West and Rhode Riverkeeper

Our friends over at Being In Place have put together a nice video detailing a stormwater restoration project in the Magothy River watershed. Check it out!

On September 30, 2010 our area was soaked by the remnants of Tropical Storm Nicole. Some areas received as much as 10 inches of rain from this storm. I spent the morning video-documenting various areas in our watershed and how the rain was impacting our waterways.

Galesville Rain Garden:

This project was recently completed, and seems to be functioning well. Water is captured from the street and parking lots, and is allowed to soak in rather than go straight into the river. The native plants help soak up the water, and also provide a pleasant landscape.

 

Triton Woods (new development on Mayo Peninsula):

This sediment basin fills during large storms and muddy runoff flows under Mayo Road and then into a ditch which carries it to Cadle Creek.

In order to restore the health of our waterways, we must be able to reduce pollution from stormwater runoff. It's time to get serious about stormwater pollution. For more video of stormwater runoff, see http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=WestRhode#g/u

 

We all love the West and Rhode Rivers for numerous reasons. One of the reasons for many of us is that they support an abundance of wildlife. This summer, we had another visit from a pod of dolphins (see here). Also this summer, former Director and long-term supporter Adam Hewison captured this video of another fun critter: a river otter.

The video is taken from his dock on the West River, near the mouth of Parish Creek.  The North American River Otter (Lontra canadensis) is native to our waterways. They can weigh between 10 and 30 lbs, and sport a thick, water-repellent coat of fur. They eat mostly fish and shellfish, and are known for being playful and fun to watch.

River otters were once very common in our area, but now are only rarely seen. Their population has been reduced by loss of habitat, and they are also susceptible to environmental pollution. We hope that we can improve the health of our rivers to the point where river otters will once again be a common site.

I got a very cheerful call from water quality monitoring volunteer Linda Lawrence this morning - she had spotted a pod of dolphins in Tenthouse Creek (near Galesville) in the West River. Our volunteer monitoring team on the Rhode River reported seeing them later this morning, too. Last summer we also had these marine mammal visitors come up the river. Yesterday, my friend and colleague Drew Koslow (Choptank Riverkeeper) reported seeing dolphins in the Choptank River on the Eastern Shore. Could they be the same ones that came to our Rivers today? Could they be the same ones that went up the Rivers last year? Maybe this is their annual vacation... I don't blame them - the West and Rhode Rivers are a wonderful place to visit!

Photos courtesy of Linda Lawrence and her iPhone

When I got to the office this morning, I was greeted by the site of heavy equipment in Parish Creek. The mouth of the creek is teaming with barges, pipes, and dredging rigs. This is all for the long-planned dredging of Parish Creek. The dredging will begin this weekend (March 13) and continue through the end of the month. The dredge material will be "sucked" from the bottom and pumped through a pumpline to the Idlewilde Dredge Material Placement(DMP) site.

We support this project as it will restore the Parish Creek channel to a level which will allow safe navigation for the myriad of watermen, sailors, and recreational boaters that keep their vessels in this creek. We will, however, be watching closely to ensure that the dredging does not release any sediment plumes or cause any other negative impacts to the immediate area during during this work. At least I can watch from right out of my office window!

All this snow has many of us cooped up. One good thing is I have been able to catch up on a couple things I hadn't had time to do. In January, local pilot and W/RR member Jerry Hill took me up in his Piper Cherokee to check out the Rivers from the air. I just uploaded some of the pictures on line. You can view the pictures at http://picasaweb.google.com/ctrumb/WestRhodeFlyover1162010#

On Friday, Oct 23 the Center for Watershed Protection will present the findings from our West River Watershed Assessment. This is an important step for us as we will now have a "game plan" for improving the health of the West River. I hope you can join us at the meeting (6 pm at Discovery Village). One outcome of this Assessment is that we will now have a prioritized list of restoration and pollution prevention options. We can take this list and match them up with funding opportunities to really do some good. It's an exciting time for our organization, and I hope you will all continue to support the work we are doing. Thanks to everyone who helped make this possible.

Also, we will be working over this Fall and Winter to do a similar project on the Rhode River. Stay tuned for details!