West and Rhode Riverkeeper

We work with our community to enforce environmental law, to
promote restoration, and to advocate for better environmental policy.
Contact us: 410-867-7171  ♦  4800 Atwell Rd, #6, Shady Side, MD 20764

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Restoration Update: July 2014

Volunteer Plantings

Volunteers have been braving this summer heat to help plant trees and marsh grasses throughout the watershed.  We’ve partnered with our neighbors at Franklin Manor to help them acquire native marsh grasses from the county and plant them in their community living shoreline.  The marsh grasses are now helping to stabilize the shoreline while filtering out pollutants and providing superb habitat. Volunteers from the community then joined West/Rhode Riverkeeper staff to plant 75 trees and shrubs in an unused area at Shady Side Park. These trees are now filtering pollutants and will stabilize the soil for years to come.  Volunteers from the YMCA in Dundalk also visited the treatment wetland at YMCA Camp Letts to plant trees and shrubs that were destroyed by deer last winter.

YMCA Camp Letts Horse Heavy Use Area Complete!

horseshelterThe Horse Heavy Use Area is now fully installed and being used by YMCA Camp Letts.  This heavy use area can now house 16 horses year round and enabled the camp to retire 4 acres of heavily eroding field.  Two of the four acres are already planted with native trees and the other two are scheduled to be planted by students from Southern Middle School this autumn.  All runoff leaving the heavy use area flows into the treatment wetland that was installed last winter so it can be treated before flowing into the Rhode River.

This project was made possible thanks to grants from the Chesapeake Bay Trust, the Maryland Department of Agriculture, and Maryland Department of Natural Resources as well as the support of Anne Arundel County Soil Conservation District, Anne Arundel County Public Schools Department of Outdoor Education and the landowners, YMCA Camp Letts.  Thank you!

Our Projects are Working!

Monitoring past restoration projects in an important part of our work.  We need to check on projects to ensure that they are stable and doing the jobs that they are supposed to.  We are always delighted to see the critters that move into our projects and use them as their new homes.  While monitoring sites we’ve found some great animals!  At Shady Cove’s living shoreline we found about 20 horseshoe crabs mating and borrowing into the sand to lay their eggs.  These eggs will not only lead to more horseshoe crabs, but they are also an important food source for migrating shorebirds.  We’ll look forward to seeing the circle of life continue!  When visiting the treatment wetland at YMCA Camp Letts we’ve found lots of juvenile Green Tree Frogs hopping through the leaves of the trees and shrubs that we’ve planted on the site.  The surrounding forest is also alive with the sounds of their parents calling.  These are great signs of a healthy ecosystem and shows that our work is making a difference.  This is all possible thanks to the support of our many funders and supporters, that means you, so thank you for allowing us to continue to make our watershed and rivers a better place.

oystersOysters Have Been Planted on a Sanctuary in the South River

Volunteers on the Rhode River have been growing oysters off their docks for the past 9 months as part of the Marylanders Grow Oysters program.  Those oysters have now been planted on a sanctuary in the South River.  We are now seeking waterfront landowners to grow oysters off their docks in the Rhode River. Please contact Joe at for more information.

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Riverfest Celebrates South Sounty Rivers

Photo courtesy Ryan Hunter, Capital Staff

Just some of what entices Jeff Holland about the West and Rhode rivers and why he loves his job as riverkeeper. His mission is to make other people feel the same way — and a step is Riverfest.

“We want people to make physical contact with (the rivers) so they want to support it emotionally,” Holland said.

The event is noon to 6 p.m. Saturday at Discovery Village in Shady Side and aimed at raising money and awareness for the two south county waterways. It’s not a new concept, but Riverfest is a new event.

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Get Smart on Pesticides

The Smart on Pesticides Campaign is pleased to announce that Governor Martin O’Malley brought Maryland one step closer to much-needed information about pesticide usage by signing House Bill 621 / Senate Bill 700 into law, establishing funding for pesticide reporting.

Though it’s undeniable that pesticides pose risks to public and environmental health – including disease, contaminated waterways and endangered wildlife – the specific effects of these chemicals are still uncertain.

This legislation, which will generate revenue to collect, analyze and report professional pesticide usage, will help researchers determine if and when pesticides are affecting public health and the environment.

Check out this video to learn more about how pesticides may be affecting you, and why scientifically valid data is a priority.

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Keeping our Rivers Clean

honeydipperThe Pumpout Boat is in operation now.  Capt. Mike will be working the Honeydipper boat Friday – Monday from 8 a.m. – 6 p.m. until October. You can expect to find him on the Rhode River in the mornings and on the West River in the afternoons.Call 410-940-3754  or on VHF Channel 71. Thanks to support from the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, the service is only $5 – but if you’re a $50 level member of West/Rhode Riverkeeper, you can get pumped all season long for FREE.  

We are happy to report that in 2013, the Honeydipper was responsible for keeping 15,000 gallons of sewage from entering our Rivers.  Thank you, Capt. Mike!

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New law limits lawn fertilizer: Better grass through less chemistry

By Pat Furgurson, Staff

Cut It Tall

One tip for a healthier lawn is to "cut it tall, and let it fall." Cut your lawn to a minimum of 3.5 inches and let the cuttings fall on the ground where they can help provide nutrients for the soil.

“As you begin working outside this spring, keep in mind that the way you care for your lawn can make a difference for the (Chesapeake) bay,” Agriculture Secretary Buddy Hance said.

