ShoreRivers holds Restoration Project Tour and Ribbon Cutting

ShoreRivers recently conducted a Restoration Project Tour for state and local government staff, board members, contractors, project funders, and major supporters. The tour culminated in a ribbon cutting for a recently completed 4,100’ stream restoration on Swantown Creek in the upper Sassafras River.

The tour showcased the power of leveraging partnerships to create significant nutrient and sediment reductions, restore habitat, and reduce erosion. Located in the Wye, Chester, and Sassafras watersheds, attendees toured the following restoration projects:

Photo: Swantown Creek Stream Restoration ribbon cutting. Pictured left to right: Kim Righi, Cindy Hayes, Ken Shumaker, Jeff Russell, Josh Thompson, John Burke, Ted Carski, Emmett Duke (all ShoreRivers Board or Staff), Caleb Gould (Landowner, Teels Lake LP), Rocky Powell (Engineer, Clear Creeks Consulting), Lee Irwin (Construction, Aquatic Resource Restoration Company), Sepehr Baharlou (Design, permitting, BayLand Consultants & Designers), and Kristin Junkin (ShoreRivers). Photo Credit: ShoreRivers

Chesapeake College Stormwater Restoration

ShoreRivers implemented a suite of 19 projects to address major stormwater challenges on campus and to capture runoff from almost 80 acres of surrounding agricultural fields. The projects include a wetland restoration and meadow planting, ten bioponds, two riparian buffer plantings, a stream restoration, the conversion of 10 acres of turf to wildflower meadow, and a planting of four acres of switchgrass buffers around agricultural fields.

Worton Park Wetland and Tree Planting

Completed in 2016, this wetland construction and tree planting project spans 10 acres across Kent County High School and Worton Park, filtering stormwater from 120 acres of turf, buildings, and parking lots at the headwaters of two impaired creeks. High school students were engaged at every step of the process. Now two years post completion, we will be able to see the wetland in a more natural state of plant growth and the habitat it provides.

Starkey Farm Stepped Treatment Wetlands

This ongoing project, located in Galena on the largest spinach farm in Maryland and one of the largest on the East Coast, is designed to increase the capacity of an existing sediment pond and restore a portion of the stream located at the outlet of the pond. The project includes a sediment forebay constructed at the head of the system and includes a series of stepped, lined, vegetated treatment wetland cells that provide both nutrient removal and create storage above the pond.

Swantown Ravine Restoration

Recently completed, this project in the Sassafras River watershed restored 4,100 feet of actively eroded stream, reconnected the stream to the floodplain, restored natural stream function, and eliminated further sedimentation in Swantown Creek. Seven shallow ponds at the head of each main tributary creek capture and infiltrate water flow from the upstream farm owned by Teels Lake, LP. The length of the primary stream has been stabilized and replanted with native plants to reduce erosion and provide habitat.

Projects were funded in full or in part by Maryland’s Department of Natural Resources Chesapeake and Atlantic Coastal Bays Trust Fund, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, Environmental Protection Agency, Chesapeake Bay Trust, and Kent and Queen Anne’s Counties.

ShoreRivers protects and restores Eastern Shore waterways through science-based advocacy, restoration, and education. We work collaboratively with our community yet maintain an uncompromising and independent voice for clean rivers and the living resources they support.

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