Friends of Sligo Creek celebrates its 12th Anniversary

The Friends of Sligo Creek celebrated its 12^thanniversary with pizza and a presentation by Sabri Ben- Achour, environmental reporter for WAMU. Over 60 people attended the event, held at the Dennis Avenue Recreation Center, on February 12.

Ben- Achour’s informal Q and A style presentation covered a wide range of issues that ended with a call for concerned citizens to contact the station to share their ocal environmental   concerns and ideas for stories. He stressed that this process has always guided and informed his work at WAMU and that the station welcomes it.

While public input helps determine which stories are investigated and eventually air, it’s the responsibility of an environmental   reporter to help interpret for the public what is a real environmental threat and what is alarmist exaggeration or misinformation amid the information overload that most of us experience. Ben- Achour views this as the most important role he plays. 

Asked where we are in our struggle to “save the Bay” Ben-Achour noted that we are at a pivotal point. While Infrastructure upgrades and a host of programs designed to improve water quality in the Chesapeake are having positive impacts, local governments are far from figuring out how to pay for these initiatives-- and storm water management remains a major threat to the Bay. Although he is optimistic about the long-term health of the Bay, he warned that it will be a long time before we see it.

Ben- Achour used the health of the native oysters in the Bay as an example. After 200 years of overharvesting, in combination with human-introduced diseases, the oyster population is currently less than one percent of its historic levels.  Programs designed to increase oyster populations are important, but so is the genetic resistance to disease that the oyster is developing.  While Ben-Achour is optimistic about the recovery of oyster populations, he stressed that it will happen in an evolutionary time frame.

Although Ben- Achour left WAMU shortly after his presentation at the FOSC event, he assured the audience that the station remains committed to environmental reporting.  Contact new environmental reporter Jonathan Wilson jwilson@wamu.org  with your input and ideas for stories.

Maureen Malloy, FOSC Education and Outreach Committee