Between Ocean and Bay: A Natural History of Delmarva

by Jane Scott

B3-1991-1992. First edition. Explains how the peninsula was formed and how it has changed over time. xv, 206 pages. stiff paper wrappers.. 8vo..

221 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1990

About the author

Librarian's note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[Paul of Bethesda]

Between Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean, one finds the tranquility and beauty of the Delmarva Peninsula. This region – usually defined as including all three of Delaware’s counties, plus nine counties from Maryland and two from Virginia, hence “Del-Mar-Va” – is described by author Jane Scott, in loving detail, as a place where “roots run deep…The towns are full of old brick and boxwood, ancient trees, neighborly porches, and hospitable people. The skies are soft and the rivers quiet. The pace is slow, the winters kind, and…there is always a salty smell of marshes. Most of all, there is a sense of space” (p. xi). Scott’s Between Ocean and Bay will appeal most to readers who share Scott’s appreciation for this easily overlooked but extraordinary little American region.

After considering the Delmarva Peninsula’s geological origins millions of years ago – it is, after all, “a sandbar, built from sediment left by the sea or eroded off the ancient Appalachian continent over the past 150-200 million years” (p. 3) – Scott goes on to describe the decisive role that Ice Age glaciers played in the formation of Delmarva. She then chronicles the beginnings of human settlement – first, the original Native American residents of Delmarva, starting about 13,000 years ago; and then, much later, European exploration and settlement, starting with Giovanni da Verrazano’s visit to the peninsula in 1524.

Scott offers a thoughtful, and troubling, assessment of what formative influences may have led to the degree of environmental damage that Delmarva has endured down the centuries. In Scott’s reading, this astonishing degree of neglect goes back to when Englishmen colonized the peninsula in the 17th century:

“The first English on the peninsula, as in all British settlements, subscribed to the theory of mercantilism. That is, they thought it the purpose of a colony to provide needed commodities for the mother country. Many of those commodities were the natural resources of the land. The fact that England’s own forests had disappeared long since did not inspire them to conserve wood in the New World. Also, a certain arrogant pride in their own superior culture kept them from assimilating any part of the Indian concept of resource preservation” (p. 31).

Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose. Think about Scott’s words the next time you’re driving along U.S. Route 13 and see one of those massive chicken farms of lower Delmarva, and then read a few weeks later in the Wilmington News-Journal about algae blooms and fish kills resulting from excessive chicken waste making its way into Chesapeake Bay.

Scott proceeds to an orderly consideration of the entire Delmarva ecosystem – woodlands, open land, thickets, wetlands, marshes, swamps, bays, beaches, and barrier islands, with all their associated flora and fauna, are described in a careful and scientific manner, taxonomic names and all. Here, once again, Scott’s quiet and understated critique of American attitudes toward the environment comes through.

A good example occurs in the chapter “The Value of Wetlands”; Scott discusses the ecological importance of wetlands, and the way the original Native American inhabitants of Delmarva valued wetlands as a source of food and fresh water. But by unhappy contrast, “The Europeans…thought all wetlands were unhealthy sinks of insects and disease and diked and drained them as a matter of public health” (p. 106). The influence of that short-sighted attitude, in Scott’s reading, can be seen in the Civilian Conservation Corps turning marshes into ditches in the 1930’s, or the bombardment of the marshes with DDT before 1972.

One detail from near the end of Scott’s book also caught my attention. In the chapter on “Beaches and Barrier Islands,” Scott expresses concern over how “the quantities of carbon dioxide that are released into the atmosphere by the burning of fossil fuels act to trap the sun’s warmth and accelerate the melting of the ice caps – the so-called greenhouse effect….If the melting continues unabated until the ice caps disappear, the sea will rise several feet and most of the peninsula will be underwater” (p. 157).

What will the peninsula be in 50 years – Delmarva Island? In 1991, when this book was published, “greenhouse effect” was the term in use; now, we have bypassed “global warming” to talk about climate change. In 25 years, will the people of 2042 have simply invented another new term to describe the problem, while nothing is done about the problem? Will it take the disappearance of most of the State of Delaware to convince Americans that there really is a problem? Anyone who has driven by the "Ebright Azimuth" on a roadway in Wilmington - the highest point of land in Delaware, just 448 feet above sea level - must see how uniquely vulnerable the Diamond State is to these changes that are now unfolding.

I was introduced to Delmarva as a vacation site. Every summer during my childhood, my parents, proud Washingtonians that they were, would take my brother and sister and me, for the first two weeks of August, to Rehoboth Beach, Delaware – “The Nation’s Summer Capital,” as the sign at the town line proclaims, in a reference to Rehoboth’s longtime popularity with residents of the National Capital area.

As I grew older, I came to understand that there was much more to Delmarva than the Rehoboth boardwalk and Grotto Pizza and all the other attractions of Sussex County’s seaside resorts. Over time, I got to know the historic town of Lewes (est. 1631); the Cape Henlopen state park that has preserved the concrete towers from which sailors and coastguardsmen used to watch for German U-boats during the Second World War; the Nanticoke Nation pow-wow that takes place near Oak Orchard every September. Delmarva does have a special beauty, and those who appreciate that beauty are likely to appreciate the spirit in which Between Ocean and Bay is written.

[Brendan Feist]

A bit dry, but filled with interesting things about our region.

[Paul Haspel]

Jane Scott's Between Ocean and Bay calls attention to an often overlooked ecological treasure: the Delmarva Peninsula, which comprises all three counties of Delaware as well as the eight counties of Maryland's Eastern Shore and the two counties of Virginia's Eastern Shore. Scott provides a meticulous setting-forth of the animal and plant life of Delmarva. Along with offering scientific names, descriptions, and hand drawings of the peninsula's life forms, Scott also makes clear that the human impact on the life of Delmarva, since the beginnings of European settlement in the early 17th century, has generally been negative. From careless clearing of old-growth forests in colonial times, through the impact of the pesticide DDT on bird populations in the mid-20th century, and on to beach overdevelopment around Rehoboth Beach and Ocean City today, Scott draws what might seem a bleak picture of careless environmental exploitation. Yet that bleak picture is balanced with success stories of how government agencies and private groups have managed to stem, and at times even reverse, the damage done by past generations. Recommended for any Delmarva resident or visitor who appreciates the fragile beauty of the peninsula.

[A.D. Morel]

Just want to say 'Thank you' to the person who passed this copy along to the book sale. It's not the type of book I read from cover to cover in a few sittings, but rather, one that I put in the suitcase at the sacrifice of the extra shirt. A take- along on an adventure to Delaware and Maryland!

I am enjoying the articulate and not over-worked line drawings. The birds are covered especially well, plants perhaps adequately, shellfish more or less in passing. Because one of my passions is the shellfish diversity, I must team this book with more technical papers to get at the level of detail I crave.

Jane Scott has an obvious devotion to for subject, and the reader gets swept along from one habitat to another, reinforced with smatterings of human history, and informed by Ms Scott's fine background on the natural history of this unique area on the coast of the western Atlantic.