OUR TEAM

Henry Kline

tributary co-president. Protect the bay: it’s a way of life

MATT SPENCER

Tributary Co-President. Junior at Towson High School. Loves the Chesapeake Bay.

JILLIAN MCNULTY

Tributary Festival Secretary. Jillian is fond of her memories of the bay, kayaking with her siblings and watching the sunsets over the water with friends. She wants to ensure those moments for the next generation of festival-goers!

Jackson Kerner: Co-leader of the Music Committee. She wants to help Save the Bay as she has happy memories of attending summer camps located on the Potomac River. She is excited to be a leader this year and help to save the bay through her love of music.

Sophie Quinn: Co-chair of the music committee. She loves music and the bay and is very excited to be a leader in the Tributary Festival this year!

Leo Mileto: Liaison for the Business Committee. Loves the Bay.

Will Kennedy: Takes care of business for the Tributary Festival as a Business Liaison. Senior at Towson High School. Favorite hobby? Saving the Bay!

Scarlett Spaulding: Scarlett has grown up around the Bay and many of her best memories were made near or on it. She also loves art, and worked on the 2022 festival merchandise, billboard, and poster. She can’t wait to come up with some new ideas as Co-Arts and Marketing Chair this year!

Sophia Brown: Environmental Chair for the Tributary Festival. She is very passionate about the environment and also a leader in the Towson High School Environmental Club. Additionally, she does photography and has taken pictures at the past two festivals!

About the Organizer

Hey! My name is Reed Spaulding the founder and creator of the Tributary Festival. I love music and the Bay, and found that this festival would be the perfect way to connect the two.

Many of my fondest memories have been formed on the Chesapeake Bay and its rivers; be it fishing, crabbing, or boating with my grandparents on the Piankatank River in southern Virginia; tubing with my cousins on the Gunpowder in Baltimore County; attending Sandy Hill Camp on the Susquehanna; or sailing with the Downtown Sailing Club on the Inner Harbor. I’m also a musician, playing in multiple bands and working on my music every day.

I hope to see you there!

Oyster beds, shellfish, and other fish are impacted and tainted by runoff, as they are often found with dangerously high levels of mercury. This damages the local fishery economy and can make them unsafe to eat for consumers nationwide. A combination of issues in the Bay can also lead to the growth of a host of bacteria and diseases in the water, which can be dangerous and potentially deadly for humans. Because the Bay plays such an important role in the lives of all those who live around it, the same factors that hurt the Bay hurt us as well.

About the Bay

As the nation’s largest estuary, the Chesapeake Bay is a gateway to the Atlantic Ocean and home to countless species of flora and fauna—not to mention the millions of people who live, work, eat, and play on or near its waters. Experts project that 20 million people will inhabit the Chesapeake Bay watershed by 2030.

Unfortunately, there are countless challenges facing the Chesapeake Bay, most of which are caused by humans. These problems include pollution, climate change, agricultural runoff, chemical contamination, over development, and many more. Polluted runoff water can make its way into private wells as well as public drinking water, filling them with large amounts of unhealthy nitrates.

ABOUT THE

Chesapeake Bay Foundation

The Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF) has been helping to conserve and restore the Bay since 1967. It is the only independent organization dedicated solely to restoring and protecting the Chesapeake Bay.

It measures its impact on a “CBF Health Index.” Every aspect that the CBF helps (pollution, wetlands, fisheries, etc.) gets a score, which can be raised through volunteering and the help they do or be lowered, as more pollution and negligent human actions enter the Bay. Currently, CBF has given the Bay an overall score is 33, which shows that the organization—and the Bay itself—needs our help now more than ever.

Another one of the main goals of the CBF is to remove pollution from the Bay, be it chemical contaminants, excess sediment and nutrients, or human-made waste products. The CBF organizes volunteer groups to help restore ecosystems and habitats. In 2018, it met the oyster restoration goals in the Lafayette River, the first river to do so in Virginia. The Foundation takes legal action, recently suing the EPA for not acknowledging that they are required to use pollution control on 19 power plants in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Finally, the CBF educates through curriculum-based learning and field trips, organized to get kids out and learning about the Bay and how they can help.

With the help of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, we can alleviate and reverse the damage done to the Bay. Through advocacy, education, volunteering, and restoration, we can make a difference.

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