The Eastern Shore Land Conservancy (ESLC) is excited to announce a new conservation easement in Dorchester County. The property, owned by Ed “Biff” Burns, protects 589 acres of land southeast of Cambridge. The permanent protection of the property helps to secure the agricultural and natural resources of the region, with approximately 227 acres planted in grain and 363 acres held in woodlands, with many qualifying as forested wetlands. The woodlands are especially important, as they provide significant habitat for Forest Interior Dwelling Species (FIDS), including woodpeckers, thrushes, and nuthatches, as well as Delmarva fox squirrel.

Mr. Burns grows grain in Dorchester and Wicomico Counties. Dr. Candy Burns, Biff’s late wife, was a driving force behind conserving the farm, a goal that Biff remained steadfast in honoring even after her passing in 2021. He hopes that the farm will continue to be enjoyed as a great place for farming and hunting for he and his family.

ESLC would like to thank the Burns family for its contribution to regional conservation. We’d also like to recognize and thank our partners in this endeavor: the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife (via the North American Wetland Conservation Act; NAWCA). Their technical and financial assistance was key to securing this beautiful farm for generations to come.

To learn about conservation easement programs, including whether your property may qualify, please contact ESLC’s director of land conservation, David Satterfield, at [email protected].

To learn more about the U.S. Navy Conservation Program in Maryland, check out the Readiness and Environmental Protection Integration (REPI) program page at: https://www.repi.mil/. To learn more about the NAWCA program, check out their home page at: https://www.fws.gov/program/north-american-wetlands-conservation.

The University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science’s Horn Point Laboratory (HPL) invites the public to its annual free Open House on Saturday, October 14,2023, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mark your calendar and Save the Date! This year’s Open House is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Horn Point Laboratory.

The theme is “Science for All!” with 50 years of science for the Chesapeake Bay and the diverse marine and human life it supports.  Meet the Horn Point Lab’s team of scientists and explore the Bay using their research in fun interactive exhibits. Learn about healthy marshes, how oysters clean the water and build resilience to sea level rise and climate change, dive into the largest oyster hatchery on the east coast, and more during a day of FREE activities for all ages. Children will receive a free t-shirt for completing the scavenger hunt. 

“This is the best day of the year for the community to learn about the science of the Bay. Everyone at the lab is on deck to explain their research with activities and displays that make it easy to understand,” said Horn Point Laboratory Director Mike Sieracki. 

From the banks of the Choptank River on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, Horn Point scientists engage in world-renowned research in oceanography, water quality, coastal resilience and sea level rise, restoration of sea grasses, marshes and shellfish, and expertise in ecosystem modeling.

Visitors to the Open House will explore the shore through hands-on exhibits created by the Lab’s faculty and students:

• Build a healthy marsh and learn who are our best partners in this effort.
• See an animation of the travels of oyster larvae as they move from the reef where they spawned to their new, permanent home reef.  
• Match up a DNA sequence to microscopic creatures important to the food chain. 
• Play in a digital sand box to create shorelines and model weather’s impact with laser imaging.
• Meet and talk to graduate students about their environmental career goals.
• Build an oyster castle and learn how these growing, living building blocks create habitat for marine creatures and protect against sea level rise and climate change.
• At the children’s activity booth, create eco-friendly animals that live in our waters. Play games that teach fun facts about the Bay.  Go on a scavenger hunt through the exhibits to learn how the Bay’s lasting health starts with each of us making a cleaner environment today.

FREE and fun for all ages the Open House will take place rain or shine. The Horn Point Laboratory campus is located at 2020 Horns Point Road on Route 343 outside of Cambridge, Maryland. 

For more information, visit umces.edu/hpl/openhouse or contact Carin Starr at [email protected], 410-221-8408.

Pickering Creek Audubon Center is a 450-acre nature center in Talbot County, which is open to the public daily with no admission for exploring on our trails.  The Center is a primary provider of outdoor science experiences for school systems on the Eastern Shore. Visitors to the Center on a daily basis use Pickering Creek’s Farm to Bay Trail, which is 2.5 miles in length.  The Farm to Bay Trail winds its way through cool season grass meadows, warm season grass meadows, brackish wetlands, freshwater wetlands, pine forest, emergent hardwood forest, mature hardwood forest and gives up close views of agriculture on Delmarva on a working farm.  While exploring the habitats, about half of the trail borders agriculture fields while the other half borders brackish Pickering Creek.  The trail affords a rare opportunity to experience most of the rural, coastal plain’s habitats in one place coexisting with agriculture successfully.  Interpretive panels along the Farm to Bay Trail tell the story of Delmarva’s key ecosystems and species. 

