Maryland’s unique shape is not the result of a deranged cartographer, but is due to the presence of the nation’s largest estuary. Named after the Algonquian word Chesepioc meaning “Great Shellfish Bay,” the Chesapeake Bay nearly bisects the state creating two distinct regions, the western and the eastern shores. The construction of two bridges over the Bay has opened the Eastern Shore to a population eager to sample its charm, eat its seafood, and count ducks, geese, and herons. As part of the coastal plain, the Eastern Shore is a flat landscape dominated by the convergence of water and land. While tourism may be the area’s fastest growing segment of the economy, traditionally agriculture (Eastern Shore is the nation’s poultry production hub) and seafood supported generation after generation.

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Fly in to Baltimore the day before and discover the Charm in Charm City.  Explore the Inner Harbor, visit the National Aquarium, sing the national anthem at Ft. Mc Henry….

Baltimore Meet-up
Option A: Living Classrooms – For those participants who arrive either the day before or early on the 13^th we will rendezvous at Living Classrooms in Baltimore City.

Option B: Baltimore-Washington International Airport (BWI) Pick-up – For those participants arriving the day of, we will make one stop to the airport in route.

Depart at 11:30
Food: Boxed lunch served on the bus.

 
Stop 1 (12:30 - 1:30) - Centreville Middle School
Learn about the Maryland Green School program and visit one of Maryland’s first Green Schools. See how one teacher uses the environment to teach science, math and computer skills using birds and the Bay as learning tools.

 
Stop 2 (2:30 – 4:00) - Environmental Concern Inc.
Go from seed to shorelines in a behind the scenes tour of the nation’s first wholesale wetland plant nursery, which grows over 115 species of native plants; learn how to bring wetlands alive and into the classroom with activities from WOW! The Wonders of Wetlands, the world’s most used wetland education resource; and explore four unique constructed wetlands located on Environmental Concern’s 13-acre learning campus: living wetland shoreline, forested wetland, freshwater marsh, and nutrient management system.

 
Stop 3 (overnight) - Horn Point Laboratory
Visit and stay at the environmental research facility of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (UMCES).  HPL is located on the banks of the Choptank River, a tributary of the Chesapeake Bay on Maryland's Eastern Shore. The laboratory is interdisciplinary with faculty engaged in research on the biology, chemistry, physics, and ecology of organisms and ecosystems from wetlands and estuarine waters of the Chesapeake Bay to the continental shelf and open waters of the world's oceans. Areas of scientific expertise include oceanography, plankton dynamics, marine macrophyte and wetland ecology, systems ecology, nutrient dynamics and eutrophication, physiological ecology of benthic invertebrates, benthic-pelagic interactions, and aquaculture.

Food: catered dinner and breakfast
Accommodations: Dorm-style bunk-houses

 

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Stop 1 - Smith Island
Travel this morning to Crisfield, the “Crab Capital of the World”. The land from the center of town to the city docks is man-made, composed of billions of crushed oyster shells from the packing houses. Today hundreds of workboats arrive daily with oysters, crabs and other Chesapeake seafood. Then go one step further… Smith Island native, Captain Jessie Marsh will transport participants  across the sound to the Island.  Along the way we will dredge for oysters or scrape or check pots for crabs, and look for nesting bird sites on the beach and marsh islands. In Tylerton, learn about the Crab Co-op firsthand with a crab cake feast.   

 
Stop 2 - Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel Complex

East meets west at the southernmost tip of the Chesapeake Bay.   The Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel connects Virginia's Eastern Shore with the Virginia mainland at Virginia Beach near Norfolk. The 20-mile crossing consists of a series of low-level trestles interrupted by two approximately one-mile-long tunnels beneath Thimble Shoals and Chesapeake navigation channels. The manmade islands, each approximately 5.25 acres in size, are located at each end of the two tunnels. There are also high level bridges over two other navigation channels: North Channel Bridge and Fisherman Inlet Bridge. Finally, between North Channel and Fisherman Inlet, the facility crosses at-grade over Fisherman Island, a barrier island which includes the Fisherman Island National Wildlife Refuge administered by the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

 
Arrive at Virginia Beach Convention Center

Questions about content of the trip?  Contact Bronwyn Mitchell at dir.educate "at" wetland.org.