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2 days ago | 
southernmarylandchronicle.com | Timothy B. Wheeler |David Higgins
Maryland recently has taken a few tentative steps aimed at boosting commercial harvest of blue catfish(Ictalurus furcatus), the voracious nonnative predator devouring blue crabs and many native fish in the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries. Efforts to do likewise in Virginia, though, have been at least partially thwarted by resistance from recreational anglers and fishing guides who want to maintain them as lucrative trophy fish.
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1 week ago | 
southernmarylandchronicle.com | Timothy B. Wheeler |David Higgins
The glass of water that Jennifer Campagne draws from her kitchen faucet looks clear and clean. But ever since she had her household well tested and found “forever chemicals” in it, she’s leery of using it, even to make coffee. Campagne lives in a small cinderblock cottage in Hague, VA, on the overwhelmingly rural Northern Neck between the Potomac and Rappahannock rivers.
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2 months ago | 
bayjournal.com | Karl Blankenship |Timothy B. Wheeler
Under legal pressure, the Trump administration has restored billions of dollars in environmental funding earmarked for states that had been held up for weeks. But huge amounts of funding that supports work by nonprofits, universities, local governments and others were still frozen a month after the White House sought on Jan. 27 to pause grants, despite several court rulings that the money be freed up.
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Jan 27, 2025 | 
bayjournal.com | Jeremy Cox |Timothy B. Wheeler
Bird flu is back, sending shockwaves through the Chesapeake Bay region’s poultry industry and fueling concerns about wildfowl, as well as “spillover” infections in humans. Suspected outbreaks have been detected at seven commercial poultry operations in the Bay watershed as of Jan. 24 — all on the Delmarva Peninsula. In every case, the findings arose from routine testing, and the chickens were culled to prevent them from entering the food supply.
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Jan 21, 2025 | 
bayjournal.com | Timothy B. Wheeler |Whitney Pipkin
Next door to North Keys Community Park in Brandywine, MD, sits a 140-acre landfill where millions of tons of coal ash have been dumped since 1970. Toxic chemicals in the ash have seeped into the groundwater beneath the site and at one time ran off into a nearby creek.
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Jan 17, 2025 | 
southernmarylandchronicle.com | Timothy B. Wheeler |David Higgins
The Chesapeake Bay watershed has a new national wildlife refuge, its first in more than 25 years. The refuge aims to protect a vast area of critical habitat for birds and rare fish, insects and plants in rapidly developing Southern Maryland. Capping nearly 15 years of discussion and planning, U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland announced the establishment of the Southern Maryland Woodlands National Wildlife Refuge in December 2024.
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Jan 16, 2025 | 
bayjournal.com | Timothy B. Wheeler
The Chesapeake Bay watershed has a new national wildlife refuge, its first in more than 25 years. The refuge aims to protect a vast area of critical habitat for birds and rare fish, insects and plants in rapidly developing Southern Maryland. Capping nearly 15 years of discussion and planning, U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland announced the establishment of the Southern Maryland Woodlands National Wildlife Refuge in December 2024.
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Nov 29, 2024 | 
southernmarylandchronicle.com | Timothy B. Wheeler |David Higgins
Forty years ago, alarmed by the Chesapeake Bay’s declining health, Maryland lawmakers bucked business as usual for real estate and voted to restrict development within 1,000 feet of the Bay or its tidal tributaries. The Critical Area law, aimed at reducing polluted runoff into the Bay and protecting shoreline habitat, seeks to accommodate growth near the water while mitigating its environmental impacts.
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Nov 25, 2024 | 
bayjournal.com | Timothy B. Wheeler
Forty years ago, alarmed by the Chesapeake Bay’s declining health, Maryland lawmakers bucked business as usual for real estate and voted to restrict development within 1,000 feet of the Bay or its tidal tributaries. The Critical Area law, aimed at reducing polluted runoff into the Bay and protecting shoreline habitat, seeks to accommodate growth near the water while mitigating its environmental impacts.
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Nov 22, 2024 | 
bayjournal.com | Timothy B. Wheeler
More striped bass fishing restrictions loom as East Coast fishery managers weigh whether to ratchet down already tightened catch limits for the struggling finfish known in the Chesapeake Bay region as rockfish. The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, which oversees near-shore fishing for East Coast migratory fish species, plans to meet on Dec. 16 in Arlington, VA, to consider ordering new recreational and commercial catch restrictions in 2025. The commission voted on Oct.
