Burger Tasting to Showcase Locally Produced Meats and Other Food Items Sunday, Jan. 29

CHESTERTOWN, MD—If you think cold weather means you have to wait a few months for fresh local food, think again. On Sunday, January 29, four local producers will showcase their beef at the second annual “Andy’s Burger Night” from 1 to 4 p.m. at Unity Nursery on Rt. 213 near Church Hill. The event, created to showcase locally produced food items, is inspired by the Burger Nights that were so popular at Andy's, the beloved tavern that operated on High Street for two decades.


Sassafras River Beef, Cedar Run Farm, St. Brigid’s Farm and Crow Farm will each bring something different to the tasting table. Two of Chestertown’s favorite chefs, Robbie Jester and Kevin McKinney, will cook up sliders on the grill and serve them with Eve’s Cheese, Lockbriar Farm apples and cider, bread from Against the Grain bakery, salad from Chesapeake Greens, and vegetables from Priapi Gardens, Colchester and Homestead Farms. Andy’s Spinach and Sweet Potato salad and Cindy’s chili will round out the menu.

“People will be amazed at how much food is available locally even in the dead of winter,” says Tara Holste, program manager at Washington College’s Center for Environment & Society, which is organizing and sponsoring the event.

The growers will be on hand to talk about their farms and products. Beer and wine will be for sale from 16 Mile Brewery and Cassinelli Winery. In addition, a group of local musicians will perform open-mic style throughout the event. In the spirit of being eco-friendly, diners are asked to bring their own plates, utensils, and cloth napkins.

Tickets, priced at $15 each (children under 12 free) and $25 per couple, are available at Unity Nursery or online at http://andys-ctown.com. (Space is limited. If advance reservations sell out, there will be no tickets available at the door.) All proceeds will benefit the Locavore Lit Fest, which returns to Chestertown March 29 through April 1, 2012.

For more information call 410-810-7162 or email tholste2@washcoll.edu.

College and Friends Celebrate 50th Birthday of Arctic Wildlife Refuge with Film Screening

CHESTERTOWN — About the size of South Carolina, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is home to caribou herds, polar bears, grizzly bears, muskox, doll sheep, wolves, wolverines, snow geese, peregrine falcons and other migratory birds. Discover this isolated and breathtaking preserve at a special screening of the documentary film America's Wildest Refuge on November 29th at Washington College.

In celebration of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge’s 50th Anniversary, the community is invited for cake and refreshments first, at 6:30 p.m. in the McLain Atrium, located in the Toll Science Building on Campus Avenue in Chestertown.

The film, which has a running time of 50 minutes, will be shown at 7 p.m. Colby Hawkinson, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service specialist at Eastern Neck National Wildlife Refuge, will be on hand that evening to answer questions and explore connections between the Arctic and Eastern Neck Refuges.

The event is sponsored by Washington College’s Center for Environment & Society, the Friends of Eastern Neck Inc., and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. For information email to jfairchild2@washcoll.edu or call 410-778-7295.

CES Offers Talk on Hunters and Their Prey, And a Cooking Demo on Using the Whole Animal

CHESTERTOWN, MD—The Center for Environment and Society at Washington College will offer two special presentations November 4 and 5, the first on hunting and the second on how to cook some lesser-used parts of wild game. The events are something of an appetizer for the second annual Locavore Lit Fest coming March 29 to April 1. This year the literary food festival will focus on wild food, from game to plants to bacteria.

Hunting: A Matter of Life and Death. On Friday, November 4, at 6:30 p.m., in Litrenta Lecture Hall, John S. Toll Science Center at Washington College, Dr. Marc Boglioli will lecture on how contemporary hunters understand their relationship to their prey. Boglioli is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Drew University and author of A Matter of Life and Death: Hunting in Contemporary Vermont (University of Massachusetts Press), which explores how hunters’ attitudes toward animals flow from rural traditions they have maintained in the face of encroaching urban sensibilities. He offers a glimpse into a culture that experiences wild animals in a way that is at once violent, consumptive, and respectful, and that regards hunting as an enduring link to a vanishing past. Sponsored by the Center for Environment & Society, the talk is free and open to the public. Please email to tholste2@washcoll.edu or call 410-810-7162 for more information.

Wild Charcuterie: Making the Most of Your Quarry. Even the most avid hunters tend to use only a relatively small percentage of the edible parts of the animals they kill, discarding some very nutritious and delicious portions. Bill Schindler and Mark Wiest will help reverse the trend through a cooking demonstration Saturday, November 5 at 2 p.m. in the kitchen of the Rose O’Neill Literary House, 407 Washington Avenue. They will focus on oft-discarded parts of deer and geese that can be turned into delicious fare — from pates and sausages to cured meat. On the menu (but subject to change) are venison sausage, goose confit, goose liver pate, braised deer heart, and venison roast braesola.

Bill Schindler, Ph.D. is a professor of anthropology and archaeology at Washington College. His research focuses on prehistoric foodways and technologies. He incorporates wild foods into his and his family’s diet on a regular basis.

