Farmers Observe Effects
(Continued from Page A 1)
they were really clean.”
Collected with the oysters were
mud crabs, sponges, and other bay
life. According to the bay guide,
there are 303 different organisms
associated with the oyster bar.
A guide from the Bay Founda
tion said that each oyster pumps SO
gallons of water daily. This helps
to control sediment and pollution.
Now the oyster supply is greatly
depleted and not much is left to fil
ter the water.
Leon Ressler, agriculture/
environment extension agent,
organized die trip to help farmers
understand the agricultural impact
on the Chesapeake Bay.
Farmers* heavy use of pesti-
It took several fanners to puli the hand dredge from the
Bay’s oyster bars.
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cides and fertilizers affect ground
water and wildlife around the Bay.
Acid rain, septic systems, and sew
age treatment plants are also con
sidered heavy sources of Bay
pollution.
While some environmentalists
blame the farmer for the bay’s
decay, others are more subjective.
The captain of the boat remarked,
that many environmentalists have
come to understand that farmers
are concerned about land and
water quality, that they face prob-
lems with nature and are doing
their best to cope and still put food
on the table and shoes on their
children’s feet
An Amish farmer said that he
was glad to hear that farmers aren’t
DRY WEATHER
MOST
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getting the whole blame for the bay
problem. He said, “They take oys
ters out year after year—and they
blame the farmer for the oysters’
decline. What can they expect?
We’d have the same problem if
we’d keep taking from die land and
wouldn’t put anything into iL”
In recent years, there has been a
strong effort to control pollution
from the bay not only from the
agricultural end but also from
wastewater discharges, hazardous
waste disposal, sewage treatment
plants, and by wetlands protection
and land use.
It is still too early to know if
these combined efforts are making
a difference. The captain of the
skipjack said that from his per
spective, “Weather controls water
quality more than anything else.
When there is a drought, no runoff
or algae occurs, and you think the
water is really looking good, but
during heavy rains, the water looks
worse than ever and you wonder
what is happening.”
The captain added, “We need 20
years of strong effort in cleaning
up the bay to see results. Even if all
pollution would stop, it would take
25 to 50 years to clean up what is
already there. If we can hold pollu
tion at this point, we are doing
something. Toxins in San Francis
co Bay and many others are worse
than die Chesapeake waters.
The Lancaster fanners also
toured Clagget Farm, a 285-acre
research and education farm own
ed and operated by the Chesapeake
Clagget Farm
Michael Heller tells farmers who visited the Clagget Farm
that captured amounts of runoff and sediments from con
tour strips, convention, and no-tili corn plots enable stu
dents to compare various types of farming methods.
Bay Foundation.
The farm examines sustainable said, “Our focus is to try to deal
agriculture that reduces chemical with environmental problems not
use by using fanning practices that by telling fanners they can’t do
take advantage of physical and this or that, but by trying to help by
biological processes that nature technologies that are more sensi
provides. They use crop rotation to live to the environment.”
break up pest cycles. (Turn to Pag* A 32)
Farmers used an oyster hand dredge to harvest oysters.
Because it was off-season, the oysters had to be returned to
the bay.
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