in fiscal 1996, a drop of $75,087 from the year before.

Hashawha Environmental Center has been awarded a $1,000 grant from the Chesapeake Bay Trust to add a handicapped-accessible ramp to the boardwalk surrounding restored wetlands at the center.The grant was one of 85 awarded around the state for community restoration and education projects. The Hashawha project is part of a public education program for the wetlands."The area was probably a wetlands before the beginning of modern agriculture," said Loren Lustig, Hashawha's director. "The restoration project was designed by the Soil Conservation District."

Over the past five years, people in Maryland have donated more than $5 million to the Chesapeake Bay and Endangered Species Fund through checkoffs on their state income tax.The money raised through the tax checkoff are divided equally between the Chesapeake Bay Trust and the Department of Natural Resources, which splits its portion between the Natural Heritage Program and the Nongame and Urban Wildlife Program.Recent DNR surveys showed that 60 percent of Marylanders take an interest in wildlife around their homes and 46 percent of those people did so daily or weekly.

Dorsey's Search village is creating a nonprofit environmental foundation that would use donations to improve and maintain the community's abundant natural resources and open-space areas.Donations from individuals or businesses would be used for planting and landscaping projects, shoring up eroding stream banks, creating recreational opportunities, developing environmental education activities and maintaining work that has been done, said village board member Dan Bucks, who came up with the idea.

The sizzling salsa on the duck sausage gave my lips the biggest tingle they had had since my high school prom. The curried chicken spring rolls with ginger dipping sauce had more spring than Michael Jordan. And the barbecued quail marinated in a cinnamon sauce made me want to curl my toes and holler "Gimme more."And there were plenty more barbecued quail and other good eats at the Dinner for the Chesapeake, a fancy fund-raiser held BTC Monday night behind the National Aquarium. It was the second year that Nancy Longo, chef of Pierpoint Restaurant and head of Chefs and Restaurant Advocates for the Bay (CRAB)

Students back claim of concern for environmentA group of Chesapeake High School students recently put some muscle behind their claims of environmental commitment as they spent a week planting trees, rebuilding trails for the handicapped and testing water quality at Greenbrier State Park.And when they finished, the 18 members of the Environmental Club camped out, studying flowers, animals and the stars above them.Biology teacher Ginny Barnicoat, physics teacher Tom Barnicoat and Kenny Wuertenberg, a volunteer coordinator with the South Mountain Recreation Area, led the trip.

The Chesapeake Bay Trust announced Thursday that it awarded $225,000 in grants to local groups to plant more trees. Mayor Sheila Dixon presented 13 awards to groups in the region, including five in Baltimore. The trees are intended to improve the quality of life in urban areas, including low- and moderate-income communities, reduce pollution entering the Chesapeake Bay and help residents save on energy costs. The mayor said the trees fit in with an effort she's launched to "green" the city.

Under overcast skies with light winds and water temperatures in the 70s, 644 swimmers plunged into the bay last weekend for the Toyota Great Chesa peake Bay Swim. The 4.4-mile route, from Sandy Point State Park to Steven sville, raises money for the March of Dimes and the Chesapeake Bay Trust.

At Sparks Elementary School, "Sister Earth" teaches students about the environment while wearing a long flowered skirt, a wig and, when not in bare feet, flip-flops. The teacher behind the costume, Elizabeth "Pokey" Fair, also dresses in a lab coat and goggles - and a cowboy hat. Some days, she's joined by another teacher who is decked out as a surfer. "I like to do characters with the kids," Fair said. "It's something to catch their attention." Yesterday, Fair, 36, was recognized as one of the Chesapeake Bay Trust's teachers of the year.

A Chesapeake Bay restoration group whose goal is to improve the bay's water quality gave $50,000 to plant trees in mountainous Western Maryland. "Planting trees in Cumberland benefits the rest of the watershed," said Molly Alton Mullins, a Chesapeake Bay Trust spokesman, "because it soaks up nutrients and pollutants before they enter any stream or river. Every stream or river affects the Chesapeake Bay." Cumberland joined Baltimore, Annapolis, Hyattsville and the Herring Run Watershed Association of Baltimore in receiving a total of almost $200,000 in so-called tree canopy grants.

Margaret Paul pointed to a patch of ground behind Towson High School and explained that the plants that grow there -- black-eyed Susans and five types of grasses -- are native to the region. She led visitors to a spot that was once clay but that, after a lot of hard work by her students, has been turned into soil suitable for a garden with 150 plants. She gestured toward a field near Herring Run. Students and the school's neighbors have planted more than 80 trees there. Paul, an environmental science and biology instructor at the school, has been teaching her students to seek the grants that pay for projects, which the students design.

A COUPLE OF years ago in this space, I jumped on the Motor Vehicle Administration when it came out with that hideous farm-theme license plate. Basically, I had two major problems with the farm plates. No. 1, the color scheme didn't make me think of Maryland at all. It was this Southwestern-y blending of burnt red, burnt orange and burnt yellow, and if it made you think of anything at all, it was of having a chalupa at Taco Bell. And No. 2, that whole business with the barn and the cow and the fence - not to mention the slogan "Our Farms, Our Future" - didn't evoke the Free State, either.

The Chesapeake Bay Trust has awarded Katherine Maria Cruz of Ellicott City with the Honorable Arthur Dorman Scholarship. She was presented the scholarship Thursday at the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Awards Dinner, held at La Fountaine Bleu in Glen Burnie. The scholarship honors a Maryland student who shows interest in and commitment to the environment and the Chesapeake Bay, and strengthens communities by promoting diversity and respect. Cruz, a senior at Mount Hebron High School, was selected to be a student representative for the Howard County Human Rights Commission in 2002.

Ehrlich appoints four new members to bay trust board Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. has appointed four new members to the Chesapeake Bay Trust's board of trustees: Paul J. Allen, Russell B. Brinsfield, Peter G. Byrnes and Martin J. Weinstein. Ehrlich also reappointed Midgett S. Parker Jr. In addition to the five members appointed by Ehrlich, Virginia Kearney joins the board as the representative of the Maryland Department of the Environment. The Chesapeake Bay Trust is a nonprofit, grant-making organization that raises money primarily through the sale of Chesapeake Bay license plates and voluntary donations on line 37 on the state tax return.

On a patch of open land along a stream in West Friendship - down a long, dirt path and across a field from the nearest road - the quiet was broken repeatedly last week by hundreds of fifth-graders from schools around Howard County. They descended on the field equipped with boots, water, worksheets and pencils, and planted a scattering of stick-like seedlings that should grow into a protective stream buffer. Fifth-graders wielding shovels will continue to be a common sight in the area throughout next month as the Schools and Streams project enters its fifth year in Howard County.

RUNNYMEDE Elementary School recently celebrated the completion of its native garden as part of its efforts to preserve the Chesapeake Bay. "Many people wonder how we, in Carroll County, many miles from the bay, can help," said Clare Wieber, a third-grade teacher who lead the project. "Carroll County is part of the bay's watershed. Water that lands on Runnymede's property runs into the Big Pipe Creek, which then runs into the Monocacy River that drains into the Chesapeake Bay." Wieber said the garden began after she and fellow teacher Michele Ziegler attended a workshop in June last year at Hashawha Environmental Center.