Annapolis, MD (May 12, 1998)--Maryland’s Lower Western Shore Tributary Team is designing and implementing a series of projects over the next few months that will bring greater awareness to nutrient pollution issues and lead to a reduction of those contaminants in the watershed.

The Lower Western Shore Tributary Team reviews water quality issues within Anne Arundel and Calvert counties that drain into the Chesapeake Bay. Nutrient pollution, primarily excess nitrogen and phosphorus, come from both point and non-point sources and the team focuses on both. The 10 tributary teams throughout the state are composed of individuals from farming, business, academic, government, environmental and citizens' groups. Their work is focused on reducing nutrient pollution, considered to be one of the largest threats to good water quality in the state.

Next Wednesday and Thursday, May 20 and 21, team members, along with 200 students from Southern High School, will plant Bay grasses in Rose Haven. Funded by the Chesapeake Bay Trust and organized by the Rose Haven Concerned Citizens Association, the project presents an opportunity to teach the importance of sub-aquatic vegetation and help students earn service learning credits for graduation. Bay grasses absorb nutrients, produce oxygen and acts as food and shelter for fish and waterfowl.

On June 6, the team will set up an educational display during the South County Festival at Herrington Harbor-North in Deale. The display booth will contain information on the team, maps of the 25 square mile Herring Bay watershed and actions that citizens can take to help keep the watershed and Bay healthy and clean.

Come June 14, the team, Anne Arundel County officials, including Dels. George Owings and Virginia Clagett, will join their counterparts across the state for a “wade-in” that symbolically assesses water quality in their area. The Lower Western Shore wade-in will take place at noon on Owings Cliff Beach in Fairhaven. The wade-in is based on retired state Sen. Bernie Fowler’s annual wade into the Patuxent River which has brought continued attention to the plight and clean-up of that river and the Bay.

Also that day, wade-in participants will be asked to sign-up for the team’s oyster gardening project. Project participants will be given seed oysters and instruction on how to grow the bi-valves from their private piers for ecological benefit.

On July 11, the team will take its work to another level with the launch of its clean watershed initiative for Herring Bay. The team asserts that the natural resources of Herring Bay and its watershed are comparable to the Chesapeake Bay. Many of the types of groups and landowners located along the Chesapeake can also be found along Herring Bay. The team hopes that the Herring Bay Clean Watershed Initiative will be used as a management model to examine strategies and outcomes of a citizen-driven plan. A host of festivities for the initiative’s kick-off are being planned.

The team invites all to take part in these exciting Herring Bay watershed-based activities. Watermen, farmers, citizens and representatives of the development/business community who have an interest in participating on the Lower Western Shore Tributary Team and/or the Herring Bay Clean Watershed Initiative can contact team coordinator Roger Banting at (410) 260-8725. New team members are appointed by the Governor.

Governor Parris N. Glendening appointed the teams in fall 1995 to assist with the implementation of the state's watershed-based plans to reduce nutrient pollution reaching the Chesapeake Bay and Maryland rivers. Maryland has pledged to reduce nutrients reaching the Bay by 40 percent between 1985 and 2000.

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Posted on May 15, 1998