15 Ways You Can Make A Difference: For Pollinators, Wildlife, the Bay and Aquatic Life, Soil Health, Your Health, Public Health… and Even the Climate
The health of Marylanders and of our Chesapeake Bay, soil, pollinators, wildlife and aquatic life, and drinking water, and even the climate are suffering in significant part due to the manner in which Maryland’s two million acres of farmland and 1.3 million acres of homeowner lands are used. Ninety-five percent of Maryland’s cropland is devoted to raising conventional, synthetic pesticide-laden commodity corn and soy (feed for animals) rather than growing nutrient dense biodiverse organic or other low-input vegetables and fruits, and pastured animals, poultry, and animal by-products for human consumption (food for people). Before we point the finger at agriculture, we must see that homeowners contribute almost as much impact – 2/3 of that of farms – with 1.3 million acres planted in conventionally maintained lawns and gardens.
Our rivers have been monitored for years by USGS and others, but they are not getting any better. Nitrogen and phosphorus levels are high, dissolved oxygen levels which fish and shellfish require to survive are low, and virtually every creek and river sample taken by USGS contains many pesticides and herbicides or their metabolites. The health of our soil is no better, as much of our farmland is conventionally farmed in monocrops with significant and routinely increasing amounts of synthetic inputs, has very low biodiversity, little installed buffers to protect our waterways, impacted soil microbiota, low organic matter and, as a consequence, little soil organic carbon. Our own personal and public health is impacted by the presence of synthetic inputs in our environment, by the decreased nutrient density in our foods, as well as by the relative paucity of farmland devoted to the production of pastured animal meats and poultry or cropland planted in vegetables and fruits (less than 2.5%, in fact). To make matters even worse, there is the much-ignored presence in our food of synthetic pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers which significantly affect our health. See Dr. Stephanie Seneff’s book, Toxic Legacy, to read about the extensive bodily processes impacted just by glyphosate, which is applied multiple times a year on millions of Maryland acres.
But it is important to note that these sources of pollution – poison – to our rivers, our soil, and our bodies come from all of us. In other words, to quote Walt Kelly’s Pogo: “We have met the enemy and he is us” — all of us. Homeowners both on and off the water, row crop farmers, poultry growers, commercial enterprises, landowners who lease their land out and have an opportunity to change how their land is used, gardeners, and those of us who eat food are all responsible. We all have had a role to play in the undoing of our environmental, animal, human and climate health… and it will take all of us to put things right. Even if you don’t control any land, you can be a part of the required sea change, as we can all “Vote with our Fork” three times a day, every day, for the right food system.
Maryland Pesticide Education Network (MPEN) has assembled a list of actions which, taken collectively, we and scientists believe can make a very real difference in our collective health and even in our ability to reverse climate change. We hope to encourage you to play an important role. You decide what changes you think you might be interested in implementing on your property or in your life and we can try to steer you to the resources you need and track the collective effort. We already have enough information to know what these sources of pollution are and what the appropriate solutions are. We just need to understand that it is our individual efforts – or ennui – that will make the difference. As Margaret Mead has said: “Never doubt that a small group of committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”
Land Stewardship Action Menu
1) Reduce or eliminate synthetic pesticides (like neonicotinoids, chlorpyrifos and atrazine) and herbicides (like RoundUp) in your lawns, gardens and yards.
Why: Eighty million pounds of pesticides are used annually in the US. EPA has found at least one pesticide in almost every water and fish sample from streams and in more than half of all shallow wells. Many are unsafe for pets, children and you. Synthetic herbicides and insecticides kill far more than target pests and weeds. It is especially important to eliminate chlorpyrifos (widely used on turfgrass even though it damages developing brains), atrazine (a common weedkiller used on corn and soy even though linked to breast and prostate cancer), and neonicotinoids, which kill bees, birds, butterflies, bats and other pollinators. Neonicotinoid insecticides (neonics) can be introduced onto your lawns by sprays, fertilizers, or by purchasing plants or seeds which have been treated with them. Neonics include the following eight active ingredients – acetamiprid, clothianidin, dinotefurn, imidacloprid, nitenpyram, nithiazine, thiacloprid and thiamethoxam. (There are more names with every generation – recent new ones include cycloxaprid, imidaclothiz, paichongding, sulfoxaflor, guadipry and flupyrsdifurone.)