Mark Wiest, a doctoral student in the University of Georgia’s Department of Ecological and Environmental Anthropology, studies the conflicts and cooperative relationships that can form between state-level agencies and groups such as farmers, fishermen, loggers, and hunters that depend on natural resources. An alumnus of Washington College, Wiest is a lecturer in anthropology at his alma mater.

A $15 registration will cover the costs of supplies. Space is limited; advanced registration is recommended. Please contact tholste2@washcoll.edu or 410-810-7162 for more information or to register.

Best-Selling Author Dava Sobel Highlights Downrigging Weekend With A Talk On Longitude

CHESTERTOWN, MD—Best-selling author Dava Sobel, one of the world’s most influential science writers, will be in Chestertown Friday, October 28 to share the story of the lone genius whose invention of the chronometer changed the way we envision and navigate our world. Based on the title of her acclaimed book, Longitude, her presentation will take place at 8 p.m. at the Garfield Center for the Arts at the Prince Theater, 210 High Street.

Sobel unpacks the 18th century struggle of what had become a deadly problem: the inability to correctly identify where a ship was at sea. After countless tragedies and lost ships throughout the Age of Sail, British Parliament offered a prize of £20,000 to whoever could provide a reliable solution to "the longitude problem". Sobel weaves a captivating historical narrative on the issues surrounding this predicament, as well as the amazing journey of John Harrison, a self-educated clockmaker who solved the greatest scientific problem of his day — and won the lucrative prize with his invention of the chronometer.

First published in 1995, Longitude went through 29 hardcover printings before being re-issued in October 2005 in a special tenth-anniversary edition. It has been translated into two-dozen foreign languages and was the inspiration and basis for several documentary and dramatic films about Harrison.

A former New York Times science reporter, Sobel is also the author of Galileo’s Daughter, which spent five weeks at the top of the New York Times non-fiction best-seller list, and The Planets. Her latest book, A More Perfect Heaven, published last month by Walker and Company, focuses on Nicolaus Copernicus and his “crazy” ideas concerning the Earth’s motion around the sun. Ms. Sobel’s success in popularizing science and scientists has been recognized with an Individual Public Service Award from the National Science Board, 2001, a Bradford Washburn Award from the Boston Museum of Science, a Harrison Medal from the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers in London, and a Klumpke-Roberts Award from the Astronomical Society of the Pacific.

Sobel's talk is jointly sponsored by the Center for Environment and Society at Washington College, the Van Dyke Family Foundation, Sultana Projects, and the Maryland Humanities Council. Longitude is one of three lectures and forums to be featured at the Prince Theatre during this year’s Downrigging Weekend. On October 27 at 5 p.m., New Yorker writer Ryan Lizza will address the difficulties in politics and climate change, and at the same hour on October 29, Sultana Projects will host a forum reflecting back on the building of the Schooner Sultana. Admission to all three lectures is free and open to the public. For information, contact (410) 778-7295 or(410) 778-5954.

Scottish Underwater Archaeologist to Discuss Lives of the Ancient Loch Dwellers

CHESTERTOWN, MD—On Wednesday, October 12, Washington College will welcome underwater archaeologist Nick Dixon, director of the Scottish Crannog Center, for a lecture on “Early Iron Age Loch-dwellers of Scotland: Excavation, Interpretation, and Reconstruction.” The talk will take place at 4:30 p.m. in Litrenta Lecture Hall, Toll Science Center.

The Scottish Crannog Center, a beneficiary of the Scottish Trust for Underwater Archaeology, is devoted to the research and preservation of historical “crannogs,” artificial islands that served as dwellings for people who lived in the region from about 500 BC until the 17th century AD. The cold, dark, peaty loch waters have helped preserve the organic remains at the sites, including plants, seeds, nuts, animal bones and droppings and insects. In at least one case, excavators discovered a butter dish that still carried remnants of butter. Dixon will discuss the significance of these finds and the insights they provide into the daily lives of ancient peoples.

Dixon has taught at the University of St. Andrews and the University of Edinburgh. He currently is researching Scotland’s Loch Tay and its bounty of well-preserved finds.

The lecture, which is free and open to the public, is co-sponsored by the Anthropology Club, Lambda Alpha, and the Center for Environment and Society.

Chesapeake Scenes to Bring Songs and Stories to Washington College September 4

CHESTERTOWN, MD – Chesapeake Scenes will perform at Washington College on September 24, at 8 p.m. in Tawes Theatre. Spoken word artist Capt. Andy McCown and "banjo man" Tom McHugh take center stage with fellow musicians Tom Anthony and Bill Matthews. The men pay tribute to the Bay through songs and stories of the people who live on her shores, telling tales about everything from the love of an old wooden boat to watermen working in winter. Chesapeake Scenes was winner of the Tidewater Folklore Society's "album of the year" award in 1996.

The concert is sponsored by Echo Hill Outdoor School, Penn State University, and the Center for Environment & Society at Washington College. Admission is free and open to the public. Tawes Theatre is located in the Gibson Center for Performing Arts on the College campus, 300 Washington Avenue. For more information, call 410-810-7161.

Photo: From left, Andy McCown, Tom McHugh, Bill Matthews and Tom Anthony perform together as Chesapeake Scenes.

