Description
Book SynopsisThe people, policies, and forces transforming a national treasurethe Chesapeake Bay. When Captain John Smith arrived in Virginia in 1607, he discovered a paradise in the Chesapeake Bay. In the centuries that followed, the Bay changed vastlyand not for the better. European landowners and enslaved Africans slashed, burned, and cleared the surrounding forests to grow tobacco. Watermen overfished oysters, shad, and sturgeon, decimating these crucial species. Baltimore, Washington, and Richmond used its rivers as urban sewers. By the 1960s, the Chesapeake was dying. A crossroads of life and culture, the Chesapeake straddles the North and the South, mixes salt water with fresh, and is home to about 18 million people and 3,600 species of animals and plants. Although recent cleanup efforts have improved its overall health, they have not been enough to save this national treasure. In The Chesapeake in Focus, award-winning writer Tom Pelton examines which environmental policies have worked a
Trade ReviewTom Pelton, one of the country's leading environmental journalists, offers us a wealth of knowledge about the Chesapeake Bay, collected from his more than two decades of reporting on this ecological, cultural, and historical treasure . . . The highlight, perhaps, comes toward the end, when Pelton proposes 10 realistic steps for bay restoration. We should listen to him.
—Lauren Larocca,
Baltimore MagazineA terrific book . . . Really puts in perspective the different issues swirling about the Bay.
—Tom Hall,
"Midday" on WYPR 88.1 FMReally good book about a really great ecosystem.
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Society of Environmental JournalistsTable of ContentsAcknowledgments
Introduction
1. The Waters
Susquehanna River
Gunpowder River
Corsica River
Patuxent River
Potomac River
James River
Southern Bay
2. The People
Harry Hughes
Parris Glendening
John Griffin
Bonnie Bick
Michael Beer
Carole Morison
Ooker Eskridge
3. The Wildlife
Oysters
Dermo and MSX
Blue Crabs
Striped Bass
American Eels
Sturgeon
4. The Policies
Enforcement
Pennsylvania
Air Pollution versus Water Pollution
Agriculture
Climate Change
Advocacy and Pollution Trading
Accountability
Conclusion
Notes
Index
