Along with summer swimming comes ShoreRivers Bacteria Monitoring season. It is advised that people not swim 24-48 hours after a major rain.

Originally farmland, Oxford Conservation Park was designated  to become a subdivision before Talbot County’s former Director of Parks and Recreation, Preston  Peper, Talbot County Engineer Bill Wolinski, and a team of community stakeholders worked  together to plan and create a public park where anyone from the community could go to walk and  enjoy nature. Now this warren of wetlands and meadows is enjoyed every day by birders, walkers,  photographers, and visitors of all ages. Soon it will offer even more.  

In 2023, the Friends of Oxford Conservation Park volunteer group approached Eastern Shore Land  Conservancy with their concerns over the condition of the park’s habitat, asking for ESLC’s  help. ESLC’s Enhanced Stewardship Manager Larisa Prezioso then began working with Talbot  County Parks and Recreation, Washington College’s Natural Lands Project, and the Friends of  Oxford Conservation Park to help enhance the existing habitat in need of maintenance and  restoration. In addition to the collaborative efforts to keep present grasslands healthy and forests  diverse, the partnership worked together to pursue funding for the completion of the initial park  plan. Activating this plan will result in converting the park’s remaining thirty acres from row crops  to passive recreational grasslands and trails. As of this summer, Washington College’s Natural Lands  Project, which has converted 80 sites and thousands of acres of marginal cropland across the Shore into diverse native meadows, wetlands, and forests, has received funding from the Department of  Natural Resources Atlantic and Coastal Bays Trust Fund to initiate the expansion starting in the  spring of 2025.  

“This project is a great collaboration between our project, the Eastern Shore Land Conservancy,  Talbot County, and the Friends of Oxford Conservation Park,” said Kathy Thornton, Natural Lands  Project Field Technician, noting that each entity has certain resources they can contribute to the  effort. “Together, this makes for a strong project where we can manage existing habitat, create new  habitat, and sustain a long-term maintenance plan.” 

“Conservation does not happen in a bubble,” said Dan Small, the Natural Lands Project  Coordinator and Associate Director of Natural Land Stewardship at the Washington College Center  for Environment & Society. “By leveraging resources and enthusiasm from grant funds, non-profits,  volunteer groups, and County government, we’re able to turn public space into a sanctuary for both  people and wildlife,” said Small. 

The new 30-acre mix of native meadows will feature tree plantings and native short stature grasses  and wildflowers not found in the existing habitat, which is currently dominated by native tall grasses.  A network of walking trails will connect to and double the length of trails across the park. And new  educational signage will teach visitors about the many ecosystem services that these diverse native  meadows provide, including flood mitigation, prevention of soil erosion, and improved water quality  within the Chesapeake Bay watershed. 

Climate change resilience, expanded trails, and educational opportunities will be of huge benefit to  the public, but the real beneficiaries of this new project will be the wildlife. Once abundant on the 

Eastern Shore, low-lying early successional habitats like grasslands, fallow fields, meadows and  prairies have become increasingly rare. The rarer the meadows, the rarer the unique suite of wildlife  that depends upon them—species like field sparrows, woodcocks, warblers, turtles, salamanders, and  fireflies. Small and Thornton’s main focus is creating habitat to support another meadow-lover:  Northern Bobwhite quail. A few quail have been sighted at the park recently and the team is hopeful  that this new habitat expansion will ultimately support a healthy breeding population. 

When supporting early successional species like quail, the overall footprint of the habitat is crucial.  Adding these next thirty acres will create larger habitat areas that can support more individuals.  Small and Thornton explain, “Most grassland birds prefer to establish territories and nests away  from wooded edges, so meadows with larger interior space away from forest edges is beneficial.”  More space also bolsters population growth of threatened birds because there are more nooks and  crannies to hide nests, making it harder for predators to find them. No child playing hide and seek  would choose to hide in a small manicured front yard over a wide and rambling weedy backyard  garden. Now the OCP quail coveys are finally getting the sprawling warren of a garden they deserve.  And the grassy paths winding through the new meadow’s wildflowers and warm-season grasses will  encourage people to get lost in the glorious thick-of-it too, finding all sorts of flora and fauna  surprises along the way.  

