Northumberland is going to
grow. Let’s help it grow with order and
beauty.
FALL SOCIAL
By
Martha Tallent
What
a blast! Even though 3 1/2 inches of
rain on Friday forced us to move from the beautiful "Fish House" on
the Great Wicomico (flooded parking area, iffy forecast for Saturday) to the
Reedville Fishermen's Museum (thank you, thank you, RFM!) the day was
beautiful. Between the creative
decorations by Susan Stubbs, the fabulous flower arrangements by the Chesapeake
Bay Garden Club and the red, yellow and blue helium balloons donated by Steve
Tallent the room was ready for a party!
How
can you have a party without food?
Well, the NAPS members who also belong to the Woman's Club took care of
that. Organized by Sloane Kane and
Barbara Hensler and managed with professional flair by Barbara, the tables were
laden with luscious food beautifully presented.
What's
left? Well, a congenial crowd (a
guesstimate of 163) pleased to see one another, catching up with old friends
and meeting new, an opportunity to thank Mary Lou Butler for her many
contributions to Northumberland County and NAPS over the past years, and the
opportunity to recognize the Chesapeake Bay Garden Club on its Fifty Year
Anniversary.
Capping
the afternoon was the presentation of the Distinguished Citizen Award to Luther
Welch, long-time farmer and forester in Northumberland County. He and his wife have committed their lives
to environmental and ecological measures that save topsoil and don't harm the
water. (See article on Luther Welch
from the Rappahannock Record) The
Welches personify some of the very principles for which NAPS stands. It was an honor for NAPS to be able to
recognize these two outstanding citizens.
All
in all, a fine party!
Angels In Our Midst
By
Martha Tallent
They
are those NAPS members who donated so generously to our Angel Fund. They are wonderful people who bought tickets
to the Fall Social so they could be with us "in spirit", even though
they thought they would be unable to attend.
"They" are:
J.
Irving Brooks, in memory of Carolyne T. Brooks
David Aylward, in honor of Cary Caton
Charles Fears
Baldwin and Marti Harrington
Mr. and Mrs. W. Lewis Nalls, Jr.
Mr. and Mrs. Frederick A. Olverson
Ralph A. Rose
Cora and Murray Simpson
Shirley S. Smith
Alice M. Swift
Our
very best thanks to you, the Angels, for your thoughtfulness and your special
support of NAPS.
From Reid Armstrong,
Rappahannock Record
Lifelong farmer Luther E.
Welch said his plows are rusting, and he’s happy.
Welch began practicing
no-till farming more that 20 years ago, long before anyone else in the county
had even heard of the soil conservation technique.
“I was doing it on back
fields where no one else could see it,” Welch said.
A fourth generation Northern
Neck farmer, he discovered the benefits of no-till while watching squirrel digging
in some soil by a tree in his field.
The earth around the tree had not been disturbed by the plowing. He dug a little hole and discovered, “some
of the blackest topsoil I had ever laid eyes on,” Welch said.
He has since pursued soil
conservation techniques and has spent the last decade on the Board of Directors
of the Northern Neck Soil and Water Conservation District.
“My family would never do
anything to harm the watermen,” said Welch.
“No-tilling protects them and it protects us.”
Many areas in the Northern
Neck have less than 15 inches of topsoil, said extension agent Ginny Barnes,
who nominated Welch for the award. When
farmers plow, rains wash away a lot of the loosened topsoil.
While yields decline
slightly using no-till techniques, Barnes added farmers make up for it by
saving on fuel and labor expenses by not plowing.
Some day, Welch believes,
farmers will only need to use nitrogen and lime on their fields. He hopes to continue to discover ways to
preserve his farmland and the Chesapeake Bay, he said.
Welch is also working to
preserve the history of farming in the Northern Neck. He has acquired,
restored, and cataloged a large collection of antique farm equipment and
memorabilia. He hopes to open his
History of Farming Museum near Kilmarnock in November, after the corn is
harvested.