Recent findings have shown that roughly 1,000 out of the 14,000 pesticides registered in Maryland have a PFAS “forever chemical” as their active ingredient. Other pesticides may contain PFAS due to container contamination.
How: Seek organic or untreated seeds and plants and organic alternatives for your target pests and weeds available from organic input suppliers like Johnny’s Select Seeds or High Mowing Seeds. Encourage or release beneficial predatory insects. Follow good cultural practices like rotation, companion planting, trap crops, row covers and other physical barriers; plant pest resistant varieties and time plantings. Control weeds with vinegar, mulching, mowing, live pathways, and smother cover crops.
2) Transition some of your lawn to native plants, trees and shrubs.
Why: Eliminating lawns: eliminates mowing; reduces or eliminates watering and lowers water bills; provides habitat and food for birds, bees and other insects and supports greater biodiversity; eliminates fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides which make their way into our creeks, rivers and the Bay.
How: Take advantage of free assistance from Master Gardeners’ Bay-Wise Landscape Management Program of Maryland Cooperative Extension Service. Get a copy of the EPA’s “Better Backyard” published under the Chesapeake Bay Program for extensive tips. Check out local and regional suppliers of native plants, trees and shrubs. But please confirm with plant sellers that they do not sell seeds or plants containing neonicotinoids. The term “native” plant only goes to the variety of plant, not how it was raised.
3) If you grow row crops on your property, install buffers
100’ width is currently funded in Maryland, 35’ is minimum for reimbursement, 65’ is optimal) of warm season grass mixes or native trees and shrubs around your fields, drainage ditches, and roadways. These buffers prevent the carriage of sediment, nutrients, pollutants and salinity-lowering water into our waterways, whether or not your land is directly on the water. All of the land in the watershed is “critical area” not just the riparian 1,000 feet. If you want to go further, you can install additional perennial practices including various types of wetlands, woodlands, pollinator strips, meadows, upland game bird habitat and other federally supported practices as implemented by Maryland Dept. of Agriculture (MDA). You can take advantage of existing CREP, CRP and other federal programs to get 100% reimbursement of the installation and annual maintenance costs associated with implementation of these perennial and true best management practices.
Why: Installations of these perennial deep-rooted plantings, whether grasses, trees or shrubs, or additional wetlands, woodlands and meadows, filter sediment (up to 5 tons an acre), take up nutrients, nitrogen, and phosphorus which would run off into the Bay; absorb carbon (which causes global warming); provide oxygen; and provide habitat for disappearing Eastern Shore species, like bobwhite quail.
How: There are Maryland-based non-profit organizations, including Chesapeake Wildlife Heritage, which will design, install and help you maintain your buffers and other CRP installations and provide feedback on improving bird species in your new habitat.
4) If you have annual row crops on your property, plant or ask your operator to plant a winter cover crop (like winter rye, or forage radish, or a multi-species mix), taking advantage of existing federal and state programs.
Why: Cover crops control erosion, retain soil and take up nutrients, nitrogen, and phosphorus (particularly nitrogen for which agriculture accounts for up to 90%) which would otherwise run off into the Bay.
How: Ask your farm operator to plant the cover crop or have a service fly it in even before the summer crop is harvested. Make sure they are installed early and terminated late, so that the winter cover crop can have a meaningful impact. The cover crop can be terminated by roller-crimper or with shallow tillage, rather than with yet another application of glyphosate. Sign up starts in June.
