THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, May 6, 1995 TAG: 9505060305
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Guy Friddell
LENGTH: Medium: 60 lines
It was a stupid question, but, anyway, I asked William C. Baker, president of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, to grade the condition of the Bay that means so much to Hampton Roads.
And got a wise answer.
I had in mind letter grades, but he replied: ``We think that the Bay is operating at about 20 percent of its historic capacity.''
That grade is a slim improvement over the 15 percent of the late 1980s, when the Bay ``bottomed out.''
``Our goal is 75 or 80 percent,'' Baker said. ``We have made enormous progress in arresting decades of decline. But people must realize there's a long way to go for the Bay to reach what it is capable of.''
It's impossible to reach the 100 percent quality of the era preceding the Jamestown colonists.
Baker will bring his flair for dramatic analysis to Norfolk for the annual convention of the Garden Club of Virginia.
He will speak Wednesday at 11 a.m. at the Marriott Hotel to delegates from 46 clubs. Witty WTKR-TV weatherman Dwayne Hartig will speak Thursday at 11 a.m.
A native of Norfolk, Baker said that his father, Dr. Benjamin Baker, talked of the fabulous oysters, wide as a butter plate, from Lynnhaven River in Virginia Beach.
Now Lynnhaven is closed to harvesting of shellfish because of pollution from sewage and runoff of pesticides.
Since his father's boyhood, Baker said, the Chesapeake Bay oyster population has dropped by 99 percent.
``And they are still being harvested,'' he said.
In filtering water for food, an adult oyster pumps about 50 gallons daily, he said. One thing filtered is algae, and one of the Bay's biggest problem is too much algae.
And all the time my concern has focused only on the scarcity of oysters on the plate for my palate!
Why, the oyster is a factor in the very purity of the Bay. The oyster population at the century's turn could filter the entire volume of the Bay once every three or four days, Baker said.
Through its annual Garden Week tours of homes, the Garden Club of Virginia has raised $5 million, with which it has funded restoration of gardens at historic homes throughout Virginia. Its handiwork has been a boon to the state's tourist industry.
The club also has striven to protect the environment, Kirk Clarkson, a former conservation chairman, said Friday.
At the Norfolk convention, which begins Tuesday, the Garden Club will celebrate its 75th anniversary.
Among the events will be a lunch Wednesday in the Renaissance area of the Norfolk Botanical Garden. Workshops will deal with roses and perennials.
The visitors may relax, as well, amid more than two acres recently planted with lovely wildflowers. by CNB