“Truly, this work would not have happened without the passion and advocacy of the Friends of  Oxford Conservation Park,” said Prezioso. “Having a dedicated and engaged group of volunteer  citizens not only provides such an asset to the park’s long-term care, but also demonstrates that  

having ecological, passive-recreational spaces is something that’s valuable to our community, and  worth advocating for.” 

Established in 1990, Eastern Shore Land Conservancy’s mission is to conserve, steward, and advocate for the  unique rural landscape of Maryland’s Eastern Shore, forever a special place of diverse and abundant natural  resources and thriving rural communities.

Eastern Shore Land Conservancy is pleased to welcome Kate  Rumbaugh to the organization’s board of directors. Rumbaugh’s 30+ years of experience in public  policy and government affairs on the federal, state, and local levels will support ESLC’s growing  portfolio of policy work. “Kate’s deep expertise in policy, advocacy, and communications is an  important addition to the Eastern Shore Land Conservancy Board of Directors,” commented ESLC  President and CEO Steven Kline. “As we seek to increase our engagement with decision makers,  Kate’s voice, expertise, and bipartisan approach to problem solving will be invaluable.” 

“ESLC’s work in the policy arena can really complement and grow our conservation efforts overall,”  commented Rumbaugh. “Sharing information with public policy makers so that they know our concerns is like having a neighbor understand you, understand what’s important to you, and  understand how we can all work together in the same community serving the same people.” 

Jim Mullin, chair of the ESLC board of directors added, “We are thrilled to have Kate join us on the  board, where she has jumped right in to the work. Building a board with expertise that reflects the  full scope of our work is essential. Kate’s policy and communications skills will improve the  effectiveness of Eastern Shore Land Conservancy.”  

Currently the Head of Government Affairs for Doordash, Rumbaugh is an alum of the University of  Maryland, and has also studied at the Prince of Wales’s Business & Sustainability Programme at The  University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, and the Conflict Resolution workshop at the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School. Rumbaugh first became familiar with the Chesapeake Bay as a child—boating, fishing, waterskiing, and crabbing with her father when he was stationed there. “Coming over here to be closer to the Bay and away from a busy  city is something that I’ve wanted to do for some time,” Rumbaugh commented, “I finally found the  right place to do it.” 

Now happily settled in St. Michaels, she is “tremendously honored to have been appointed to the board,” where she can learn more about local land conservation on both an organizational and personal level. “I see the fragility of the Eastern Shore. If left to our own devices I’m not sure everybody would share the need or understanding for preserving it. It’s good to be able to help advance that notion and create better understanding for the need to preserve. There are always competing pressures—the growth of communities versus preserving communities. We’re in an area of growth that makes those competing priorities difficult. Focus and attention in this space is  increasingly more important than ever.” 

Established in 1990, Eastern Shore Land Conservancy’s mission is to conserve, steward, and advocate for the  unique rural landscape of Maryland’s Eastern Shore, forever a special place of diverse and abundant natural  resources and thriving rural communities.

Celebrate the end of summer with ShoreRivers at the Shaw Bay Raft-Up Concert from 3–6 pm on Saturday, September 7. The Eastport Oyster Boys will be making their 21^st appearance and the Wye River Band will be back for their fifth at this free concert, which aims to raise funds and awareness for clean water efforts on Maryland’s Eastern Shore.

This annual benefit concert is a must for mariners of all kinds. Boat in to Shaw Bay near the mouth of the Wye River and then join the floating raft up on your dinghy, paddle board, or kayak to enjoy a front row seat to the live concert. Visit shorerivers.org/events to find sponsorship opportunities, a map of nearby locations from which to launch your vessel, and to sign up to receive text updates on the event.

