Chesapeake Bay History - War of 1812 Bicentennial

Mount Calvert allows visitors to re-imagine War of 1812
Chesapeake Bay Gateways Network / By Lara Lutz - Bay Jouranl

When the first gunboats exploded on the Patuxent River, everyone at Mount Calvert heard the blast. It was an ominous sound.

The year was 1814, and the United States was once again at war with Britain. Thousands of British troops were marching through southern Maryland to attack Washington.

At the same time, British ships sailed up the Patuxent River, moving more troops inland while chasing a troublesome collection of U.S. gunboats. Led by the bold U.S. Commodore Joshua Barney, these gunboats had been the only naval force to challenge British invaders on the Chesapeake Bay.

"The British wanted to keep Barney bottled up," said Ralph Eshelman, author of "The War of 1812 in the Chesapeake." "He kept going upriver and the British kept following."

Eventually, Barney's Flotilla reached the upper Patuxent River in Prince George's County. They anchored above the Mount Calvert plantation, just north of the modern-day nature preserves at Jug Bay.

On Aug. 22, a stifling summer day, British ships rounded the bend near the foot of Mount Calvert. Barney's boats came into view. "One by one, they blew up," Eshelman said.

Barney's Flotilla was destroyed by its own men rather than falling to enemy hands.

The people of Mount Calvert witnessed the firestorm of 16 exploding boats before the British called at their doorstep. With Barney's Flotilla out of the way, the British shipboard troops could now join the attack on Washington, DC.

The Brown family who owned the plantation, along with enslaved people who labored there, saw hundreds of marines and seamen disembark at the wharf at Mount Calvert and begin on a dusty march north.

In two days, Washington, DC, would burn.

Nearly 200 years later, Mount Calvert and its spectacular view of the Patuxent River have remained much the same. "Mount Calvert has one of the most attractive views of the Patuxent River," Eshelman said. "In many ways, it evokes what the scene may have looked like in 1814."

Despite its proximity to the city, the plantation house stands in regal isolation on a commanding crest above the river. Below, the Patuxent is joined by its western branch and forms dramatic curves and patterns through dense and textured wetlands.

Thanks to conservation efforts, the shores on all sides are thick with trees. The most visible structure on the opposite shore is the Billingsley House. But even this house, built in about 1740, was part of the 1814 viewshed.

Mount Calvert itself is now the Mount Calvert Historical and Archaeological Park, operated by The Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission. It is also a member of the Chesapeake Bay Gateways Network.

As the War of 1812 approaches its bicentennial, Mount Calvert is drawing renewed attention for its part in the conflict and for the preservation of a setting that so strongly evokes the past. Adventurers will find Mount Calvert on the Star-Spangled Banner Geotrail, and the National Park Service is incorporating the park in its Star-Spangled Banner National Historic Trail.

But the archaeologists who study Mount Calvert say the heightened drama of that distant August day is just one small part of its appeal. Mount Calvert marks one of the most significant historical and archaeological places in Prince George's County for reasons that stretch far beyond the War of 1812.
"We have 10,000 years of human history here, on just one site," said Don Creveling of the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission.

Creveling's team has recovered thousands of artifacts at Mount Calvert since excavations began in 1996. Each year, volunteers aid the effort on specially scheduled public archaeology days.

Most of the artifacts discovered at Mount Calvert originated with American Indians, a reminder that human history along the Patuxent belongs largely to them. The American Indian presence began with seasonal hunting camps and grew to include permanent settlements and farms along the river's edge. The artifacts - including spear points, pottery, smoking pipes and remains of stone hearths - date from as recently as the early 1600s to the oldest reach of the Archaic Period more than 9,000 years ago.

Certainly, the site was a good one for settlement. In colonial times, Maryland had hoped to make it a major town.

Chesapeake Bay - Forests are critical to improving the water quality of the Bay

Streamside forests critical to wildlife, water quality
Bay Naturalist / By Kathy Reshetiloff - Bay Journal

When European colonists first arrived in the Chesapeake Bay region, an estimated 90-95 percent of the watershed was forested. Or put another way, forests lined both sides of almost every stream, creek and river draining into the Chesapeake Bay.