5) Beyond buffers and cover crops, landowners with row crops can incorporate or have their operator incorporate additional sound environmental practices
These include abstaining from land application of sludge (aka biosolids), which often contain PFAS forever chemicals; knife injection of fertilizers; band spraying of herbicides (which can reduce herbicide volumes by two thirds); application of poultry manure only where poultry feed practices are modified to reduce phosphorus; elimination of synthetic nitrogen, which alone accounts for the loss of almost two metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent per acre per year. Better yet, tell your farmer-operator to transition all or a part of your acreage or fields to organic practice. Federal funding assistance is available.
6) If you have a septic system, install a denitrifying treatment unit.
These can reduce nutrient discharges to both surface water and ground water. This upgrade is available throughout Maryland through the Bay Restoration Fund at no cost (installation and five years of maintenance) for properties within 1,000 feet of the water. A 2009 Maryland law requires it for new homes within 1,000 feet.
Why: Increases removal of nitrogen to which wastewater contributes greatly.
How: Contact your County Public Works Department for information
7) If you have waterfront property, leave marsh grasses and natural vegetation in place, and install grasses and natural plantings for protection against shoreline erosion; install floating oyster tanks or cages; and consider installing an aerator.
Protecting your shoreline against erosion with natural plantings rather, than hard protection like riprap, provides needed habitat for turtles and many species. Hardscaping like riprap, bulkheads and jetties are expensive, require permits, and block habitat in the critical area of the water’s edge. A 2008 Maryland law requires natural plantings in many instances.
Why: Dissolved oxygen levels in many tributaries of the Bay are too low for fish and shellfish to survive. Oysters – if they can survive – will filter the water in the immediate vicinity. You can contribute to the restoration of the local oyster population or you can grow about 500 oysters to market size. An aerator will increase dissolved oxygen levels and create small areas where fish will gather to breathe, particularly between dusk and dawn when dissolved oxygen levels are lowest.
How: Contact the non-profit Oyster Recovery Project, a county “oyster gardener” program, or your local or County Public Works Department
8) Plant trees.
On the smallest of properties, trees can significantly lower home energy bills (plant deciduous trees on the south side of a home to provide shade in summer and light in winter). If you already have five or more acres of woodland, you can get help from DNR’s programs listed below and farms can get USDA funding for trees and shrubs or silvopasture.
Why: A native tree and shrub mix moderates temperatures, provides habitat, filters sediment and nutrients, absorbs carbon and other pollutants from the air.
How: The Department of Natural Resources offers tree-planting assistance through a Woodland Assistance Program and a Forest Conservation Management Program. USDA offers funding for farm woodlands through the Environmental Quality Incentive Program (EQIP), as well as CRP tree and shrub buffer plantings.
9) If you have them on your property, protect woodlands, wetlands and meadows. If you don’t, install a wetland, a woodland, or a meadow, taking advantage of existing federal programs which pay you to do so.
Why: These three critical ecosystems promote good air quality by filtering pollutants and sequestering carbon, moderate temperatures, filter water, conserve soil, reduce flooding, and provide habitat and food. Meadows and wetlands provide critical habitat and food and can lead to the resurgence of disappearing species. In the future, their ecosystem value in storing carbon will likely be recognized.
How: Check out Chesapeake Wildlife Heritage, which has created over 10,000 acres of wetlands, grasslands and woodlands.
10) Protect your land by placing restrictive easements on your property.
Easements can both protect your property against development and ensure that the use to which you put portions of your property – woodland, wetland, meadow – are continued.
How: Contact Eastern Shore Land Conservancy or Maryland Environmental Trust about both types of easements. Make sure restrictive easements don’t limit reasonable and necessary improvements to transition your agricultural acreage to biodiverse sustainable food production (high tunnels, walk-ins, market pick-up, worker homes, food packing shed, value-added food production area, etc.
11) Manage water resources by reducing water demand and by using water resources not currently utilized.
