The Eastern Shore lost a dear friend this week. Howard “Howdy” Freedlander passed away recently after living the last few years at Baywoods retirement community in Annapolis. I got to know Howard in the early 2000s when he joined the Board of Eastern Shore Land Conservancy and immediately jumped into a leadership role on the Land Conservation Committee and later on the Development Committee.

As lead staff at ESLC for 30+ years the thing I loved about Howard was his constant attention to fundraising and the Board’s important role in giving and getting. He was always putting his hand up to volunteer for fundraising efforts, or cheerleading for fundraising success at board meetings, or making the extra gift when needed.

In my retirement, I came to know Howard from a very different context. My parents chose Baywoods retirement community in Annapolis on 2023, Howard and Liz’s location since leaving Easton, and Howard was superb in guiding my family through that transition. He helped us with the right questions to ask, negotiation techniques, preferable locations, meal suggestions, and just about everything. Howard and Liz chose Baywoods to be close to kids and grandkids – my parents did the same. 

I have also gotten to know Howard through our mutual roles with the Spy.

Howard had incredible courage to write candidly about things like race, privilege, politics, religion, civics, climate change, bad behavior, and history. Howard also wrote often about grieving, the loss of loved ones, transitions, and honoring people on their passing. In these latter pieces, I think Howard was at his best – grappling with his own mortality and exploring the final transition with his readers.

In a recent Spy column Howard quoted Winnie the Pooh, and it sums up perfectly my feelings for Howard in this moment. “How lucky am I to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.”

Goodbye Howard and Godspeed.

Rob Etgen retired in 2021 after a 40-year career in conservation – the last 31 years as President of Eastern Shore Land Conservancy. In retirement Rob is enjoying family and working on global and local sustainability issues with Council Fire consulting out of Annapolis.

 

I spent a week in Florida recently with two serious bird-watching friends who are pursuing “Big Years” – ambitious goals for seeing the greatest variety of bird species in a calendar year. I’m a lifelong goal-setter and strategic planner and am drawn to bold and audacious goals. However, I emerged from the week of intense birdwatching with wonderful memories of birds seen and experiences shared, but even more committed to birding just for the joy of it.

I have been birdwatching since my single digits. Beyond red birds and blue birds, my first “aha” bird was an Eastern Towhee, which I saw in the forest near my house. I made mental notes as I observed and then ran home to look it up in Mom’s field guide. Birdwatching has stuck with me ever since.

Through the pandemic birdwatching became wildly popular.  Some say that is because birds represent freedom, while others say people needed a safe distraction.  Birding technology has similarly advanced with many new field guide apps and “E-Bird,” a real time global inventory of sightings.  A really fun app is “Merlin” which identifies birds using your smart phone photos or sound recordings.  Just turn the app on and hold your phone up and Merlin tells you which species is singing.

While birdwatchers are going up, actual bird numbers are going way down.  According to research in the Journal Science, wild bird populations in the continental US and Canada have declined by about 30% since 1970 – a loss of almost 3 billion breeding adult birds – just since I saw my first Eastern Towhee!  In this area we’ve seen great rebounds among Bald Eagles and Ospreys, but many of our tidal marsh species including Saltmarsh Sparrows and several Rail species are vanishing before our eyes due to sea level rise.

What to do?  Get an app or a field guide and go birding and have fun.  Enter your sightings in E-Bird and they will help monitor bird populations.  Find your “aha” bird.  Get outside and appreciate not just the birds but all of our natural wonders.  Support habitat conservation/restoration and nonprofits which pursue those goals.  Support candidates for elected office who support conservation.

Reflecting on my friends’ ambitious birding goals I looked back at my own retirement plan.  There it was as goal number one – birdwatching with friends – on it!

Rob Etgen retired in 2021 after a 40-year career in conservation – the last 31 years as President of Eastern Shore Land Conservancy. In retirement Rob is enjoying family and working on global and local sustainability issues with Council Fire consulting out of Annapolis.

I remember about thirty years ago stopping to look at a roadside historic marker in Galena with a friend and he asked about the words on the official Maryland seal – “Fatti maschii, parole femine.” I had no idea so researched our motto and have stewed about it ever since.

“Fatti maschii, parole femine” translates as “manly deeds, womanly words,” although there are at least six other official Maryland translations starting in 1622 and leading up to 1993 when Maryland’s State Archivist changed the official Maryland translation to “strong deeds, gentle words.” Behind this multi-century debate is our ongoing struggle with sexism, racism, and other sins.  For me, I have come around to find a message and an icon in this motto here on the Eastern Shore.

