Thank you! Maryland Coastal Bays!

Please read the following news release which proves that like-minded people working together can do amazing things. This was the first time I have read a compilation of the accomplishments of the Maryland Coastal Bays Program. Dave Blazer deserves our heartfelt gratitude for everything the article says took place under his leadership. In some ways he has touched every back bay, canal, pond, river and stream in this area. 

Do I think Maryland Coastal Bays Program will continue without his leadership? Of course, because all the people, not only those employed, but also the Board of Directors and the many volunteers are committed to this good Earth on which we live.

I am sure whatever Dave Blazer does in the future will benefit our environment. 

Blazer leaving Coastal Bays after 9 years
Coastal Bays Program Executive Director Dave Blazer announced this week that he will be leaving the Coastal Bays Program Jan. 15 after almost nine years at the post.
The 47-year old former Maryland Director of the Chesapeake Bay Commission has accepted an environmental consulting position with Talbot Energy Associates of Ecologix Group. He will continue to work from his home in Ocean Pines.
“It’s been a pleasure to work with such dedicated people in an area where folks truly care about their environment,” he said. “Worcester County has come such a long way in the past decade.”
Indeed when Blazer arrived at the program in 1999 a secretary and an outreach coordinator made up the entire Worcester County staff charged with turning things around in the shallow bays behind Ocean City and Assateague. One of 28 National Estuary Programs, the Coastal Bays Program is a non-profit organization that began in 1996 when fishermen, farmers, developers, and scientists came together to develop a consensus-based plan to clean up the bays.
With a pittance for a budget and limited staff, the non-profit organization began gradually but slowly changing the way business was done in the coastal bays. Over-worked, under-paid and under-staffed, Coastal Bays personnel initially found it tough to do all the things necessary to help the community in its quest to improve water quality and wildlife habitat in the coastal bays.
That changed during Blazer’s tenure. In less than a decade, the program’s annual budget has tripled despite stable or falling federal support. The program has an additional $1 million endowment at the Community Foundation and now hosts eight full-time and five part-time staff at the office in West Ocean City. The program has raised $325,000 this year alone in private dollars. This has allowed for an unprecedented amount of on-the-ground activities and a groundswell of support to go with it.
On Blazer’s watch, the program has helped restore and protect thousands of acres of forests and wetlands, worked to get all new sewer discharges out of the coastal bays, led the charge for better planning for growth, established a permanent water quality testing program, stopped boat sewage dumping in the northern bays, established a certified Clean Marina Program, created Cherry Point Farm School Education programs and most significantly, has been able to leverage over $6 million a year for the coastal bays watershed. For every $1 the program has received in federal funding, it has brought $12 more dollars to the coastal bays.
Blazer started a new Builders for the Bay Program, secured federal funding for the regional planning initiative called The Delmarva Atlantic Watershed Network (DAWN), helped pass the State’s Critical Area’s Law, was behind the first-ever nutrient reduction strategy for the coastal bays, and orchestrated the first State of the Coastal Bays Report which assimilates 15-30 years of water quality and fisheries data.
He oversaw the creation of a coastal bays-only Hard Clam Management Plan and Blue Crab Management Plan and helped set the wheels in motion for the Bishopville dam restoration plan. Blazer rallied support for state funding for cover crops, tree and grass buffers, water control structures, a pelletizing plant, Fibresure Manure Burning Facility, the Tyson living cell wastewater treatment plant, and phytase use in chicken feed. In Worcester, the program teamed up to convince the county to adopt 100 ft. pier length maximums over wetlands and began the National Estuary Program’s first ever Minority Outreach Initiative.
Using his 1990’s DNR Fisheries Program Chief experience, he helped produce and distribute over 10,000 copies of our popular “Boater’s Guide to the Coastal Bays” and secured regular funding for DNR size and creel brochures and signs for common coastal bays fish. Added to this are regularly run public service announcements on safe and environmentally conscious boating and the “Helpful Hints for protecting your canals and waterways” sent to 7,000 canalside property owners.
Blazer accomplished what was previously thought unthinkable due to his ability to thoughtfully listen to others and understand the many shades of a given issue.
“Consensus building is what the program is about,” said Blazer, “and I think I always did my best to uphold that spirit.”
Outreach coordinator Dave Wilson will assume the role of acting director after Blazer’s exit. Wilson has been with the program for 11 years.



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