Fred Tutman

Roles: Panelist

Fred Tutman is a grassroots community advocate for clean water in Maryland’s longest and deepest intrastate waterway and holds the title of Patuxent Riverkeeper, which is also the name of a non-profit organization that he founded in 2004. Some of the lessons learned on the Appalachian Trail has inspired Fred’s work on Water Trails as well.

Prior to Riverkeeping, Fred spent over 25 years working as a media producer and consultant on telecommunications assignments on four continents, including a stint covering the Falkland War in Argentina for the BBC; managing a Ford Foundation funded project to help African traditional healers tell their stories to the world; and nine years of intensive media productions for with Fire and Emergency Management organizations. Fred has won several awards for both radio and television production writing and production.

In recent years, Fred has taught courses in Environmental Law and Policy at Historic St. Mary’s College of Maryland; and Goddard College in Plainfield, Vt. He splits his time between Maryland and North Carolina where he maintains busy Blacksmith forges in both places. He is the recipient of numerous regional and State awards for his various environmental works, is the longest serving Waterkeeper in the Chesapeake Bay region, and the only African-American Waterkeeper in the nation. He also lives and works on an active farm located near the Patuxent River that has been his family’s ancestral home for nearly a century.

 

2023 Program(s):

Upstream, Downriver