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Articles by Dave Harp
‘A great tree has fallen’: Remembering Walter Boynton, pioneering Bay scientist
By Timothy B. Wheeler The Chesapeake Bay Journal Walter Boynton, one of the Chesapeake Bay’s preeminent scientists and communicators, died Sept. 14 after a long illness, leaving a legacy of more than 50 years of pioneering research and advocacy for his adopted watershed. He was 79. Scientific colleagues and many others who worked with Boynton over the decades mourned his death but hailed his contributions in the laboratory as well as in the community at large.
Plans for Six Flags site in Prince George’s County reignite Belt Woods concerns
By Jeremy Cox The Chesapeake Bay Journal A development partnership backed by an A-list sports celebrity is looking to transform a former amusement park in Maryland into an entertainment and shopping hotbed accompanied by a broad spectrum of housing types. “Our goal is to deliver several different uses that kind of work together in a generative way to create a real ecosystem,” said Adam Rashid of TPA Group during a community meeting about the project in June.
Public input sought on possible cuts to menhaden harvest in Chesapeake Bay
By Timothy B. Wheeler The large-scale commercial harvest of Atlantic menhaden in the Chesapeake Bay could be slashed later this year. The move might help starving osprey chicks and other struggling fish but could also hurt a Virginia fishing village where hundreds of jobs rely on menhaden.
Help for local governments on Bay-related work is spread unevenly, report finds
By Jeremy Cox The Chesapeake Bay Journal Local governments are widely seen as crucial to restoring the health of the Chesapeake Bay and its rivers. Many, though, lack the workforce and expertise to carry out the work. A new report reveals that more than 120 “technical assistance” programs have sprouted across the Bay watershed trying to fill those gaps. But those efforts are themselves plagued by gaps — gaps in what type of services are provided and where help is available.
Vibrio on the rise as climate change warms the Chesapeake Bay
By Timothy B. Wheeler The Chesapeake Bay Journal One day last July, Vernon Spear scratched his forearm on a crab pot as he pulled it out of the Choptank River from his pier in Cambridge. He put hydrogen peroxide on the tiny cuts, thinking that would disinfect them. That night, his forearm swelled up, and he spiked a high fever. The next morning, the fever was gone, and his arm didn’t hurt. But the wounds were bright red and oozing.
Chesapeake crab population rallies a bit from long-term slump
By Timothy B. Wheeler The dredge survey conducted last winter by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and Virginia Institute of Marine Science found that the Chesapeake Bay’s crab population — especially the young crustaceans — have rebounded from a protracted slump, despite an unusually harsh winter. The survey, which samples 1,500 sites throughout the bay and its rivers from December to March, estimated the overall population at 349 million crabs this year.
Researchers: Look for a smaller dead zone in the Chesapeake Bay this summer
By Jeremy Cox The drought that has plagued much of the Chesapeake Bay’s watershed during the first half of this year is causing strains to drinking water supplies, hurting crop output and leaving many rafters and boaters high and dry. But there’s an upside. Low river flows during the late winter and early spring led to reduced amounts of nutrient pollution flowing into the Chesapeake Bay. As a result, scientists say, the Bay’s annual “dead zone” could rank among the smallest on record.
Chesapeake blue crab population drops 50%. The question is: Why?
By Timothy B. Wheeler and Jeremy Cox The Chesapeake Bay Journal The Chesapeake Bay’s blue crab population has declined by about 50% since 2010, a new study estimates, and while invasive blue catfish are responsible for some of that worrisome decline, the main cause or causes remain a mystery.
Shuttered nature museum to reopen for ‘last push’ – or more Original
By Jeremy Cox The Chesapeake Bay Journal Rumors of its demise had swirled for years. But this time, there was no denying it: The Delmarva Discovery Museum really was closing. With barely enough money left in its bank account to settle a few bills, the Maryland nonprofit announced in a March 17 social media post that it intended to permanently close three days later. At the end of that last day, the four remaining staff members locked the door behind them, wiped away a few tears and went home.
Frederick water treatment plant exceeds pollution limit for the fourth time Original
5:14 Brief The nutrients nitrogen and phosphorus cause algae blooms that cloud the water. A gradually increasing trend in rainfall is driving more nutrient pollution off the land and into streams. (Photo by Dave Harp/Chesapeake Bay Journal) By Lauren Hines-Acosta The Chesapeake Bay Journal The wastewater treatment plant operated by the city of Frederick has exceeded the limits for its annual phosphorus discharge for the fourth time in the last five years.
Amid oyster bounty, Chesapeake Bay watermen suffer dismal harvest
Timothy B. Wheeler and Jeremy Cox The Chesapeake Bay Journal It’s the best of times in recent memory for Chesapeake Bay oysters. It’s just the opposite, though, for the Maryland and Virginia watermen who make a living harvesting them. The bay’s oysters have recovered from the MSX and Dermo diseases that decimated the population a little more than two decades ago. Recent reef surveys found them more abundant and fecund than they’ve been since the diseases hit in the late 1980s.
A Passion for Oysters (2023)
Oysters once populated the Chesapeake Bay’s bottoms in massive numbers, inspiring shooting wars, piracy, social and environmental conflict, and libraries of legislation. Subscribe Join the commmunity of Bay Journal readers. It's free! Donate Help spread environmental news. Your support makes our work possible.
Pop's Old Place
A small livestock farm on Maryland's Eastern Shore relies on pasture-grazing to improve the soil, raise healthy animals and reduce runoff.
Water's Way: Thinking Like a Watershed
How the watery world of the Chesapeake Bay region once functioned and how natural elements, like beavers and trees, could help clean the water again.
Saving San Domingo
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Scenes of spring
A photo collection from Bay Journal photographer Dave Harp. 1 of 7 The mayapple blooms from April to June in rich, shady, damp woods. Despite its name, the plant’s leaves, roots and seeds are poisonous. A Canada goose nest is maxed out with 7 eggs on Raccoon Island in Maryland's Choptank River. Resident Canada geese build nests in the spring. The month-long incubation period ends with all goslings hatching on the same day.
Beautiful Swimmers Revisted
Forty years after William W. Warner’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book, Beautiful Swimmers, introduced us to the Chesapeake Bay blue crab, the Bay Journal presents Beautiful Swimmers Revisited, a journey around the Bay to look in on those who catch, study and eat blue crabs. Subscribe Join the commmunity of Bay Journal readers. It's free! Donate Help spread environmental news. Your support makes our work possible.
Chesapeake continues to be a classroom for its retired iconic educator
It was the best day I would spend in a “classroom,” drifting through the summer wetlands of the Patuxent River as the “professor” stood tall in his canoe, informing his floating gaggle of schoolchildren about plankton, fish and the food web; of birds that had flown across the continent to harvest the swelling crops of seed from the tidal marsh; and the joy and wonder of how it all fit into the greater Chesapeake ecosystem.
Eastern Neck refuge spared closure, but funding crunch continues
ROCK HALL — The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is hiring a new manager at Eastern Neck National Wildlife Refuge, sparing a natural area popular with hunters, anglers and birdwatchers from at least partial closure.The refuge, in Maryland on the Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay, was left without a full-time manager in September 2017 when that official took a job elsewhere in the Fish and Wildlife Service.
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