College's Center for Environment & Society Welcomes Marine Scientist and Educator to Staff

CHESTERTOWN—The Center for Environment & Society at Washington College welcomes veteran marine scientist and educator Douglas R. Levin as Associate Director. Levin, who was selected after a national search, started his new post on July 1. Based at the CES offices in the Custom House, on the waterfront in historic downtown Chestertown, Levin will assist with the day-to-day operations and connect the CES more fully with the science of the Chester River and Chesapeake Bay. He will help Washington College connect students with the water not only through academics and technology, but also through culture, recreation and special programs.

In announcing the hire, CES director John Seidel said Levin brings “a very strong and varied background that includes work in private industry, academia and the federal government, along with an energy and entrepreneurial bent that fits wonderfully into CES and Washington College. Doug’s practical experience and strong scientific background will be a great benefit to the Center and to our students,” he added.

Levin has worked in oceans and waterways domestically (along both coasts, the Gulf of Mexico and the Great Lakes) and around the globe, including the Mediterranean Sea, the Congo River and the coast off Cartagena, Colombia. He comes to Washington College after a six-year association with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Most recently, he was with NOAA’s Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS), leading an effort to improve the oceanographic models used to predict the onset of coastal flooding and the loss of oxygen from coastal oceans. During the summer of 2010 he was part of the team assessing the fate of the deepwater oil plume that entered the Gulf of Mexico via the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

From 2004 to 2010, Levin was a habitat specialist and education coordinator for NOAA’s Chesapeake Bay Office. As part of his responsibilities, he worked with the Oyster Recovery Partnership to develop protocols for mapping the Chesapeake Bay bottom and its tributaries to identify the best sites for oyster-bed restoration. As education coordinator, he helped design the building and developed programs for the Environmental Science Training Center (ESTC) at Oxford, Md. At ESTC, he designed and introduced highly regarded STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) programs, including Aquabotz, in which participants can design, build and launch working underwater robots in a little over an hour. His program also involved student-built buoys that collect water-quality data.

Prior to his work with NOAA, Levin founded the Earth Mapping Laboratory at the University of Maryland, Eastern Shore (2000 to 2004) and spent a decade (1990 to 2000), at Bryant College (now Bryant University) in Smithfield RI, where he chaired the Department of Science and Technology and added courses in geology, oceanography and applied science. While at Bryant, he was named Outstanding Teacher in Liberal Arts, and Student Advisor of the Year. He also was awarded the Community Service Leadership Award and the prestigious Distinguished Faculty Award.

A graduate of Fairleigh Dickinson University, where he majored in marine biology, Levin earned a master’s degree focused on geology, coastal processes and glaciology at Boston University. He completed his Ph.D. in Marine Sciences and Geology at Louisiana State University.

Levin says he had been keeping his eye on Washington College since his arrival on the Eastern Shore and occasionally visited and guest-lectured in several classes over the past decade. “Since my first visit to the College, I recognized the unique opportunity that was presented with the Chester River right out the back door. We will tangibly connect the student experience to the water,” he says of the CES mission. “I recognize how fortunate I am to be a part of this historic institution, and I look forward to helping move the Center ahead smartly.”

Washington College Announces Acquisition Of Chester River Field Research Center

CHESTERTOWN, MD, April 22, 2011—Washington College today announced that it has acquired the Chester River Field Research Center (CRFRC), the nonprofit corporation that leads and facilitates scientific research and environmental studies at Chino Farms in Queen Anne’s County.

The CRFRC was founded in 1999 by conservationist Henry F. Sears, a retired surgeon and the owner of Chino Farms, a 5,000-acre property on the Chester River. Under an agreement reached with the board of directors of the CRFRC, and with financial support from anonymous donors, the College’s Center for Environment & Society will take over all operations of the Research Center, coordinating the study projects underway there. The College acquires no Chino Farms land in the agreement.

The research center’s two full-time field biologists, Dan Small and Maren Gimpel, will join the staff of the Center for Environment and Society (CES). Founding scientific director Douglas E. Gill, a professor emeritus of biology at University of Maryland, will serve as a consultant. And Jim Gruber, a retired Natural Resources officer who volunteers his time and expertise as the director of the bird-banding operation at Chino Farms, will become an Associate of CES.

Sears sees the transfer of operations to the College as the next step in the growth and stability of the CRFRC. “This gives the investigations part of the Research Center a broader base, a broader scope, and longer legs,” he says. “And it provides institutional longevity—a future beyond the lives of the current participants.”

He says he has been following the growth of the College’s Center for Environment & Society over the past few years. “I appreciate the interest and enthusiasm the CES staff has shown for the kinds of conservation and farming techniques we’ve been exploring at Chino Farms,” he says. “And I couldn’t be more excited about the commitment Washington College has shown for maintaining the community’s rural and agricultural heritage.”

“This is exciting news for all of us at Washington College,” says President Mitchell B. Reiss. “We expect this acquisition to bring a quantum boost to the environmental field work our faculty and students can conduct. We are grateful to Dr. Sears and the CRFRC board for the trust they have shown in our Center for Environment & Society and its ability to maintain and expand the research on farm practices, habitat restoration and wildlife happening at Chino Farms.”

