By Fred Tutman, Patuxent Riverkeeper

It is tons of work. You spend much of your time either defending the reasons for the job, explaining and justifying to skeptics--why and how the river can be saved, and/or fighting to defend environmental principles in a world where many people are too busy to do much more than just survive--let alone notice the river in their midst. Riverkeepers stand for and against causes where we are often outnumbered and barely have enough hours in the day to accomplish all the things that must be done. Even so, it is the best job in the world! The ability to help people, play a key role in efforts to save a watershed, and the chance to help build a statewide community of friends of the river, collaborators, and the participate in an extended family of people who think this is important and necessary work. Lots of people have a distinct and personal connection to the Patuxent, and there are a million personal stories to be found on this river. ALL OF THEM ARE TRUE AND ALL ARE IMPORTANT! That is why being a Riverkeeper is a job and a mission that could consume several lifetimes and never get boring or routine.

Many people take our water supply for granted. It simply does not occur to many of us that waterways are marvelous examples of a simple and complex chain of hydrologic factors in which what goes around truly comes around. Rain/snow, osmosis, stormwater, flooding, wetlands and the other manifestations of water are vital links in that chain.

Water is also universal constant. Civilizations rise and fall for the lack of it. Wars have been fought over it. Water, like “gold” is an objective standard and a central value that makes life itself plus our way of life altogether possible. Yet, where water is impaired—life does not thrive. Where the ecosystem is compromised, then so are we as human beings.

Those of us living in North America and especially in Maryland by the Chesapeake Bay,find it unthinkable that clean water could one day be something found only in history books.Especially those surrounded by the Chesapeake Bay find it unthinkable that clean water is increasingly scarce and irreplaceable.

Clean water, crabs, oysters, water you can swim in, water you drink...these things are not assured. What is assured is that the demand for water resources is increasing even while the supply is dwindling. It stands to reason that we need to conserve and use wisely what we have. It is pointless and futile for only some of us to use water wisely, thereby raising the available supply to the remainder of us who will squander it, waste it and pollute it. Protecting our water resources is truly an all or nothing proposition.

Yet one of the problems with environmental issues in general is that it is often hard to get People interested until the problems reach crisis proportions. We won’t worry about the Whales until they are nearly gone. We truly won’t appreciate the crabs and the oysters until they are all but gone. As Ben Franklin (or his alter ego Poor Richard) said, “when the well is dry, then you’ll know the value of water”.

Maryland is at a crossroads and so are we. A crossroads where scientists, legislators and the business community still speak in terms of restoring and replenishing the Bay and our tributaries. But it won’t be much longer before we pass the point of no return and speak in past tense.

Our choice is simple. It is a practical choice and a moral choice. We can’t make any more water. We need to better manage what we already have. There is no mystery about the cause of the decline in our watersheds. Let’s set about doing the work we know needs to be done and let's be unflinching in our choices.

By the way, if you want to know more about my ongoing Riverkeeper journey, you can visit my personal Riverkeeper Journal elsewhere on this web site.