Because of their fertile soil, many riparian forests were cleared for agriculture. As more people moved into the region, more land was cleared to make room for suburban and urban developments. Today, only about 58 percent of the watershed is forested. A little more than half of all waterways in the watershed still have riparian forests of 100 feet or more bordering them on both sides.

These streamside wooded areas are critical to improving the water quality of local waterways and the Chesapeake Bay. As a transition area between aquatic and terrestrial environments, riparian forests act as buffers, intercepting rainwater and runoff that can contain pollutants such as sediment, nutrients and chemicals. Rain infiltration rates are 10-15 percent higher in forests than turf grass fields and 40 percent higher than plowed fields.

Waterfowl of the Chesapeake Bay - How do they survive cold and severe weather?

Winter birds have it 'down' pat when it comes to coping with winter's cold
Bay Naturalist / By Kathy Reshetiloff - Bay Journal

It's barely dawn on this typical frigid January morning. I sip my coffee, trying to decide just what I'll need today to fend off the cold today: sweater and windbreaker, fleece or down jacket. I watch the cardinals and chickadees at my feeder. The frosty morning air doesn't seem to bother them at all. I decide on the down jacket.

Birds have developed remarkable adaptations to survive cold and severe weather. Look outside on a blustery winter day and you'll still see songbirds flitting at feeders, and ducks swimming in icy creeks. Nearly a million waterfowl fly to the Chesapeake region from northern breeding grounds each year. The winters here suit them just fine.

Many birds, about 340 species, leave North America to winter in the tropical regions of Mexico, Central America, South America and the Caribbean. But plenty of birds remain here year-round. How do they survive?

Birds, like mammals, are warm-blooded animals, meaning they must maintain a constant body temperature as the temperature around them changes. To do this, they spend much of their time feeding so they can generate enough heat. It's a vicious cycle though; they must eat to keep warm so they can gather more food. Birds that can switch from an insect diet to a seed diet can stay put throughout the winter. Some meat-eating birds, like hawks and owls, may also remain if enough prey is available.

One feature that sets birds apart from other animals is their feathers. Birds' bodies are covered with an outer layer of fairly stiff but flexible contour feathers and an under layer of fluffy down feathers. The contour feathers provide protection against wind, rain and snow. The down feathers act as a layer of insulation.

Autumn in Chesapeake Bay Wildlife Refuges

Autumn action at Bay's wildlife refuges
Bay Naturalist / By Kathy Reshetiloff
Bay Journal

As the days grow shorter and the air becomes crisper, the daily activity of wildlife around the Chesapeake Bay changes. Animals are already preparing for colder weather. Deer gorge themselves on crop grains, berries and just about any edible plants they can nuzzle up to. Squirrels greedily hide nuts. Muskrats build up their mounds, weather-proofing these homes against the bitter winds that will sweep across the bare marshes. Blue crabs are segregating, females swimming toward the southern end of the Bay while the males remain around mid-Bay.

Many birds are on the move, beginning their long migrations south to warmer and more hospitable climates. The Chesapeake Bay lies in the middle of a major aerial highway known as the Atlantic Flyway. Waterfowl, raptors, shorebirds and songbirds traverse this invisible highway, often using the Bay watershed as a rest stop. The Bay itself is a major wintering site for waterfowl.

National Wildlife Refuges provide many opportunities for the public to view wildlife around the Bay not only in the autumn but year-round. People can observe huge flocks of migrating birds; resident mammals and birds; wintering waterfowl; and other wildlife species at strategically located refuges around t he watershed.

The National Wildlife Refuge System was established in 1903 by President Theodore Roosevelt. Administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Wildlife Refuge System is a diverse collection of lands set aside specifically for wild animals. Refuges play a vital role in preserving endangered and threatened species. They also provide secure habitat for native plants and many species of resident and migratory birds, mammals, fish, insects, amphibians and reptiles. Below is a partial list of the habitats and wildlife one is likely to encounter during the autumn at the refuges that surround the Chesapeake Bay.

