Senator Bernie Fowler

Bernie Fowler, Former Maryland Senator

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In Memoriam

by Daniel Rosen, AICP, Resource Conservation Planner, with Kristen E, Humphrey, Local Assistance and Training Planner

Sometimes a person is so strongly associated with a place that it’s hard to think of one without the other. This is definitely true of Clyde Bernard “Bernie” Fowler, whose name will always be connected to the Patuxent River. A tireless advocate to protect the Patuxent River and the Chesapeake Bay, the former state senator passed away on December 12, 2021 at 97 years old.

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Bernie Fowler’s Patuxent River “Wade-In” 2021

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Planning in Progress

by Dan Rosen, AICP, Resource Conservation & Management Planner

When Bernie Fowler was a young man in the 1950s, he stood chest-deep in the Patuxent River, netting blue crabs. Looking down, he was able to see his sneaker-clad feet on the river bottom. Since then, much of the watershed of the Patuxent River — the largest Maryland river wholly contained within the state — has been developed. Efforts to improve the water quality of the Patuxent and other Maryland rivers and tributaries are ongoing…but how do we best measure success?

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