Phragmites, 2003
By Lynton Land
Last fall, NAPS started a
program to try to control the spread of the invasive plant, Phragmites. Using 1 gallon hand-held
sprayers, 14 sites were sprayed, including three in Lancaster and Westmoreland
Counties. The following spring, five sites were planted with marsh grass left
over from the spring grass planting spearheaded by Lee Allain, or with plants
purchased from the NAPS treasury. Our goal is not simply to try to eliminate Phragmites, but to return the marshes to
a healthy condition with a diversity of natural plants. Healthy marshes perform
many important functions such as providing food and sanctuary for marine
organisms, which are not accomplished by a monoculture of Phragmites. The plants have done very well, especially Scirpus (three-square), a native sedge
which is especially good for wildlife.
This fall a 4-gallon
backpack sprayer was purchased, and all the sites from the previous year were
re-visited and sprayed as necessary. Six of the sites are “cured,” although
they will be visited again next fall because total elimination of Phragmites is a very difficult task. 21
new sites were treated this fall, some involving multiple property owners.
Hurricane Isabel interfered with some of the sites by blasting the Phragmites with salt spray, sending it
into dormancy early. Nevertheless, we at least “served notice” that treatment
will continue. Alice Wellford was kind enough to visit and bring her
truck-mounted sprayer. In about 5 hours we treated 5 large sites with nearly
200 gallons of Rodeo, a task which would have required several days and 50
refills of the backpack sprayer! We have submitted a grant to the Chesapeake
Bay Restoration Fund to continue our efforts into 2004. If the funds are
granted, we will help people plant marsh plants if they are able to remove the
dead Phragmites stalks this winter.
Marsh plants demand full sunlight, so removing the dense, tall, dead stalks, as
well as pruning foliage that shades the marsh, is absolutely necessary for the
new plants to prosper. We also have our eye on a truck-mounted sprayer!
If you know of any Phragmites stands, please ask the
property owner to contact Lynton Land at 453-6605 or JandL@rivnet.net
to get on next fall’s list for spraying. If you need more information about Phragmites, contact Lynton or visit the
NAPS web site at www.geocities.com/northumberlandnaps
(soon to become www.napsva.org) and read the Stewardship
Tip on Phragmites.
By-catch and turtles
By Lynton Land
Life often takes unexpected twists. That thought crossed my mind at 04:30 one morning recently as Judy and I watched pound nets glide by in the moonlight and phosphorescent wake from the boat, on our way to watch a pound net being fished off Taskmakers Creek. We had left the pier at 04:00 on the Little Wicomico River, just across from Spencers Creek, where we live, at the invitation of a local fisherman.
I had complained to the
Virginia Marine Resources Commission, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries
Commission and the VA Department of Environmental Quality that pound-netters
were dumping by-catch in the Little Wicomico. By-catch, one of the three
reasons world fisheries are all in trouble (the other two are over-harvesting
and habitat destruction), is the non-marketable fish that are inadvertently
caught. On numerous occasions, I had collected and photographed hundreds of
barely undersized trout that had been dumped in the creek. After establishing
that the dumping was illegal, I had talked to the marine police, who had
contacted the fishermen.
One day as I was checking my
crab pots, a skiff came up. The owner was one of the fishermen, a young man,
who agreed wholeheartedly that they should not dump their by-catch in the creek
(they have stopped doing it) and that they ought to all use “escape panels” in
their nets to permit the small fish to escape. In addition to releasing
undersized fish that might subsequently be caught, or more importantly, that
would be free to breed, there would be less work to cull out the small fish.
Escape panels are a win-win situation. One thing led to another as our two
boats drifted among the crab pot floats, and he complained that the
pound-netters had been shut down for a long time this year because of turtle
strandings. Some turtles, of course, are on the endangered species list. The
cool weather had apparently delayed the turtle migration and so officials
prohibited pound-netting for longer than normal. An article in the 09/11
Rappahannock Record reported that VIMS scientists have repeatedly told NMFS
that they should schedule pound net closures based on water temperature, not on
arbitrary calendar dates. He also complained that the Northern Neck is at the
northern limit of the turtle’s range and questioned if he should be prohibited
from fishing. There were no reported strandings this year north of Mobjack Bay
on the western shore of the Chesapeake Bay. Subsequently he went to Newport
News to state his case, and Judy and I wrote a letter in his support. We can
only hope that the authorities listen.