Habitat: tidal marsh, fresh and brackish ponds, mixed woodlands, hardwood swamp, open meadows, cropland, beaches, dunes and open water

Endangered or threatened species: bald eagle, peregrine falcon and Delmarva fox squirrel

Waterfowl: tundra swan; snow geese; Canada geese; mallards; black ducks; American widgeon; Northern pintails; gadwall, blue-winged and green-winged teals; wood ducks; greater and lesser scaup; canvasback ducks; redhead ducks; bufflehead ducks; red-breasted and hooded mergansers; common and surf scoters; oldsquaw

Chesapeake Bay Waterfowl - Wood Ducks

Wood ducks add color to Bay's forested shorelines
Bay Naturalist / By Kathy Reshetiloff - Bay Journal

When it comes to Chesapeake Bay waterfowl, most people are familiar with commonly seen wintering birds like Canada geese. Those who frequent areas of open water and marshes of the Bay, might also see canvasbacks, buffleheads, black ducks and tundra swans. Explore the Bay's forested shorelines and its many tributaries during warmer months, though, and you might encounter one of the most beautiful ducks in North America, the wood duck.

The wood duck's beauty is even reflected in its scientific name, Aix sponsa. From the Greek word aiks for water bird and Latin word sponsa for betrothed, the name refers to plumage so striking that the wood duck looks like it is dressed for a wedding.

While wintering waterfowl are breeding on the tundra and prairies, wood ducks are breeding in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Early colonists aptly called the woody the "summer duck." They have also been known as the Carolina duck, because of where it was first described, the swamp duck, because of its preferred habitat, and the acorn duck after one of its favorite foods.

Chesapeake Bay Autumn - Interesting Facts

It's autumn and change is in the air … and sea
Bay Naturalist / By Kathy Reshetiloff - Bay Journal

With all of the cookouts and crab feasts, it’s hard to imagine that summer is waning. Autumn doesn’t officially start until Sept. 21, but nature is already preparing for the metamorphosis.

Trees and other plants are beginning to alter their physiology. Some trees have begun to change color, hinting at the falling of leaves.

Actually, this leaf-shedding process, known as abscission, has already started. For several weeks now, the cells where the leaf stem is attached to the tree have been toughening and starting to form a protective waterproof scar. The cells in the leaf stem itself swell, weaken and degenerate.

This interferes with the flow of moisture and nutrients to the leaf, reducing the production of a pigment, known as chlorophyll, which gives leaves their green color. Leaves contain other pigments, but these colors are hidden most of the year by the abundance of chlorophyll.

Chlorophyll uses the sun’s energy to convert carbon dioxide and water into sugar, food for the tree. As the days shorten, there is less sunlight to manufacture food. Nutrients and minerals are withdrawn from leaves and transported to the permanent parts of trees such as the trunk, stems and roots.

When the chlorophyll breaks down, leaves reveal their autumn colors as other pigments are unmasked. Xanthophyll produces the color yellow and carotene, like that in carrots, produces yellow-orange. Sunny days and cool nights can produce a sugar-related pigment, anthocyanin, which produces fiery reds. Other chemicals and breakdown products produce bronze, purple, and crimson.

Trees aren’t the only things making preparations. The monarch butterfly, easily recognized by its dark orange and black wings, is one of few butterfly species to migrate, and is on the move.

As the days grow shorter, millions of monarchs make their way south. Monarchs in the West migrate to southern California, while those in the central and eastern parts of North America overwinter in the Gulf states and remote mountain valleys of south-central Mexico.

From the first week of September to the third week of October, the monarch butterfly makes its way south through the Chesapeake watershed.

The Bay watershed also lies within a major migration path for birds known as the Atlantic Flyway. Mountain chains to the west and coastal shorelines to the east serve as geographic boundaries that channel millions of migrating birds through the Bay region.

Among these are the raptors, a group of birds that includes eagles, falcons and hawks. Raptors begin their annual southward migration just before the fall foliage color change.

By early September, many raptors in Canada and northern United States have begun to fly south. The earliest of migrants may go unnoticed. But as the the first autumn cold front passes through the area, the skies fill with more and more raptors. As they approach the Chesapeake Bay, some are funneled along the coast, while the others are steered along the mountains.

At the same time, songbirds and shorebirds are preparing for long flights from northern breeding grounds to tropical wintering areas. The shortening days and crisp frosts of early autumn signal waterfowl to begin moving south along the Atlantic Flyway. Instead of just passing by, though, the Chesapeake serves as the wintering ground for swans, geese and ducks.

