Articles by Matt Driscoll

Article - Green Living; by Matt Driscoll - 4/28/11

Ditching Bottled Water

Opening the tap can save you big bucks while helping the environment, too.

Come close because I have a secret to tell you. It’s not a secret you need to keep. It’s a secret you need to spread. Want me to spill it? Listen up. That water that comes out of your kitchen sink or bathroom faucet, you know the stuff. The same water you use to brush your teeth or wash your dishes. The same water you fill your dogs’ bowls with. Yeah, that water. Well, that water is drinkable. I...

Article - News; by Matt Driscoll - 4/21/11

Close Call for Newly Restored Cove Point Marsh

Recent storm spares freshwater marsh

Just over a month ago, a new sand barrier was topped off with 60,000 plants of native grass to protect the fragile Cove Point freshwater marsh in Calvert County from the open Bay. Mother Nature had breached the barrier in 2004 and 2006, and once again this month, she has proved that she is in charge. With driving rain, powerful wind gusts and waves over seven feet, the Bay saw Victory-at-Sea conditions on Saturday April 16. At the Gooses Reef Buoy just north of Cove Point,...

Article - Green Living; by Matt Driscoll - 4/14/11

SLAMMED by Mother Nature

New website gives an eye-opening look at the effects of sea-level rise

Dobbins Island in the Magothy River is a summertime attraction for boaters. On a warm summer weekend, the sandy north-facing beach becomes crowded with enthusiasts dropping anchor and floating languidly in the gentle current. Sooner rather than later, though, Dobbins Island will be reduced to a skeleton by rising sea levels. Water will cover the sandy shores, and the beach will turn into an obstacle course of submerged trees. This scenario will happen to most of the islands...

Article - Green Living; by Matt Driscoll - 3/17/11

Joining Hands to Fill The Breach

An army of volunteers give a rare Chesapeake marsh a second life

A boardwalk leads through pinewoods to the water. From its beginning, you see a sliver of shining Bay. As you walk along the worn planks raised over marshland, the Dominion Cove Point Liquefied Natural Gas facility — the industrial campus, the seven vast blinding-white storage tanks — disappear. At the end, the marsh and the tall reeds give way to the low dunes of Cove Point Beach. From the beach, you can see across the Bay to Taylors Island. But the view is not...

Article - Places; by Matt Driscoll - 2/24/11

Morsels of Sustenance

In lean times, two Annapolis black history memorials win much-needed state support

In these times of withered wallets and skeletal budgets, African-American history has scored in state money. Two Annapolis landmarks — the Alex Haley-Kunta Kinte Memorial at City Dock and the Maynard-Burgess House on Duke of Gloucester Street — are slated for money toward renovations and repairs. Their $36,000 and $100,000 respectively are fractions of fractions of the state’s $425 million budget proposal for Anne Arundel County. But in a time when most state money is...