Maryland’s famed Riverkeeper advocates (the State has nine of them) do indeed come in all shapes and sizes, and they also come with different strategies about how to protect and repair the rivers that they have been tasked as stewards of.
In the case of Jeff Horstman, the Riverkeeper for the Miles and Wye Rivers, part of the Mid-Shore Conservancy, his goals and objectives are approached using a combination of policy, science, and grassroots consensus building. They also come with a lifetime of thinking and worrying about these two water systems since he arrived on the Eastern Shore when he was thirteen years old. And, finally, it has been shaped after spending twenty-five years in the private sector, and much of that with Vanguard Securities in Valley Forge, PA after graduating from Washington College. While engaged on conservation issues as a volunteer and board leader of several local conservation organizations during that time, his return to Wye Mills a year ago to become a full-time river advocate is part of a twenty-year game plan to return clean, healthy water to the Mid-Shore rivers he first saw as a young teenager.
In his interview with the Spy, Jeff talks about his two rivers, the challenges facing the Bay, as well as gives some high marks for the Hogan administration regarding the re-birth of the phosphate management tool earlier this year.
This video is approximately ten minutes in length
Robert Lippson says
Nice conversation Jeff, I for one appreciate your passion and the good work that you are doing. I think that you have the equation about right concerning agricultural matters, i.e. industrial farming etc, and other industries but I think that there was one sector that did not receive as much attention and that sector is our burgeoning population and the things that come along with the growth in population: driveways, new roads in a development, new schools to accommodate the new families that are moving in and of course shopping centers and I know that you know there are many other demands placed on our environment. I like the term “Generational Amnesia,” very descriptive and very correct so I would like to suggest another term that may be useful and that is “The Tyranny of Small Decisions.” I have used this term many times in my work in which I refer to the good people who live here and mean no harm decide to over fertilize their lawns, own two cars rather than one car, etc., etc., etc. all small decision that are additive and produce “The Tyranny of Small Decisions. Best of luck, Bob Lippson