One of the most familiar waterfowl is the Canada goose. Migrating flocks are noted for their distinctive "V" flying pattern. Some believe that this flying pattern reduces wind drag and lessens collisions between birds. Loud honking signals their arrival to southern wintering grounds.

Blue crabs mate between May and October, with mating peaking in late summer. Ordinarily, females mate only once after their last molt, while they are still in the soft shell phase. The male crawls on top and cradles the female between his legs until she molts. Cradling protects the female while her shell is still soft. After mating, the female’s shell hardens and the two separate. Males remain in fresher portions of the Bay and rivers and females migrate to spawning areas near the mouth of the Bay.

Whales in Chesapeake Bay?

'Behemoths in the Bay'

A whale of a change in attitude was needed for species to stay afloat

Past is Prologue / By Dr. Kent Mountford - Bay Journal

Let's go back millions of years 10, maybe 14 million years, to the Miocene and Eocene epochs. What ultimately became the Chesapeake was then a shallow, subtropical sea, stretching along a sandy coast with barrier islands and embayments, perhaps like the Baja California today.

This nameless sea in the distant past was a calving ground for several species of cetaceans: baleen or filter-feeding whales, fish-capturing toothed whales, porpoise and even manatees. Their relatively defenseless young were easy prey for many species of sharks. Some sharks, like the giant Charcaradon megalodon, were 35 feet long with phalanxes of teeth, the largest of which reached 7 inches.

Shift scenes to the present where the eroding cliffs and shorelines of the modern Chesapeake still relinquish millions of fossil shark's teeth-and the ribs, vertebrae and other bones of those long extinct cetaceans. They've been the delight of children and of serious fossil collectors since the 19th century. But to early colonists, who had no concept of geologic time, these fossils, and the shells embedded in the cliffs were a great puzzlement.

"Within the shoares of our rivers, whole bancks of oysters and scallopps, which lye unopened and thick together, as if there had bene their natural bedd before the sea left them."

- George Percy
"Discourse of Virginia," 1606

Whales were an important resource in a world before oil wells and cheap petroleum supplies. Whale hunters took the rich, fatty insulating tissues surrounding the whales' bodies and "tryed" -melted in cauldrons-them to extract fine oils to be used for lubrication or to burn in lamps.

Apart from the occasional natural strandings, these marine mammals had to be hunted. However angrily we view whaling today, in the 16th and 17th centuries this fishery provided valuable products and was a true contest between species. It required great courage and respect to conquer these massive creatures in a small boat with simple, hand-thrown harpoon and lance.

John Smith's first sentence on marine living resources in the Chesapeake reads: "Of fish we were best acquainted with sturgeon, grampus (a small toothed whale -perhaps the pilot whale) porpoise, seals (and) stingrays whose tails are very dangerous."

Gardens Can Help the Chesapeake Bay and Wildlife

Return of the natives

Gardens help Bay, wildlife

Bay Naturalist / By Kathy Reshetiloff - Bay Journal

Today, few of us have the time or resources needed to maintain a formal landscape. As a result, people are exploring alternatives to traditional landscapes and are using a variety of beneficial plants to create a more natural yard. In the Chesapeake Bay region, this style is called BayScaping because of the many ecological benefits these landscapes provide for the Bay and its wildlife.

Beneficial plants begin with native, or indigenous species, plants that were present when the first Europeans arrived in the New World. Many horticultural varieties and imported plants are also deemed beneficial if they have few maintenance requirements and are not invasive.

Beneficial plants are well-adapted to local climate and soil types and thus require minimal maintenance, such as trimming, watering and fertilizer or pesticide applications. Because they require less fertilizer and pesticides, the amount of these pollutants that runs off yards each time it rains is decreased. Therefore, by planting beneficial plants at home, we contribute to the restoration of local waterways and the Chesapeake Bay.

Beneficial plants also improve wildlife habitat. Native, beneficial plants are especially valuable in habitats, as local birds, mammals and other wildlife depend upon them for fruits and seeds.

