When I was a child growing up on the Chesapeake Bay, I spent much time on the beaches and roaming the areas around it—forests, streams and rivers, clay cliffs or tall grass fields. “It is our
nation’s largest estuary and is home to over 3600 types of species of plants, fish and animals”. On any given day I could find sharks teeth, horse shoes, crab, jellyfish or see stingray in the water. Also seen daily were the large amounts of birds that resided near there; my favorite being the Blue Heron and Swan. We spent time crabbing and swimming in those waters and when mud tides came we would walk a mile out in the mud with it squishing between our toes, fascinated by that underwater world.
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Satellite view of Fairhaven, Maryland |
When I went back there as an adult one of the most alarming things I noticed was the disappearing beaches. John boats and sail boats used to lay in the sand but they now laid pulled up into the grass because the beach was so small. This was a stark contrast to years before. There was a photo Grandpa Becke had up in his kitchen of a wide, long beach from many, many years ago. I remember thinking,
what happens when there are no more beaches? Then I heard that real-estate companies were trying to buy up the surrounding forests around Fairhaven (our tiny bay-side town). It infuriated me. Of course, my reasons then were because of my attachment to the quaint, intimate-ness and beauty of its small neighborhood environment. I thought to myself,
what would happen to all the animals that live back there? And all the birds that nest near the river’s edge in the woods? I didn’t know too much about Ecocriticism at that point, but even without formally knowing what it was, I knew somehow that something wrong was happening.
In the Green Team by James Hopkins reflects on the Jonathan Bate, writer of Romantic Ecology. He says, “Wordsworth did not view nature in Enlightenment terms - as that which must be tamed, order, and utilized- but as an area to be inhabited and reflected upon.” Further saying how “he hoped human beings might see into the life of things, and reveal their place in a system of delicate relations between the human and the non-human worlds.”
While reading those words I think about the Bay’s disappearing shoreline and land being devastated for residency—how that balance isn’t really being kept. Humans are building closer and closer to the edge of the bay and doing more and more damage to its
“buffer areas”. As scientists and activists in a documentary called
“Weary Shoreline” (posted below) point out, “preserving forest cover and preventing construction on soils near the shoreline helps stop sediments, oil, and other harmful pollutants from draining into rivers and tributaries that flow into the Chesapeake Bay.”
Not only will it be hard for those residents in the future when the shores continue to move with changing climates by this disappearing shoreline closing in on properties, but serious damage is being done to the waters of the bay. Somehow reflection on this delicate relation between the two worlds really isn't being treated delicately enough.
Ecocritcism literature may help to spread knowledge to people about the importance of paying attention the ecology of places such as this—a place that people and animals are continually drawn to for its lush, thriving and beautiful environment. Likewise, both will be negatively affected if we don’t start paying more attention to the needs of the Chesapeake Bay and its inhabitants, beyond human consequence alone.
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Natural Wildlife Federation 2011. Global Warming, Effects on Wildlife and Habitat. Chesapeake Bay and Global Warming. NWF Web Page
Hopkins, James.
In the Green Team. ASLE Ecocritical Library
Wickham, John.
"Death by a Thousand Cuts": Chesapeake Bay's Disappearing Shoreline. Chesapeake Bay Action Plan
***There are a lot people who live near and feel passionately about the Bay and work to make sure it's treated correctly. A good place to go see these works or get involved is at Chesapeake Bay Program.