While the concert is free, donations are welcome, with all proceeds helping to promote the clean water initiatives of ShoreRivers on the Miles and Wye rivers and in Eastern Bay. ShoreRivers is grateful for the generous sponsorship of John & Jill Murray, St. Michaels Marina, Bosun’s Marine, and Leigh Family & Cosmetic Dentistry.

ShoreRivers is a nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting Maryland’s Eastern Shore waterways through science-based advocacy, restoration, education, and engagement. Our local waterways are polluted by excess nutrients and sediment that run off of urban, suburban, agricultural, and commercial land. ShoreRivers is dedicated to implementing real solutions through programs and projects to improve the health of these waterways. To learn more, please visit shorerivers.org.

To sign up to receive Shaw Bay Raft-Up Concert updates, text shawbayconcert to 443.302.3844. Event questions may be directed to Courtney Leigh at [email protected].

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On Sunday, September 15, ShoreRivers will host its 20^th Ride for Clean Rivers—a chance for cyclists to ride the beautiful back roads of Talbot and Queen Anne’s counties in support of the organization’s work for thriving rivers cherished by all Eastern Shore communities.

Riders of all ages and levels are welcome to register for fully supported Metric Century (62-mile), 35-mile, or 20-mile routes. All routes begin and end at Chesapeake College in Wye Mills and include SAG support from Queen Anne’s County Amateur Radio Club, and rest stops with food and drink from Sprout.

Staggered group send-offs at 8am and 9am will include a police escort across Route 50. Upon returning to the college campus, riders and volunteers will enjoy a boxed lunch from Sprout and beer from Ten Eyck Brewery. Participants are also encouraged to join teams and create their own fundraising pages to boost support for their ride from others.

ShoreRivers extends special thanks to these partners: Chesapeake College, Sprout, Bike Doctor Kent Island, Ten Eyck Brewing Company, TriCycle & Run, as well as volunteers from the Talbot Skipjacks 4-H Club, and Queen Anne’s County Amateur Radio Club.

All proceeds from this event support ShoreRivers’ science-based advocacy, restoration, education, and engagement programs. Registration prices will increase as the event nears, so sign up now! To register as a rider or sponsor, visit shorerivers.org/event/rideforcleanrivers2024. Any questions can be directed to Lindsey at [email protected].

ShoreRivers protects and restores Maryland’s Eastern Shore waterways through science-based advocacy, restoration, education, and engagement. `shorerivers.org

Eastern Shore Land Conservancy (ESLC) closed on a 339-acre conservation easement owned by the Jones Family in Dorchester County. Nestled between two existing ESLC easements and an expansive Maryland Agricultural Land Preservation Foundation (MALPF) easement, this final stretch of forest creates a 4,000-acre corridor of protected lands. As he looks forward to sharing the natural beauty of these woodlands with many future generations, avid wildlife manager Ben Jones is delighted “to know that when we’re not around it’s going to be the way it is or better than we left it.”

The Jones’s woodland property falls within the Southeastern Forest Legacy Area, identified by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources as a forest of high economic, environmental, and societal importance. Once threatened by fragmentation and conversion, the property is now protected for perpetuity, safeguarding habitat for Delmarva fox squirrels, deer, groundhogs, foxes, and forest interior dwelling bird species like tanagers, ovenbirds, and pine warblers. The easement’s silt-loam soil anchors abundant pine responsibly managed through a forest stewardship plan.

Located within the Chesapeake Bay Critical Area, the new easement provides an essential buffer for the Transquaking River, a 23-mile-long Chesapeake Bay tributary left notoriously vulnerable to nutrient pollution. In addition to aiding in Maryland’s clean water goals, large woodlands provide a number of services to the entire surrounding community and ecosystem. The forest will help to prevent flooding and soil erosion, sequester carbon, prevent light pollution, and shelter wildlife including the property’s recent abundance of wild turkeys.