NAPS has gotten a bad
reputation among some people as being anti-agriculture and anti-watermen. It is
not so. We encourage responsible farming and fishing. Agriculture and seafood
are part of Northumberland County’s heritage and one of our goals is to promote
practices that ensure it will always remain so. But having said that, it must
also be said that farmers and watermen can’t just keep doing things the same
way. Fertilization practices must change if we are to have any hope of
returning our waterways to a water clarity that even remotely resembles what
Capt. John Smith saw centuries ago. Watermen must change their practices, as
this young man passionately knows, if they are to have any hope of continuing
their livelihood. And all the “come-heres” must change their practices of using
every loophole in the Bay Act so they can have a chemically maintained lawn and
a house as close to the water as possible.
We both came away from this experience with the impression that there is hope if we all work together (and 4 tons of menhaden.)
Postscript:
The previous narrative took place before hurricane Isabel. Many of the pound
nets in question are now unfishable. Instead of straight lines of poles with a
net strung between them, many of the poles are now missing and those that are
still in place are askew and poke out of the water at every possible angle. It
remains to be seen the extent to which nature has dealt a death-blow to this
fishery.
Stewardship Tip
Artesian Aquifers – water quality
By Lynton Land
Two artesian aquifers beneath Northumberland and Lancaster Counties provide potable water for about 75% of our citizens. Water from both artesian aquifers is being withdrawn at an unsustainable rate. But problems also exist with the water quality in the two aquifers, and ultimately, continued withdrawal of water from the deep aquifer will further degrade water quality.
The shallower artesian aquifer is encountered at
depths between about 250 and 400 feet. Water quality is good to excellent in
the northern part of Northumberland County, but toward the south the water is
rarely used because it is often brown due to the presence of “tannic acids” and
iron. The deep artesian aquifer is used by most citizens, and is encountered
below about 600 feet. Both aquifers are found at greater depths toward the
eastern part of the Northern Neck. As long as well casings are not cracked or
broken, and the upper part of the casing is properly grouted, no problems with
either bacteria or high nitrate should be encountered in artesian wells.
Several components are useful to describe the water
quality, or chemical composition of the water, and two common components can
cause health problems. Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) describes the total amount
of dissolved substances in the water. TDS is normally expressed in parts per
million (ppm), which is essentially the same as milligrams per liter (or
kilogram) of water. If you divide the TDS by 10,000, the units are weight
percent. For reference, average seawater has a TDS (salinity) of about 35,000
ppm, or 35 parts per thousand, or 3.5%. Two components of concern with respect to
our health are sodium (chemical symbol Na) and fluoride (F). EPA has never
established a Maximum Contamination Level (MCL) for
sodium, but some countries, including Canada, use 200 ppm. Health professionals
recommend that individuals on a sodium-restricted diet do not drink water
containing more than about 20 ppm sodium. All our artesian water contains more
than 20 ppm sodium. Fluoride is also of concern in causing mottling of teeth in
children. The jury still seems to be out as to whether or not fluoride helps
prevent tooth decay, or causes bones to be stronger, or more brittle, at least when the relatively low calcium
concentration in our artesian water is taken into account. In any case, EPA’s
Secondary Maximum Contamination Level (SMCL) of 2 ppm for fluoride is exceeded
in the deep artesian aquifer in most of the south-eastern part of the Northern
Neck. The MCL of 4 ppm F is rarely reached.
The short table below presents typical values for the
two artesian aquifers in Northumberland and Lancaster
Counties.
Artesian aquifer TDS Na
F alkalinity
Shallow 210
40 0.7
170
Deep
450 200 2 360
Clearly, the deep artesian aquifer presents more
potential for health problems than does the shallow aquifer. But the deep
artesian aquifer is also a “better” aquifer because it supplies water more
readily than does the shallow aquifer. As a generalization, the TDS content of
the water increases with increasing depth. There is no point in drilling much
deeper because the water becomes too salty to drink. Sodium (fluoride, and just
about all other dissolved species, especially chloride) increase in
concentration toward the southeast as is shown on the accompanying map. The
reason for this fact is just bad luck. Approximately 35 million years ago an object from outer space hit the ocean
around Cape Charles. The impact pulverized the rocks, making it easier for
water to flow through them, and seawater rushed in to fill the crater.
