West and Rhode Riverkeeper

Our rivers are never more beautiful than they are right now, with the leaves reaching the peak of their autumn color. But now and again, it’s good to get out beyond Curtis Point and connect with the rest of the Bay. Just a week or so ago, I sailed aboard the schooner Mystic Whaler on the Great Chesapeake Bay Schooner Race from Baltimore to Portsmouth.

When you’re sailing by the stars in the middle of the night, in the middle of the Bay, you get time to reflect; you can gain perspective on where our efforts to protect the West and Rhode Rivers fit in to the overall Chesapeake Bay program.

We’ll have the opportunity to do just that at our annual meeting on Friday, November 14, from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at the main dining hall at Camp Letts. Nick DiPasquale, the head of the Chesapeake Bay Program, will be there to talk about the new Bay agreement, and you’ll see where we play a vital role in the big picture.

We’ll celebrate some of the impressive goals we’ve achieved over the past year – like the reforested horse pasture at Camp Letts – and some of the impactful projects we have lined up for next year – like the restoration of a section of Muddy Creek and a new 900-foot living shoreline along Bear Neck Creek, thanks to a major grant from the Chesapeake Bay Trust.

And we’ll reveal a new partnership with the Department of Natural Resources that will provide an astonishing opportunity to access the water.

Please plan to be there – you’re welcome to bring a pot-luck dish to share, and we’ll have oysters! Send me an email or give me a call to let me know you’re coming. See you there!

Your Riverkeeper

Every year West/Rhode Riverkeeper relies on a team of dedicated volunteers to venture out on the rivers once a week (Wednesday mornings) to collect data that we use for our annual report card.  This year we had the pleasure of working with a dedicated team that braved strong winds, rain and cold, with some beautiful sunny days sprinkled in there too, to collect 24 weeks of data.  We will now work with some of the same volunteers over the winter to compile our report card to report back to you about the health of our rivers.

West/Rhode Riverkeeper Jeff Holland planting a tree at Camp Letts with Southern Middle School 6thgraders Chloe Wagner of Tracy’s Landing (blue shirt) and Makayla Grevin of Lothian (in glasses).

When:           Friday, November 14, 2104

Time:             6:30 – 8 p.m.

Where:         Main Dining Hall

                    YMCA Camp Letts

                    4009 Camp Letts Road

                    Edgewater, MD 21037

Info:              

                      www.westrhoderiverkeeper.org

Admission:    Free. RSVP. Beer, wine & soft drinks. Please bring a pot luck dish to share  

West/Rhode Riverkeeper Celebrates Year of Restoration Efforts on Nov. 14

Nick DiPasquale, Director, Chesapeake Bay Program Office of Environmental Protection Agency, will be the keynote speaker at the annual meeting of the West/Rhode Riverkeeper. The event will take place at YMCA Camp Letts in Edgewater on Friday, November 14, from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Admission is free, reservations are requested. Refreshments will be served and guests are welcome to bring a pot-luck dish to share.

(Photo Credit David Harp)    Nick DiPasquale, Director   Chesapeake Bay Program Office, USEPA

By Peter Crispino

The Baltimore Sun, 10/24/14

No county in the United States has more shoreline than Anne Arundel, yet few jurisdictions have less public boat access.

County officials will embark on an effort to change that when they break ground Tuesday on a $5 million boat ramp at Fort Smallwood Park in Pasadena.

"The first step is always the hardest, and so this is the beginning of what I hope will be a much longer and more deliberate effort to get some more water access points established," said County Councilman Chris Trumbauer.

Southern Middle School sixth graders (from left) Samantha Havanki, Kaylee O’Brien and Julia Markham were among more than 100 students planting 200 trees at YMCA Camp Letts last week, with the help of Anne Arundel County Councilman Jerry Walker, State Senator John Astle, Joe Ports, Restoration Coordinator for West/Rhode Riverkeeper, and Jana Davis, Executive Director of the Chesapeake Bay Trust.

State Senator John Astle (District 30), Anne Arundel County Councilman Jerry Walker (District 7) and Jana Davis, Executive Director of the Chesapeake Bay Trust, participated as 100 sixth graders from Southern Middle School planted more than 200 trees at YMCA Camp Letts in Edgewater last week. The students’ wet and muddy efforts completed the transformation of four acres of eroding horse pasture into a forested buffer protecting the Rhode River from polluted stormwater runoff.

“We didn’t just plant trees today,” said Jeff Holland, the West and Rhode Riverkeeper, “we planted a hundred new stewards for our rivers and the Bay.”

One Creek at a Time

I saw the last osprey before she took off for South America the other day, right on cue. The first one I saw this year was on March 10, at the “2RR” marker at the mouth of the Rhode River. That was also my first official boat ride on the Riverkeeper’s Whaler.  I’ve learned a lot about these waterways over these past seasons – seen them bound back from torrential downpours, watched the tide ebb with the north wind to reveal a grassless bottom, met a waterman whose livelihood depends on clean and healthy water, and whose work growing oysters is helping the cause. 

I’ve worked with our crews of citizen scientists who are out there every week, no matter what the weather, testing the water quality in 29 sites year after year. I’ve gotten wet and muddy with kids planting trees. I’ve met with community leaders concerned about bacteria shutting down their beaches. Along with other volunteers, I got poison ivy digging trash out of the woods along Tenthouse Creek in Galesville. I even know how to work the pump-out boat! 

Most of all, I’ve had the blessing to work with a great staff in our Program Manager, Amy Colhoun, Restoration Coordinator Joe Ports, and our Chesapeake Conservation Corps volunteer, Sam Hartman. Sam wrapped up his duties with us in August, and now he’s setting out to launch a career in the environmental world. We know he’ll be doing great things out there.

The year so far has been filled with elation and sadness. We lost Alice Murray just a few weeks ago, and we join the community in sharing our condolences with her family and many friends. I was happy to have met with her in August, just as the construction crews were completing the new living shoreline that will be protecting her beautiful home on Popham Creek for generations to come. 

But the good news is that we just received another grant from the Chesapeake Bay Trust, this one for 650 feet of living shoreline at Camp Letts. This will protect the bank at the mouth of Bear Neck Creek from further erosion. We’ll be starting that project this winter.

As the seasons change, I’m ever more grateful to be part of this organization that’s so dedicated to one goal: making the West and Rhode Rivers safe for fishing, swimming and wildlife, one creek at a time.