Just as one cannot live on bread alone, one cannot also just spend all their time online writing and reading diaries. So in an attempt to spark discussion about what sort of volunteer/activist activities you engage in in your free time, I offer up my own experience in my work to help save the Chesapeake Bay.
For those of you who do not live in the Chesapeake Bay watershed I'll give you a brief update about what is going on here.
The Chesapeake Bay is slowly dying bit by bit each year. As each year goes by, the dead zone of the bay increases, oyster harvest decrease, more fish are discovered with lesions, and more and more development occurrs along the shore of the bay as well as along the shoreline of the rivers and creeks that make up the watershed.
Where I live, we have the most shoreline out of any other county in the Chesapeake Bay watershed (I think we actually have the most shoreline out of any county in the entire country!). So we have many streams, creeks, and rivers that over the years have been seriously damaged by stormwater runoff, pollution, sedimentation, and just plain old garbage.
So what are we doing about it?
Well, one of the projects that I have been working on has been a rain garden that we set up at an elementary school in the area. The idea behind the rain garden is that it catches all the runoff that comes from the parking lot adjacent to it. Instead of the polluted runoff water being channeled to flow directly into the creek next to the school, it is captured by the rain garden where it slowly seeps back into the ground and replenishes the aquifer.
Another project we have been working on has been to encourage homeowners to use rainbarrels on their property. Once again, the idea is to capture the water so it eventually ends up in the aquifer instead of being channeled into the stormwater system. You attach rainbarrels to your downspouts and it collects the water. It is as easy as that. (There are some additional features to help keep mosquitoes out, etc). There is a spigot on the barrel, to allow you to use the water then for watering your yard, garden, or flowers later on. That is the nice aspect of rain barrels. You are collecting and saving water, so when no one else is allowed to water their yard or gardens, you have all the water you need!
We have also been working on a lot of stream restorations and clean ups. The clean ups are easy to explain because they are just that -- clean ups. Until you do something like this, you have no idea what sort of junk you find in stream beds and on the shoreline. It is truly both sad and disgusting. Stream restoration is a little more complicated. It usually involves a combination of planting new grasses and plants to help stabilize existing shore, while also building up degraded shoreline. Usually we use what's called biologs to repair degraded shoreline. These are "logs" of coconut fibre which has been bundled together. It provides a buffer to help prevent erosion and allows you to build up the eroded shoreline behind it. Over time, the biolog will slowly dissipate as the shoreline starts to naturally replace the biolog. Eventually, you should have a rebuilt shoreline!
That is a little bit of what I have done to help save the Chesapeake Bay! What have you been doing in your communities to make this a better world?