Daniel Hoyt AREC200 Eastern Shore Watershed Topics: Geographic facts, resistance to natural disasters based on geography and

history, land uses past to present, recreational opportunities, animal and crop agriculture. The Eastern Shore watershed is known administratively by its sub-watersheds by EPA and other Chesapeake Bay communities. Because of this I'm choosing the Blackwater-Wicomico sub-watershed to conduct my study. Some other watersheds that make up the larger Eastern shore watershed are the Choptank Watershed; as well the general northern Chesapeake Bay watershed that incorporates what is highlighted as Eastern Shore on the bay game, but has its own jurisdictional boundaries and mostly consists of the immediate shoreline of northern part of the bay. Geographic features to note in Blackwater-Wicomico watershed are the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge and the Taylor's Island Wildlife Management Area. These are just as important to the watershed as its shoreline because these wildlife area are essentially a system of connected ponds and estuaries; these features' child water systems have a far reaching effect into all of the watershed. I've been measuring on a map, and it seems one can't walk more than 2 miles in any direction and run into a substantially large water feature that runs immediately into the wildlife areas, then to the bay. This means this watershed's runoff will reach the bay much faster than say the James river watershed area. The residents of this watershed would likely see the results of their efforts to help the bay in their very own rivers and streams relatively quickly. The Blackwater-Wicomico watershed has only relative resistance to Hurricanes. The extreme sea level rises and the battering tides are mostly all absorbed by the Maryland-Delaware coastline. Of course the heavy rainfall from a hurricane will expedite eutrophication from run off, more so than in a less porous watershed.

Speaking for the majority of the Eastern Shore this time not just the Blackwater-Wicomico watershed, the vast majority of this land is dedicated to agriculture. This means the focus of its issues will be animal fertilizer and waste runoff and less on point sources of pollution. Though some watersheds have been dynamic in their land uses such as the Potomac and Patuxent watersheds throughout time, the Eastern Shore for the most part has not been. Agriculture is crucial and these lands and they are close enough to urban life to be of a proximal value, but still far away enough to not be 'overly' developed. Therefore the future of the Eastern Shore should is projected to be developed at a relatively slower pace than many other watersheds retaining its agricultural foundation. The Eastern Shore provides people with the usual sports and hobbies of fishing, swimming, and hunting. These recreational activities involving nature I've found to be proportional to the square feet of rural terrain. Animal and crop agriculture has produced negative effects for the watersheds overall health. Because of the sheer abundance of animal and crop farms in the Eastern Shore watershed, combined with the net of water systems waiting to catch all of the farms' unbalancing runoff, the BlackwaterWicomico watershed is relatively very polluted. Only a progressive shift of management methods will bring this watershed into comparative health.

Sources: http://www.chesapeakebay.net/discover/baywatershed http://stat.chesapeakebay.net/?q=node/131 http://cbf.org/page.aspx?pid=683 http://cfpub.epa.gov/surf/locate/index.cfm

I pledge on my honor that I have not given or received any unauthorized assistance on this assignment.