Protect "The Everglades of the North" - Commisioners' Sample Letters

As part of the ongoing effort to protect the Blackwater Wildlife Refuge and the surrounding marshlands, below is a sample letter to use if you decide to write the Mayor of Cambridge and the Cambridge and County commissioners - all who have supported the resort project.

A few formalities first.

1. The sample letter below is a guidline to help you get started on your own. However, you may feel free to use it ver batim especially if you're uncomfortable writing your own.
2. In order of most impressiveness on elected officials:
   -Snail mail followed by phone call
   -Snail mail
   -Phone call
   -Email
3. Proper envelope addressing will be "The Honorable" for mayor and "Commisioner" for city and county commisioners.

Contacts

City of Cambridge and Cambridge Mayor:

Mayor Cleveland L. Rippons

Commisioners Kenneth P. Knox, Donald Sydnor, La-Shon M. Brooks, Gilbert (Gil) Cephas, Walter Lee Travers

[Elected official's full name]
City Hall
307 Gay Street
P.O. Box 255
Cambridge, MD 21613

Phone:
410-228-4020
410-228-4554 (Fax)
1-800-735-2258 (TTY)

Email:
info@ci.cambridge.md.us

County Commisioners:

Glenn L. BrambleWork:
(410) 228-5272
E-Mail: gbramble@docogonet.com

Effie M. Elzey
Home: (410) 228-8736 (Please note that the home phone is publically listed on the Dorchester County Government's official website.)

E-Mail: effie@shorecable.com
E-Mail: eelzey@council.docogonet.com

William V. Nichols
Home: (410) 221-1371 (Please note that the home phone is publically listed on the Dorchester County Government's official website.)

E-Mail: mailto:wnichols@docogonet.com

David Yockey
Work: (410) 943-4025

E-Mail: dyockey@docogonet.com
dyockey@comcast.net

Ricky Travers

Work: 410-228-4313
Home: 410-228-1532 (Please note that the home phone is publically listed on the Dorchester County Government's official website.)

E-Mail: travers@fastol.com

Jane Baynard
Work: 410-228-1700
Fax: 410-228-9641

E-Mail: jbaynard@docogonet.com

Address for all:

Commisioner [full name]
County Council of Dorchester County
County Office Building
P.O. Box 26
Cambridge, Maryland 21613
(410) 228-1700

Sample Letter:

Dear Mr. (Ms.) [mayor's or commisioners' full name here]:

I am writing you with regards to the proposed Blackwater resort project. While I do recognize your sincere desire to spurn economic growth in Cambridge and Dorchester County, I believe the site location for the proposed project will do more harm than good in the long run.

I urge you to seriously consider the Chesapeake Bay Foundation's reccomendation to move the proposed resort closer to the heart of Cambridge or another suitable location already approved for development and designate the present 1,000 acre site as a buffer zone between Cambridge's future growth and the wetlands encompassing and surrounding the Blackwater Wildlife Refuge.

Since 1938, over 8,000 acres of marshland has laready been lost primarily due to natural causes. Despite the best efforts of the Blackwater Wildlife Refuge managers, Army Corps of engineers, and the Baltimore National Aquarium, the marsh still looses about 130 acres per year primarily from rising sea levels due to global warming and wave action from the increased area of open water. In fact, the U.S. Geological Survey ran a conservative model of the refuge showing a good portion of it will be under water within the next forty-five years. Despite the best efforts of many organizations trying to save the drowning marsh, rising sea levels can't be stopped. Hopefully, the marshlands will have time to adjust by slowly moving inland as the water levels rise.

Placing a resort on the edge of the refuge and allowing it to cut into over three hundred acres of designated critical bay areas will surely speed up the demise of the Blackwater Wildlife Refuge and the surrounding marshlands. Storm runoff will inundate the marsh with pollutants from paved surfaces; and fertilizers, insecticides, and herbicides from homoeowners lawns and the golf course. The greater increase in the freshwater flow into the marsh will surely alter the salinity levels. All this can only spell disaster for the fragile ecosystem.

And even if the above scenario fails to play out as the experts fear, the marsh will have nowhere to move inland as the sea levels rise. The resort will be in the way.

The big attraction for building the resort is the refuge and marshlands. That is what people will come to see and enjoy. While the short-term spurt in economic growth may be an economic boon for a few years, once the marsh disappears so will all the people who come to enjoy it. The harmful effects won't stop at he county line, either. The death of the marshlands will have a ripple effect up and down the Chesapeake Bay's shores and will be felt by the hundreds of thousands of Marylanders - if not more - who depend, directly or indirectly, on the Bay for their livilihood.

The Blackwater Wildlife Refuge and surrounding marshlands are one of Cambridge's and Dorchester County's greatest and most valuable asset. Planned growth to benefit the citizens should be made around protecting this asset for today's and tomorrow's generations.

Sincerely,

[Your name here]