Meet our Stewards

Phew! What happens when you combine dozens of strong backs with gloved hands? Why, completion of a capstone project initiated by Washingtonians Elizabeth McGowan and Tim Dowdy in D.C.’s own Rock Creek (National) Park, of course. Elizabeth and Tim, both graduates of the Anacostia Watershed Society’s 2024 Watershed Stewards Academy, counted on the willingness and spirt of an intergenerational coterie of volunteers to help restore degraded habitat in a roughly one-acre wooded patch that drains into Rock Creek.

From May through September, teams cleared walls of privet, porcelain berry, barberry and their invasive vegetative brethren to open up space to plant arrays of 200-plus native forbs and shrubs, including spicebush, Joe-Pye weed, red and black chokeberry, arrowwood viburnum, bluestem goldenrod, sensitive fern, bottle gentian and Virginia knotweed, to name a few. Beastly summer heat added another chore—toting buckets of creek water uphill to give the plants a fair shot at survival.

The ambitious undertaking also called for corralling tree-size, downed logs from giant Creekside “dams” and cutting them with two-person saws. Crews lugged the logs up the slope to block off and control erosion along two long unblazed “social” trails created by shortcutting hikers. In tandem, volunteers installed metal “habitat restoration” signs to reinforce the message.

Elizabeth, a journalist, and Tim, an architect, met several years ago as certified volunteer “Weed Warriors” in the 1,750-acre park. Elizabeth selected the site for a joint capstone endeavor because the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club (PATC) had cited it as a priority due to its potential for ecological connectivity. She has maintained blazed hiking trails in the park with PATC for almost two decades.

The project’s location is strategic because it’s adjacent to an upcoming enormous National Park Service forest restoration project. As well, a small stream that forms one boundary of the site and feeds into Rock Creek provides habitat for the at-risk Hay’s spring amphipod, a tiny freshwater crustacean.

Tim and Elizabeth had no idea they’d both applied to become Master Watershed Stewards earlier this year.

“It was just happenstance, not planning, that we ended up as classmates,” said Elizabeth, a Pulitzer Prize-winning environmental reporter now taking college classes to transition into a career mixing native plants and stormwater management. “We figured, why not collaborate on a capstone?”

“This is all about getting our hands and boots dirty for a good cause, and healing our land and waters. It was incredibly fulfilling to be part of an Academy that showed me what’s possible.

Now I’m itching to find out where I might land professionally.”

George Wiggins graduated from Harford County’s first Watershed Stewards Academy in 2018 and has been a huge asset to the program ever since. George came to us with a degree in earth science, and continues in the environmental field after college working with several water and wastewater plants. George’s WSA capstone project, along with Teri Myers and Rose Braue, was to partner with the Anita C. Leight Estuary Center in developing and delivering educational programming on invasive plant identification and removal.

George helped construct and continues to maintain rain gardens at Tollgate Park, Churchville Rec Center - Glenville Building, and Mariner Point Park. He has worked to assist in visioning new WSA programs, and. helped create a junior WSA program, but it was shut down due to Covid, and has educated the public at events like the Annual Wade In at Anita C. Leight Estuary Center, Harford County Farm Fair, and Fall Fest at Eden Mill Nature Center. He has participated in tree planting at Harford Glen Environmental Education Center; in removing invasive oriental bittersweet and native species plantings with students at the Anita C. Leight Estuary Center; in cleanup and plantings at Aberdeen Middle school; and has attended many conferences and meetings as a Master Watershed Steward for Harford County.

George volunteers at countless events and shows up at countless meetings. He’s always willing to do anything and will do it at the last minute too. You don’t have to ask him, he just volunteers. Thank you, George, for all you do for the Watershed Stewards Academy!

This past March, Amietee Fuondjing of the Anacostia Watershed Stewards Academy completed his capstone project in the main courtyard at Burtonsville Elementary School (BES). In September of 2023, Amietee organized a walkthrough of the planting location and henceforth submitted his capstone proposal. In October, he presented his planting design plans to BES, which was finalized in November. To determine the types of trees to

plant, Amietee conducted a poll with the school. Students were presented with different choices of native species and once the votes were in, a budget was finalized in December. Just a few days before the planting event, Amietee gave a presentation to five fifth grade classes at Burtonsville Elementary School as a primer for the tree planting happening later that week. In his presentation, he talked about what a watershed is, the Anacostia watershed, and watershed topics such as the impact of runoff.

