Nesting Islands Closed for Season
The signs are officially out on the islands! The nesting islands will be closed for the nesting season until September 15th, so please stay off the islands that are signed and allow the colonial nesting birds to successfully nest and raise their chicks.
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New Website!
MCBP is excited to announce the launching of our newly updated and refreshing website! We have been working with D3Corp for the past couple of months and are anticipating "going live" very shortly! Stay tuned as we start gearing up for new changes to celebrate next year's 25th anniversary!
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Creature Feature
The Maryland Coastal Bays Program is honored to announce that we will now be authoring Ocean City.com's (
oceancity.com) Creature Feature portion of their site. The Creature Feature's highlight bay animals and plants that people may encounter around Ocean City and Assateague. We are excited to provide this kind of education to our residents and visitors. You can find the Creature Features
here.
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Discover Your Watershed Event Cancelled
We are sad to announce that the June 13th Discover Your Watershed (DYW) event has been cancelled due to health concerns. There are still two DYW events scheduled for October and November, so we are excited to see you then! If you have questions, please email Liz at
[email protected].
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Coastal Bays Field Guide Preview
Over the past few years, MCBP has been tracking the animal species seen at our educational seining programs. Through the contribution of our invaluable interns, seasonal staff, CCCers, and full timers, we are developing a user-friendly "snapshot" field guide for some of our Coastal Bay's critters. We will be making this accessible for educators, youth, and our community on our newly developed website in the next few mon
ths.
HOWEVER, we wanted to throw a little teaser out to you of some of these entries! Click here to check out a preview!
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Small Scale, Large Impact
We have officially released FIVE spotlight articles as a part of our Living Local series! The goal of "Living Local: Small Scale, Large Impact" is to educate the Coastal Bays community about the beneficial impacts of sustainable small-scale farming in the Coastal Bays watershed, while also encouraging the consumption of local products. Thus far, the five highlighted businesses include Splendid Earth Farm, Masterpiece Flower Farm, Assateague Farm, Cross Farm, and Bluebird Farms.
These inspiring businesses are just a few of the many local shops and farms that rely heavily on local community support for survival, particularly during trying times like these. We continue to encourage everyone to support those businesses around you that want the best for our community!
To access the Living Local spotlight articles please visit our website and click the "Living Local" button found on the right hand side of the homepage or click here:
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Keeping America Beautiful Grant
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MCBP Awarded $20,000 Grant
Keep America Beautiful, the nation's largest community improvement nonprofit organization, announced it has awarded a $20,000 2020 Cigarette Litter Prevention Program grant to MCBP to address cigarette litter in Ocean City.
The funding will be used to continue and enhance the current Ocean City Green Team "The Butt Stops Here" cigarette recycling program. The program will be re-launched mid-June with the arrival of several benches made from recycled cigarette butts which will be displayed on the boardwalk and at Seacrets, USA.
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AO Still Closed for Safety
Due to COVID-19, MCBP's largest fundraiser, Assateague Outfitters, has not been able to open it's doors for rentals and beach sales. We have submitted a comprehensive safety plan to the National Park Service and are waiting for approval to start with the rental program, and eventually open up curbside retail sales.
Assateague Outfitters and the National Park Service are committed to keeping visitors and staff safe and have submitted a plan that will completely change the way the National Park concession operates. Both the program and partners feel very strongly that safety comes first.
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The 10th Annual Terrapin Survey is complete!
Thank you to everyone who surveyed and volunteered for the 10th Annual Terrapin Survey! While the weather varied throughout the survey period, volunteers and MCBP staff were able to conduct surveys throughout the week. Results are still coming in, but so far 166 terrapins were counted between the land and water-based surveys. Keep an eye out in next month's newsletter for the final count! We're already looking forward to next year's survey!
Photo credit: Sue Latour
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