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St. Mary's River Watershed Association
PO Box 94, St. Mary’s City, MD 20686 |
Vol. 2, Iuuse 4
November 2007 |
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Dear Friends of the St. Mary’s River,
During the weekend of October 12-14, I had the opportunity to participate in the 2nd Annual Chesapeake Watershed Forum, which was held at the U.S Fish & Wildlife Service’s magnificent National Conservation Training Center in Shepherdstown, WVA. I’m happy to report that our past president, Nancy McAllister, Development Committee Chair, Richard Holden, and our Executive Director, Bob Lewis, joined me at the forum.
The Chesapeake Watershed Forum was an excellent opportunity for watershed groups, local government officials, foundations, corporate representatives, and others to learn the latest scientific and communication techniques to advance watershed restoration and protection. It also addressed organizational capacity building needs and focused on how to achieve both regional and watershed-wide ecological goals. Along with 400 others who share our common passion for restoring the Chesapeake Bay’s waterways, we had the opportunity to share our experiences and to learn from each other’s many successes and failures.
While at the forum, Nancy, Bob, Richard, and I were also able to network with folks from the Chesapeake Bay Trust and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, who have generously funded and supported our Association’s organizational and programmatic efforts to date. We also met with representatives from several other potential funding sources such as the Chesapeake Bay Program that we intend to pursue in the future.
I think that we all came away with confidence that despite the many difficulties inherent in reaching our goals of restored watersheds and a restored Chesapeake Bay, with enduring patience, much hard work, and timely political action we can join together with the thousands of others working towards the same goal and truly help turn the tide for the Chesapeake Bay.
Finally, I’d be remiss if I didn’t thank the 750 people who joined us at RiverFest 2007 on September 29, and helped to make it our biggest RiverFest yet. Many thanks go to our RiverFest committee, Bob Paul, Ray de Leon, Dan Donahue, Todd Rudolph, and Bob Lewis, and especially committee chairperson, Elaine Szymkowiak for all of their hard work that made this terrific family event such a great success.
Sincerely,
Joe Anderson
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Joe Anderson |
Oyster Project Update
by Roger Stone
Frequently in recent months, a powerboat from St. Mary’s College of Maryland has patrolled nearby waters to visit nine private docks whose owners have allowed SMRWA their use for our restoration project.
 At each one of the docks, two floats have been attached, one containing bags of live oysters, the other containing oyster shells. Visiting the docks, student workers and volunteers under the supervision of project adviser Bob Paul have pulled up the floats and surveyed the bags’ contents. These include not only oysters, but an assortment of other creatures including arthropods, small shrimp, worms, eels, and small fish. Even smaller organisms are placed in jars whose contents are analyzed later at the lab. Surprisingly, many of the closed oyster bags also contain full-size blue crabs that swam through the bags’ mesh as babies, then grew up in there.
This fieldwork stage of the project is now ended. Between now and yearend, the restoration team will be completing the lab work required to come up with wellgrounded estimates of what the presence of oysters and oyster shells on floats has done to enrich the biotic community in areas where they have been placed.
This information will form the principal basis for the project report that will be widely distributed in January.
 
Top: Oyster project science advisor, Bob Paul, leads a late-August trip of volunteers surveying oyster bags. Middle: Contents of the oyster bags are washed in fine-mesh pans. The larger animals, such as the small crabs, Skilletfish, and Grass Shrimp, are counted, logged and then returned to the river unharmed. The remaining organisms are bottled for analysis in the lab. Bottom left: Bob and former student Kevin Boyle prepare a float for return to the river after surveying the oyster bags. Bottom right: St. Mary’s River Project Director Amy Drohan poses next to a large osprey nest.
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