In the fall of 2022, Pickering Creek received a grant from the Rural Maryland Council to support creation of new messaging and new artwork for nine interpretive panels. People visit places like Pickering Creek Audubon Center to learn, explore, find adventure, relax and exercise.  Interpretive panels help give meaning to the visitors experience by telling the story of the land: past, present and future.  Interpretive panels help draw connections between habitats, plants, wildlife and people. 

The panels highlight the key habitats along the Center’s Farm to Bay Trail, which include forest, wetland, meadow, agriculture and brackish water creek. Through the panels we tell the story of key habitat features, flora and fauna through both concise written messages and compelling visuals.  Panels help the visitor understand the interconnected nature of land and water on Delmarva.  

The panels replace aging panels that have been weathered by the sun and rain.  None of the existing panels were replicated, so each of the nine panels shares a brand new story about the Center, its wildlife and habitats.  In addition to replacing existing panels, the new panels fill in spots along the trails that have not been previously highlighted. 

Over the course of the past year, Center staff researched, designed, contracted fabrication and installed nine interpretive panels. At the Center’s entrance parking area you will now be greeted by a timeline history of the Center that explains its donation and evolution over time. New panels along the Farm to Bay Trail highlight songbirds in the woods, no till agriculture, the importance of forested buffers between land and water, fungi of the woods, and birds seen on the creek. New panels along the Wetland and Meadow Trails highlight which amphibians you are likely to see and hear, the importance of milkweed in meadow communities, and bluebird boxes and their benefits.

“Pickering Creek is unique as a nature center in that we are also agricultural landowners.  As the Olds Family who donated the Center’s core property wished we continued to highlight agriculture as part of the landscape on Delmarva while also sharing how conservation practices coexist with great habitat for wildlife.” said Center Director Mark Scallion.

Pickering Creek is open to the public daily during daylight hours.  Check the Center website for exact open times as evening daylight gets shorter this fall.  There are several viewing platforms and blinds along the way for you to enjoy scenery and wildlife.  Benches for resting are spread throughout the trails.  The new panels join seven existing panels that have been installed in the last five years in both wetland and meadow habitats.  Together they share the story of outdoor habitats and ecosystems and the creatures we share them with on Delmarva.

On Thursday August 17, Eastern Shore Land Conservancy (ESLC) and Skip and Barbara Watson hosted U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen for a tour of Waterloo Farm in East New Market, Maryland. Several bay conservation partners also attended, including representatives from Choose Clean Water Coalition, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, Ducks Unlimited, Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge, and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.

Waterloo Farm’s conservation and wetland protection efforts (including impoundments, native plantings, protected woodlands, and vegetative buffers) will be replicated across Dorchester County by ESLC and essential partners through Chesapeake WILD funding, which includes $500,000 in federal funding that the Senator fought to secure to protect habitat migration corridors between Blackwater and the Nanticoke River Watershed. 

Through strategic landowner outreach, ESLC and the Chesapeake WILD project will permanently protect 300 acres, benefiting the long-term resilience of wildlife populations and critical ecosystems throughout Maryland’s lower Eastern Shore.

“What this shows is that this requires a team effort,” said Senator Van Hollen. “It does require everybody working in the same direction. If we’re going to address all the issues and if we’re going to protect the Chesapeake Bay, which is a global treasure, we have to make sure here in the bay, which is an extra sensitive area ecologically, that we have a program specifically targeted on the Bay and that’s what Chesapeake WILD is all about.”

Celebrate the end of summer with ShoreRivers and the Miles-Wye Riverkeeper at the Shaw Bay Raft-Up Concert from 3–6 pm on Saturday, Sept. 9. The Eastport Oyster Boys will be making their 20^th appearance and the Wye River Band will be back for their fourth at this free concert, which aims to raise funds and awareness for clean water efforts on Maryland’s Eastern Shore.

This annual benefit concert is a must for mariners of all kinds. Bring your dinghy, paddle board, kayak, sailboat, or power boat, and join the floating raft up to enjoy live music in Shaw Bay, near the mouth of the Wye River. Visit shorerivers.org/events to find sponsorship opportunities, a map of nearby locations from which to launch your vessel, and to sign up to receive text updates on the event.

While the concert is free, donations are welcome, with all proceeds helping to promote the clean water initiatives of ShoreRivers on the Miles and Wye rivers and Eastern Bay. Attendees are asked to use the organization’s pumpout boat services while in Shaw Bay, and throughout the boating season, to help with these efforts.

