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Join ‘Best Effort to Improve the Environment’
Dear Bay Weekly:
Thank your readers and staff for selecting our oyster restoration program as the Best Effort to Improve the Environment in your first Best of the Bay issue [Vol. IX No. 33, Aug. 16-22]. The Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s Oyster Gardening program is the heart and soul of this endeavor, and the designation as the Best of the Bay honors the time and dedication of more than 1,000 gardeners. These volunteers have already planted 250,000 adult oysters on reefs this year and, since one oyster can filter up to 50 gallons of water daily, their actions are truly helping us Save the Bay.
This is also a great time of year to consider becoming an oyster gardener. CBF will host several workshops in September and October, including a September 15 event at Jefferson Patterson Park and September 18 and October 6 events at the Philip Merrill Environmental Center in Annapolis. At these workshops, volunteers build oyster gardens, learn how to tend them alongside their docks, and receive about 3,000 seed oysters to grow throughout the year. To find out more, visit the Oyster Gardening section of our website at www.savethebay.cbf.org/oysters, or call me at 301/261-2350.
Sincerely,
— Stephanie Reynolds: Oyster Corps Coordinator, Chesapeake Bay Foundation
Dogs Love Us; Cats Are Like Us
Dear Bay Weekly:
Sandra Martin’s tribute to Max [Appreciation: Vol. IX No. 33, Aug. 15–22] was moving, and the letters to Bay Weekly [Max in Memory: Vol. IX No. 34, Aug. 23–29] are a tribute to Ms. Martin. I especially liked the letter from M.L. Faunce, of Churchton, who cited the caption on a photo in a vet’s treatment room: “Acquiring a dog may be the only opportunity a human ever has to choose a relative.”
Actually, and this will be disconcerting to dog lovers, cats are closer to humans than dogs. A laboratory in Syracuse, New York, is making a complete study of the genetic make-up of cats, and they are genetically close to people, much closer than dogs. This will help us to understand people better.
I believe it. Dogs give unconditional love and loyalty and bond to people like glue. Cats like homes, material things better.
I wish dogs and cats left wills. The registers of wills for both Anne Arundel and Calvert counties spoke to Bay Chapter 1363 of the National Association of Retired Federal Employees, and both said essentially the same thing: Death and money make people do strange things. Cats would behave just like people: self-centered, selfish and engage in cat fights. Dogs would
behave just like dogs. Need I say more?
— Tom Gill, North Beach
We welcome your letters and opinions. We will edit when necessary. Include your name, address and phone number for verification. Mail them to Bay Weekly, P.O. Box 358, Deale, MD 20751 E-mail them to us at [email protected].
Copyright 2001
Bay Weekly
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