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The daily coverage by The Post and other media of the environmental disaster in the Gulf of Mexico has elbowed out local coverage of an environmental victory here at home. The Piscataway Park waterfront, along the Potomac River in Accokeek, had become a dilapidated, rocky shoreline decimated by erosion. Over the past four years, the shoreline has receded at a rate of 10 feet per year.
When coastal erosion caused a serious threat to the nationally protected archaeological sites and the natural resources in the park last year, Tracy Bowen, director of the Alice Ferguson Foundation, spoke with Rep. Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.), the House majority leader, who represents Accokeek. "I believe in leveraging politics for the environment," Ms. Bowen has said.
The pair worked with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Restoration Center and got $1.1 million in federal stimulus money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act through the National Park Service. The Alice Ferguson Foundation then worked with the Chesapeake Bay Trust and the Keith Campbell Foundation to design a new "living shoreline." This shoreline features a self-sustaining ecosystem equipped with new natural wetlands, forests and beaches.
