Assateague Island

A few days of camping in Assateague State Park gave me plenty of time and inspiration to ponder nature in all its power and fragility. Assateague Island is a thin strip of sand that stands up to the relentless pounding of the wind and waves of the Atlantic Ocean. The narrow dune that keeps the island from being washed away is protected by an electric fence.
The island's flora and fauna cling to narrow niches. Mole crabs inhabit a few feet of beach in between low and high tides. Ghost crabs occupy the few feet of beach above the high water mark. A stiff north wind early one morning nearly blew our tent over. I've felt the same wind in Cape Henlopen and in Rehoboth.
As the Baltimore Sun reported last week, the State of Maryland is asking offshore wind power developers to submit ideas for exploiting the considerable wind resource of the state's beaches. Based on the responses it gets from the industry, Maryland plans to craft a procurement process that could include issuing a request for proposal next year.