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Keeping Up With The Chester River
Who will save the Chester River, if not the people who live, work and play on its waters and along its banks?
That was the message espoused by Wayne Bell, Director of the College's Center for the Environment and Society (CES), Andrew McCown '77, president of the Chester River Association (CRA), and Robert Kennedy Jr., as the community of Chestertown welcomed Eileen McLellan as its Chester Riverkeeper.
The founding president of the Waterkeeper Alliance, Kennedy was on hand in mid-October to dedicate the Riverkeeper's vessel and to encourage community and college support of her mission to remove the Chester River from the list of Maryland's impaired waterways.
Classified as a Category 1 scenic river, the Chester has been rated "impaired" because of degraded water quality from non-point source pollution, primarily in the form of nutrients. State agencies have issued health warnings associated with consumption of Chester River catfish.
McLellan, a former college professor trained as a scientist, says she welcomes opportunities to involve students and community members in this "scientific detective story" to determine what's wrong with the river and what can be done to save it. McLellan's office is located in the Center for Environment and Society's Custom House headquarters on the Chester River.
"This will be a community endeavor," she says. "I'm interested in learning what you know about your piece of the river," McLellan told the audience in Hynson Lounge.
Kennedy spoke eloquently about his experiences with the Hudson, a "dying river" brought back from the brink through the initiatives of a Hudson Riverkeeper and sound environmental legislation. He also spoke about the town of McLean, VA, where he grew up, and what he perceives to be the Eastern Shore's greatest threat-sprawl development.
"McLean was once very much like this place," Kennedy said. "It's now a giant strip mall. It has lost all its character, all sense of history, any contact with the land that is a source of value to its people. Protecting the environment is about protecting community. That's what this is about-recognizing that nature enriches us, and that when we destroy it we diminish ourselves."
Wayne Bell's students hear a similar message. "We have to recognize that man is part of the ecosystem, not an intruder," he says. "We need to take ownership of our systems, because we're the ones who will harvest both the good and the bad."
Marking the partnership between the Chester Riverkeeper and Washington College, Bell says the Center for Environment and Society will offer its first course for environmental educators next fall.
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