The CRFRC is best known for its work in grassland restoration and migratory bird banding—it has successfully restored 246 acres of Atlantic prairie grasses, creating one of the very few large-scale coastal grasslands on the Eastern Seaboard, and has banded more than 150,000 new birds at its Foreman’s Branch Bird Observatory.

Washington College has been involved in a limited way in programs at Chino Farms over the past several years. A handful of students have worked at the bird banding station as part of their paid internships with the CES, and professor Leslie Sherman has conducted research on soil chemistry there. The acquisition of the CRFRC facilities will enable those who work in environmental studies to think and dream big when it comes to grant-funded research and environmental study.

“This opens up unparalleled hands-on field opportunities to our own students and faculty, and to scientists and educators from other schools and organizations as well as state and federal agencies,” says John Seidel, the director of the Center for Environment & Society. “We can expand research projects into the other rich habitat areas at Chino Farms, including forest habitat, wetlands and seasonal wetlands, and farmland. We’ll be the portal to this wonderful resource and all its rich habitat areas.”

Washington College senior Rachel Field, an Environmental Studies major from West Chester, Pa., knows first-hand the kinds of opportunities the CRFRC can bring to students. As a CES intern she has spent two summers and much of the spring semester at Chino Farms mapping Grasshopper Sparrow territories, banding birds at the Foreman’s Branch Bird Observatory, and studying mate selection in Blue Grosbeaks. “As a scientist, this experience has been invaluable,” she says. “I have gained practical experience in conducting field experiments, designing experiments, completing bird surveys, and banding migratory birds. And, as an individual, my time at the Chester River Field Research Center has helped me to become more confident and independent.”

All 5,000 acres of Chino Farms are protected under conservation easements, making it one of the largest easements in Maryland history. Three thousand of those acres are farmed commercially by Evan Miles of Bluestem Farms, who uses a mixture of precision agriculture and organic methods.

Other subjects now under study through the CRFRC include wild turkeys, songbird communications, bobwhite quail, breeding birds in managed grasslands, and nutrient recycling in soil.

Gill, who led the grasslands restoration, is glad to see Washington College take on the work of the research center he and Harry Sears created 12 years ago. “It has been a somewhat private affair led by Dr. Sears’ vision and my expertise as an ecologist,” he says. “It makes sense to have a top-quality academic institution like Washington College, so close to the research station, take it on and make it available for teaching and research. It’s what I always envisioned should happen. And John Seidel at the CES will provide superb leadership.”

For more information, please visit http://ces.washcoll.edu/ and http://www.chesterriverfieldresearchcenter.org/

"Dirty Life" Author Recounts Move from City Girl to Sustainable Farmer in April 13 Talk

CHESTERTOWN – Washington College hosts author Kristin Kimball to discuss her new memoir, The Dirty Life: On Farming, Food, and Love, on Wednesday, April 13, at 7:30 p.m. in Hotchkiss Recital Hall in the Gibson Center for the Arts. (This event was originally scheduled for February but was postponed by incluement weather.)

Kimball and her husband, Mark, farm 500 acres on Essex Farm, near Lake Champlain in northern New York. They met when she was a free-lance travel writer living in a studio apartment in New York and he was working on a farm in Pennsylvania. What began as an interview for an article on sustainable farming would soon take a romantic turn.

"Against all odds, I fell deeply for him, and for farming,” says the author, whose book was published in October of 2010 by Scribner. “At the end of the first growing season, we got married in the loft of our shabby red barn. We've farmed here for seven years now, and have become parents to two little girls."

The Kimballs raise almost everything they need for a year-round diet, including 50 kinds of vegetables, herbs, grains, and fruits, plus pigs, chickens, and dairy and beef cattle. They use no pesticides or herbicides, and most of the work is done with draft horses instead of tractors. The farm feeds 150 people, who come each week to pick up their share of our produce, flours, milk, meats, and eggs.

A graduate of Harvard University, Kristin Kimball grew up near Rome, NY, where she didn't even have a garden as a child. Prior to farming, she wrote, taught writing and worked for a literary agent. “Farming asks a lot of a person, physically, emotionally, and intellectually,” she comments. “It keeps you close to the dirt and humble. I've gained many skills on the farm that I couldn't have imagined needing in the city. But the best lesson farming has taught me is the deep pleasure of commitment—to Mark, to our farm, to a small town."

The program, which is free and open to the public, is sponsored by The Center for Environment & Society, The Joseph H. McLain Program in Environmental Studies, The Sophie Kerr Committee, and Farm Dinners on the Shore. For more information, call 410-778-7295.

Visiting Author to Recount her Work with Mali's Starving Children

CHESTERTOWN, MD—Biocultural anthropologist Katherine Dettwyler will visit Washington College on Monday, April 11 to give a personal account of her fieldwork among malnourished children in West Africa. The talk, “Dancing Skeletons: Twenty Years Later,” will be held at 6:30 p.m. in Litrenta Lecture Hall, the John S. Toll Science Center, on the College campus, 300 Washington Avenue. A book signing will follow.

