It’s Wade-in Season!
Wade-ins throughout Maryland draw public attention to water quality in local rivers
Bernie Fowler leads of group into the Patuxent River for his annual wade-in.
May 2008 --With the arrival of spring each year comes flowers, birds, butterflies -- and, in Maryland, wade-ins along the shores of the state’s many Bay tributaries.
Wade-ins are exactly what they sound like: people wade into the water until they can no longer see their feet, then measure and record the water clarity level. While they are not necessarily scientific, wade-ins help bring communities together and teach people about the quality and conditions of their local waterways.
The first wade-in was held in 1988 at Broomes Island by former Maryland State Senator Bernie Fowler, who was motivated by memories of the clean, healthy Patuxent River of his youth. Over the last 20 years, Fowler has used his annual wade-in to raise public awareness of declining water quality in the Patuxent and around the Bay watershed.
In 1997, Fowler challenged Maryland’s Tributary Teams to conduct their own wade-ins to spread awareness to other rivers, creeks and streams across the state. This spring, more than a dozen wade-ins will be held in Maryland -- from the Monocacy all the way to the Nanticoke.
While the concept of a wade-in is relatively low-tech, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is bringing wade-ins into the 21st century with an electronic version of Fowler’s famous “Sneaker Index.” And those who can’t attend one of this spring’s wade-ins can participate from their computers by using real-time turbidity data from NOAA’s three interpretive buoys.