Assateague Coastal Trust founding member, long time Coastal Bays watershed activist and historian Tom Patton of South Point is being recognized by the Maryland Coastal Bays Program with their prestigious Golden Osprey Award on February 18 in Berlin, MD.
Tom, who has lived along Sinepuxent Bay for 75 years and is one of ACT's earliest members, as a member of The Committee to Preserve Assateague Island (which later evolved into ACT.) He was one of those rare conservationists on the Eastern Shore in the 60's, before the phrase "environmental activist" had been coined. A waterman and a hunter, he was an advocate for responsible land development long before anyone had mouthed the words "smart growth," and continues to advocate for it today.
My first meeting with Tom was in 2007. Jim Rapp, ACT's new President was chairing our March Annual Meeting. It was my first ACT Board meeting as its new Executive Director and as its new Coastkeeper. The tiny little 'board room' (a dining room in the house that is ACT's office,) was crammed with Board members many of whom I was meeting for the first time.
Tom arrived a few minutes late and took a chair in the living room just out of my view. Jim and I had carefully prepared an agenda consisting of elections, committee reports, program reports, old and new business related to ACT, Inc. Somewhere way down the agenda was a spot for the Coastkeeper report.
About 25 minutes into the reports, a voice boomed out of the living room, "Could we please just dispense with all this drivel and move to more important business - the Coastkeeper report!" Tom continued, "I mean, why is all of this stuff more important than what we are going to do about cleaning up the coastal bays?"
He then reminded the Board that ACT had been around for over 35 years, Maryland Coastal Bays Program for nearly 10 years, Lower Shore Land Trust for over 10 years and the coastal bays watershed was in worse trouble now and were continuing its slow decline. He demanded to know what ACT was going to do about it!
Well, so much for our carefully prepared agenda. There I was, thinking, holy crap - I've only been on the job a few weeks, I hardly know the names of everyone in the room much less have a plan of attack to clean up the water. Heck, I hadn't even attended my first Waterkeeper orientation yet.
But Tom gave me my marching orders and I've been following his lead ever since that cold evening in March 2007. And yes, from that point on the ACT Board meeting agenda has always placed the Coastkeeper report right near the top immediately following the Treasurer's Report.
Here's an article that appeared in our Fall 2009 Newsletter about Tom's environmental and historic conservation efforts. ACT's Board members had attended a recent fundraiser for Tom's non-profit Rackliffe House Trust, which is restoring the former plantation house located on Sinepuxent Bay into a coastal heritage museum.
Please read on and learn a little something about Tom. Congratulations Tom - you most certainly deserve the Golden Osprey Award!
Read about Tom in ACT For Bays, the official newsletter of Assateague Coastal Trust. The story is on the front page, lower left column.
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