Since May 2016, the ShoreRivers pumpout boat has removed more than 90,000 gallons of waste from boaters on the Miles and Wye. The pumpout boat is funded by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources and operates in partnership with the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in St. Michaels, MD. The vessel operates Friday–Sunday and on holidays from mid-May through mid-November. Pumpouts may be scheduled on VHF Channel 9 or by contacting Captain Jim at 410.829.4352 or [email protected].

ShoreRivers is a nonprofit organization dedicated to restoring Eastern Shore waterways through science-based advocacy, restoration, and education. Our local waterways are polluted by excess nutrients and sediment that run off of urban, suburban, agricultural, and commercial land. ShoreRivers is dedicated to implementing real solutions through programs and projects to improve the health of these waterways. To learn more, please visit shorerivers.org.

Event questions may be directed to Freya Farley at [email protected].

Chesapeake Bay Oyster Reef Recovery Initiative volunteers Roy Cowdrey and Chris Walsh carry empty buckets ready to be filled with spat-on-shell, or oyster seed destined for a protected oyster sanctuary on the Tred Avon River. They were among 80 volunteers gathering at Eglseder Wealth Management Group, Inc. in Easton, Maryland to collect more than 750 cages of oysters that were delivered to Easton Point Marina and out to the sanctuary by boat.

Volunteers for the Chesapeake Bay Oyster Reef Recovery Initiative gathered at the offices of founding sponsor Eglseder Wealth Management Group, Inc. on June 2 to pick up oyster spat-on-shell from their 300-plus growers.

After coffee and doughnuts, 80 community volunteers collected more than 750 cages of oysters from the growers and delivered them to the Easton Point Marina. Captain Robert Crow and his first mate, Mark Massey, were at the dock waiting to load the oysters onto their boat and plant the 217,280 spat-on-shell in a protected oyster sanctuary on the Tred Avon River.

The Chesapeake Bay Oyster Reef Recovery Initiative was founded in 2011 by Eglseder Wealth Management Group, Inc., and, as measured by the number of growers in any group, has grown to be the largest group of oyster growers (for restoration purposes) in the State of Maryland.

Oysters help filter the Chesapeake Bay’s waters by removing excess nitrogen and incorporating it into their shells and tissue as they grow. Oysters also consume pollutants, rendering them harmless.

Born in Easton in 1960 and raised on Spencer’s Creek near St. Michaels, President of Eglseder Wealth Management Group, Inc. Scott Eglseder vividly remembers the abundance of life the Chesapeake Bay offered during his youth. He says since then he has witnessed the decline of that abundance—and the way of life associated with it—to a mere fraction of what it used to be.

“Now, I want my eight grandchildren to enjoy the incredible abundance the Bay has to offer through my support of this initiative, which is made possible through our grower and volunteer support,” says Eglseder. “My company is deeply committed to helping to make the abundance of my youth, once again, a reality for all to enjoy, and that includes more protected oysters growing on the Tred Avon River.”

The project is part of the state’s Marylanders Grow Oysters program to encourage people to become involved in Maryland’s oyster restoration efforts and clean-up of the Chesapeake Bay.

To learn how to become an oyster grower, please visit www.oystersforthebay.com or contact Suzanne Anderson, Program Manager, at 410-822-9143.

Have you ever been told you have an eye for capturing the moment? Perhaps a passion for photography? Do you love your local waterways and want to promote and protect them? ShoreRivers is running its annual photo contest from August through October, so snap a picture and send it our way! Your photo could be seen across the Eastern Shore—contest photos are featured in ShoreRivers’ print and digital publications as well as at our events, which collectively reach thousands of people each year.

We are looking for images that highlight the beauty and resilience of the Eastern Shore waterways that ShoreRivers works to protect and restore through science-based advocacy, restoration, and education. We are particularly interested in images of people—show us how you enjoy the places we all love! Shore rivers are your rivers, and we want to see how you engage with the natural resources that we all strive to conserve.

Contest winners will be announced December 1 via email and on social media. Winners will be chosen based on how well their images reflect the mission and values of ShoreRivers. There will be four winners for each watershed—Choptank; Miles, Wye, and Eastern Bay; Sassafras and Bayside Creeks; and Chester—for a total of 16 winners.

Photographers will be credited for their work and may submit up to four photos. Images must be taken in ShoreRivers’ geography. For additional contest rules and details, please visit shorerivers.org/photo-contest.