Dettwyler’s 1993 book, Dancing Skeletons: Life and Death in West Africa, won a Margaret Mead Award for its portrayal of the harsh realities the author faced in researching the hungry children of Mali and how she struggled as an objective observer, a friend, and a mother to deal with the emotional strain. Her lecture will expand on the experiences she has written about, focusing on the importance of global nutrition and health.

An Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Delaware, Dettwyler has been teaching the subject since 1973. She also has spoken at conferences around the globe as an advocate for breastfeeding.

Her talk at Washington College is sponsored by the Lambda Alpha honor society, the Department of Anthropology and Sociology, and the Center for Environment and Society.

For more information, visit http://www.washcoll.edu.

"Locavore" Literary Festival Brings Writers, Activists To Town to Dish About What We Eat

CHESTERTOWN, MD—The first ever Chestertown Locavore Lit Fest celebrates local food and cooking Friday and Saturday March 25 and 26 with a satisfying smorgasbord of food journalists and writers talking about agriculture, fishing, recipes and the joys of healthy eating. Special guests will include the New York Times best-selling author Paul Greenberg, NPR contributor Bonnie Wolf and a food activist who challenges the wisdom of the vegetarian lifestyle.

The weekend kicks off Friday at 11:30 a.m. at a special lunch and book signing with Lierre Keith, a former vegan and the author of The Vegetarian Myth: Food, Justice and Sustainability (2009, PM Press). The event will be held in the Hodson Hall Commons dining room at Washington College, where the staff will prepare a meal based on her philosophy of raising and eating grass-fed beef as an alternative to industrially produced animals. Locally sourced, grass-fed beef and local produce will be on the menu ($6.50 per person for general public). In the evening Keith will lecture about the moral, health and environmental issues that surround our food choices, and then join a moderated discussion about her controversial writings. Her talk will begin at 6 p.m. in Hynson Lounge, Hodson Hall, on the Washington College campus (300 Washington Avenue) with the reception scheduled for 7 o’clock and the Q&A to follow at 7:30 p.m.

The Vegetarian Myth has been described as part memoir, part nutritional primer, and part political manifesto. In the book, Keith, who spent 20 years as a vegan, reviews the history of agriculture and the damage it has caused the planet and shares her personal journey back to meat. She argues that well-intentioned vegetarians have been led astray by ignorance. A resident of Humbolt County, California, Keith is co-author with Aric McBay and Derrick Jensen of the upcoming Deep Green Resistance: Strategy to Save the Planet, scheduled for May release from Seven Stories Press.

On Saturday, local bookstores host more food-focused writers in a morning packed with culinary talk. It begins at 10 a.m. at the Bookplate (112 S. Cross Street) with a panel of three local food writers: Author Nancy Robson and bloggers Aundra Weissert and Tara Holste. Robson has written freelance articles for 35 years and authored two books: a memoir of her six years on a coastal tug titled Woman in the Wheelhouse, and the award-winning novel Course of the Waterman. A Master Gardener, she writes and edits sections on gardening and food for the Chestertown Spy.

A healthy living enthusiast, Aundra Weissert explores fitness, local food, sustainable living, and wellness in her Fit for Life blog. A 2008 graduate of Washington College, she serves her alma mater as Assistant Director of Admissions and teaches several Zumba fitness classes in town each week. Tara Holste is a passionate environmentalist and an avid supporter of foods grown on the Eastern Shore. Her "Fish in the Water" blog catalogs her quest to find a better way of living through growing, preserving, and loving food.

From 10:45 to 11:30 a.m., at the Bookplate, Lucie Snodgrass, author of Dishing Up Maryland: 150 Recipes From the Alleghenies to the Chesapeake Bay (2010, Storey Publishing), will share what she learned by visiting 50 to 60 farms, vineyards and oyster ranches to present a portrait of the state’s bounty and kitchen expertise.A native of England who has lived throughout Europe, Snodgrass recently worked in the offices of Senator Barbara Mikulski and now lives and works on a 135-acre farm in northeastern Maryland.

The Festival moves down the block to The Compleat Bookseller (High and Cross streets) where NPR Food Commentator Bonny Wolf, author of Talking with My Mouth Full (2006, St. Martin’s Press), will speak from 11:45 to 12:30 a.m. Wolf contributes a monthly food essay to NPR’s award-winning Weekend Edition Sunday and is editor of “Kitchen Window, ” NPR’s weekly Web-only food column. Wolf has worked several decades as a reporter, editor and food critic at newspapers and magazines in New Jersey, Texas and Washington, DC. In the 1990s she wrote and published The Food Pages, a critically acclaimed food newsletter for the District of Columbia.

Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m. in the Parish Hall of Emmanuel Church (301 High Street), Paul Greenberg, author of the best-selling Four Fish: The Future of the Last Wild Food (2010, The Penguin Press), will talk about how our love of seafood has influenced the history of four species of fish. Greenberg is a lifelong fisherman and an award winning writer whose book explores the history of the fish that dominate our menus—salmon, sea bass, cod and tuna—and examines where each now stands as a species. By examining the forces that get fish to our dinner tables, he shows how we can start to heal the oceans and advocate for a world where healthy and sustainable seafood is the rule rather than the exception. Greenberg’s Four Fish was a New York Times notable book for 2010.

