As an avid hiker and bicyclist, Martha Shimkin follows the mantra of “leave no trace” when outside, but she also tries to go one step farther. “I want to go beyond that and say not just ‘leave no trace’ but ‘how do I make it better?’” she said. That could mean picking up some litter or sprucing up a cabin along the trail. Now, as the recently named director of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Chesapeake Bay Program Office, she hopes to apply that philosophy to restoration efforts.
