County marks day with new commission; Annapolis looks to address flooding downtown via storm drain project

County Executive Steuart Pittman created a Citizens Environmental Commission on Earth Day, signing the order from a folding table at a field on the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center's Edgewater campus Monday morning.

Pittman will appoint representatives from nine watershed areas and four environmental nonprofits to the commission, which will submit an annual report with suggestions for how the county can defend its Chesapeake Bay shoreline and promote clean air, water and energy.

It will complement another recent addition to his administration, the role of Environmental Policy Director currently filled by Matt Johnston, who said he wants to bring science to the forefront of policy discussion.

A few hours later Pittman talked about Earth Day from a podium at City Dock in Annapolis with Sen. Ben Cardin, Rep. John Sarbanes and Annapolis Mayor Gavin Buckley.

Pittman decided to hold his executive order signing at SERC earlier in the morning, a place he said he visited as a child and still visits. The 2,650-acre campus hosts the Global Change Research Wetland, which "seeks to uncover the fate of wetlands into the year 2100," according to SERC's website, as well as research into forests, coastal acidification, low oxygen, nutrient over-enrichment and other signs of climate change.

There was once a corn field, forest buffer and stream at the location where the executive order was signed. SERC proved that the forest buffer cut down on nutrient pollution to the stream, and Director Anson "Tuck" Hines said that knowledge was then used to create the state's critical area law, which restricts the removal of trees within 100 feet of the water.

"Without the science to prove it, there's always going to be a policy shift and somebody is going to come up with an argument on the other side," Pittman said.

Today, the same field is covered in thousands of trees planted by volunteers six years ago. Some species are clustered together, but other patches are planted with a diverse range including oak, poplar, maple and ash.

"Higher tree species diversity creates diversity of all of the other species using the forest and it helps create a more stable and resilient landscape," Hines said. "And that's valuable when you have an environment that's changing very rapidly due to climate change and has increasingly more stressful events like hurricanes and droughts and rain, like we had last year."

The land is also a tree bank, where developers can pay to have trees planted to make up for those cut down in construction. The county executive has asked Johnston and the new commission to look at ways to improve the county's forest conservation bill.

"The goal would be to stop cutting down trees for development and then we wouldn't need to be replacing trees," Pittman said.

While the field of trees was quiet Monday morning, Annapolis was bustling with activity on a sunny but windy post-Easter Monday. Cardin and Sarbanes were there to discuss their plan to reauthorize the Chesapeake Bay Gateways and River Trails Network through 2025. Sarbanes said the program is allocated about $3 million a year.

The program pays for informational signs along the bay's water trail, a pathway that much like a hiking trail guides visitors to notable landmarks and educates them about their surroundings. Ann Swanson, the Executive Director of the tri-state Chesapeake Bay Commission, said the program is one that most people don't know a lot about, but it highlights the Chesapeake Bay as a resource.

"It's not just about pollution. It's not just about the trials and tribulations of balancing a population with an extraordinary estuary," she said. "What it's about is magic."

It can also help people find access points to the bay - something that can be a challenge when most of the coastline is privately owned.

"There is no other federal program that connects more people to the waters to the rivers than Gateways and Water Trails," she said.

Cardin and Sarbanes also said they are pushing for an increase in funding to the Chesapeake Bay Program, from $73 million to $90 million.

Chesapeake Bay Foundation President Will Baker also spoke, saying President Donald Trump's administration must address climate change - or face a bigger clean up bill in the future.

"If President Trump continues to deny that climate change even exists the burden on the taxpayers of this country to save the bay will be dramatically increased," Baker said. "So taxpayers be forewarned - climate change unaddressed will hit you in your pocket books hard."

Buckley said that a multimillion dollar project to address downtown flooding would begin soon, and also mentioned plans to apply for a no-discharge zone where boaters couldn't empty their waste into the water.

They have a plan for temporary flooding relief that includes blocking four storm drains downtown to prevent tidal water from rising up onto the street. The water that falls into the storm drain from the rain will be pumped out into the waterway. Buckley said they hope to have that in place by summer, mentioning the economic losses suffered when businesses and parking need to close for floods.

"I want Annapolis to be the resiliency capital of the world," Buckley said.

Credit: By Rachael Pacella - [email protected]

Caption: County Executive Pittman talks before signing an executive order creating the Anne Arundel County Citizens Environmental Commission in Harwood.

Joshua McKerrow/Capital Gazette