Environmental Studies Faculty Tom Horton Featured in Emmy-Winning MPT Program

SALISBURY, MD---Chesapeake Bay author Tom Horton, who teaches in Salisbury University’s environmental studies program, was recently spotlighted in a 2011 Emmy Award-winning segment of Maryland Public Television’s Outdoors Maryland program.

“The Sacred Places” followed Horton and his friend Don Baugh of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation on a kayak trip exploring remote bay islands, including winding through salt marshes and fishing for dinner. The regional Emmy for Best Magazine Program Feature was one of two earned this year by the nature and recreation series.

This summer, Horton, who teaches writing and bay studies, led SU students on a month-long kayak tour of Chesapeake waters as part of a unique experiential learning course he co-founded. During “Exploring Delmarva: A Water’s-Eye View,” they camped in the wilderness, planted eel grass for a Nature Conservancy restoration project, and met watermen and trappers on Smith and Tangier islands.

“[Kayak] trips are critical because they remind us that there’s something out here worth fighting for and there’s some really good life left in this system,” Horton said. He is known for providing hands-on environmental experiences to students in all of his classes.

The summer group also paddled to disappearing Holland Island, which is where Horton and Baugh camped during the MPT segment.  For years, the two have guided similar excursions for government officials, artists and others interested in the Bay.

“We’re talking world class natural resources here,” Horton said of the Chesapeake’s wetlands and sea grass meadows.

Co-produced by MPT and the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, Outdoors Maryland has won 32 Emmys since it started in 1988.  To view the video, which captures sunrises, sunsets and the overall beauty of the remote islands in south-central bay, visit Outdoors Maryland on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhK2-wxd9n4.

For more information about Horton or SU environmental studies, call 410-543-6030 or visit www.salisbury.edu.