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Delmarva's Environmental Balance: Progress & Stewardship
By Dana Kester-McCabeWinter's challenging weather sets the stage for Spring's beautiful flowers. It's such a simple way to show the natural balance between what we must endure and what we will enjoy. The Delmarva environment is starting to recover from this winter's trials. But it still needs our protection from what we who live and visit here put it through. In April of 1964 the first span of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel opened in Virginia. Its second span was completed April 19, 1999. It has been hailed as one of the 7 modern engineering wonders of the world. It is one of several bridges which connect our quiet rural communities to everyone else on the East Coast, and vice versa. All this began in April 1824 when after one false start construction began on the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal.  These engineering feats have brought economic growth, more people, and an irrevocable change to the way of life here on the shore. They have also increased the human toll on Delmarva's environmental condition: more emissions from cars, runoff from more highways, more farms, and more housing developments. Both the benefits and the costs are signs of progress. No one group can claim all the credit for the good or take all the blame for the bad. We are, in fact, all in this together. On April 12, 1961 the Russian Yuri Gagarin was the first human to go into outer space. His was an achievement of great human progress. As a result of his experience was that Gagarin became an advocate for stewardship of our planet. He said: "Circling the Earth in my orbital spaceship I marveled at the beauty of our planet. People of the world, let us safeguard and enhance this beauty - not destroy it!" He knew that it was important to balance the sacrifices we and our environment must endure with the rewards of our expanded knowledge and progress. There is still a lot to enjoy here on Delmarva. We still have beautiful beaches, woods, and wildlife. But they are not just pretty to look at. They are not just for the privileged few who can get out and see them. They are essential to our health and our economic future. We all should be able to enjoy them. At the same time, we are all responsible for protecting them. This April 20th remember Earth Day. Learn what you can do to support our Delmarva environment. Delaware Environmental Groups Delaware Audubon Society - http://www.delawareaudubon.org Delaware Center for the Inland Bays, Inc. - http://www.inlandbays.org Delaware Native Plant Society - http://www.delawarenativeplants.org Delaware Nature Society - http://www.delawarenaturesociety.org Delaware River Keeper Network - http://www.delawareriverkeeper.org Delaware Wild Lands, Inc. - http://www.delawarewildlands.org Friends of Prime Hook NWR - http://www.friendsofprimehook.org Friends of White Clay Creek State Park - http://www.whiteclayfriends.org Friends of Wilmington Parks - http://www.brandywinepark.org Green Delaware - http://www.greendel.org Jean Ellen Dupont Audubon Sanctuary - http://www.audubonmddc.org/centers_JEDS.html Nature Conservancy of Delaware - http://www.nature.org/wherewework/northamerica/states/delaware/ Partnership for the Delaware Estuary - http://www.delawareestuary.org Rehoboth Bay Foundation - http://www.rbsa.org Sierra Club - Delaware Chapter - http://delaware.sierraclub.org Sussex County - Citizens Coalition, Inc. - http://www.citizenscoalition.net Sussex County Land Trust - http://www.sclandtrust.org Thank You Delaware Bay Program - http://www.tydb.org White Clay Watershed Association - http://home.ccil.org/~wcwa/ Maryland Environmental Groups Adkins Arboretum - http://www.adkinsarboretum.org Assateague Coastal Trust - http://www.actforbays.org Chesapeake Audubon Society - http://www.chesapeakeaudubon.org Chesapeake Bay Foundation - http://www.cbf.org The Chester River Association - http://www.chesterriverassociation.org The Choptank River Heritage Center http://www.riverheritage.org Eastern Shore Land Conservancy - http://www.eslc.org Friends of Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge - http://www.friendsofblackwater.org / Lower Shore Land Trust - http://www.lowershorelandtrust.org Maryland Coastal Bays Program - http://www.mcbp@mdcoastalbays.org Maryland Conservation Council - http://www.marylandconservationcouncil.net Maryland Environmental Trust - http://www.dnr.state.md.us/met/ Maryland Native Plant Society - http://mdflora.org The Nanticoke Watershed Alliance - http://www.nanticokeriver.org Nature Conservancy of Maryland - http://www.nature.org/wherewework/northamerica/states/maryland/ Sassafras River Association - http://www.sassafrasriver.org Wicomico Environmental Trust - http://www.wicomicoenvironment.org Virginia Environmental Groups Coastal Conservation Association Virginia - http://www.ccavirginia.org Citizens For A Better Eastern Shore - http://www.cbes.org Virginia Eastern Shorekeeper - http://www.shorekeeper.org Nature Conservancy of Virginia - http://www.nature.org/wherewework/northamerica/states/virginia/ Also check out a web page devoted to Yuri’s Night, another Earth Day type celebration in Gagarin’s honor: http://yurisnight.net Posted - 04/01/2010
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