More than 100 restoration projects across the Chesapeake Bay watershed are in the works supported by $33.8 million in grants from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, officials announced on Friday. The grants can leverage another $30 million in federal money from projects ranging from Cooperstown, N.Y. to Virginia Beach, Va. One of those projects would restore a cove just upstream from Annapolis’ City Dock.
Hawkins Cove off Spa Creek was once deep enough to accommodate sailboats with keels cutting into the water to tie up at the dock. Now, it’s silted in so badly the arms of an abandoned lawn chair stuck in the mud poke out of the water. Enthusiasts would be lucky to get a kayak through these waters. And recreational visitors wouldn’t want to risk tying up to the crumbling dock.
Annapolis Mayor Gavin Buckley says the cove was abandoned and suffered from a lack of investment.
“We're about to make sure that there's investment in this community,” he insisted. “And then we're going to make sure that it's accessible to everybody.”
He says the $500,000 project he’s envisioning will include a new dock, a living shoreline, a boardwalk, a place to launch kayaks and other amenities.
William Rowel, a senior advisor to the mayor, says water access is integral to getting people to take ownership in the natural environment and where they live. Once they have that sense of ownership, they’ll begin to take better care of it.
Rowell, who lives a few blocks from the cove, says the project will give his neighbors in two nearby public housing projects the opportunity to become invested in the area.
It would help make sure that those “who have a closer proximity to poverty,” would have “the opportunity to experience water and to learn about wildlife, to learn about what's around them so they can love where they live more.”
Buckley says he wants to find more money to dredge the cove deep enough to tie a sailboat to the new dock.
