Dr. Gerald Winegrad presents “What Needs to Be Done to Restore The Bay? The Inconvenient Truths of Bay Restoration”

Tuesday, March 24th, at 6:30 p.m

The presentation will be at the Prince Frederick Public Library, Rooms 1-3. The event is hosted by The Cove Point Natural Heritage Trust.

Gerald W. Winegrad will make a presentation and lead a discussion on the decline of the Chesapeake Bay and what needs to be done to restore this great estuary. He will outline why the Bay is in serious trouble after 25 years of recovery efforts under the Bay Program and the expenditure of billions of dollars. Collapsed fisheries, including oysters and shad, and the crab fishery’s serious decline are among many signs of the ecological collapse as Southern Maryland’s thriving seafood industry has been reduced to a remnant of the 1950’s.

The renowned Bay scholar and leader will discuss how we have so poisoned our waters that reports abound of serious infections in humans who come in contact with Bay waters. These reports are widespread-from the Severn to the Nanticoke rivers, and beyond. Rockfish, one of the few success stories in the recovery of living resources, have been turning up with lesions from a chronic wasting disease, which is transmittable to humans. Catfish in the South River have cancerous lesions and male bass from the Potomac are turning up with female egg sacs.

Bay grasses are at only one-third of the acreage agreed upon by the states and oyster populations show no signs of recovery.

When the Bay Program began with the adoption of the first Bay Agreement in 1983, Gerald Winegrad notes, if anyone had chosen to frighten the public into action with a doomsday scenario, it would have probably read as he describes above and yet this scenario has become reality: Just how much worse does this horrible situation have to become before policy makers take the bold but necessary actions to reverse the decline of the Bay? Half-measures and “save the Bay” palliatives won’t do–come learn of the bold, decisive actions that can be taken now to turn the tide.

Senator Winegrad will detail these necessary actions and make the case for controlling human population growth, sprawl development and the loss of forest land. The necessity of regulatory controls for agricultural pollution–the Bay’s greatest source of nutrient and sediment pollution–also will be a focus of his talk. Senator Winegrad will then describe the increasing problems of storm-water runoff from development and how this can be addressed to restore the Bay. He will also present startling data on the impacts of growth and agricultural pollution on the Bay’s decline. Come see this up-to-date presentation and learn how we can Save the Bay and our natural heritage. We all have a special role to play in making these changes to turn the tide.

Senator Gerald W. Winegrad is a former State Senator from Annapolis and for 16 years was the leading environmentalist in the Legislature. He was responsible for many Bay initiatives including the phosphate detergent ban. He Chaired the Senate Environment and Chesapeake Bay Subcommittee and served on the Chesapeake Bay Commission for 12 years. Gerald Winegrad was called the “environmental conscience” of the Senate by the Washington Post and Tom Horton wrote that “he is the person who more than any other set Maryland’s environmental agenda over the past 16 years”. In 2002 he was presented the prestigious Life Time Achievement Award by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. He is a Professor at the graduate School of Public Policy, University of Maryland, where he teaches courses on Bay restoration and wildlife management.