Chesapeake Footsoldiers

The Chesapeake Bay is North America’s largest estuary and was once its most productive. Runoff pollution from the Chesapeake’s enormous watershed has taken a heavy toll on people whose livelihoods rely on the Bay, but there are those quietly working to bring back the water quality. "Chesapeake Footsoldiers" tells the stories of just a few unsung heroes who confront some of the Bay’s biggest challenges.

Part One: The Oyster Recovery Partnership
Groups like the Oyster Recovery Partnership (ORP) are taking steps to change the water quality in the Bay. Buddy Willey is the ORP’s field mechanic, and assists oyster gardeners who use their private docks to tend these filter feeders for future planting on Maryland sanctuary reefs. Bryan Gomes is the ORP’s Manager of Special Programs and teaches students about what they can do to help recover the Bay.

Part Two: Pat Fasano
Many Amish farmers in the Octoraro Watershed use hundred-year-old technologies and methods to raise livestock and grow crops, which can cause harmful nutrient runoff into the Chesapeake Bay. Pat Fasano is the Amish Liason for the Octoraro Watershed Association, where he works with Amish farmers in the Lancaster County, Pennsylvania to create conservation plans and reduce their impact on the water and meet federal water quality standards.

Part Three: Drew Koslow
The largest source of pollution to the Bay comes from agricultural runoff. As a biologist and conservationist, Drew Koslow works for an organization called Ridge to Reefs, where his focus is to install bioreactors, which clean up runoff from farmland on Maryland’s Eastern Shore before it reaches the Chesapeake Bay.

"Chesapeake Footsoldiers" was produced by students at American University’s Center for Environmental Filmmaking, in association with Maryland Public Television.