Why: Water resources can be reduced by transitioning to native plantings, resisting the urge to water lawns, growing crops that require less water, and by increasing water productivity, such as by using drip rather than overhead irrigation. Water sources can be expanded by installing rain barrels (which can capture 46,000 gallons off of a 2,000 square foot home), planting a rain garden, avoiding impervious surfaces (such as by using permeable pavers), and installing a gray water system to reclaim used water for irrigation and other non-potable uses.<
Currently, U.S. gardens and lawns use 8 billion gallons a day of water, of which 32% is due to lawn care. Total flow volumes overwhelm treatment plants and result in outflow to rivers (e.g., it takes only 1/8 inch of rainfall to overwhelm NYC’s wastewater treatment plants). A home can cut summer water use by as much as 2/3 by landscaping and watering with water conservation as a goal.
How: Contact your local Master Gardeners through your local Extension Office for advice and guidance that is generally offered for free by their network of volunteers.
12) Refrain from flushing medicines and other toxic substances like solvents, paints and preservatives.
These pollutants make their way to the Chesapeake Bay via the wastewater treatment plant, your septic system, or drainage ditches.
Why: Over 300 synthetic chemicals have been found in our bodies. Medicines of all kinds have been found in our waterways. Medicines and synthetic inputs in our food production system have been found to negatively impact endocrine and reproductive systems of aquatic life and people.
How: Go online to locate your county landfill options for collection of toxic chemicals and always dispose of chemicals this way.
13) Consider the impact your food choices can make on the land, on the workers who grow your food, and on you.
Understanding how your food is grown is generally more important than where it is grown. Buying organic foods grown in healthy soils, and meats and poultry that are pasture-raised, and not fed conventional corn, are as beneficial for the waterways and the climate as they are for you. If you transition from California conventional produce to more regionally or locally grown conventional produce, the synthetic inputs are the same – they are just poisoning Maryland farm laborers and our Chesapeake Bay rather than McDonald’s potato growers in the Mid-West or the Gulf of Mexico.
Why: Continued consumption of conventionally raised foods grown with pesticides impacts farmworkers, farm communities, and children of farmworkers through acute poisoning incidents and longer-term risks of chronic illness, cancers and neurological disorders. Chlorpyrifos, sprayed widely on fruits and vegetables, damages developing brains. Glyphosate, used on virtually all feed corn and soy, has been linked to lymphoma and leukemia. Paraquat, a weedkiller used on corn and soy and strawberries and potatoes, is linked to Parkinson’s disease. Read Barry Estabrook’s eye-opening account of Florida tomato growers in his book, Tomatoland.
Eating organically grown foods is generally shown to be modestly or even significantly more nutrient dense than the conventionally grown counterpart, particularly in micronutrients and phytochemicals. (“Soil Health and Nutrient Density: Preliminary Comparison of Regenerative and Conventional Farming”, Montgomery, Bikle, Archuleta et al 2022). Likewise, pasture raised meats have generally better nutritional profiles (e.g., pastured meats have better omega3/omega 6 ratios, and the eggs of free-range chickens have more omega 3 fatty acids, vitamin E and less cholesterol than factory-farmed ones. See the Eating Wild website for nutritional data.
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14) Become a part of the movement to store carbon on your land.
Why: The right practices such as wetlands, woodlands, grasslands, pastured rotational animal and poultry production, agroforestry, organic food production, biodiverse plantings, and perennial deep-rooted buffer strips can store up to 12-15 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent per acre per year on your land. Collectively, it is enough to take up all of our current carbon emissions. Conventional synthetic-driven commodity agriculture does not perform this important ecosystem service on which a livable planet depends.
How: Start taking steps now so you can be rewarded when the carbon markets recognize the critical value of these practices.
15) Consider allocating some of your farmland to year-round sustainable food production on your land.
Why: You will be rewarded with magnificent fresh food year-round with the provision of as little as five acres of land, irrigation water and housing.
How: Reach out to MPEN for information on how to secure a farmer who is interested in organically or regeneratively growing crops and/or raising pastured meats and poultry rather than confined animal feed operation (CAFO) meats. Federal funding is available for passive solar high tunnels, fencing and other assets that would be useful to a young farmer.<
Get your neighbors, friends, and colleagues involved. If you can, make a contribution to MPEN and engage the services of a non-profit mission-driven organization described in this list.
