Throughout Chesapeake Semester we have been exposed to almost every aspect relating to the Chesapeake Bay. While on our adventures I listened to countless reasons as to why the health of the Bay is declining, almost every single person blamed it on someone else.

Very few take the initiative upon oneself admitting their wrongs simply by living in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. While listening to my fellow students’ presentation, they stated that a farmer could be given a large fine if he dropped a small bucket of chicken manure… How then are we, as consumers, able to drive gas guzzling Hummers? Or throw out thousands of plastic bottles? Or use cleaning products with unknown affects to the Bay, animals living in its waters, and even us humans?

I decided to explore various sizes of efforts to decrease the “average” consumerism.

First I met with an individual housewife, Rebecca. She makes her own toothpaste, laundry detergent, dishwasher detergent, household cleaning products, and also has her own vegetable garden and is now starting to raise chickens. Overall she is pretty amazing- she does it because it’s cost effective, good for her and her children, and much better for the Bay. During my presentation I mixed up a batch of her toothpaste with 5 ingredients. You put everything in one bowl. Stir, and you have homemade toothpaste.

Next, I visited Community Supported Agriculture at Colchester Farm that neighbors Chestertown MD. Members pay upfront for 26 weeks of fresh pesticide-free, organic (although not certified) produce. They share the risks of farming with the farmers, including bad weather, resulting in less produce or in good weather leading to surplus produce. I believe it is important to have a relationship with your food. Participating in the CSA or buying items at a Farmer’s Market allows you to know the people growing your food and that you are eating healthy food.

To put it short, if people bought healthy local foods there would be a demand in small communities for farmland, which in turn would keep farmland as farmland (rather than developments or shopping centers).

If you are at a supermarket just think a second time before buying something. You can make a change. You are voting for what will be available in the future in stores- more diversity of produce, natural or organic foods. You can decided to walk or ride a bike, or ride together in a car rather than driving alone. With little actions throughout your day or week you can positively affect the health of the Chesapeake Bay.

Do what you believe is important to not only the Bay, but to your own health.

Dillard, page 255

While on our excursions of the Chesapeake Semester, we have been on boats talking with watermen learning their point of view as to why the Bay is the way it is today. While on land and by the waters edge we are taught in museums about

the history of once was and what may be in the future. We also are exposed to the views of famers, policy, and also development pressures.

It is not just the farmer, or the developer it is you and me.

While walking on the beach, you may not notice all the scattered pieces of seashells, but once you realize they surround your every step you cannot look away. You’re scared that if you take your eyes for a second, you’ll miss that one pristine shell. This view of shells is similar to the pollution

in the Bay. It is easily and oftenly overlooked in everyday life. Until it is in your face,

you don’t really care about the Bay and it’s affects on other species, or potentially humans. You may simply overlook it.

Nonpoint solution. That is the biggest culprit today.

Similar to Dillard’s quote, “There is no way you can tell what kind of shell it had been, what creature it had housed,”

you may never know the sources of pollution. Pollution is a general term to begin with.

It encompasses multiple materials, some natural and some unnatural. It’s scattered around the watershed and very abundant. It will take a lot of time and effort attempting to piece together the sources of pollution and create a change in the Bay’s health.

Today, we need to realize that almost every action in our day is affecting the Bay. We are all tiny slivers of shell  tossed along with others on the beach simply adding up to too much. We need to change our lifestyles and become aware of our each and every action.

After our second night of camping in Shenandoah National Park, we prepared ourselves for a day of canoeing and observing virtually “untouched” nature. Obviously I’m aware that there are very few places that exist, if any that are truly untouched by humans. It is rather depressing that these places do not exist anymore. We have and still look at nature as an object that can be conquered. Humans’ destructive minds and feet have trampled all over Earth for thousands of years transforming it into something that we believe is better (for us, and usually only us) and morphing all aspects of nature into something irreversible. We now turn to outer space, a place where we once again take control and firmly believe there are infinitesimal opportunities for exploration to find something else to exploit.

