Four years ago when Glenn Page looked over the 7-acre marsh on the east side of Fort McHenry, all he saw was trash containing everything from logs to hypodermic needles.
Yesterday, the National Aquarium employee joined the National Park Service and federal politicians in dedicating the marsh as a wetland exhibit.
Page and others hope to use the wetland waters and grasses to teach adults and youngsters the fragile nature of the Chesapeake Bay.
"It's a field station," said Page, the aquarium's director of conservation. "It's a laboratory."
One group from Morgan State University has taken advantage of the chance to study the wetland. Ten undergraduate students and three graduate students have been using the site to conduct experiments.
"We really focus our efforts on getting them some basic training in water quality and ecosystem assessment," said Livingston Marshall, a Morgan professor of biology.
About 60 people toured the wetland yesterday after a town hall meeting was held with U.S. Sen. Paul S. Sarbanes and Rep. Benjamin L. Cardin. Both men said they called the meeting to stress the importance of the bay.
Cardin referred to Sarbanes, who helped bring about legislation with surrounding states to reduce pollution in the bay in 1983, as the "father" of Chesapeake Bay cleanup efforts.
Since then, Sarbanes said, 700 groups and 40 committees aimed at bay cleanup have been formed.
"We've come a long way in 20 years," Sarbanes said. "We still have a long way to go."
Cardin said he has participated in some of the wetlands cleanups. In the past four years, 38 tons or 83,000 pieces of debris have been pulled out of Fort McHenry wetlands.
Cardin presented an award to Greg McGuire for park service Employee of the Year for the "greening" of Fort McHenry. His duties include holding quarterly cleanups of the wetlands, McGuire said.
"We have a great team," he said.
After the meeting, guests were led on a tour through the wetlands. Several who attended welcomed the tour.
"I didn't realize that there was a wetland in the city," said Chris Niesterowicz, a systems analyst with Maryland Environment Service. "It's good to know in an urbanized and industrialized setting, we're bringing back wetlands."