Since its start in 1994, The Eastern Shore Institute (TESI) has become a respected, independent organization sensitive and fully responsive to regional needs concerning environmental integrity, economic viability, social well-being, and cultural uniqueness. TESI has worked to promote principles of sustainable development to the rural coastal communities of the Delmarva Peninsula. We are striving to effectively facilitate the conduct of applied research that collects information to support programs demonstrating how local communities can accomplish sustainability with respect to the social, economic, and environmental systems they have to work with. Because TESI is a non-profit, independent corporation, and because it's constituency is all sectors of Eastern Shore society, while serving no special interest group, the Institute can bring objective and sound information to bear in assisting others to meet their goals. TESI acts in ways that are based upon full knowledge and appreciation for the major issues of concern in our region.

As an example of serving as the catalyst for conduct of science in support of community needs, The Eastern Shore Institute has invested $106,572 in funding 14 pilot studies to begin filling gaps in our knowledge regarding information important to consider in a region attempting to achieve sustainability. Projects have involved 16 university faculty & 6 students in Eastern Shore research that included (but not limited to) the following subjects:

• social-vitality of Eastern Shore communities;
• monitoring flow of contaminants through agricultural watersheds;
• status of estuarine natural resources in coastal bays;
• state of groundwater resources that supply freshwater to Eastern Shore communities and industries.

The Institute's social, economic, and environmental studies have grown to reach the entire Delmarva Peninsula, including the eastern shores of Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware, promoting a regional focus to coastal resources and sustainability. TESI has established the initial framework to link protection of coastal environmental quality with sustainable land use plans and associated economic development for the Delmarva coastal compartment (VA, MD, DE) involving grassroot stakeholders, multiple discipline researchers (e.g., socio-economic, ecological, natural resource management, agricultural, rural planning, and modeling), and local, state, and federal managers and policy-makers. The purpose of this long-term effort will be to develop a research and management approach that addresses rural coastal issues in a comprehensive, watershed approach and focuses upon achieving the goal of economic development done in harmony with the natural environment.

Other program accomplishments of The Eastern Shore Institute over the last year include the following:

• Education, Awareness, and Community Outreach
  • presented information on sustainable development to more than 160 students at 4 Eastern Shore High Schools
  • serving as one of the primary co-sponsors for design of a regional Delmarva Coastal Bay Watersheds Conference that will be held in March 1996 in Ocean City, MD
  • facilitated visioning/action planning of business people and residents desiring to revitalize the Exmore downtown business district
  • providing leadership in design and eventual conduct of a conference entitled "Natural Resource Values and Vulnerabilities: Second Eastern Shore Symposium" to present results from on-going scientific research to governmental officials and the public and to demonstrate the utility of science in discussing problems and solutions surrounding a number of key regional development issues

• Economic Studies
  • coordinated economic impact analyses on eco-tourism activities (e.g., annual birding festival) and demonstrated that these events, focusing upon the region's natural resources, are significant in their local business impact of increased dollar inflow to shore
  • researched Eastern Shore farming practices and documented examples of how diversification of farm operation can lead to economic stability and increased productivity

• Social Issues
  • researched topics and developed protocols to integrate affordable housing with "green", resource efficient design building strategies to assist low-income communities
  • coordinated the evaluation of two VA Eastern Shore county comprehensive plans and several regional organization programs to determine major social, economic, environmental, and cultural issues important to communities that will ultimately be used to assess the success of local and regional governmental plans to address these issues

• Resource Sustainability
  • began research on the utility of a benchmarks program, modeled after the very successful Oregon Benchmarks Program that could be implemented on Virginia's Eastern Shore to measure success of efforts designed to protect and enhance social-well being, economic prosperity, environmental integrity, and cultural uniqueness: as part of this activity, the Institute, through input from community groups, scientists, and public officials, has begun identifying environmental, economic, social, and cultural indicators important in assessing progress attained by local and regional jurisdictions in their efforts to achieve sustainability

To better illustrate some of the scientific results The Eastern Shore Institute is obtaining through its own work as well as the support of other's research, the following two studies are further described:

1. The Institute has supported a interdisciplinary, multi-institutional research team to initially document the flow of nitrogen through the agricultural landscape of an Eastern Shore seaside watershed and determine its impact on the contiguous estuaries. Results to-date indicate that nitrogen from both agricultural activities and atmospheric input contribute to the total loading of adjacent coastal bays and in climatic event circumstances produce significant increases in coastal bay primary production, as measured by chlorophyll a. The Institute will continue this work in the coming year and explore means of minimizing agricultural contaminant impacts on the environment while encouraging the agriculture community to enhance their productivity and economy.

2. Sustainability is not achievable in a region whose cash outflow significantly exceeds its cash inflow. In these kind of instances the challenge is to transform local economic activity to "break the cycle" of continued lost capital. The Institute, in collaboration with others, has conducted economic impact analyses on eco-tourism activities (e.g., annual birding festival) and demonstrated that events of this nature that focus upon the region's natural resources are significant in their local business impact of increased dollar inflow. For example, over three years of measurement the annual Eastern Shore Birding Festival has shown an increase in dollar flow to local businesses that has ranged from approximately $60,000 in 1993 to more than $110,000 in 1994. The 1995 statistical analyses have not been completed yet, but based upon increased attendance this year the local business impact is expected to increase over 1994.

Along with the continuation and expansion of present programs, as described above, in 1996 The Eastern Shore Institute will begin developing a program to focus upon Eastern Shore housing issues. TESI has initiated research on the topics of affordable housing and "green", resource efficient building design. From these efforts a set of protocols have been developed that integrate these two building strategies in order to serve low-income communities in achieving the goal of building affordable, resource efficient homes. During 1996 the Institute will explore opportunities to begin a demonstration project to advance the idea of affordable, resource efficient home building for Eastern Shore communities.

Sincerely,

Warren Flint
The Eastern Shore Institute
vacoastist@aol.com
(804)442-5588

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