The Locavore Lit Fest weekend is sponsored by the Center for Environment & Society at Washington College, the Washington College Anthropology Club, Chestertown Natural Foods, and Local Eastern Shore Sustainable Organic Network (LESSON). With the exception of the fee for lunch on Friday, all events are free and open to the public. For more information, please contact 410-810-7162 or tholste2@washcoll.edu for more information or visit http://ces.washcoll.edu.

Friday, March 25

11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Signing and lunch with Lierre Keith, Hodson Dining Hall

6:00-7:00 p.m. Lecture, Lierre Keith, author The Vegetarian Myth, Hynson Lounge

7:00-7:30 p.m. Light reception with appetizers and drinks

7:30-8:30 p.m. Discussion and Q&A with Lierre Keith

Saturday, March 26

10:00-10:45 a.m. Get Inspired: Local Authors on Local Foods, Bookplate
10:45-11:30 a.m. Lucie Snodgrass, author Dishing Up Maryland, at the Bookplate.

11:45-12:30 p.m. Bonny Wolf, author Talking with My Mouth Full, Compleat Bookseller.

12:30-2:00 p.m. Lunch break- please visit one of the many restaurants in Chestertown!

2:00-3:00 p.m. Paul Greenberg, author Four Fish, Emmanuel Parish Hall

New Funding to Enhance Washington College's Crime Mapping, Analysis for State

CHESTERTOWN—The Crime Mapping and Analysis Program (CMAP) at Washington College has received $177,847 in additional funding to expand and enhance the crime mapping and analysis it provides to the State of Maryland.

Part of the College’s Center for Environment and Society, CMAP has produced timely mapping, analysis, and reporting of criminal justice data from a variety of state and local sources since 2008. It works directly with the Governor’s Office of Crime Control and Prevention (GOCCP) and also collaborates with local, state, and Federal law enforcement agencies on geospatial analysis and training. The goal is to use the power of computer mapping to reduce violent crime and property crime, making Maryland communities safer places to live.

One of the key initiatives spearheaded by CMAP is the Maryland Offender Management System, or MOMS. This innovative web-based application centralizes justice information and shares it with designated law-enforcement and criminal justice agencies. The new funding will provide a number of technical enhancements to MOMS, increase the ability of the application to handle additional datasets, and improve the security and reliability of the system.

The FBI actively supports the development of intelligence tools such as MOMS “to better protect the citizens of Maryland and Delaware through the integration of law enforcement data,” says James Costigan, Assistant Special Agent in Charge, FBI Baltimore Field Office. “This collaborative leveraging of information results in safer and more synergistic investigative results."

Washington College students also play an important role in CMAP projects. Several highly qualified interns in the Geographic Information Systems lab work on assignments that include crime analysis, map creation, and data-quality improvement projects. All students, staff, and faculty involved with the project must pass state and federal criminal backgrounds checks as part of the security protocols that ensure that sensitive data is not disclosed.

One recent project requested by the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services was completed by Tracie Bienemann ’11. The Washington College senior mapped the residential locations of released offenders with drug abuse and mental health concerns, and then compared that data with the current locations of treatment facilities that address addiction and mental-health issues. With Bienemann’s data, the state can evaluate where to target new resources for treating the offenders and, thus, reduce recidivism rates

Activist to Investigate the Calamity of Coal at Washington College

Chestertown – Cultural historian, author and activist Jeff Biggers will explore the fallacy of “clean coal” in a lecture at Washington College on Monday, February 8, at 4:30 p.m. at the Rose O’Neill Literary House located on Washington Avenue.

In his new book, RECKONING AT EAGLE CREEK: The Secret Legacy of Coal in the Heartland, Biggers critiques the industry, the Big Coal lobby, and national leaders who stand at a crossroads in the energy and climate debate. “Coal is not – and never will be – clean or cheap,” he says.

Biggers – whose grandfather worked in the coal mines in southern Illinois and suffered from black lung disease – argues that we have stripped away the most troubling issues of the coal industry from our historical memory. “We have forgotten that Native Americans were removed as part of Thomas Jefferson’s national policy to mine coal, that the industry in the land of Lincoln…was launched by legal black slaves, and that strip mining unleashed environmental havoc that has wiped out families and poisoned some of the most diverse forests and waterways in America’s heartland.”

An acclaimed correspondent from the coalfields' frontlines, Jeff Biggers has been interviewed on numerous national and local television and radio programs, has served as a commentator for NPR’s Morning Edition, and is a regular contributor to Huffington Post.

The lecture, sponsored by the Rose O’Neill Literary House and the Center for Environment & Society at Washington College, is free and open to the public.  For information, contact 410-778-7845.

Washington College to Acquire Land for Expansion of Waterfront Programs and to Invest in Quality Development at Stepne Manor Site

Chestertown, MD — The executive committee of the Board of Visitors and Governors of Washington College has approved an agreement to acquire 75 acres of land located on the western edge of Chestertown in partnership with Leroy Kirby, Jr.

