Chesapeake Bay: You can't get there from here, but if you do, it's worth the effort

By Dick Cooper

08/12/2008

The Chesapeake Bay is an illusive beauty. If you don't know how to find her, she can slip unnoticed behind a stand of loblolly or hide on the other side of high corn.

Our California friends were coming to the Eastern Shore for a visit. Marty, being used to scenic turnouts that afford grand vistas of the Pacific Coast and San Francisco Bay, said he was flying into Philadelphia and was planning to spend the day driving down along the Chesapeake to take in the view.

I had to break it to him that he could drive 97 of the 100 miles from Philadelphia International and not see water until he crossed the Oak Creek Bridge, three miles from our home off the Miles River in St. Michaels, Md.

Even residents of the bay area who don't own waterfront property or have a boat, seldom catch a glimpse of the largest estuary in the United States unless they are stuck in traffic on the Bay Bridge.

The bay is in trouble because too few area residents think of it as part of their daily lives. They may live in upstate New York or western Virginia, or even in suburban D.C., and not see their connection to the Chesapeake.

Frequently, it takes new eyes to see what is nearby. Two years ago, Stuart Parnes moved from New England, where access to the water is taken for granted, and took the job as president of the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in St. Michaels.

"What struck me was how little of the waterfront is publically accessible," Parnes says. "We explored the area extensively by bicycle and kept going down these roads that ended with big gates, and never got to the water."

As a result, Parnes has made access to the water a goal for the museum's educational outreach. By getting children involved in boating, teaching them the importance of the crab and oyster fisheries, he hopes to keep the next generation in touch with their history and culture on the bay.

For almost a decade, the Chesapeake Bay Gateways Network has brought attention to public access points around the bay and provided interpretation of history and ecology. The program is a public relations umbrella -- and a great Web site (www.baygatesways.org ) -- that supports a collection of private, local, state and federally owned parks, museums, vessels, boat ramps and historic locations that are still often hard to find.

In June the U.S. House voted overwhelmingly to approve permanent funding for the program. Now the bill is in the Senate. Pushed by Sen. Benjamin Cardin (D, Md.), its supporters hope it will pass this summer.

John Maounis, director of the National Park Service Chesapeake Bay Program Office that oversees the Gateways Network, says that one of the strong features of the program is the ability to help local groups preserve and clean up their section of the watershed that stretches from New York to Virginia.

"If people value what they have in their own backyards, then everyone benefits," Maounis says. As an example, when Pennsylvania boaters on the Susquehanna River help care for their part of the river, everyone downstream gets the rewards. "We help them realize that they are part of a larger story."

Maounis says there are no accurate statistics on how many people use the bay every year. He says about 10 million people visit the 161 Gateway sites annually, which include popular attractions such as the National Aquarium, Fort McHenry and the U.S.S. Constellation warship in Baltimore.

In the last year, Maryland has purchased substantial tracts of waterfront on Kent Island and along the Nanticoke River near Vienna for parks and nature preserves. While some critics have questioned the prices paid, the move is in the right direction.

According to government statistics, a third of Americans live within a day's drive of the Chesapeake Bay. Until they can get to places where they can see ospreys and eagles soar, witness herons stalking the shallows for soft crabs or take in an almost-holy sunset over one of the bay's creeks, they will not fully grasp the glory and the necessity that is the Chesapeake.