This image shows two pillars of Eastern Shore life: a deadrise workboat and a Methodist church. The workboat is the Velma Dawn, docked on Parson's Creek just south of the Little Choptank River. The church has been known as Madison United Methodist and Joppa Methodist. Photograph: Michael W. Fincham
This photograph was taken on the day this buoy was deployed for the Maryland Artifical Reef Initiative. Part of the Chesapeake Bay Interpretive Buoy System (CBIBS), the buoy collects data for boaters, students, and scientists. Photograph, Michael Eversmier for the Maryland Artificial Reef Initiative
John Hill crouches over a green roof overlooking the U.S. Capitol. His organization, the United Methodist General Board of Church and Society, installed the 6,800-square-foot vegetated roof in 2014 to reduce stormwater runoff and cut costs for air conditioning. Photograph, Skip Brown
A worker with the Hooper Island Oyster Aquaculture Company checks on an oyster held during its growout phase in an underwater cage. The state of Maryland has been giving oyster aquaculture a hand up, hoping to create new businesses and new jobs in the state's Tidewater region. Photograph, Jay Fleming
Did you know that Maryland's coastal ocean is home to colorful corals, like this bubblegum coral? They live in deep, dark submarine canyons more than 50 miles off the coast. Photograph: NOAA Office on Ocean Exploration and Research Photograph.
Reading the tale of the tape measure are Maryland politicians Bernie Fowler, a former state senator, and Steny Hoyer, current U.S. congressman. The water clarity mark for June 14 at the 2015 Patuxent River Wade-In measured 44.5 inches of light penetration. The Wade-In, which focuses attention on the health of the river, has been conducted yearly since 1988. Photograph, Michael W. Fincham
Watts Branch, a tributary of the Anacostia River in Washington, D.C. In 2011, work was completed to install a series of pools and add rock structures to slow the flow of water. Photograph, David Harp
student fellows on their orientation cruise for Maryland Sea Grant’s Research Experiences for Under¬graduates program in summer 2013 pore over a bucket filled with oysters: (from left to right) Arthur Williams, Zachary Watkins, Jenessa Duncombe, Nicholas Taylor, Christine Schalkoff. Photograph, Sandy Rodgers
This house on Holland Island in the Chesapeake Bay stood for more than a century. But the estuary's water level rose, the island eroded, and the inhabitants left. In 2010, the house - the last one left on the island - was swept into the Bay by encroaching waves. Photograph, David Harp.