If you want to create productive wildlife habitats, it is important to provide a variety of food and cover (hiding and roosting places) throughout the year. A mix of evergreen and deciduous (plants that lose their leaves each winter) trees and shrubs, as well as perennial herbaceous plants will attract wildlife and keep your yard looking alive year-round. These plant communities also provide breeding and nesting sites for wildlife. This is especially important in the Bay watershed, where each day natural areas are destroyed to make room for more people.

Before deciding on the types of plants for your landscape, survey the site for the type of soil (sand, loam or clay), the amount of sunlight received during the day and the general moisture content of the soil (flooded, wet moist, dry). Knowing this information will help you choose the plants best suited for these conditions.

Trees not only provide shade for you, but food and homes for wildlife. Red maple (Acer rubrum), white oak (Quercus alba), black gum (Nyssa sylvatica), tulip poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera), shadbush (Amelanchier arborea or canadensis), and flowering dogwood (Cornus florida) are just a few species of the native trees you might want to plant. If you like evergreens, add an American holly (Ilex opaca), Eastern red cedar (Juniperus virginiana) or Eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis).

You can create a miniature woodland garden by surrounding trees with lower-growing shrubs, shade-loving plants or native ground covers to add wildlife value and reduce maintenance time and costs. Ferns are an excellent yet underused native ground cover. Ferns spread quickly, provide a lush, soft look and help shade out weeds.

Create a cluster of plants of various types and heights like those found in a forest. Mow around the perimeter of the entire cluster for a tidy border that is easy to maintain.

If you’re interested in shrubs, there are many native choices that provide colorful flowers and valuable fruits for wildlife.

Chesapeake Bay Winds of Change

Winds of Change By Tom Pelton

From the early days on the Chesapeake Bay to the yacht races held all along the Bay today, the Chesapeake’s winds have played an outsized role in the region’s economy and culture.

But some scientists have concluded that those wind patterns have undergone a historic shift. And this change in average wind direction has had an impact not only on sailing, but also on water quality in the Bay. Until about 30 years ago, the prevailing winds that blew up the Bay in the summertime came mostly from the south, according to Dr. Michael Kemp, a professor at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science.

These southerly winds would sweep the 200-mile length of the Bay. Winds that run in this direction are unobstructed by trees or land masses, which allows them to build up speed, make waves, and stir oxygen into the Bay’s waters. But then this mixing machine broke down.

“Starting probably in the mid 1980s to the present, we’ve seen the winds moving around primarily from…the west,” Dr. Kemp said. “We still get southerly winds. But we get a much higher frequency of winds out of the
west, which has a very different impact.” The Bay is narrow from west to east—about 4 miles across near the Bay Bridge. So winds from the west do not have much room to make waves and stir the high-oxygen
surface water into the oxygen poor depths. This reduced circulation of oxygen makes it harder for oysters, clams, worms, and other critters on the bottom to survive. Low-oxygen “dead zones” are caused by
water pollution—nitrogen and phosphorus from sewage plants, farms, lawns, and other
sources. But the right kinds of winds and currents can help breathe life back into suffocating
waters.

The shifting wind patterns appear to be caused by a giant El Niño-like weather pattern over the Atlantic Ocean, called the North Atlantic Oscillation, which shifts every few decades, according to Dr. Malcolm Scully, an oceanographer at Old Dominion University, who wrote about the subject in an article for the Journal of Physical Oceanography.

Recently, there have been signs that this pattern may be shifting back again, which could mean a return of more powerful southerly winds, better water circulation, and a reduction of the dead zones, Dr. Scully said.

“The extent and severity of these dead zones appears to be very sensitive to what the wind climate is like,” said Dr. Scully. “And it could be that we’ve just now entered into a period in which we are going to have a different wind climate.”

This could mean good news for water quality. But Dr. Scully said that the fact that winds affect water quality doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t care about pollution. Just the opposite, in fact, it meanswe have to be even more diligent about reducing pollution, because that’s the one factor we can control. Reduced nitrogen
and phosphorus pollution, combined with better water circulation, could mean a substantially healthier Bay.

Tom Pelton is Senior Writer for
the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.
His daily blog on current Bay
issues can be found at
cbf.org/baydaily.



Winds of Change By Tom Pelton sourced from Save The Bay Magazine Fall 2010