On Thursday, March 21st, Amietee, together with the 5th grade class (115 students) and with friends from the Anacostia Watershed Society planted a total of 9 trees (5 Fringe trees, 2 Witch Hazel, 1 American Hornbeam, and 1 American Persimmon). The planting lasted the entire school day, from 9 am to 4 pm. Each class

participated in a 20 minute workshop led by Jamie Craven, an Environmental Educator with the Anacostia Watershed Society, which highlighted the effects of runoff on pervious vs. impervious surfaces. Following the workshop, the tree planting portion was led by Matthew Reise, a Green Infrastructure Specialist for the Anacostia Watershed Society, and Amietee. Throughout the day, each class took turns digging and planting trees, getting them to all 9 trees in the ground by day’s end. Amietee reflects on having the pleasure of watching the 5th graders in the beginning of the week go from having no clue about the Anacostia watershed to becoming novice experts, all while showing genuine excitement. Looking ahead, Amietee is optimistic about MoCo’s increasing presence in watershed related outreach.

He encourages schools like BES, who aims to be a Maryland Certified Green School, to implement more community-oriented and out-of-the-box activities such as this one. (Bonus: Now BES makes an activity out of allowing students to water the trees weekly!)

We would like to highlight one of our "Super Stewards": Radhika Wijetunge. She received a Service Award and in recognition for her outstanding service and support of the Howard County Watershed Stewards' Academy.  She is a Master Watershed Steward, Class 4 (2016); Howard County Watershed Stewards Academy, University of Maryland Extension and an Engineering Specialist, Howard County Department of Public Works (Bureau of Environmental Services - Stormwater Management Division). Her WSA group's capstone project was to do storm drain stenciling at Thunder Hill in which they were able to involve a Cub Scout Pack in the process, enhancing community engagement and interest.

As a Master Steward, Radhika has continued her work in helping with storm drain stenciling at a number of schools and participating in a few community stenciling projects. Other types of WSA projects she has helped with include planting of trees and live stakes. For the last 3 years, Radhika has taught a class in Project Management as part of the WSA curriculum and has mentored 3 class groups through their “behavior change” capstone projects. These groups have made presentations to various stakeholder groups, open community, schools, and homeowner associations discussing stormwater runoff.

Radhika has also been part of the Stream Waders group of Stewards - and has often brought along a number of boy scouts to help and to participate in stream cleanup activities. She’s participated in several Howard County GreenFest events, recently leading the rain barrel giveaways for the County. Radhika has involved both WSA and Master Gardener's groups in these giveaways at the Alpha Ridge Landfill.  For the past 5 years, she has participated in the WSA information webinars to help increase interest in the WSA programs overall, and the Stewardship Academy, in particular. Along with Terry Matthews (UME WSA program coordinator), she has delivered presentations about HoCo WSA at two conferences (Tricon in Ocean City, and a CWEA Stormwater Conference held at the Maryland campus of the Maritime Institute of Technology and Graduate Studies).

In addition to all of this, Radhika performed Homeowners’ Interview and Site Assessments for several years for the WSA. There is natural overlap in the work she does as part of her employment with the Howard County Department of Public Works and that of the WSA; in fact, often interacting with the same County citizens through both activities.

Master Watershed Stewards Help with BMP Makeover

The stormwater best management practice, or BMP, located near the pavilion at the Cecil County Administration Building in Elkton got a makeover in late May, thanks to the help of several Master Watershed Stewards. The micro-bioretention facility treats stormwater runoff from part of the parking lot and was a Cecil County Watershed Stewards Academy project. Over time, almost all BMPs like this need maintenance and with the help of the Master Watershed Stewards, it got a fresh new look with the removal of overgrown plants and replanting it with a variety of native plants including Goldenrod, Coneflower, Blazing Star, and New York Ironweed, just to name a few.

A special thanks to Master Watershed Stewards Karen Aspinwall, who took the lead on the replanting project, as well as Robin Lane-Cragle, Brie Tulowitzky, and Jessica Mistr for their help in weeding and replanting. We also want to thank Doris Behnke, Cecil County Extension Home Horticulture and Master Gardener Coordinator, for helping with plant identification.

Teresa Weathington Guzmán of the Howard County WSA has been leading on one major stormwater project in her neighborhood, a hilly community of 141 townhomes called Clocktower Crossing.  She kicked off the “Sloping GreenScapes of Clocktower” project by hosting a barbeque to educate the community about stormwater runoff and to recruit volunteers for multiple resident-engagement activities. 

With several sites of concern with erosion, soil compaction and nonnative invasive plant species, the first task was to contract with Howard EcoWorks using funding from the Howard County Community Stormwater Partnership to design and build conservation landscapes, a rain garden, and plant 20 native trees to reduce soil erosion and slow the flow of water on the community’s many slopes. For one of the two large landscapes they designed, EcoWorks has restored a heavily-compacted hill that was used as an informal route to a nearby Columbia Association path by installing native plants and a set of simple stairs with gravel path to help slow the flow of water on the hill and mitigate future soil compaction.