Elmer Whitby.  Elmer was a lifelong Eastern Shoreman who grew up on Wye Island in the early 1900’s, ran a general store in nearby Carmichael with his wife Dorothy, and also hunted and fished and guided and worked the water his entire life.  He delivered mail when I met him in 1990 and we were fast friends until his death in 2013 – one day short of his 96th birthday.  Elmer and I shared our March 12 birthday and every year would meet for lunch to celebrate – a lunch which eventually turned into an annual gathering of all friends Elmer.

I remember asking Elmer for his thoughts on my Maryland motto conundrum.  To him, it made sense from an Eastern Shore perspective.  He did the rough stuff all his life like hunting and fishing and carpentry, and as a side gig he even butchered hogs every fall for the families within walking distance.  At the same time he tenderly doted on his wife through years of Alzheimer’s, told her how much he loved her every day, and would tear up at the sight of his granddaughter or when reading a note from a friend.  Elmer was truly a man of the Earth with rough hands to prove it, but he also used tender words and a gentle touch.

Elmer reminded me of the many Eastern Shore folks he knew who worked the water and the land while also having a tender touch.  He described watermen with names like Pie and Honey and Biscuit or even Lovey.  He felt working on the water and land, and the alone time it afforded, helped folks keep their priorities in order – especially family and friends first.

“Strong deeds, gentle words.”  Despite the Maryland motto’s troubled history, it is aspirational for me.  Work hard, but also be there first for family and friends with real kindness and empathy.  My friend Elmer Whitby showed the way.

Rob Etgen retired in 2021 after a 40 year career in conservation – the last 31 years as President of Eastern Shore Land Conservancy. In retirement Rob is enjoying family and working on global and local sustainability issues with Council Fire consulting out of Annapolis.

True confession: until my recent retirement I was one of those drivers who followed my GPS and used the backroads of Kent Island to jockey around traffic at the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. My justification was that I was a local (Queenstown), but the reality was that my timing was always tight for meetings or picking up my daughter from daycare. Now that I am retired, I force myself to obey the signage and just sit in traffic. I use the time to call friends or look for birds.

Summer 2023 has been brutal for Bay Bridge backups. I have heard it described as “Thursdays are the new Fridays,” “west bound is as bad as eastbound,” and “forget about crossing if there is rain or wind or an accident.” The bridge traffic misery index for Eastern Shore folks is definitely way up.

Should we support building a new Chesapeake Bay bridge – presumably at the current bridge location? I think that reasonable minds can be for and against. Personally, I am against a new Bay Bridge. My reasons start with pollution of the Chesapeake Bay and sprawl on the Eastern Shore. But I also see a new bridge as an overly expensive and temporary solution for a complex regional problem demanding future learning and innovative solutions.

In the short term, we need choices and incentives which encourage efficient use of the current bridges. As individuals, we should avoid backups whenever possible by using phone apps like Google maps and Waze. During backups grab a coffee at Yo Java Bowl in Chester and get some work done. Governments should be using accepted tools like congestion tolling (higher tolls during high demand), high occupancy vehicle incentives and telework policies.  Governments should also explore innovations already in use elsewhere including real time management of contra flow lanes and access limits for the entire congestion corridor. 

Over the long term, we must take a much harder look at mass transit alternatives, and look beyond our borders for partners and solutions.  A decade ago, I understood that high speed rail up and over the Bay on existing tracks in Delaware (with upgrades) could get passengers to the beaches from Baltimore in under an hour.  There are other transit solutions similar to rail emerging around the world.  These future leaning solutions are much more expandable as demand rises, are solid wins for climate change, and are better suited for our children who are increasingly urban and proudly car free.

Please don’t judge me for peacefully sitting in Bay Bridge traffic. I know this is a luxury of retirement, and one that few can afford.  But if you are not fighting a time crunch, take a deep breath and look around at our beautiful Bay, and think about what this scene might look like through the eyes of our grandchildren.

NOTE:  The Md. Transportation Authority is hosting several open houses for public comment on the new Chesapeake Crossing. Please let your voices be heard. See: www.baycrossingstudy.com. 

Rob Etgen retired in 2021 after a 40 year career in conservation – the last 31 years as President of Eastern Shore Land Conservancy. In retirement Rob is enjoying family and working on global and local sustainability issues with Council Fire consulting out of Annapolis.