This has certainly been a trying few weeks for everyone in our communities. We wish all the best to those affected by COVID-19 and send our heartfelt appreciation to those on the frontlines keeping us all safe. I truly hope that all of you are abiding by the guidelines from our state government and federal health agencies. It would make me feel better to know that all of you are safe and healthy while taking the appropriate precautions.
And yet, our ShoreRivers team perseveres in our mission to protect and restore Eastern Shore waterways through science-based advocacy, restoration, and education. I want to take a moment to let you know how our work is continuing and that your support is still positively impacting our local waterways. Please read about our current initiatives below and know we're taking this opportunity to do some strategic thinking and planning to improve our programs as a whole so we can have a greater impact on the water and in the communities we hold dear.
Due to conservative financial planning and thanks to your past generosity as well as the talents of my management team, ShoreRivers is in good standing. I am 100% committed to keeping together the staff family we have worked so hard to build so I've interspersed some photos of them here. Now more than ever, I know our strength lies in our people and I'm proud to lead this team.
Best wishes of good health to you and yours,
Jeffrey Horstman, Executive Director
Riverkeeper Team
As you may know, we usually kick off our Water Quality Monitoring season in April. To do our part in helping to flatten the curve of this pandemic, we are postponing these efforts. This time at home allows us to take a broader look at our monitoring program, systematize the effort across watersheds, and assure our intrepid citizen scientists are deployed for their highest, best use. We look forward to rolling out a more standardized, efficient, and effective Water Quality Monitoring program when it is safe to do so.
On Friday, May 1 we will bring our annual State of the Rivers presentation straight from our home offices to yours! The 2019 Report Card is hitting the presses momentarily and we'd like to share the results with you on Friday, May 1 via a Facebook Watch Party. The presentation will then be available on our website.
Despite an unexpectedly curtailed legislative session, ShoreRivers provided written and verbal testimony on a number of environmental bills, including our priority legislation focusing on the protection of submerged aquatic vegetation, pollution from the Conowingo Dam, expired Clean Water Act permits, as well as climate change and sea level rise. Unfortunately, not all of these bills made it out of their committees in the truncated timeframe, so we are looking forward to continuing to work on these issues again next session.
We're very proud of these environmental wins that did pass in time: overriding the Governor’s veto of the Oyster Fishery Management Plan bill; establishing Resilience Authorities within our counties; and removing industrial chemicals (or PFAs) from firefighting foam, which have been linked to serious human illness and proven to severely impact marine life.
And if you didn't get the chance to see our feature film A Voice for the Rivers made by the inimitable Sandy Cannon-Brown and Dave Harp, tune in to MPT on Tuesday, April 21 at 8:00 pm. We're proud to be part of Chesapeake Bay Week 2020.
Education & Outreach Team
April is Environmental Education Month! Although we're unable to be in the indoor or outdoor classroom with the students, our team is busily creating online resources for meaningful engagement with 3,000 public and private school students, grades 3-12. We have also opened the application process for teachers to apply to our Meaningful Watershed Educational Experience Academy which is scheduled to begin this summer and run through the 2021 school year. Encourage your teacher friends from all disciplines to apply by May 1.
Our quest to support schools to become Green School Certified continues! ShoreRivers and the Maryland Association for Environmental and Outdoor Education are your go-to guides to the comprehensive (but oh-so-worth-it!) application process. Visit our resource page for more information.
While you're staying at home, take a look around your outdoor landscape. Whether it's a postage stamp or a sweeping vista, you can have a positive effect on water quality in our area by incorporating river-friendly practices that mimic the natural environment like pollinator habitats and native plantings. There may even be rebates available to support your efforts!
Agriculture & Restoration Team
The Choptank Riverkeeper and our agricultural team are working to launch an incentive program through the collaborative "Envision the Choptank." Starting this spring, the program will offer agricultural landowners subsidies to install wetlands, grass and forest buffers, and other best management practices on their properties with the goal of installing over 230 acres of new water quality projects in the Choptank River watershed.
Work is underway on a series of stepped treatment wetlands on a farm in Cecilton, Maryland. This project addresses four major drainages totaling 373 acres of irrigated corn, soybean, and small grain production in the headwaters of the impaired Little Bohemia Creek. This project continues following all relevant CDC and State of Maryland safety protocols, and the project is still estimated to be completed in June of this year.
Upon completion, this project will create 5.5 acres of treatment wetlands and 2.87 acres of stormwater pond area, and is estimated to remove about 4,300 lbs of excess nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus) and 79 tons of total suspended solids annually.
The team is continuing to map and analyze our watersheds using the latest geospatial datasets. This information will help us identify, subsequently mitigate, and then measure results of our large-scale pollution-reducing projects throughout the Shore.
And on Tuesday, April 21, tune into MPT at 7:00 pm to see ShoreRivers staff discuss our agricultural work on Maryland Farm & Harvest: Water & Agriculture Special. This is also part of Chesapeake Bay Week 2020.
Development, Communications, & Admin Team
ShoreRivers has officially moved and unofficially rebranded our annual Summer Solstice Celebration to become a Fall Equinox Extravaganza on Saturday, September 26 in Wilmer Park. Sponsorship opportunities and ticket sales are now available on our website. As of today, all events through May are either canceled or postponed, but we'll keep you up to date through email, Facebook, Instagram, and our website. Please stay safe at home and support our mission in other ways, if you are able.
The spring edition of our Advocate Newsletter, focused on climate resiliency in our watersheds, should be in your mailboxes. If you missed it, read it on our website.
And we couldn't be more grateful for the broad spread of grant-funded work we're able to achieve through the generosity of the Chesapeake Bay Trust. Take a look at their Annual Report to see our ten projects across six counties.