Therefore salty water is not only closer to the Northern Neck than it would otherwise
have been had the impact not occurred, but it is easier for salty water to move
to the northwest as we continue to lower the
pressure in our artesian aquifers by withdrawal of water. There is no evidence
from Health Department records that the process of saline intrusion has begun
anywhere in either Northumberland or Lancaster counties – yet.
The water in both our artesian aquifers is classified
by geochemists as a “sodium-bicarbonate” type, which is common throughout the
world.
Bicarbonate (the HCO3 ion) is
also commonly expressed as “alkalinity.” The water in our artesian aquifers is
thousands or tens of thousands of years old. With time, as rain moved down the
eastward-sloping aquifers from near the fall line, or vertically across the
confining layers, chemical reactions progressed. Acid-producing reactions,
including the decomposition of organic material, caused calcium carbonate
(shell) to dissolve, producing a calcium-bicarbonate type of water.
Neutralization of the acid by calcium carbonate resulted in a “hard” alkaline
water with a pH of about 8.5. Uptake of calcium and release of sodium by clay
minerals (ion exchange) accounts for the “soft” sodium-bicarbonate composition
of the water today. In contrast to artesian water, rain is acid, with a pH
typically around 4. Most of our plants are adapted to our acid soils, and the
use of sodium-rich alkaline deep artesian water for irrigation can cause
problems with plant growth.
Various kinds of water treatment processes are
available to remove the sodium and other dissolved substances from the water,
or to replace them with other substances. All kinds of water treatment are
expensive and maintenance-intensive, and are unnecessary on a whole-house
basis. Drinking bottled water may be the least expensive alternative for people
worried about health effects of water from our deep aquifers, and rainwater
harvesting is a simple and inexpensive solution to small-scale irrigation
problems. Eventually, perhaps a century from now, water quality will have degraded
and water levels in wells will have dropped to the point that alternative
sources of water, like reservoirs, will be necessary.
If you missed a NAPS
Stewardship tip, they can all be found, along with links to other sources of
information, at the NAPS web site, www.geocities.com/northumberlandnaps.
Previous steward ship tips have addressed shallow aquifers, deep aquifers and
rainwater harvesting, as well as water withdrawal by Maryland causing wells
along the Potomac to go dry.
Northumberland & Lancaster
Counties
Ground Water Festival
(Project Wet)
By Audrey Brainard
Isabel
(the hurricane that wasn’t) brought significant winds and destruction to the
area making the trails at the Girl Scout Camp impassible. Thus the Camp is closed until spring and the
Water Festival for 2003 had to be cancelled.
The sixth grade teachers hope with help from the Ground Water Festival
volunteers to incorporate all the activities into their curriculum later in the
school year.
Since
there is a multiyear funding agreement, it is hoped that all the people who
volunteered will do so again next year to continue the exposure of sixth grade
children to ground water activities.
Natural Area Preserves
Hewlett Point
The
destruction by the storm to this area was substantial. It will be some time
before all the trees can be cleared from the trails. Hewlett Point is closed to the public until further notice.
Dameron Marsh
Though
the seas advanced some 20 to 25 feet in some areas, Dameron Marsh will remain
open. The second and fourth Saturdays
of September – November are scheduled for interpretive walks. All walks begin in the parking lot at 10:00
AM. The walks are scheduled to last
until 12:00 noon but usually run longer.
The interpretative walks will resume after the winter season for the
months of March, April and May. During
the summer the insects are ferocious and walks are not conducted.
These
walks will be guided by local knowledgeable people and by DCR (Department of
Conservation and Recreation) staff..
To reach
Dameron Marsh from Kilmarnock take route 200 North. Go 4.5 miles and turn right on Route 606 (Shiloh School
Road). Go two miles and turn left on
Route 605 (Ball Neck Road). Go about
one mile to Cloverdale Road and turn right.
