Research

The St. Mary’s River Project (SMRP), an ongoing data collection and study of the river hosted by St. Mary’s College of Maryland, did not contain a component whereby the data was utilized to support regional land use planning or for comprehensive educational outreach to the watershed community. Members of SMRP and the community gathered in order to fill this need—hence the St. Mary’s River Watershed Association was born. The Association continues to support and to pursue research and outreach projects in concert with SMRP.

In 2005 and 2006, Association members in partnership with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources sampled non-tidal streams in the watershed. Utilizing Chesapeake Bay Program methodology, insects (bugs in larval stage) are gathered from the streams and analyzed in the lab in order to determine specie, abundance, and diversity. Since only certain bugs live in clean waters or in poor quality waters, overall stream health can be determined. Generally, streams in southern Maryland are in fair to good health—conditions that we are very concerned about maintaining. Searchable data is available at:
http://mddnr.chesapeakebay.net/mbss/streamwaders.cfm

In October 2006, the Association launched the Oyster Recovery Assessment project. Utilizing scientific method, oysters are grown in floats in mesocosm tanks and in ten locations in the tidal St. Mary’s River. Pairs of floats are located at each selected site. One float contains live oysters and the other float contains dead oysters as a control group.

This project will extend through 2007 as Association members and students from St. Mary’s College of Maryland will determine two things: 1) to what extent do oysters, who are filter feeders, cleanse the water, and 2) to what extent do oysters promote diversity and/or increase biomass (quantity of life). Another deliverable on this grant-funded project will be the creation of a film documentary of the project—to be completed in 2007.

Association members will continue to utilize data collected by projects and by the College and incorporate this scientific knowledge in the development of sustainability planning and educational outreach to residents of southern Maryland. SMRP data can be accessed at:
http://www.smcm.edu/smrp/

The association has developed a publication based on science to inform homeowners how they can make their homesteads and lifestyle more friendly to our natural environment and to the Chesapeake Bay waters. A PDF-formatted version can be downloaded at:
http://www.smrwa.org/pdfdocs/pub-BackyardConservation.pdf