Your Support Means Progress!

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Dear Friend of the Bays,

Your contributions have helped make substantial improvements to the Inland Bays. We are extremely grateful to you for supporting this important work. Thanks to you, there have been significant steps made towards cleaner Inland Bays; however, there is still a long way to go and much work to be done, but together we are making great progress every day.

The Center is your voice for Delaware’s Inland Bays. We exist to provide research, education and outreach, habitat protection and restoration, and policy advice for cleaner, healthier Bays. Here are a few examples of how your generous support has helped the Bays this year.

Safer Boating in the Bays - The CIB’s Water Use Committee partnered with DNREC to establish a bypass channel, called Baker’s Channel, between Indian River Bay and Rehoboth Bay to relieve some of the boat congestion that occurs in Massey’s Ditch. This will give boaters an alternate route, resulting in safer conditions while keeping traffic away from sensitive shallow areas.

State of the Delaware Inland Bays 2011 - Your Bays are improving! Thirty one environmental indicators described the health of Delaware’s most beloved waters in this landmark report. While vast reductions in nutrient loads to the waters are still needed, the fruits of all our labors are clear and some important indicators suggest the Bays are getting healthier.

Oysters and Birds and Horseshoe Crabs, Oh My! – Your participation and financial support helped to make this a banner year for the Bays’ living resources. Over 100 oyster gardeners helped raise oysters that were given a new home in special areas throughout the estuary. A variety of birds were shown nesting in abundance on Middle Island during this year’s bird nesting survey and dozens of citizen scientists volunteered with CIB to count the horseshoe crab population and, for the first time, the fish community of all three Bays.

Stormwater Cleanup in Anchorage Canal - The communities of Sea Colony, Middlesex Beach, and South Bethany partnered with CIB, DelDOT, and DNREC to clean up stormwater runoff that pollutes residential canals and the Little Assawoman Bay. Beautiful wetland ponds, filter strips, and rain gardens were constructed along South Pennsylvania Avenue and Coastal Highway to trap excess nutrients, oils, and bacteria.

Outdoor Classrooms - In every community around the Bays, we are reaching children at their schools through our Schoolyard Habitat Program. North Georgetown Elementary and John C. Clayton Elementary in Frankford recently joined the ranks of nine other schools in the watershed to become Schoolyard Habitat Schools, where students can have an outdoor learning ‘field trip’ without leaving school!

Your gift is extremely important to the Center because it provides resources that make an immediate impact. The Inland Bays are a special place in need of protection and restoration. Please help to make this possible with your contribution.

Your donation will make a world of difference. I promise you.

Thank you so much for your help.

If you have already donated, please accept my most heartfelt thanks. It is people like you who bring us closer to Better Bays Ahead!

Many Thanks!

Rick Eakle
Chairman of the Board