THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, April 2, 1995 TAG: 9503310190
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: Coastal Journal
SOURCE: Mary Reid Barrow
LENGTH: Medium: 90 lines
To think of the marsh grass spartina is to think of Dr. Spencer Wise.
Dr. Wise passed away last Sunday and although most people might prefer to be associated with a plant more pleasing to the eye, a rose maybe, I am confident he would be pleased to know I had learned his lesson well about the importance of wetlands and their plants.
Goodness knows, it wasn't for lack of his trying. Dr. Wise spent the last 25 years drumming into Virginia Beach heads how wetlands, matted with strong spartina roots, protect us from flooding, filter out pollutants and act as a buffer against erosion. For years Dr. Wise and his wife Helen even had a cat named Spartina Patens, the species of spartina that grows in the intertidal zone.
Dr. Wise retired as professor emeritus of environmental science and biology in 1979 from Christopher Newport University. He was recognized by the university community for his education contributions to the environment when a wooded area on the campus was dedicated as Wise Woods.
But Dr. Wise was our teacher here in Virginia Beach, too. Back in the early 1970s, he was the person who opened our eyes to the dynamic activity of our marshes and beaches and he made it very plain to me and others the importance of wetlands and the scientific reasons behind their presence.
``He had a strong sense of the environment long before the movement about it,'' said Virginia Beach Audubon Society member Betsy Nugent. ``He was the `wise' man of the environment.''
For years Dr. Wise attended every Virginia Beach Wetlands Board meeting with fellow Audubon society member Helen Smith, recalls present board chairman Nancy Lowe. Lowe has served on the board about 15 years.
``We never felt like they were adversaries,'' Lowe said. ``Basically they were there to watch and monitor. They were always on good terms with the board.''
A year after Chesapeake Bay wetlands legislation was passed in the 1970s, Dr. Wise was instrumental in drafting state legislation to protect Virginia Beach's southern watershed, too. The area around the North Landing River and Back Bay teems with freshwater wetlands and wasn't covered in the Bay legislation.
``He was considered the ramrod that got that wetlands legislation through,'' said Bart Tuthill, soil scientist with the city's Department of Agriculture. Tuthill, who advises the wetlands board, saw Dr. Wise in action for a good two decades.
He recalled that Dr. Wise was the only person who has ever managed to get 25 property owners together, as the law requires, to challenge a decision of the wetlands board. That was early in the board's existence and the challenge failed, but since then no one else has been dedicated enough to put forth that effort, Tuthill said.
Dr. Wise, 80, slowed his efforts only recently, so there aren't many public officials around who don't recall his tweaking their environmental conscience. When he would jut his head of snow white hair forward and focus in on a topic, they knew they were going to hear the straight facts, whether they liked what they heard or not.
``And no matter what their feelings were,'' Lowe said, ``he was respected by everyone.''
Lowe thinks Wise's low key persevering lobbying spells the end of an era. ``He was persistent in a really quiet gentlemanly way, in the way he promoted whatever cause he was interested in.''
Nugent said she recalls a quote from Plato whenever she thinks of Wise's continued monitoring of City Council and the Wetlands Board:
``I am that gadfly which God has attached to the state and all day long and in all places am always fastening upon you, arousing and persuading and reproaching you.''
Dr. Wise persuaded many of us.
P.S. THE BACK BAY Restoration Foundation will meet at 7 p.m. April 15, at the Princess Anne Recreation Center. Donald Swift, geological oceanography professor at Old Dominion University, will speak on the geological evolution of Back Bay and the Currituck split.
THE WALLS COME TUMBLING DOWN, the Oceanfront in Transition, is the topic of a new exhibit through May 7 at the Life-Saving Museum of Virginia. Photos and artifacts document the loss of historical resort strip buildings like the Dome and the Peppermint Beach Club.
THE DOVE THAT NESTED in a wreath on Jim Smith's Kempsville door last year must have enjoyed the Smiths' hospitality so much that it has returned to the same spot again this year. ILLUSTRATION: Staff file photo by CHARLIE MEADS
The late Dr. Spencer Wise spent the last 25 years drumming into
Virginia Beach heads how wetlands, matted with strong spartina
roots, protect us from flooding, filter out pollutants and act as a
buffer against erosion.
by CNB