By: Laurel Imlay
Thank you to the hundreds and hundreds of Sierra Club members and supporters who commented to NOAA in support Alternative D for the Proposed Mallow Bay-Potomac River National Marine Sanctuary in Maryland! The comments in favor of this more inclusive sanctuary soared thanks to your response. By midnight at the comment deadline on March 30th, a total of 1,069 comments to NOAA had been submitted!
We hope this proposal to have the first National Marine Sanctuary in almost 20 years and the first ever for the Chesapeake Bay will come to Maryland. We applaud the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration for this wonderful opportunity recognize the tidal Potomac River and we entreat our federal and state elected officials to support NOAA and it's mission.
Unfortunately for me, when I tried to submit comments the evening of the 31st, I just missed missed the deadline and at 12:01 the website said it was closed and that my comments wouldn't show up on the website. I'm really sad because I put a lot into it. Maybe I will have another opportunity to contribute in future -- but here's what I would have said....
Comment:Thank you to NOAA for your critically important work studying and predicting weather and climate, for managing our precious ocean and coastal resources.
I am so excited and happy that our Southern Maryland Potomac shoreline and waterways incredible value to Maryland, Virginia, and America, has been recognized with this proposed rule to designate the Mallows Bay- Potomac National Marine Sanctuary. I heard the idea of having a publicly supported area for the Potomac here that would be similar to the hugely successful Adirondacks Reserve, years ago, and it's like a dream that the start of something like that is being realized.
I lived in Charles county for a number of years when my oldest son was a child, and I was lucky to have the privilege of raising him in an area like that, of being able to enjoy the natural beauty, swimming, boating, walking in the woods, the plethora of all sorts of animals, birds, bats, turtles, salamanders, frogs and plants and fish, clean air and quiet.
We worked so hard to preserve the forests and wetlands to keep the water and air clean and provide homes for so much wildlife, to have a pleasant environment for the people, and as we see, an increasingly valuable economic treasure via recreation, historic, tourism, and scientific research and education. This gem is so close to the nations capital.
I endorse Alternative D because it includes sub-estuaries of Mattawoman and Nanjemoy Creeks, Port Tobacco River, and Chapman Forest shoreline, enhances opportunities for more public access points for fishing, recreation, education, research and tourism with a visitor's center in Indian Head, and protects Mallows from overcrowding.
I've canoed so many times on the Mattawoman, walked along the shoreline near Chapman Forest. Chatted with fishermen coming over from Virginia to fish in this area that is a nursery for baby fish that swim out into the ocean and then come back grown up, to lay their eggs and start the cycle again.
Thank you so much for giving Maryland and Virginia and the nation this opportunity to protect an invaluable area of natural resources to must be protected from short sighted exploitation, or accidental degradation, for our children's and the nation's future. Once it's gone, it will not come back.
K. Laurel Imlay
Sierra Club Maryland Chapter Coordinator
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