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Sunday, May 29th, 2016

The war over Chesapeake Bay

Author:     Annie Snider
Source:     The Agenda
Publication Date:     05/25/16 05:17 AM EDT
 Link: The war over Chesapeake Bay
Stephan:   I grew up on the shores of the Chesapeake Bay, ate the abundant seafood that came out of its waters, sailed on its surface, and swam and scuba dived beneath its waves. Sometime in the late sixties something began to happen to the Bay, and by the 1970s it was clear this most fecund of waters was dying. Here is the story of the Bay and what is being done. It is a story on one bad decision piled atop another and, as is so often the case when other life forms are involved, it illustrates our fundamental misperception of our place in the Earth's matrix of life.
The Chesapeake Bay (bottom right) absorbs pollution from 64,000 square miles of the American northeast, a watershed stretching from New York to Virginia with 18 million people. Credit: USGS

The Chesapeake Bay (bottom right) absorbs pollution from 64,000 square miles of the American northeast, a watershed stretching from New York to Virginia with 18 million people.
Credit: USGS

LANCASTER, PENNSYLVANIA — Linn Moedinger’s farm has been in his family for 10 generations, dating back to 1711, 150 acres of rich fields and meandering streams nestled in the heart of Pennsylvania Dutch country. As long as the family has owned it, it’s been a working farm; today Moedinger leases the fields to a neighbor who grows corn, wheat and soybeans. The family relies on the crop income to keep up the historic farmhouses they call home.

Nonetheless, Moedinger recently surrendered 12 acres of property along his tiny, unnamed streams to plant wide strips of oak trees, dogwood shrubs and other native plants, paid for by the government. If all goes according to plan, that land will never produce crops again.

The […]

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