Riverkeepers to host State of the Rivers series on Eastern Shore

MARYLAND – Riverkeepers from across the Eastern Shore are gearing up for their State of the Rivers series.

Collecting the Data

Non-profit organization, ShoreRivers, helps riverkeepers to track the health of the Sassafras, Chester, Miles, Wye, Eastern Bay, and Choptank rivers. The work is concentrated to 60 sites in those watersheds.

“Those 60 sites are monitored once per week from April until the end of October,” said Miles-Wye Riverkeeper Ben Ford. “So, we have a lot of different data points, and thousands of individual pieces of data that inform the output.”

Researchers are looking for data points like nutrient pollution and dissolved oxygen levels, algae indicators like chlorophyll a, and water clarity. Once that data is collected, it’s used to assign a water quality letter grade rank to each watershed.

Important Information, Unique Challenges

Ford says that information will all be presented at each State of the River event; and, it can be vitally important for stakeholders who are trying to best engage with, and protect, their local waterways. For example, Ford says the information can be used to inform policy decisions on oyster or submerged aquatic vegetation restoration, or best management practices.

And on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, those distinctions matter; Ford says waterways on the Delmarva peninsula face unique challenges.

“Most of our watersheds on the Eastern Shore are predominantly agricultural, and our farmers and land owners are some of our best partners for putting these best management practices in place, to keep sediment and nutrients on their agricultural land,” Ford said. “There are a lot of septic systems still around on the Eastern Shore. A lot of them are outdated, and need to be updated with new technology.”

State of the River Series

The State of the River series is broken up into four separate events:

• 5:30 p.m. on April 17th at Betterton Fire Hall – State of the Sassafras River and Bayside Creeks with Riverkeeper Zack Kelleher
• 5:30 p.m. on April 25th at The Packing House in Cambridge – State of the Choptank River with Riverkeeper Matt Pluta
• 5:30 p.m. on April 29th at Cult Classic Brewing in Stevensville – State of the Miles River, Wye River, and Eastern Bay with Riverkeeper Ben Ford
• 5:30 p.m. on May 8th at the Garfield Center for the Arts in Chestertown – State of the Chester River with Riverkeeper Annie Richards

Keeping Rivers Top of Mind

Ahead of those events, Ford says there are things we can all do to keep river health top of mind.

“The best ways for people to get engaged with their local waterways is to find ways to get out there; find an outfitter and go for a paddle, go to a public landing,” Ford said. “Take a certain amount of ownership of that area. The waterways are ours. They’re public property, and they belong to all of us. We should take care of them.”