© 2024 WYPR
WYPR 88.1 FM Baltimore WYPF 88.1 FM Frederick WYPO 106.9 FM Ocean City
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
WYPO 106.9 Eastern Shore is off the air due to routine tower work being done daily from 8a-5p. We hope to restore full broadcast days by 12/15. All streams are operational

Rising tides, saltier waters are a challenge for farmers along the Chesapeake Bay

FILE - A small boat travels along the Honga River near the Chesapeake Bay, as the sky lights up at sunrise in Fishing Creek, Md., May 14, 2020. A proposed settlement agreement announced Thursday, April 20, 2023 says Pennsylvania will be forced to minimize its outsized role in polluting the Chesapeake Bay. The agreement would require the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to more stringently enforce clean water regulations in the state. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez, File)
Julio Cortez
/
AP
A small boat travels along the Honga River near the Chesapeake Bay, as the sky lights up at sunrise in Fishing Creek, Md., May 14, 2020.

Climate change, driven by human activity, has upset the balance of ecosystems and natural processes the world over.

In the Chesapeake Bay, changes to the natural environment that usually occur over hundreds or thousands of years are taking place in the span of a lifetime. Sea-level rise is causing salty ocean water to crawl farther and farther into the bay and onto nearby coastlands.

Jeremy Cox is a Chesapeake Bay Journal staff writer who has written about saltwater intrusion.

Some of the oldest farmland in the country is on the Delmarva peninsula, and threatened by eroding coast lands and saltwater.

Bob Fitzgerald lives on the Eastern Shore in Somerset County. His family has farmed in the same area for many generations.

And Sarah Hirsh, Ph.D., has been an extension educator for University of Maryland in Somerset County since 2018. Her research and Extension program focuses on soils, conservation and cover crops.

(Original airdate: Dec. 5, 2023.)

Sheilah Kast is the host of On The Record, Monday-Friday, 9:30-10:00 am.
Sam Bermas-Dawes is a producer for Midday.