Chesapeake Bay News

The Third Maryland Streams Symposium and Mid-Atlantic Volunteer Monitoring Conference will be held August 10-13 at Carroll Community College near Westminster, MD.

Stakeholders from Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia will meet to discuss stream-related issues. The theme of the Volunteer Conference is Sustaining Volunteer Involvement in Water Quality Management: Key Roles to Play in Critical Environmental Issues.

The four days will include plenary sessions, informative presentations, hands-on workshops and field trips to local streams. Attendees will also learn about state-of-the-art stream restoration techniques and see natice freshwater fish.

The event is sponsored by Maryland DNR, Carroll Community College, The Maryland Water Monitoring Council, U.S. EPA, and The Maryland Local Watershed Implementation Service.

Each day will start with a plenary session (except Saturday) and the kickoff plenary session for the Volunteer Conference will be held on Thursday, August 11th.

Poster sessions, with authors in attendance, will be held throughout the symposium and conference. There will also be plenty of displays from local and regional watershed associations, governmental agencies, and educational organizations.

Stakeholders interested in attending should RSVP to Josh Davidsburg at 410-260-8002 or jdavidsburg@dnr.state.md.us.

Increasingly, outdoor enthusiasts are reporting beaver sightings in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. The beaver is the largest rodent in North America. It has webbed feet, brown fur and a wide, flat, dark tail. Adult beavers usually weigh around 40 pounds but can reach weights of 75 pounds or more. Beavers live around 20 years in the wild.

Although the stereotype of North American beaver habitat includes streams, dams, and beaver ponds, these large aquatic mammals may behave quite differently in the swamps and creeks of the Chesapeake region.

With the abundance of water and trees, beavers do not necessarily build dams in swamp habitats. In tidal rivers, beavers may move into secluded coves or small tributaries during summer. Some downriver movement has been reported to occur in winter.

A tree girdled by a beaver in a Maryland cypress swamp.

In the Chesapeake Bay watershed, beavers consume aquatic plants including pond weeds, water-lilies, and cattails. They also consume the inner bark of deciduous trees. Trees are often completely girdled by feeding beavers, which kills the affected trees.

Beavers are occasionally relocated by wildlife managers when their activities are clash with humans. Both Maryland and Virginia allow harvests of beavers for fur and food. Predators also impact beavers of the region, including foxes, coyotes, and dogs.

Governor Martin O’Malley has proposed $25 million in fiscal year 2012 funding for the Chesapeake and Atlantic Coastal Bays Trust Fund, a 25 percent increase over 2011. The dedicated fund supports projects designed to reduce non-point source pollution that reaches the Chesapeake Bay.

“Even during these difficult fiscal times, Maryland has been able to strengthen our efforts to restore the Chesapeake Bay,” said Governor O’Malley. “With 90 percent of these funds being directed for projects and infrastructure that will employ installers, designers, engineers and construction services, the Trust Fund will not only help us achieve our restoration commitments, but will create jobs and support local economies.”

Established in November 2007, the Chesapeake and Atlantic Coastal Bays Trust Fund was created to provide a dedicated source of funding to accelerate Bay restoration by focusing resources on practices that are the most cost efficient and are targeted to the areas where pollution reductions will be the most effective.

The Trust Fund is made up of monies generated through motor fuel tax and rental car tax in Maryland. Now in its third year, the Fund has targeted a total of $38.4 million to date for projects that reduce non-point source pollution: $20 million in fiscal year 2011; $8.81 million in fiscal year 2010; and $9.6 million in fiscal year 2009. It is anticipated that when fully-funded, the Trust Fund will generate $50 million annually.

In addition to supporting Maryland’s commitment to cover crops and planting trees in targeted areas across the State, the Trust Fund will direct $6.2 million to local communities to assist in clean-up of local rivers and streams.

Prince George’s County will receive $2.88 million to construct a large-scale urban stream restoration in the Northwest Branch of the Anacostia River.

Other projects to be funded include:

* $1.2 million to Howard County and the Columbia Association for stormwater retrofits and forest buffer restoration in the Little Patuxent watershed

* $640,000 to Baltimore County and Herring Run Watershed Association for stormwater retrofits and forest buffer restoration in Back River.

* $500,000 to Harford County to construct four stormwater management projects in Wheel Creek.

* $463,000 to Anne Arundel County to construct and monitor an innovative sand seepage stream restoration in a subwatershed of the Magothy River.

* $290,000 to the Sassafras River Association to install wetlands and pilot poultry manure incorporation within the watershed.

* $250,000 to Centreville to manage stormwater at the local wastewater treatment plant in the Corsica River watershed.

Maryland’s agencies, the Chesapeake Bay Trust, the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association worked together to maximize available Bay restoration dollars.

The complete SFY 2012 Workplan and supporting materials can be found at: http://www.dnr.maryland.gov/ccp/funding/trust_fund.asp.

source: MD DNR

Maryland has announced the launch of StreamHealth, a website to help Marylanders learn about the health of their streams and take action to improve them. The site provides resources for citizens, grassroots organizations, schools and scout groups to survey their streams, and receive technical guidance and funding opportunities to restore and protect them.

The project was developed by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, in cooperation with the Maryland Environmental Service, Towson University, and the Maryland Departments of the Environment and Information Technology.

Among the tools are an interactive map which provides information on individual stream health as well as the presence or absence of forested streamside buffers and impervious surfaces — two of the major factors influencing stream health.

“The health of the Bay is ultimately determined by what we do on the land — in our cities and towns, on our farms and forests, in our schools and backyards,” said Governor O’Malley.  “Through this website we are providing information that is real to people because they can see the status of the streams in their neighborhoods –- our lifelines to the Bay.”

Maryland’s governor also encouraged citizens to join the Stream Waders program, the volunteer arm of the Maryland Biological Stream Survey, an internationally acclaimed assessment program that provides data for the StreamHealth website as well as the Chesapeake Bay Health Report Card.