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Bill Calls for Study of Acidification of Bay

By: Bran Compere, Capital New Service

4/13/14

 

COLLEGE PARK — The General Assembly passed a bill last week that would create a task force to evaluate effects of acidification in the Chesapeake Bay and other state waters and make recommendations on how to address the issue.

 

House Bill 118, which would form the task force and charge it to make recommendations by Jan. 1, 2015, passed with bipartisan support on the final day of the 2014 session. The state Department of Natural Resources would be required to provide staff to assist the task force.

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True value of cover crops to farmers, environment

April 7, 2014
Farm and Dairy
 

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Planting cover crops in rotation between cash crops — widely agreed to be ecologically beneficial — is even more valuable than previously thought.

According to a team of from Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences, benefits offered by cover crops cross more than 10 ecosystem services.

“As society places increasing demands on agricultural land beyond food production to include ecosystem services, we needed a new way to evaluate ‘success’ in agriculture,” said Jason Kaye, professor of biogeochemistry and research team member.

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Bill seeks truth in crabmeat, seafood labeling

Measure aimed at fighting 'bait-and-switch' in restaurants, markets

 

Did you ever wonder if a restaurant's crabcake was made with Maryland crab or some foreign import? Or if that was really red snapper you bought, or an impostor? 

 

A bill introduced Wednesday in Annapolis would make it illegal for restaurants or markets to mislabel the seafood they sell, and moreover would require them to specify where their crabmeat came from.

 

"If I go to a restaurant and order a 'Maryland-style' crabcake, I'd like to know if it's made with Venezuelan crabmeat," said Del. Eric G. Luedtke, the bill's sponsor.

 

Luedtke, a Montgomery County Democrat, said investigations have found a significant share of seafood sold in restaurants is mislabeled. Such bait-and-switch winds up costing consumers more, he said, and sometimes can even have health consequences.

 

A study by Oceana, a Washington-based conservation group, found through DNA testing that one-third of more than 1,200 seafood items bought in stores nationwide were mislabeled, according to guidelines form the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. In the Washington area, 26 percent of fish was mislabeled, the group said. Snapper and tuna were among the most frequently misidentified products.

 

Luedtke said his bill is modeled on a seafood labeling law in Washington state.  It would require the species and common name of any fish or shellfish sold in the state be identified on a restaurant menu or on a sign in the market.

 

It would also require identifying the source of crab products by state or country, and bar selling anything as "blue crab" if it wasn't made from Callinectes sapidus, the species native to the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic and Gulf coasts. The Department of Natural Resources, which already encourages restaurants and markets to carry locally caught seafood through its "true blue" campaign, would be directed to draw up labeling regulations.

 

"Any time we can improve the quality of information consumers are getting, it's a good thing," Luedtke said.

Oceana supports Luedtke's measure as an antidote to mislabelling that it says often amounts to seafood fraud. The group has petitioned Congress to pass federal labeling legislation, and gathered signatures in support from 450 chefs nationwide, including 25 from Maryland and 10 from Baltimore. With no action to date in Washington, Oceana's campaign director Beth Lowell said action at the state level can help.

 

"When ordering Maryland's famous blue crabs, I want to be certain that I'm actually having crabs from Maryland that were caught in the Chesapeake Bay and that I am supporting local watermen," Lowell said.

Jack Brooks, co-owner of J.M. Clayton Co., a crab processor in Cambridge, and president of the Chesapeake Bay Seafood Industry Association, welcomed the bill, saying Maryland consumers often unwittingly buy or eat crabmeat imported from South America or Asia, hurting local watermen and businesses like his.

 

"The poor consumer is the one really taking it on the chin here," he said. "It's so sad they really don’t know the origin of seafood."

 

But Brooks called "problematic" one provision in the bill that would require U.S.-caught crab products be labeled by their state of of origin.  He said his business processes crabs from Virginia as well as Maryland, and that some of the watermen he buys from have licenses to work in both states.

 

Melvin R. Thompson, senior vice president with the Restaurant Association of Maryland, said he couldn't comment on the bill until member restaurateurs have a chance to review it.

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Environmentalists want local, not state, government to decide on stormwater fees

Worried Senate president may be considering cap, exemptions

By Alex Jackson, The Capital
January 19, 2014
 

Environmentalists are trying to convince Maryland legislative leaders to not change a state mandate on stormwater fees, allowing local governments to take it from here.

Sources in the General Assembly say Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr., D-Calvert, is considering introducing legislation that would cap the fees the state’s 10 most populous jurisdictions were required to impose.

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Miller, Busch vow no repeal of stormwater fees

Talking about issues

Left to right, Senate President Thomas V Mike Miller and House Speaker Michael Busch speak with public radio host Marc Steiner. They are at the Governor Calvert House to talk about some of the issues facing the state legislature which begins its 90 day session later today. (Kim Hairston, Baltimore Sun / January 8, 2014)

 

The leaders of the Senate and House of Delegates predicted Thursday morning that lawmakers won't be repealing the stormwater fees in the state's largest jurisdictions this year.

 

At a breakfast hosted by the Annapolis and Anne Arundel County Chamber of Commerce, Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. responded to a question about whether the fees would be repealed by saying flatly: "We're not going to repeal the stormwater fee."

 

House Speaker Michael E. Busch then quickly piped up: "Second!"

 

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