Federation Blog

From the mouth of the South River all the way to Bacon Ridge Branch, over 40 South River Federation volunteers participated in the 7^th Annual South River Snapshot.  Volunteers spread out across the entire South River watershed on the morning of Saturday, April 9^th and conducted water quality tests to assess the River’s health.   Although the data represents just a “snapshot” in time, collecting the data from over 40 sites around the River simultaneously, and doing it at about the same time each year, gives a good general barometer of the relative health of our streams and creeks.  While most of the sites had safe or normal bacteria levels, a few sites did have high levels.  You can see the bacteria results on Diana’s blog. 
Patch.com wrote a nice article on the Snapshot!  Click here to read it.

The Enterococci data is now ready from this last Saturday's South River Federation's 7th Annual Snapshot.

On Friday the short rain event was only 0.38 inches of rain, but even with that small amount there were some spikes of bacteria in our watershed.  For a single sampling event the criteria is 104 cfu/100ml (colony forming units/100milliliters).  Therefore in the map above, anything in orange or red is higher than the State of Maryland's limit.

Thanks to our great volunteers I am now going back through the past 7 years of data and preparing a 'trend" analysis to find why our hot spot are HOT.  One stations is HIL 1, this is located in the Hillsmere community and is consistently high every year- now that we have the data to prove that there is a problem (thanks to our volunteers)- We can see what we can do to fix the issues.---Diana

This week's bottom dissolved oxygen measurements indicate the expanding hypoxic zone from mid-river up to the Rt 50 bridge.  Many of the tidal creek are also experiencing hypoxic conditions (2.0 mg/l or lower).  This is due to the excessive nutrients causing the algae blooms, which then cause the low dissolved oxygen.  Blue Crabs need above 3mg/l of dissolved oxygen to live, therefore at the moment the South River is not that hospitable for the blue crab. ---Diana

The South River Federation's Riverkeeper Tidal Water Quality montoring is in mid-season currently.  Some of you may have see us out there sampling the water quality.  I have been ask many questions about when and where we sample.  I have provided a GIS map of our current tidal stations.  I have 7 main stem stations, then 14 stations in each of the tidal creeks.  

 

EPA Unveils Chesapeake Bay Restoration Strategy

 The Chesapeake Bay Restoration Strategy is now out as presented by Lisa Jackson (EPA administrator) yesterday.  She stated that only thing needed is money and resources.

I would like to include Three more things:

1)  The absolute old fashion American CAN DO.  With out the can do/will do we will not have anything.

2 ) Much better enforcement,  marinas have put large piers/bulkhead/and pilings into the South River and have only received a 43,000.00 fine, and they did not have to take out the structures that were installed.  So, in reality the company folded the fine into the cost of doing the construction.  The State and Federal agencies need to not only have greater fines but mandate that these structures be removed! 

3)  I would also like to include more education on the true causes of the destruction of the Chesapeake Bay and the South River.  I speak beyond the choir quite often and have learned that most adults really do not know what stormwater runoff it,  they do not know how fertilizer can harm the Bay/River,  they do not realize how poor the infrastructure of our septic and sewer systems is.  I see very well educated folks over-fertilize their lawns in order to get the Crayola crayon green color, instead of managing their lawns in a River-friendly way.

http://wjz.com/local/Bay.foundation.epa.2.1689773.html

 

Two living shoreline projects, both of them on Beard's Creek, were recently funded with stimulus money from MDE/EPA.  The Annapolis Landing project was completed in early December, and the one pictured below, at Southdown Shores, was recently initiated.   The design and permitting of the project were funded by the Federation as part of our Targeted Watershed Grant.  The Federation helped fund the installation of several community rain gardens near the Annapolis Landing project to protect a steep slope above the shoreline.  The Federation is excited to have been a partner in these restoration efforts and looks forward to help planting them in the spring.

Beard's Creek is another of the local waterways named after an early, prominent landowner.  In this case, it was Richard Beard.  Mr. Beard received Anne Arundel County's first land grant in 1650 and occupied a homestead on the creek called "Beard's Habitation" after moving up from Virginia with his brother-in-law, William Burgess (for whom Burgess Creek (now Glebe Creek) was named). 

At the time, Mr. Beard constructed a mill on the creek, an undertaking that would become increasingly popular over the coming century as hydropower was one of the few free sources of energy for grinding grains or running machinery.

 "Upstream from London Town, however, nearly every major tributary of South River had a mill. During the 1730's boom, no less than eleven mills or mill dams dotted the parish map. On Flat Creek alone there were four mills including two water mills, one fulling mill for cleaning wool, and one grist mill. Nearby, probably on Beard's Creek, Richard Moore erected both a water mill and bolting mill..." - C. Earle (1975). Evolution of a Tidewater Settlement System: All Hallow's Parish, Maryland, 1650-1783.

 Richard Beard Jr., the son of the namesake of Beard's Creek, was a surveyor and is credited with having made the first map of Annapolis, in the late 1600s.

 

Thanks to the generous support of the Chesapeake Bay Trust and several individuals living on Beard's Creek, the Federation will be installing over 10 rain gardens throughout the Beard's Creek watershed, from Edgewater Beach to Annapolis Landing.  Several more will be going in over the next week or so, but here are 3 recently installed gardens in Edgewater Beach, Shaded Section.

The first garden, below, captures runoff from a community roadway and infiltrates it into the ground.

The second garden has has a downspout diverted into it and will now capture water that had been running down the driveway into the road.

The third garden involved a curb cut, and now captures water that was previously delivered into a pipe system and discharged into the road.

 

To learn more about rain gardens, visit rainscaping.org.

Late last year we finished weeding and planting rain gardens that the Federation and church had installed at Riva Trace Baptist Church on Central Ave (Rt. 214).  This spring we get to reap the rewards.

The area is dominated by very clay soils, which are common throughout Edgewater, and as a result, the gardens as initially installed took some time to drain.  This led to some of the plants that had originally been installed rotting, and weeds, like Bermuda grass (Cynodon dactylon) moving in to the beds.  After a vigorous weeding, Federation volunteers installed plants that can tolerate wetter feet, such as common rush (Juncus effusus), three-square (Scirpus americanus), and blue flag iris (Iris versicolor).  As you can see below, these species, and several other species of rushes which have recruited naturally on the site, appear to be pretty happy.