No. 1 Clare Kelly, “Preserving and Building Community: A Rhetorical Analysis of the Smith Island Memoir of Captain Benjamin Franklin Marsh and Diary of Mabel Marsh”

The culture, economics, and lifestyle of Smith Island, one of last inhabited islands of the Chesapeake Bay watershed, has historically revolved around the watermen. While Smith Island has been studied from various perspectives (environmental, linguistic, etc.), memoirs and diaries of Smith Islanders provide additional avenues for understanding how culture is preserved through written accounts. This presentation provides a rhetorical analysis of archived personal accounts from one family separated by 24 years to add another layer of understanding of the watermen culture on Smith Island and how this affects the culture in the wider area of the Chesapeake region.

No. 2 Luka Hamel-Serenity, “Attachment, Displacement: Race and Planning in the Bay City”

The Chesapeake cities of Annapolis, MD and Norfolk, VA have complex histories of exclusion and displacement interwoven with residents’ and governments’ place attachment. Urban planning policies from the 1940’s to the 1970’s have had negative effects on entire minoritized communities, while the resilience and hazard mitigation paradigms of today seek to preserve high-profile amenities, sometimes for a select few. Here, place attachment functions to protect residents or key areas, but at other times, it cannot protect them from the crushing forces of urban renewal. Factors like place identity and place dependence may lead planners to enforce a certain whitewashed vision of their cities, regardless of residents’ attachment. Here, resilience and hazard mitigation may support place-protective behavior, or surreptitiously promote displacement. The study of place attachment in Chesapeake Bay cities holds the potential for breaking cycles of displacement, allowing all residents to cultivate and experience the places they love.

No. 3 Erin Trouba, “Engaging Stakeholders in Local Water Quality Planning: Pennsylvania Countywide Action Plans”

As part of the Pennsylvania (PA) Watershed Implementation Plan (WIP) to address water quality in the Chesapeake Bay (the Bay) watershed, PA counties within that watershed were tasked with engaging local stakeholders to develop a plan to address local contributions of nutrient and sediment pollution to the Bay. While the state provided guidance and some funding to hire planning coordinators, there was relative freedom for the counties to direct and implement their own strategies to engage local stakeholders. This research examines how counties that developed a water quality countywide action plan (CAP) engaged stakeholders in developing that plan. Through qualitative analysis of documents and interviews with coordinators, this research intends to identify the characteristics of the processes used, thematically analyze the CAP action, and relate the processes to the types of action items and short-term outcomes achieved.

“Getting Those Stories Told: Utilizing Community Literacy and Community Partnerships in Creating Museum Exhibits Celebrating Local Black History”

Members of the Community Committee and Briddell Family Committee will share their experiences in creating exhibits at the Taylor House Museum in Berlin, Maryland. These multimedia exhibits were a result of collaboration and equal partnership between the museum and local community members. Local and community literacy were utilized to create the exhibits that made use of written text, photographs, drawings, voice recording and music to tell stories highlighting local Black history.

“Community Collaboration and Local Research with a National Reach: CBNERR-MD and Monie Bay”

No. 1 Jenn Raulin, “Welcome to Our NERRDy Family”

Jenn will provide a brief overview of the National Estuarine Research Reserve System and provide a sense of place for the components of the Maryland Reserve and moderate the session.

No. 2 Chris Snow, “What Bird Was That and Why Doesn’t It Live Here?”

Chris will discuss ongoing efforts to monitor secretive marsh birds and improve the habitat of the barn owl population in Monie Bay and the Patuxent River.

No. 3 Kyle Derby, “What Are Those People Doing Out There?! Research at Monie Bay”

Kyle will discuss the system wide monitoring program, how to access this publically available data, and touch on other long term monitoring and research efforts underway at Monie Bay and the Reserve as a whole.. Kyle will also discuss research opportunities for both Graduate and Undergraduate researchers at the Maryland Reserve.

No. 4 Becky Swerida, “Getting SAVvy with Community Science”

Becky will provide an overview of the monitoring efforts for the State’s Resiliency through Restoration program, the Bay Program’s SAV monitoring approach, and how community science enhances data collection and stewardship of our natural resources.

No. 5 Coreen Weilminster, “Making Meaning of the Science through a Cultural Connection”

Coreen will provide an overview of state and regional efforts around climate change education and highlight professional development opportunities for teachers in Maryland.