We arrived at Downriver Canoe Company on the Shenandoah River. We prepared for our three-hour tour of the river by digging for bait. We dug in nearby sandy dirt hoping to find mischievous worms scavenging to the surface. Using a piece of wood, I was able to dig deeper but only had the luck of finding one small wiggling worm. It tried very hard to submerge itself back into the dirt, but once it was exposed to the air I was able to grab a hold of it. I gave it a little tug, but was nervous it would rip it in half. With some patience I slowly retrieved the worm from the dirt and successfully transferred it to the holding area (the drink holder on the canoe).

Danielle, my fellow canoe partner had gathered two small worms. We climbed in our wobbly canoe and pushed off into the steadily flowing water. We rowed for a few strokes gaining an understanding on the technicalities of our canoe. In just a few more strokes we were off, leading the rest of our pack moving faster and faster with the current downstream.

We started looking around and observing everything that surrounded us. To our left and right, in front of us and behind us, a 365-degree lavish covering everything around us. Fall has come and it is no longer simply green but also yellow, orange, and red and all the colors in between altering by the second. We unknowingly startled a great blue heron out of a nearby tree. It fled out of the tree, spreading its long wings, flowing with the movement of the wind seeking shelter further downstream safe from us, the noisy trespasser. We are intruders in nature. We affect numerous living and non-living things in everyday life and rarely think of our consequences. We are destructive animals.

Quickly, Danielle and I looked up to see a set of mini rapids quickly approaching. We quickly scrambled into position with Danielle commanding in the front to paddle hard on the left or right side to turn our canoe, or to drag on the left or right resulting in a faster turn. We successfully made it through numerous obstacles of the rocky maze scraping a little on each side, getting stuck on a few rocks, a few yelps, but no men or objects overboard. During the calm times we would either take a break and lay out soaking up the sun or fished with our poor worms. We had very little luck with fishing, despite the numerous fish of all shapes and sizes moving about in the water.

As a group we decided on a location for lunch, and grounded our canoes. It was disheartening to see all the trash left before us. There were multiple plastic bottles and various colored food wrappers stuck between rocks and the edge of the water. Of all the places, who could throw trash in this river?  That is one of the major reasons why the bay has not had any major improvements as a whole. People do not think their own actions are affecting the bay; it is always someone else’s fault.

As we further continued our excursion, we observed a herd of cows on a farm freely wading in the water. I, along with my classmates felt a little unease at one particular part while watching one cow swiftly lift up his tail and relieved himself right into the seemingly clean water. I was surprised that there was no fence to keep the cattle on the farmland and out of the water.

These are two of many major issues with the health of the bay today, human recklessness and agriculture. On a three-hour canoe trip we were able to witness these two events. If we, as a state or the entire population living within the watershed hope for improvement of the bay, we need to make some changes now. We need to realize that an action a day such as recycling or making sure trash is properly disposed will make a difference over time. We also need to create laws dealing with agriculture, such as not allowing cattle to freely roam in a river and strictly enforce them.

We need to comprehend that we cannot rely on technology to help us whenever we hit a roadblock. I hope that in the future we do not end up in the world similar to that depicted in “Wall-E” where humans completely annihilate the Earth so it is unable to sustain life, forcing humans to live in space while robots clean up our mess on Earth. We need to realize it is our reasonability to all the other living things amongst us to reverse our damaging lifestyles before it is too late for the Chesapeake Bay or even Earth.

I act as if I am a granite statue, only able to move my eyes. I yearn for the sight of an eagle so I could be aware of my surroundings. I wish to follow not one or two, but four crazy bees dancing in every direction possible. Maybe their patterns are random flying patterns, or maybe they are constructing a plan to attack us humans, or calling for more backup.

I became miffed in a short period of time because the bees impede me from eating my Virginia ham and turkey combo sandwich. I was apprehensive to take a bite of my sandwich, afraid that I’ll unknowingly receive the addition of a small pollen-dusted piece of protein. After a while, I was not the only person who was aggravated by the ridiculous bees of Williamsburg. Fellow students and I formed an alliance to defend ourselves against the increasing bee population in front of us.

We constructed a trap for the bees by pouring a few drops of lemonade on our table. One landed and Benjy smacked the bee. He missed. We were all uneasy when the bee darted away, not knowing what its response would be.