Go half a
mile to Guarding Point Lane. Bear left
and go two-tenths of a mile to a right turn where the road becomes gravel. Follow the gravel road to the preserve
entrance. The parking area is
two-tenths of a mile past the preserve entrance. Parking is limited! Act accordingly.
From
Burgess, either turn left just past Turf Club on 679, then turn left again on
605 - one of the prettiest roads in the county, or turn left on 605 directly at
Mt. Olive – only a little further along Route 200 and equally pretty.
Turn
left on Cloverdale Road (606) and follow the instructions above.
Bush
Mill Stream
We are
fortunate that the trails at Bush Mill Stream have been cleared by
volunteers. This area is open to the
public regularly as before.
Hickory
Hollow
Once
more, the volunteers have been at work at Hickory Hollow. The trails have been cleared and Hickory
Hollow is open normal hours.
Northern Neck Audubon
The
Northern Neck Chapter of the National Audubon Society holds its regular meetings
the first Monday of the month at Grace Episcopal church (the September meeting
is a picnic and is held elsewhere). The
meeting starts at 7:30 PM, with coffee and conversation at 7:00 PM. They also have guided bird walks the second
Monday of most months. For bird walks
meet in the parking lot of Grace Episcopal church at 8:30 AM. Novice birders are welcome. Please bring your own binoculars.
From William Bartlett, Bay Journal
There seems to be some
misconceptions about the Chesapeake Bay.
There are those who believe
that at one time there were great expanses of submerged aquatic vegetation
(SAV) in the Bay. But SAV will not grow
where the water is to shallow or too deep.
As water gets deeper, less light reaches the plant, and it can’t perform
photosynthesis
This has always been the
case; the bottom of the Bay has never been covered with SAV, as some might have
thought. Is there too little SAV? Yes.
Can we get more to grow? Yes.
There are those who would
like to think that at one time the bottom of the Bay was covered with
oysters. It was not. The oysters like the water a little deeper
than the SAV.
Oysters do not like and will
not grow if the water is too shallow and in some cases too deep. Nor will they grow on a muddy or silted
bottom.
Oyster spat (baby oysters,
larvae) like to adhere to hard surfaces; oyster shells themselves are ideal
substratum. Oyster bars do not make
good grass beds and grass beds do not make good ouster bars. Therefore throughout the evolution of the
bay they have competed for the same space, although they do not occupy the same
space.
I cannot count the number of
times I have read or heard that oysters in the Bay years ago filtered all
of its water in three days. This never
happened and never will. There are no
oysters in shallow water, so they never filtered that water. There are no oysters in muddy or silted
bottoms, so they did not filter that water.
Some of the deeper parts of the bay (more today than years ago) contain
little oxygen, so the oysters cannot live there and do not filter that water
either.
Oysters live on the bottom
and don’t move. The can only feed and filter the water that tides and currents
bring to them. As tides roll in and
out, the oysters are basically filtering the same water except for some
churn. In the water column, starting a
short distance above the oysters and all the way to the surface, is water never
filtered by the oysters.
This misconception arose
when sometime in the past, someone calculated that an oyster could filter so
many gallons of water a day. They then
took the number of oysters once in the Bay along with the amount of water in
the Bay and with some simple math came to the conclusion that the oysters could
filter the amount of water in the Bay.
Are the oysters important to an environmentally sound Bay? Yes. Will the oysters save the Bay? No.
One of the real water
filterers, menhaden, gets little attention.
From the time these fish are microscopic larvae till they are full grown,
menhaden continue to feed and filter the water. And they move around to where the food is throughout the water
column. The reason little respect is
given to these fish is that we don’t eat them directly. Indirectly, we consume them when we eat meat
or poultry, because the fish is often dried, made into fish meal and fed to
livestock.
There are some very small
plants in the water, algae, that are often discussed in a derogatory
manner. We mostly hear about these
plants when they multiply into enormous numbers and turn the water various
colors. We even name the phenomenon a ‘red tide’ or a “mahogany tide” to
correspond to the particular alga that caused it.