No. 6 Christine Burns, “Chesapeake Community Conversations with Christine”

Christine will provide an overview of the training and technical services available and how to access and request support for your coastal management needs.

No. 1 Blake Brown, “Blue Catfish (Ictalurus furcatus) Skull Morphology Over Ontogeny in the Nanticoke River”

Blue Catfish (Ictalurus furcatus) are an invasive species that entered the Chesapeake Bay in the 1970’s for recreational fishing. Now, after only a few decades, millions of blue catfish have taken over the watershed, and their detrimental effects to the species around them have not gone unnoticed. They are targeting species including white perch, river herring, blue crab and others, which is causing a decline in their population. Combined with prior research on blue catfish diets, I have decided to determine if blue catfish heads and mouths grow with positive allometry, allowing for them to transition to a larger diet quickly, further enabling them to outcompete their rivals in the bay. By taking 10 head measurements and viewing these in comparison to standard length over ontogeny, I have proved that certain aspects of blue catfish skulls do grow with positive allometry. This provides an explanation of when blue catfish become truly detrimental to their environment, hopefully helping to inhibit the invasiveness of this species in the near future.

No. 2 Cassidy Fredette-Roman, “A Trait-Based Risk Assessment for Ranking Relative Vulnerabilities of Marine Mammal Populations to Macroplastic Entanglement and Ingestion “

Plastic pollution poses a threat to marine mammals across the globe. This paper applies a multi-taxonomic vulnerability framework for the physical impacts of macroplastic pollution to develop a global relative vulnerability index for marine mammals (118 species). Eleven traits were used to assess species vulnerability to macroplastic ingestion and entanglement along three dimensions: likelihood of exposure, species sensitivity, and population resilience. With each dimension of vulnerability equally weighted, species were then scored based on their traits to provide a final relative vulnerability score. Results indicate that sirenians are most vulnerable to macroplastic interactions—ingestion and entanglement, while pinnipeds and fissipeds were the least vulnerable taxa. Through the first global application of this vulnerability framework, we highlight its value for research.

No. 3 Jacob Goodman and Gina Bloodworth, “Something Smells Funny in the Water: Water Quality Vulnerability on the Eastern Shore as Chicken Houses Multiply”

Exploring the combined vulnerabilities of agricultural ditches and chicken houses on the Eastern Shore, we created a GIS that overlays the existing natural water system, the agricultural ditch network, and the location of industrial chicken houses on Delmarva. A geographic proximity analysis of chicken houses to open water, sorted by age and use, showed that more than 80% of active chicken houses sit within 5 miles of open water. As the trend towards mega-house industrial chicken operations rises, we need to better understand the relationship between chicken houses and the agricultural ditch network on the Eastern Shore. This very preliminary study raises more questions than it answers.

No. 4 Luka Hamel-Serenity, “Collaboratory in Aberdeen Gardens - VA”

Wetlands Watch, a Hampton Roads environmental nonprofit, works with communities to pair residents with students who can create preliminary designs for resilience and mitigation strategies. Successful in the Chesterfield Heights and Grandy Village neighborhoods of Norfolk, the Collaboratory program has been expanded over the years to include Virginia and Aberdeen Gardens in Hampton, VA. Collaboratory projects provide students with real-world experience while guiding their interests towards environmental and climatic issues. In Aberdeen Gardens, students from Hampton University and Old Dominion University applied their knowledge and skills in a historically African-American community where issues of historical justice and racism come into play.

No. 5 Thomas Kryzak, “Nutrient Runoff Recovery Using Blanket Roll Technology”

Blanket Roll Technology (BRT) is designed to monitor and capture farming and ranch fertilizer/pesticide runoff to be used for future field applications thus, saving money, time, equipment, fossil fuel emissions and specifically non-source runoff that lead to algae blooms.

No. 6 Diana Leech, Danielle Clark-Bradley, Grace Smith, and Abigail Sommer, “More Data, More Insight: Dead Zone Formation in Aimes Creek near Longwood’s Baliles Center”

“Dead zones” are regions of low dissolved oxygen (<5 mg/L) that are potentially fatal to fish, crabs, oysters, and other aquatic species. Since 2015, Longwood University faculty and undergraduates have monitored water quality, including dead zone formation, in Aimes Creek-- a brackish tributary to the Potomac River adjacent to Longwood's Baliles Center for Environmental Education at Hull Springs in Westmoreland County, VA. Data are collected every 15 minutes with an array of environmental sensors attached to a YSI sonde. This high frequency data collection provides in-depth insight into the extent and timing of dead zone formation in the creek.

