From the Mountains East
I am in the mountains with my family (my dog and my husband), taking in the glorious colors of “a mountainous fall, " which is what I dubbed our trip. I am awed at every turn, at the colors, the change of light as I look up at these old mountains and reminded of my smallness. The Appalachians this time of year are certainly a wondrous sight. They fill my heart, but they do not compare to my (new) home on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. They do influence it, though. It is their streams that are the start of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed. Whether by creeks or rain, the path that water takes runs all the way to the Bay. These mountains are the roots.
As we travel east, these processes continue. Mountains turn to piedmont, piedmont to coastal plane, and eventually, we reach the Bay itself. At each step, the waters take on more. More rain, but also more contaminants. Whether sediment from a recent construction site, nutrients from a farm, or oil-containing runoff from a parking lot, these mountains are the beginning. Every county, every town, every square inch influences the Bay.
This massive watershed, the largest in the United States, encompasses six states (listed in note 1) as well as Washington, DC - boasting over 64,000 square miles of coverage. The Chesapeake Bay is home to over 2,7000 species and more than 18 million people. Yet the Bay is polluted, receiving a “D” or “F” from the Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s 2022 State of the Bay Report for most types of pollution, causing significant impacts to fisheries like Oysters or Shad (which received an “F”), and our beloved Blue Crab (which had a decrease in rating since the last report in 2020). These also have direct impacts on human health.
Aerial of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed
The effects of the uphill runoff and the polluting activities are tremendous throughout the watershed. They fill ponds and lakes with algae, they kill off trout and other sensitive fauna, and they pollute drinking water. In a way, though, I feel they affect those of us along the Bay’s shores the most. I read a sign once at a fishmonger, which had a ring of truth that echoed in my bones, staying with me since: “It's not fish you’re buying; it's men’s lives” (see note 2). But what happens to those lives when there are no more fish to fish?
The watermen of the Chesapeake Bay region of my new home on the Eastern Shore are engrained in the community in ways that envy the size of the mountains I see out of my window. Generations of people go out into these waters to bring us crabs, scallops, drum fish, oysters, and just so much more, harvesting 500 million pounds from the Bay’s waters. What happens when the fish are no longer there in the numbers needed to provide for those families?
Communities rely on oyster roasts and fish fries to raise funds for charitable purposes, and the stories of these traditions sing as loud as the waves crashing on the shore. What happens to the community when the flesh of those fish is so contaminated that they can no longer be consumed?
It's not just the watermen who rely on these waters. Coastal ecosystems such as the Chesapeake Bay are host to a vibrant tourism industry, bringing $71.3 million to the region (note 3) in 2017 from beachgoers, boaters, hunters, fishers, or just those who enjoy the area’s natural beauty. What happens to the restaurants, shops, and all the others when people no longer flock to our shores?
So, what are we to do? Well, it is simple (though not easy!) – protect the bay. Stop polluting, control runoff, and treat the entire watershed like it's your backyard -- because it is. Upcoming will be ideas on steps we can all take to protect the bay, ideas that we can all work on together at the grassroots level – because that’s where real change takes place. We know this because, in other areas, the Bay’s health has been improving since the Chesapeake Bay Foundation began its work in the late 1960s.
[1] Delaware, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia
[2] There was no noted author, at least to recollection, but later review shows this was by Sir Walter Scott
[3] This figure is a combination of approximate values seen in Virginia’s defined “Chesapeake Bay Region, on the Western shore of the Bay at $39.1M, $32.2M on Virginia’s Eastern Shore. While portions of the Eastern Shore are excluded from the Chesapeake Bay watershed, this area is relatively small. To account for this, the Hampton Roads region was excluded despite its reliance on the Bay with $142.4M in tourism spending.
