One day soon, before she is too arthritic, Elizabeth McWethy says she wants to turn the poetry she has written by hand into a single-volume anthology illustrated by her grandchildren because it is "more fun than worrying whether the developers are ruining your creek."
At 74, the Annapolis woman who has been an activist as long as she can remember wants to step down as chairwoman of the Weems Creek Conservancy. She is not alone among Anne Arundel's "greenies," who are going gray and hoping to cut back on their activities.
Last month, A. L. "Red" Waldron, 77, of Annapolis, asked County Executive John G. Gary to name a new chairman of the Severn River Commission. West River Federation activist Peg Burroughs, 66, went on vacation even though neighbors call daily, worried about storm water run-off from construction sites. Glen Burnie activist Mary Rosso, 57, has gotten more choosy about which meetings to attend. She even has decided not to appeal a recent rezoning decision that allows an auto recycling operation on Solley Road.
"I'm not going to as many things as I used to," she said last week. Some afternoons she turns off the telephone and lets the answering machine greet callers while her grandson naps.
Yet she and others worry that few younger people are willing to take their places as environmental activists. Many younger people are members of two-career families who commute long distances to work and have children with homework waiting for them when they return home.
Robert Kovich, 39, became president of the West River Federation because nobody else wanted the job. Viewed as a young man by the older members, he is starting to worry.
"It seems like we have this group around my age. We don't really have anyone much younger than that," he said.
Jane Sinclair, 32, of Crownsville, head of the group's zoning committee, views this as a "scary thing."
"I sit at those SRA [Severn River Association] meetings, and I am one of the youngest people there, maybe the youngest," she said.
Ideally, a steady stream of younger people who can complement the history and knowledge of the older people with energy and new ideas should be joining the ranks of environmentalists, she said. But that is not happening.
"Sure, it causes some concern," said Gerald W. Winegrad, 50, who retired last year after wearing the environmental mantle for 12 years in the state Senate. "It's always important to have new blood."
But Steve Carr, 40, the SRA's corresponding secretary, said he doesn't believe the problem is as bad as others say it is.
"I don't see any problem looming on the horizon because of the loss of these people," he said. "They set up these groups to oversee how the agencies and how the developers set up their business. They are the founding fathers."
Mr. Carr of Annapolis said it just takes time and seasoning for young people to turn into activists.
Activists who cut their environmental teeth during the first Earth Day in 1970 say they see few people younger than themselves -- those in their 20s or early 30s -- turning to the environmental community coalitions. But they see them elsewhere, for example, at stream cleanups.
Mrs. Rosso said she expects that at least a few environmentalists will be among the buyers of the more than 2,000 houses that developers hope to build on Marley Neck.
William Moulden, 40, SRA president, said, "As people move into this area, with the greater population increase, they will come. "It's their back yard, too."