If one large tree provides four people a one-day supply of oxygen, then this easement provides clean air and safe breathing for the Jones’s entire community and beyond. “We have a number of farms and every one of them has been put in preservation,” noted Ben’s father Skip Jones. “Everything we’ve ever done, every land we’ve ever bought, we’ve put into preservation. Our heart is in the soil.”

ESLC is grateful to the Jones family, the U.S. Navy, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and The Nature Conservancy for their technical and financial support of this project. To learn more about conservation easement programs please contact ESLC’s director of land conservation, David Satterfield, at dsatterfield@eslc.org.

Established in 1990, Eastern Shore Land Conservancy’s mission is to conserve, steward, and advocate for the unique rural landscape of the Eastern Shore. ESLC works to forever protect this special place of diverse and abundant natural resources and thriving rural communities.

This summer, ShoreRivers and a team of volunteer SwimTesters will monitor bacteria levels at 50 sites around the region, providing a critical public health service for communities and identifying pollution hotspots for future restoration efforts. To see weekly results and program details, visit shorerivers.org/swim.

ShoreRivers is pleased to announce its Swimmable ShoreRivers bacteria testing program will return for the season on Thursday, May 23, and that weekly results from this annual program will once again be available this year in both English and Spanish.

Every summer, ShoreRivers deploys a team of community scientists to monitor bacteria levels at popular swimming and boating sites to provide important human health risk information to the public. Their samples are then processed, according to standard scientific protocols, in ShoreRivers in-house labs. The program follows the Environmental Protection Agency’s standard protocols for collecting and analyzing samples and makes public the results of that testing to let people know about current bacteria levels as they make their plans for recreating in our waterways. Results are posted every Friday, between Memorial Day and Labor Day, at shorerivers.org/swim and on both the organization’s and its individual Riverkeepers’ social media pages.

A second page, shorerivers.org/swimmable-shorerivers-espanol, was set up last year to share this program with the Spanish-speaking community, and 14 signs can be found at public sites around the Eastern Shore that explain the goals of the Swimmable ShoreRivers program and show users where to find weekly results in both English and Spanish. These signs (and the program at large) are made possible thanks to funding from the Cornell Douglas Foundation, and ShoreRivers’ Riverkeepers will continue working with local county officials to install more.

Weekly results are also shared on theswimguide.org, where descriptions of testing sites are available in both languages. This public service is a true community effort: this summer, 67 SwimTesters will monitor 50 sites on the Choptank, Miles, Wye, Chester, and Sassafras rivers; Eastern Bay; and the Bayside Creeks. Special thanks go to our generous site sponsors, who include towns, marinas, homeowners associations, and families.

The Swimmable ShoreRivers program serves our community in a way that no other program, organization, agency, or data set does. In Maryland, if the state or local government designates an area as a swimming beach, then bacteria monitoring and reporting is required. However, a major gap exists on the Eastern Shore as very few areas are designated swimming beaches, and the results from those that are, are rarely posted publicly or in a timely manner.

“We work with our local community every day, and we know they’re interacting with our rivers in dozens of locations from Dorchester to Cecil County,” says Matt Pluta, Director of Riverkeeper Programs at ShoreRivers. “It’s our goal to make sure those individuals have available to them the information they need to know—namely, whether the water is safe for them to recreate in from a bacteria pollution standpoint. Swimmable ShoreRivers strives to enhance physical access to our local rivers, as well as access to data and information to help our community make informed decisions about how, when, and where we choose to enjoy our incredible natural resources.”

Also returning for the 2024 season is ShoreRivers’ Pumpout Boat. The Pumpout Boat is a free service offered on the Miles and Wye rivers, that docks at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in St. Michaels and operates from May to mid-November. With your help, this boat will help prevent more than 20,000 gallons of concentrated marine waste from entering our waters annually. To schedule a pump-out, contact Captain Jim Freeman at 410-829-4352, on VHF Channel 9, email [email protected], or by using the form at shorerivers.org/programs/pumpout-boat.

ShoreRivers protects and restores Eastern Shore waterways through science-based advocacy, restoration, and education.

shorerivers.org