Get involved with the Maryland Coastal Bays

There are many ways that you can get involved to help restore and protect the Coastal Bays.

Here we provide a few examples, but encourage you to visit some of the other excellent websites that will help you make a difference.

A few examples of how you can get involved:

• Reduce or stop fertilizing your lawn and garden. If you want to fertilize your lawn, autumn is the most appropriate time for cool season grasses.

• Look for ways to filter run-off, such as directing drains and gutters into vegetated areas.

• Consider installing a rain barrel to capture runoff and to conserve water.

• Plant native trees and plants along your neighborhood stream to increase the riparian buffer, thereby decreasing the amount of unfiltered storm water running into the stream.

• Pump out your septic system regularly.

• Reduce your use of electricity and automobiles. Nitrogen oxide released from vehicles and power plants deposits onto the watershed, eventually washing into the bays and stimulating algal blooms.

• Hold a neighborhood cleanup to remove trash from the streets and stream banks before it enters a waterway.

• Respect and make room for wildlife around your home and neighborhood. Participate in the Coastal Bays citizen scientist’s activities like reptile and amphibian counts, horseshoe crab surveys and bird inventories.

More information is available at the following websites:

• Maryland Coastal Bays Program

• Association of National Estuaries Program

• Maryland Department of Natural Resources

• Maryland Department of the Environment

• University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science Integration and Application Network

• Assateague Island National Seashore