The agreement, which President Baird Tipson signed on Monday, June 30, grants the College an option to purchase a 5-acre parcel on the Chester River, contiguous to its existing boathouse, for the development of an expanded waterfront presence. Ownership of this property would allow the College to develop, over time, coherent waterfront programs which would respect the natural beauty of the river frontage. Public access to the area would be greatly enhanced, particularly during the summer months when the College is not in active session. The College would also become a passive investor in a partnership owning the inland 70-acre parcel located north of Route 289, commonly known as Stepne Manor. Kirby would be the managing member of that partnership.

Stepne Manor has long been discussed in town planning meetings as a potential site for development of a new neighborhood that would incorporate the design and planning aesthetics of the historic district of the town. The College intends to sell its interest in the property to Kirby once he receives necessary approvals to proceed with development of the new neighborhood.

"This somewhat complex agreement allows Washington College to accomplish two of its most important goals," explained Baird Tipson, president. "Our strategic plan calls for us to recognize that our setting in Chestertown, amid the beauty of the Chester River and the Chesapeake, is a significant institutional advantage, one that will continue to help us realize our ambition to be one of the nation's most distinguished and distinctive liberal arts colleges. An outstanding waterfront presence will become a critical component of our attractiveness to students. This agreement also promises to enable us to influence the character and quality of what is developed on the Stepne Manor site, which has been identified by the Town of Chestertown as an appropriate location for new residential housing. Because Chestertown is an enormous asset to us, we will seek to do our part to ensure that this town's unique appeal is preserved and sustained for future generations. A carefully-planned residential neighborhood, working from and extending the town's existing street grid and incorporating timeless principles of tasteful design, will be far preferable to the clumsy, insensitive development that has become increasingly common on the upper Eastern Shore."

Tipson emphasized that the College will preserve and improve public access to the waterfront. While specific plans for the waterfront site have yet to be developed, the College has long identified a need for expanded space for academic programs and research vessels, including a new home for its Center for the Study of the Environment and Society, as well as expanded space for its rowing and sailing teams and for water-oriented recreation programs. Tipson added that the agreement does not change the College's possible interest in the former Armory Building, subject to the Town of Chestertown's determination as to its optimal utilization.

"We look forward to collaborating with the Town of Chestertown and Kent County in making the most of this opportunity," Tipson said.

June 30, 2008

$103.4 Million: Washington College Completes Largest Capital Campaign Of Any Undergraduate College In Maryland

Campaign's Success Highlights Accomplishments of Dr. John Toll's Tenure as President

Chestertown, MD, January 8, 2004 — Washington College's Board of Visitors and Governors announced today the conclusion of the largest capital campaign in the College's 222-year history—and the single largest fund raising campaign ever conducted by any Maryland undergraduate college. With an original campaign goal of $72 million announced in 1998, the Campaign for Washington's College surpassed its original target by nearly 44 percent, with total contributions of $103.4 million as of December 31, 2003. Among all Maryland institutions of higher learning, only Johns Hopkins University and the University of Maryland System have raised more money in a single capital campaign. Washington College enrolls 1,450 students from 35 states and 36 countries.

“On behalf of the entire Washington College community, I extend my heartfelt gratitude to everyone who has contributed to the success of this campaign,” said Jay Griswold, Chair of the College's Board of Visitors and Governors and Director of Brown Investment Advisory and Trust Company of Baltimore. “Despite the economic downturn of the past few years and the challenges of these uncertain times, we have seen an amazing amount of generosity by our alumni, by foundations, and by individuals who believe deeply and passionately in the distinctive education that Washington College provides.”

Campaign support came from numerous alumni who collectively contributed more than $11 million, as well as 15 donors who gave $1 million or more, 105 contributors of $100,000 or more, $5 million from The Starr Foundation of New York, and the constant support of The Hodson Trust, which provided various grants and a pledge to match all contributions to the endowment of $100,000 or more. Drawing grants from many corporations and foundations in the Mid-Atlantic region, the campaign was also supported by distinguished national foundations, including The Arthur Vining Davis Foundations, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, The W. K. Kellogg Foundation, and The Henry Luce Foundation.

“The breadth of support for Washington College was outstanding, and the number of national sources who contributed to our campaign is a real compliment to our institution,” Griswold added.

“The founding of Washington College in 1782 as the first college chartered after the Declaration of Independence was an act of courageous optimism for a nation whose destiny was still uncertain,” said John S. Toll, President of the College. “What we have witnessed through our campaign is that same vision. Our founders William Smith and George Washington, with the help of many supporters, launched Washington College because they believed fervently that education was the bulwark on which freedom, opportunity and justice must rest if they are to be perpetuated. Today's benefactors, like our founders, are bold optimists whose generosity will go a long way to help us lift Washington College to new levels of distinction and service.”

The campaign's successful conclusion represents one of the highlights of Dr. Toll's nine-year tenure as president. The former chancellor and president of the University of Maryland System and professor of physics, Dr. Toll arrived at Washington College in January 1995 and will step down as president at the conclusion of this academic year.

