What’s Up With the Chesapeake Bay?

Find out “What’s Up With the Chesapeake Bay?” during a free program on Thursday, April 25 at 7 p.m. in the visitors center at Renfrew Park.

The program is presented by Renfrew Institute in partnership with the Antietam Watershed Association (AWA).

Lane Whigham, Pennsylvania Outreach and Advocacy Manager for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF), will explore the current health of the Chesapeake Bay, its fisheries, water quality, land-use issues and other factors that effect the health of the Bay.

“It’s not just the Chesapeake Bay—it’s all of our water, the rivers and streams right here in Pennsylvania where we live, that affect all of us in the Bay watershed.”

About half of the fresh water that flows into the Chesapeake Bay comes from Pennsylvania’s rivers and streams. Many of those water sources are damaged by pollution. While efforts in Pennsylvania and other Bay states have contributed to an improvement in Bay health, more work is needed to reduce pollution in state waterways.

“It’s important for all of us to understand the environment we live in,” Whigham said. “Clean water is important to everyone, it’s the foundation of our lives.”

A graduate of Waynesboro Area Senior High School, Whigham holds a master’s degree from Shippensburg University. His role with the CBF expands on his experience as a special education teacher, a school administrator, and his previous position as manager of CBF’s Pennsylvania Student Leadership Program, where he coordinated leadership and advocacy activities for students in a variety of school districts and youth organizations in Pennsylvania’s portion of the Chesapeake Bay watershed.

Whigham also currently works at his family’s replacement heifer farm in Carlisle, Pa., and raises organic chickens at his home in Walnut Bottom, Pa.

For more information, call 717-762-0373 or email to [email protected].