Reprinted with permission from What's Up Annapolis Magazine July 2004
Who speaks for the rivers?
by Carol Denny
In the Chesapeake region, the recognized citizen-advocates for the Bay's tributaries are the Waterkeepers. These ten full-time, privately-funded activists work to identify and address the most pressing problems affecting their local bodies of water and enforce environmental laws. From the Upper Susquehanna to the Assateague coastline, they're launching a coordinated effort to combat a variety of threats to the health of the Bay.
Collectively, the Chesapeake Waterkeepers patrol 1,500 miles of tributaries. Of that number, Drew Koslow is responsible for just 53: the shoreline of the South River. Koslow is the new South Riverkeeper, appointed by the South River Federation in April. Well-known locally for his extensive efforts to protect and restore the South River over the last five 5 years, he is a wetlands specialist who earned a degree in marine sciences from University of Virginia and gained in-depth knowledge of local waters at the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.
Koslow admits that the problems facing him are formidable. "The Bay is a shadow of what it once was," he says. "It's like a patient in the ICU who's been there for 25 years. We've held our own in a time of intense growth-and that's a major accomplishment-but (the approach) is more crisis management. People do respond to crises, but restoration of the Bay is going to take foresight."
Koslow identifies his priorities as restoration, advocacy and education. One day, he might be completing an assessment of the headwaters of a South River tributary; another, overseeing the construction of an oyster bed. One of the projects recently completed with the help of volunteers from South River Federation was a restoration of 750 linear feet of tidal marsh in Glebe Creek.
"We had nine or ten work parties where the volunteers moved 20 tons of rock in a day. Now you can see that the low marsh, which was completely eroded, has built up again. That's the power of volunteers," he says. "If just 100 people can change a shoreline, imagine what 16 million people who live in the Bay watershed could do to change the Bay?"
Another Chesapeake Riverkeeper is Fred Kelly, an environmental attorney who advocates on behalf of the Severn River. Though Kelly is not salaried, he too has been active in issues affecting the Bay. "We owe it to future generations," he says simply. "We're not doing a good job with the resources we've been given."
Kelly cites Bay success stories like the striped bass revival as an example of what can be accomplished when the political will is there. He notes that a key spawning area near a proposed nuclear plant on the Potomac was saved when the project was defeated-a victory that he helped to achieve.
In the coming year, Kelly hopes to focus his efforts on storm water run-off, which is a major contributor to Bay pollution. "There are some pretty straightforward answers," he says. "For example, Montgomery County did a storm water utility plan that folks here in Anne Arundel County would like to do, but they don't have the resources." But he believes the resources can be created: "People who live on the water would be happy to pay, because that water is why we're here."
The Waterkeeper movement began on the Hudson River in 1966, when commercial and recreational fishermen united to save the river from PCB contamination. It has since sparked the growth of similar grassroots programs across the globe. The Waterkeeper Alliance, founded in 1999 by environmental attorney and activist Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., works to strengthen the impact of 120 separate Waterkeeper programs. It multiplies the efforts of individuals working to protect waters from development, toxic dumping, sewage discharge and runoff pollution.
In June, the Waterkeeper Alliance announced a major initiative for the Chesapeake that will connect and support Waterkeepers throughout the Bay area. It's a first-of-its-kind effort aimed at promoting local efforts to protect the Bay by providing a centralized source for scientific, legal and practical knowledge.
Koslow notes that global and national environmental problems are in evidence all over the Chesapeake Bay. Each watershed, however, has its own specific threats: construction site erosion, for instance, or deposition of atmospheric mercury. One of the grassroots projects that the South River Federation promotes to improve water quality is creation of oyster reefs, which act as natural filters.
"We've created eight reefs on the river, and will build two more this year," Koslow notes. One, on Harness Creek, has two million native oysters (Crassostrea virginica) now growing: a million spat, and a million more one to two years old. The oysters take three years to mature.
Many pier owners on the South River contribute to the effort with OVER 850 "bucket gardens," where oysters are grown in submerged containers suspended in the water. Slightly larger "Taylor floats," made of PCV pipe and netting, offer more oxygen, so the oysters grow faster.
"Oysters are a way to bring back the sub-aquatic vegetation (SAV), which is a prime indicator of the health of the water," Koslow said. "Restoration of the reefs on a large scale will make a difference." He notes that South River Federation recently sponsored a forum to discuss the controversial proposal to introduce Asian oysters to the area.
At present, Koslow and SRF program manager Leeann XXXX occupy office space provided by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. For his daily rounds, his transportation is a 23' Carolina skiff donated by an SRF board member, with a motor contributed by Honda of America. "I'll take a company boat over a company car any day," he grins.
Koslow is optimistic about the challenges facing him. "It's going to take every person doing their part-that's the key to my job," he says. "I can't save the river by myself. It's going to take everyone in the watershed to make a difference."
"I totally believe it's do-able," he insists. "People have the will. They just don't know what needs to be done. I like to use the analogy of pulling a cart: the more people we have to pull, the easier it will be."
In the Chesapeake region, the recognized citizen-advocates for the Bay's tributaries are the Waterkeepers. These ten full-time, privately-funded activists work to identify and address the most pressing problems affecting their local bodies of water and enforce environmental laws. From the Upper Susquehanna to the Assateague coastline, they're launching a coordinated effort to combat a variety of threats to the health of the Bay. 
