Now that spring has arrived, we’re looking forward to more time on the water, and a new chapter for the environmental committee. Virginia Tippie, our longtime mentor, leader and Co-Chair of the Environmental Committee (since its inception!) has decided to spend more time on the water and step back from her Co-Chair position of the Green Team. Virginia will continue to be a very important and active member of the Green team, but she’s looking forward to relief from some of the monthly duties.
Rick White has assumed the position of Co-Chair, along with John Butler, who will continue as Co-Chair. It will take some time for this new team to fill the very active role that Virginia played, but we will continue to maintain the excellence of the Green Team that Virginia initiated and maintained over the last 10 years.
In honor of Virginia’s many years of excellent leadership we will hold a cocktail reception on Tuesday, May 7, at 7:00 p.m. in the EYC upstairs bar, following our monthly team meeting. All are invited who would like to share a toast to honor Virginia!
This last year we were proud to help EYC earn a coveted “platinum level” Clean Regatta award from Sailors for the Sea for the 2023 Santa Maria Cup. The Santa Maria Cup chairs Sharon Borland (center) and Ursula Kuehn (left) were presented with the 2023 clean regatta award at the February annual meeting.
We offer special thanks to Jan O’Connor for her outstanding efforts over the past three years as coordinator of our Clean Regatta efforts but are also happy to give her a well-deserved break for 2024. In this regard, we’re pleased to announce that Ann Bangert will be taking over the helm as coordinator for clean regattas.
Moving forward, we will be helping EYC keep all of its major regattas and events at the highest possible level of environmental stewardship, including application of all the “best practices” stipulated by Sailors for the Sea. (See sailorsforthesea.org/programs-clean-regattas-best-practices/.)
Our speaker for March 27 was Jesse Iliff, executive Director of the Severn River Association and past South River Keeper. Jesse is a long-time friend of EYC who has recently taken on leadership of the SRA, the nation’s oldest river group. He provided an overview of SRA‘s ongoing work and future plans in oyster restoration, water quality monitoring, and watershed management. He described River-friendly practices that we all can adopt to be a part of the solution toward protecting and restoring the natural beauty of our beautiful Chesapeake Bay.
And while our monthly Environmental Lecture Series takes a break during the active sailing months of April through August (next lecture scheduled for Wednesday, September 15) we are still overseeing our Maryland Grows Oysters program (keeping the “spat-on-shell” oysters growing and healthy in cages under our docks), and also working to restock some oysters in our “oyster wave wall” along the inside of the marina perimeter.
Finally, there are two on-going environmental studies in which EYC is actively involved:
1) EYC is partnering with UMCES MD for an Eastport climate change resiliency project. If you have an interest in this project for Eastport, please contact the Green Team to be included in this working committee;
2) The EYC Green Team has helped EYC obtain a $4,000 grant from the Chesapeake Oyster Alliance to conduct some submarine imaging and study of our oyster wave wall. First efforts on this project were conducted on February 22, when two teams of scientists (one from the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and one from the Oyster Recovery Project ) brought two Remotely Operated (underwater) Vehicles (ROVs) to EYC for some trial filming sessions. For more information on this project, contact Bill Ball, Project Lead.
Events to watch for in the coming months:
* Earth Day 2024 (Monday, April 22). Possible Poster Contest. Stay tuned!
* World Oceans Day 2024 (Saturday June 8): Environmentally related film on EYC lawn?
Ideas welcome! Stay Tuned!