When this mass of cells dies
and deteriorates, it uses up a lot of oxygen in the water and makes it unfit
habitat for many sea creatures. Bad
algae? No, they are not bad algae. Algae are the basis of the food chain for
almost all sea animals. Without algae
there would be few creatures in our water.
Problems occur, though, when
algae get too much food, especially nitrogen.
We are the main cause
of the overabundance of nitrogen in the bay.
Consider the millions of people who live in the Chesapeake watershed and
one can start to see the problem. Our
urine is 10–14 percent nitrogen. Add to
this all of the waste from farm animals, wild animals and pets as well as the
fertilizer applied to farms and lawns.
When it rains all of this washes into streams and eventually the Bay.
Sometimes we have to think a
little deeper about what we hear and read.
Things are not always as they appear to be.
Editorial
Included in this issue is a paper that describes the recyclable locations and what items they will accept for recycling. It has been updated from the County paper of 1977. # 4 location no longer exists. #14 has been replaced with a new business at the same location and with the same recycling capabilities.
In the calendar to the right
the date of February 21 is listed. This
is intended to be a possibility for the Annual Meeting. The Board of Directors at publication date
has not decided on a date for this meeting.
The article, More Myth than Math About Chesapeake Bay, is taken from the Bay Journal, a publication of the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay. This seemed to be an appropriate educational article that some members may enjoy reading.
Northumberland Association For Progressive
Stewardship
PO Box 567
Heathsville, VA 22473
NAPS 2002 Calendar
The NAPS board meets at the Northern Neck State Bank in Burgess at 9:00 A.M. each month on the Wednesdays immediately preceding Northumberland Board of Supervisors meetings (second Thursday). NAPS members and prospective members are always welcome. Join the group and find out about all NAPS accomplishes.
November
12 NAPS Board Meeting
December
10 NAPS Board Meeting
January
7 NAPS Board Meeting
20 Newsletter due
February
11 NAPS Board Meeting
21 Annual Meeting (tentative)
March
10 NAPS Board Meeting
April
7 NAPS Board Meeting
Northumberland
Association
for Progressive Stewardship
PO Box 567, Heathsville, VA
22473
President...................................
V President...Lynton
Land......453-6605
jandl@rivnet.net
Secretary......Shirley
Smith......580 8011
sss@rivnet.net
Treasurer.....Bob
Holley..........580 4090
reholley@rivnet.net
Lynton
Land...,...453-6605, jandl@rivnet.net
Lee
Allain.,.529-5491, lrallain@crosslink.net
Robert
Holley.....................580-4090
reholley@rivnet.net
Mary
Kier..............529-6071
marykier@crosslink.net
Susan
Lindsey...580 4137, sakwhl@rivnet.net
Joel
Stubbs...........................580-4110
stubbs@crosslink.net
Ralph
Brainard...................580-5519
rbrainard@rivnet.net
Myrtle
Phillips 580 8097
myrloo@crosslink.net
NAPS News Editor
Ralph
Brainard.....................580-5519
rbrainard@rivnet.net
NAPS Web Site: www.napsva.org
Web
Master
Rita
Johnson.........................580-3052
Karen
Culp..................580 4153
kaarynhall@rivnet.net
NAPS
Publicity Chair
Tom
Ryals 453 5818
tryals@crewone.com
Join NAPS Now
Northumberland Association
for Progressive Stewardship
P.O. Box 567, Heathsville,
VA 22473
My
check for $___________ is enclosed made out to NAPS
Check
membership category desired*
______
$15 Individual
______
$25 Family
______
$100 Sustaining
______
$250 Patron
______
$50 (or more) Business
______
$1 Student
Name(s)
_________________________
_________________________________
Address
__________________________
____________________Zip__________
Phone
(_______) __________________
EMail
___________________________
FAX
(_______)___________________
Please
check activities in which you would like to participate:
______ Adopt-A-Highway
______ Environmental Education
______ Finance
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Planting
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______
.Phragmites Problems
______ Publicity and Newsletter
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______ Any Project Assignments
______ Other _____________________
*The Internal Revenue Service has determined that NAPS qualifies as a tax-exempt organization under section 501 (c) (3) of the code. As such, dues and contributions to NAPS may be deductible by donor for tax purposes.