Waking up the first morning was easy … pretty excited to get on the road and start our week of volunteering and camping.
We drove to Canton in Baltimore and met Carmera Thomas, Program Manager of the Healthy Harbor Initiative, a Chesapeake Bay Foundation and Waterfront Partnership. She taught us how to clean the oyster cages that hung from the deck; this process was not the most glamorous of activities, but was definitely one of the coolest experiences. With Carmera’s help, we learned about the role of oysters in the Chesapeake Bay and the risks that they face. A few other organisms were found in the cages: a few guppies, mud crabs, and other invertebrates. These observations from a small cluster of oyster cages containing this diverse community provides a glimpse into what a natural oyster reef must hold, and I thought that was pretty awesome. The first service ended with a well-deserved burrito stop :-)
Fast forward a few hours and David Tana, the Maryland Outreach Coordinator at the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, gave us a tour of the Philip Merrill Environmental Center and helped us set up camp on the beach adjacent to the LEED-Platinum certified building. After eating dinner and gathtering for a reflection, we took shelter in our tents for a cold, raining night … only to wake up to a new day and start a new service project at Clagett Farm!
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