About
Anita C. Leight Estuary Center Public Education Programs include activities such as canoeing, kayaking, hiking, nature education, summer camp, animal encounters, and research. Programs also feature sunset canoe trips, marsh and blooming marsh kayak trips, shoreline fish seining, live reptile encounters, and hands-on family science and nature programs. Families can also stroll through the visitor center’s hands-on exhibits, explore the Discovery Room, and use hiking trails.
• Schedule: Open to the public seven days a week, except for holidays and Sundays in the winter; Monday–Friday 8:30 AM–4:30 PM, Saturday 9 AM–4:30 PM, Sunday 12 PM–4:30 PM (closed Sundays from December to March)
Otter Point Creek Alliance, created in 1996, supports the research, education, and conservation goals of the Otter Point Creek Component of the Chesapeake Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve in Maryland. The Alliance promotes environmental education of school students and the general public, offers volunteer opportunities, supports research, sponsors college internships, and promotes stewardship and conservation in the Reserve and surrounding area. Its stated vision is “A healthy, productive, resilient Otter Point Creek Estuary that is valued and enjoyed by all.”
The Anita C. Leight Estuary Center includes a visitor center with hands-on exhibits about Chesapeake Bay ecology and local flora and fauna, a Discovery Room with a 300-gallon freshwater turtle pond and other animals, and approximately two miles of hiking trails through upland forests of black gum and maple trees. The program offers opportunities to volunteer with research and monitoring efforts such as bay grass monitoring, bluebird monitoring, and marsh plant monitoring.
The leadership team includes Site Manager Lauren Greoski; Building Caretaker James Simmons; Park Naturalists Cai Meadows and Katie Gibson; and Naturalists Rob Bonfante and John DeFrank. Otter Point Creek Alliance board members include president Colby Warner, vice president Robert Lamarr, treasurer Kevin Greoski, secretary Annette Rolfes, former president Sharyn Spray, board member John Hobner, Education Liaison Bette Hobner, and board members Michele Dobson and Rhonda Buchanan.
Staff and board experience includes environmental education at the National Aquarium and Irvine Nature Center, more than 13 years of science teaching at the middle school, high school, and university levels, over 30 years as a Senior Finance Executive, more than 10 years of front desk volunteering, work as a natural resources biologist and environmental health specialist, over 45 years as a certified teacher and Reading Specialist, over 30 years in watershed management, restoration, water quality monitoring, and stream ecology, and sixteen years of teaching for Harford County Public Schools.
Otter Point Creek Alliance is described by a board member as “being surrounded by like-minded, environmentally conscious, caring people. The Otter Point Creek Alliance has become like family to me.” The Alliance is a “friends of” volunteer group that supports programs, grounds, exhibits, and trails, and it partners with organizations including the Chesapeake Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve System in Maryland, Izaak Walton League of America – Harford County Chapter, Harford County Government, National Estuarine Reserve & Research Association, Harford Nature Collaborative, Environmental Protection Agency, Chesapeake Bay Trust, National Fish & Wildlife Foundation, Chesapeake Bay Program, and Chesapeake Bay Funders Network. The Chesapeake Bay Trust provided a Capacity Building Award that made the website possible.
Last updated July 19, 2026.
• Schedule: Open to the public seven days a week, except for holidays and Sundays in the winter; Monday–Friday 8:30 AM–4:30 PM, Saturday 9 AM–4:30 PM, Sunday 12 PM–4:30 PM (closed Sundays from December to March)
Otter Point Creek Alliance, created in 1996, supports the research, education, and conservation goals of the Otter Point Creek Component of the Chesapeake Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve in Maryland. The Alliance promotes environmental education of school students and the general public, offers volunteer opportunities, supports research, sponsors college internships, and promotes stewardship and conservation in the Reserve and surrounding area. Its stated vision is “A healthy, productive, resilient Otter Point Creek Estuary that is valued and enjoyed by all.”
The Anita C. Leight Estuary Center includes a visitor center with hands-on exhibits about Chesapeake Bay ecology and local flora and fauna, a Discovery Room with a 300-gallon freshwater turtle pond and other animals, and approximately two miles of hiking trails through upland forests of black gum and maple trees. The program offers opportunities to volunteer with research and monitoring efforts such as bay grass monitoring, bluebird monitoring, and marsh plant monitoring.
The leadership team includes Site Manager Lauren Greoski; Building Caretaker James Simmons; Park Naturalists Cai Meadows and Katie Gibson; and Naturalists Rob Bonfante and John DeFrank. Otter Point Creek Alliance board members include president Colby Warner, vice president Robert Lamarr, treasurer Kevin Greoski, secretary Annette Rolfes, former president Sharyn Spray, board member John Hobner, Education Liaison Bette Hobner, and board members Michele Dobson and Rhonda Buchanan.
Staff and board experience includes environmental education at the National Aquarium and Irvine Nature Center, more than 13 years of science teaching at the middle school, high school, and university levels, over 30 years as a Senior Finance Executive, more than 10 years of front desk volunteering, work as a natural resources biologist and environmental health specialist, over 45 years as a certified teacher and Reading Specialist, over 30 years in watershed management, restoration, water quality monitoring, and stream ecology, and sixteen years of teaching for Harford County Public Schools.
Otter Point Creek Alliance is described by a board member as “being surrounded by like-minded, environmentally conscious, caring people. The Otter Point Creek Alliance has become like family to me.” The Alliance is a “friends of” volunteer group that supports programs, grounds, exhibits, and trails, and it partners with organizations including the Chesapeake Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve System in Maryland, Izaak Walton League of America – Harford County Chapter, Harford County Government, National Estuarine Reserve & Research Association, Harford Nature Collaborative, Environmental Protection Agency, Chesapeake Bay Trust, National Fish & Wildlife Foundation, Chesapeake Bay Program, and Chesapeake Bay Funders Network. The Chesapeake Bay Trust provided a Capacity Building Award that made the website possible.
Last updated July 19, 2026.
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