The next victim approached, and Benjy successfully squashed it along with the next three yellow jackets falling for the bait. Finishing our lunches, we started to clean up our mess. As I walked away, I saw one lonely bee left buzzing around the table. It looked lost and confused. I stood there, near the trash feeling sorry for the bee. Did we just massacre its family, or the love of its life?

While walking away, I felt horrible about killing the yellow jackets. I have heard recently that the population of yellow jackets is steadily declining. Some scientists believe it is from a copious amount of pesticides, others are attempting to blame it on cell phone service driving them off course, others believe global warming is affecting their colonies. I exited Gambols, looking out to a large green field, grasses, trees, flowers garnishing the land. All of this green, pink, and yellow are possible because of yellow jackets. It currently covers the once beaten and barren land of the 18^th century in Williamsburg.

I walk alongside the flourishing field and see a market stand selling snacks and drinks. They too have set up traps to sabotage the bees. They set up large jugs of sweet smelling liquids to trap and distract the yellow jackets from the thirsty public in front. There were thirty or more bees swarming around the open containers. The bees swarmed all around, side-to-side inside and out of the jugs.

People usually think of buzzing yellow jackets as a nuisance. My mind wondered yet again, thinking to a place and time without bees. We would simply die. We are dependant upon these crazy stinging pests. So, I guess in the end we should not be calling them pests. Perhaps we should refer to them a blessing, since our livelihood depends on them. If they disappeared, we would be in a predicament to say the least. There are other organisms such as bats, butterflies, and humming birds that also pollinate, but without the major contributing yellow jackets, there would not be enough plants to sustain the needs of our uncontrollable population growth.

We need to take the initiative and decided if it is really necessary to kill other living things. Overall, yellow jackets are an innocent species that carry out their job unless disturbed. We need to take a step back and try to view the world differently. I am aware its cliché, but I will say it anyway “don’t bite the hand that feeds you.” We need to refer to this thought more than we currently do. We were not just annoying or hurting the bee but actually killing it. It is necessary for yellow jackets to stay alive and pollinate for human and non-human life. Or else we will die.

We, as humans almost always put ourselves on an entirely different level than other organisms on Earth. We cannot do that in this instance. We need to stop being biased of ourselves thinking we are superior to all else, and think how the crazy, sometimes semi-suicidal yellow jackets of Williamsburg, Virginia along with the rest of the world needs to exist for our species to even have a fighting chance at life.

Today we woke up for our day on Mockhorn Island. Lowery took us out on his boat and continuously insisted the marsh would be “as hard as concrete.” I knew in the back of my mind that this was an over statement, but I never realized the mud would be so gushy. We finally reached the edge of the marsh and I thought why not hop off now?

Bad idea.

I was the first one off the boat and consequently the first to experience how truly non-“concrete” the marsh was. I instantly sunk deep into the mud. It reached the edges of my knee-high Hunter boots. Attempting to retrieve my sunken leg, I stepped onto my other foot and sunk again, and again, and again. Until I finally reached solid ground far from the waters edge.

There I was standing in the sulfide smelling mud looking around me. I saw a small inlet of water where we unloaded, and everywhere else seemed like grassland. It was as flat for as far as you could see except for two or three small splotches of shrubbery and dead trees.

I continued walking taking in all of my surroundings. What I could see, smell, and hear. I heard the squishing mud beneath my feet and looked down to realize I was stepping on hundreds or thousands of fleeing fiddler crabs. I felt horrible, I had been mucking around displacing these innocent crabs. I tried to get around them, jumping from spot to spot as if I was playing hopscotch. Sadly, it was an impossible task. The fiddler crabs were everywhere on the marsh.

I thought about those poor crabs all day, and attempted to relate it to our studies of the Chesapeake Bay. I realized how similar we are to the fiddler crabs,carrying out our lives the only way we know how to, thinking we are the only thing that matters on Earth.

If we do not alter our way of life, one day a giant will come stomping on us. We may just be displaced or pushed back a few steps into the mud, but there is always the possibility of death. We need to start realizing the environmental consequences for our everyday actions and to become aware of the inevitable. Whether it is global warming, massive extinctions, weather pattern changed, rising sea levels, or massive droughts. We need to realize that the giant is slowly but relentlessly creeping towards us.

It is only a matter of time before Mother Nature tramples over on.