No. 7 Caroline Shanley, “‘By Her Own Means:’ Divorce and Dissonance in Civil War-Era DC”

Using handwritten court documents from the DC Circuit Court, this study uncovers the many means by which residents of Civil War-era Washington City sought relief to their marital woes through divorce. With more restrictive divorce laws in neighboring Maryland and Virginia, residents of the District gained this new right to end their marriages in 1860. This study examines the personal problem of divorce through a systemic lens, addressing how shifting divorce requirements reflected familial values in a politically contested jurisdiction during wartime.

“Strategic Science and Research Framework: Expanding Bay Science Capacity Through Engaging the Academic Community”

The Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP) is driven to restoring the Bay through accomplishing the 31 outcomes in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement. Accessing the progress of these outcomes requires a vast amount of science to be supported. CBP developed the Strategic Science and Research Framework to track and identify science needs for the outcomes and leverage partner resources to support them. The collaboration among the academic community and the CBP promotes communication between professionals and scholars and provides opportunities for students to grow their professional network while generating support for expanding capacity to address science needs for restoration.

The session will discuss the challenges and opportunities for expanding science capacity to address the science priorities of the CBP partnership. Expanded capacity requires the engagement of the broader scientific community to (1) translate and disseminate existing science and (2) inspire and implement additional research to inform management of the Chesapeake Bay and its watershed. Academic institutions will play a strong role in advancing this understanding through their aims to strengthen the scientific leadership pipeline, support of their faculty research direction, and ability to convene a diverse team of managers and provisioners of science to tackle a shared problem. Science is continually reviewed and updated within academic institutions so fostering collaborative research and effectively providing science to advance Chesapeake Bay restoration and conservation efforts between these entities and the CBP is a critical step in maintaining progress towards addressing science needs.

“Coming Together to Co-Produce a Climate Equity Atlas for Virginia’s Eastern Shore”

Communities across the Chesapeake Bay are grappling with the increased challenges of climate change while considering how marginalized needs should be heard and prioritized. The panel reflects on efforts by the Eastern Shore of Virginia Climate Equity Project to implement a co-production model with the community and an interdisciplinary team of scholars. A Climate Equity Atlas is being produced linking scientifically assessed information together with residents’ lived experiences to increase climate equity. The moderated discussion of stakeholders will share about the project’s design and implementation thus far that aims to inform best practices for engagement in rural coastal communities.

Gina Bloodworth, ”Making the Wicomico River Watershed Atlas: place-based tools for geographic education and community collaboration”

A resource geographer, a cartographer, and an educator collaborated to make an atlas of a local watershed as a tool for geographic education in the community and classroom alike. This project addresses declining geographic literacy and the homogenization of geographic products as the lack of local curriculum. The fifteen maps help illustrate key terms of geographic literacy and prompt discussion of compelling dilemmas of managing resources and human needs in the complex dynamic of culture, environment, and physical systems. The companion narratives promote critical thinking about local issues. This is a much-needed infusion of local geography that can help not just students, but local decision-makers, and a wide swath of the community too.

Noah Bressman, “Invasive Fishes of Delmarva: Past, Present, and Future”

Introduced both intentionally and by accident, aquatic invasive species pose an existential threat to the Chesapeake Bay Ecosystem as we know it, along with ways of life associated with it, such as crabbing and fishing. In particular the Blue Catfish (Ictalurus furcatus) and the Northern Snakehead (Channa argus) are rapidly expanding their range and population sizes on the Delmarva Peninsula, yet we know relatively little about these populations. My lab at Salisbury University is currently researching a variety of topics to learn more about these invasive fishes, separating fact from fiction, in order to learn the best ways to manage their populations. From studies on the diet, growth rates, trophic ecology, reproduction, and defenses of Blue Catfish to the ability of snakeheads to move overland short distances between the bodies of water, we are tackling this issue from multiple angles. Meanwhile, this is not a time to sit idly by and let their populations expand while we wait to learn more; the best solution we have right now is to encourage people to catch, kill, and or eat invasive species to act as predators, keeping their populations down and mitigating their effects.