You’re killing the Bay
I know how people around here value their big picture-perfect lawns and suburban-type lifestyle, but you’re killing the Bay. The Chesapeake Bay is a national treasure and it’s threatened now because people can’t stand a few dandelions or less than emerald-green grass. Excess nitrogen, herbicides, pesticides are all bound for the Bay if you use them on lawns here in the watershed. If you care about the Bay, have a look at this: http://www.bayjournal.com/article.cfm?article=3479. Does your lawn really have to look like a green carpet? Do you really have to live a high-impact lifestyle?
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May 16th, 2009 at 11:25 am
And I suppose you want us to let the dandelions go wild and float seeds all over our neighbors’ yards?
May 16th, 2009 at 8:38 pm
The key word being excess. Used properly, they will have little effect. This type of broad statement, implicating everyone, has the exact opposite effect you are trying for. It just turns people off. We are tired of the hysteria surrounding the environment. Twenty years ago, we were headed for an new ice age. Now, global warming, oops, climate change. We had to change the term since global warming keeps getting debunked.
The truth is that despite our arrogance in believing so, humans do not have the ability to effect the climate as much as nature herself. The key to helping to maintain a nicer, cleaner world is to encourage sensible conservation activities, not resorting to hysteria, accusations and drama.
May 18th, 2009 at 1:50 pm
I see that President Obama has signed an Executive Order making the Chesapeake Bay a National Treasure. The EPA is charged to “examine how to make full use of its authorities under the Clean Water Act to protect and restore the Chesapeake Bay and its tributary waters.”
I grew up on the coast and the stories on the news each summer are about the runoff into the Bay from waterways like the James River that are causing pollution in the Bay. They always interview the fishermen who talk about how hard it is to find fish to catch or the crabbers that show just how few crabs they actually caught that day or the oysters that are dying off. The runoff of human introduced nitrogens and phosphorus does cause an imbalance in the amount of oxygen in the water and promotes growth of algae along with parasites. There are what is called “dead zones” now in the Chesapeake Bay where things can’t live.
I know on the coast there is a fee on the called “Stormwater runoff”. The fee is because of the runoff into storm drains from lawns and parking lots when it rains. I do not think local media here covers the issues of the Chesapeake Bay as well as they should. Local media could help all of us to understand the issue of runoff and how it affects the Bay.