Funds raised by the Campaign for Washington's College are supporting a range of initiatives as part of the College's strategic plan, including new faculty chairs and professorships, technology enhancements, two new academic research and outreach centers—the Center for Environment and Society and the C. V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience—and new and expanded academic programs in archaeology, Asian studies, computer science, and earth and planetary science. In addition, the Campaign is helping to improve and expand campus infrastructure: Louis L. Goldstein Hall was dedicated in 2000 and a new 45,000-square-foot Science Center is slated for completion in Fall 2004. Many other facilities, including William Smith Hall, were renovated.

Founded in 1782 under the patronage of George Washington, Washington College is a private, independent college of liberal arts and sciences located in historic Chestertown on Maryland's Eastern Shore.

Dr. Wayne Bell, Alumna Jill Brewer Take Successes Of Grassroots Rural Community Leadership To Thailand, Nov. 18-21

Chestertown, MD, November 19, 2003 — Dr. Wayne Bell, director of the Washington CollegeCenter for the Environment and Society, and College alumna Jill Brewer '03, are traveling to Bangkok, Thailand to present at the Sixth International Conference on the Environmental Management of Enclosed Coastal Seas (EMECS), November 18-21. Joining the larger Maryland delegation, Bell and Brewer will share results from the first Rural Communities Leadership program for the Eastern Shore, conducted during the first-half of 2003.

“Through discussions held during the Rural Communities Leadership working sessions, we concluded that one of the groups primary findings was that top-down governmental environmental protection programs don't always stick,” said Bell. “They tend to vacillate with the political and economic climate. On the other hand, local programs with a grassroots buy-in tend to be self-sustaining and are more cost-effective for governments. When environmentalism starts locally, through consensus-building in our communities, citizens are more willing to commit to a vision for their quality of life and long-term policies to preserve their local environment.”

Jill Brewer, who helped run the Rural Leadership program while a student last semester, will present these findings and share recommendations with counterparts in other nations. The paper is titled, “A Bio-Regional Approach to the Chesapeake Bay: The Role of the Citizen and Government Involvement in a Watershed-Based Program.” Bell hopes that his EMECS contacts will foster more university exchanges and research opportunities for Washington College students, as well as promote a spirit of cooperation between nations.

“Like no other time in history, we have to think about other people in the world and be open to their concerns—sharing instead of telling and listening in a spirit of cooperation,” said Bell. “The world is getting smaller, and EMECS has set a tone for a cooperative approach to the world's challenges, in this case environmental.”

The biannual EMECS conferences are organized by the International EMECS Center in Kobe, Japan, first established to promote the preservation of Japan's Seto Inland Sea. The EMECS concept developed in the mid-1980s when environmentalists, researchers and policymakers involved with the Chesapeake Bay realized the Bay restoration program was being implemented with little knowledge of the information, methods and results gained by other estuarine and enclosed coastal sea programs in the U.S. and abroad. Concurrently, Governor Toshitami Kaihara of Japan's Hyogo Prefecture had similar concerns while developing initiatives for the environmental restoration of the Seto Inland Sea. Through the cooperation of these two groups, EMECS was founded and now supports a worldwide network concerned with preserving the health and environmental quality of the planet's enclosed coastal seas. The theme of EMECS 2003 is Comprehensive and Responsible Coastal Zone Management for Sustainable and Friendly Coexistence between Nature and People.

Alumna Jill Brewer received her B.A. in sociology from Washington College in May 2003 and was honored that year with the Margaret Horsley Award given annually to the graduating major who has shown in his or her work the clearest understanding of human behavior. She lives in Oregon.

Lammot duPont Copeland Professorship, Goldstein Hall Push College Campaign Beyond $66 Million

Chestertown, MD, May 16, 2001 — Washington College has received a bequest from Pamela Cunningham Copeland, coupled with a gift from her daughter, Louisa Copeland Duemling, to provide $500,000 for the establishment of the Lammot duPont Copeland Professorship at theCenter for the Environment and Society, pushing the Campaign for Washington's Collegebeyond $66 million. The gift was matched by The Hodson Trust Challenge that doubles all endowments of $100,000 or more. Dr. Wayne Bell, director of the new Center, will be named the first Lammot duPont Copeland Professor at the College.

Private support for Louis L. Goldstein Hall topped $2 million in April 2001, completing a public/private partnership that included $2 million in matching funds from the State of Maryland. Maryland Governor Parris Glendening delivered the keynote address before a dinner of donors of $1,000 or more to the project on April 20, 2001 at the College. Recent major gifts pushing fundraising for Goldstein Hall past the $2 million mark included $125,000 from Washington College parents, $150,000 from the Booth Ferris Foundation, and $500,000, allocated from an earlier $1 million grant from the Grayce B. Kerr Fund.

"We owe a special thanks for these tremendous gifts to the College," said Jack Griswold, chair of the Campaign for Washington's College. "In addition, the Campaign acknowledges the annual gifts from alumni, parents, and friends which have increased by $500,000. To date this fiscal year, more than $1.4 million has come from these sources in support of the Washington College Fund, and we are grateful to all who are participating."