Teresa recruited volunteers from the neighborhood and Master Gardeners to install two native plant gardens, which required her to procure 300 plants for the project.  She continues to host events like Pull and Plants and Stormdrain Stenciling – the latter which was funded by the WSA and carried out with support from several of her WSA Certification course peers – and is now working on a volunteer system to keep the new plants and trees watered until they are well established.

Teresa’s plan is to end the project with another community barbeque to showcase their achievements and to continue educating her community on storm drains, rain harvesting, and the importance of conservation landscapes and use of native plants to slow the flow of water in the community.

Featured Watershed Steward - Meghan Petenbrink of Anne Arundel

Meghan Petenbrink of the Anne Arundel WSA is not only a Watershed Steward, but also a Master Naturalist and is Chesapeake Bay Landscape Professional certified. In 2016, she began working at Jug Bay Wetland Sanctuary as a volunteer and did a research project on hydrilla verticillata, an invasive submerged aquatic vegetation, still doing various projects there today either as a lead or mentor to new stewards. Meghan began with AAWSA as a part of their 2019-2020 class that trained through the early days of Covid and the many challenges that brought with it. Because of her strong connection to Jug Bay, it was an obvious fit for her to work with their staff to develop a project that could support them and their community. Happy to ‘give back’, she worked with an existing rain garden in desperate need of revival. She worked with other volunteers to remove invasives within the rain garden and replant it with native species to support the native wildlife at Jug Bay.  With Meghan’s help, Jug Bay has received grant funding from Unity Gardens and AAWSA in 2020 and 2021.

Meghan’s capstone project was in 2020 as the Jug Bay Wetland Sanctuary Rain Garden Revival and mentored a team steward capstone in 2022 with Megan Bryant and Kendall Julian. She has continued to monitor her projects and pursue stewardship activities in the surrounding area, also being a featured presenter at local Anne Arundel County park’s summer campfire programs for families. She is now working to organize a volunteer group for southern Anne Arundel County to combat English Ivy. Please let AAWSA know if you are interested in volunteering and learning from Meghan!

Featured WSA Project – Harford County

A Belated “Job Well Done!”

It was a warm Saturday morning last April 19 when Class 22-03 from the Harford Streams Watershed Stewards Academy gathered to construct their long-awaited class project; a rain garden at the Visitor Center at Mariner Point Park in Joppatowne. After several site visits, homework assignments, and discussions about what to do, this popular site was selected for a rain garden. Among the criteria was the fact that the rain garden would treat impervious surface before entering the lower Gunpowder River, its popularity as a walking park and boat ramp meant reaching visitors could easily be accomplished, and most importantly was a willing landowner interested in the educational potential of just such a practice, namely Harford County Parks and Recreation Department.

Class 22-03 was one that started under the heavy veil of Covid-19, but despite all the complications and concerns, they persevered with the classes on soils, BMPs, and site assessments, as well as a site visit in November of 2021 to look at site conditions like slope, sunlight, existing drainage patterns, and the opportunities to install a BMP. The class perc’d, measured, discussed, measured again, and ultimately narrowed down the scope and scale of the project; a rain garden it would be! And having visited Kollar’s Nursery just a few weeks before, gave the class an opportunity to put their new-found native plant moxie to work identifying desirable but appropriate plant species for their project.

Members of the class and a handful of dedicated volunteers showed up to help construct the rain garden that would capture and treat rooftop runoff and serve as an educational feature at the park. In the morning, sod was stripped, downspouts extended while digging continued. And then after a quick lunchbreak, mulch was applied and plants were given a new home with a job to do; soak up nutrients and make homes for pollinators.The Visitors Center at Mariner Point Park before the class rain garden was installed.

Featured Watershed Stewards of Calvert County - September 2022

WSA Candidates in Training
Karen Anderson, Master Naturalist, Master Gardener
Melanie Crowder, Master Gardener

The Calvert County Master Gardeners maintain a native plant demonstration garden at the County Extension Office. This garden was created at the request of the County, with the support the Chesapeake Land Trust Grant funding.

Recently there have been significant erosion and flooding issues in the back portion of the building due to stormwater from three levels of parking lots overflowing the rock swale and drainage system. Contributing to the stormwater issues was years of cumulative debris as well as large water volumes during more frequent storms.

Karen Anderson and Melanie Crowder developed plans for a Tiered Garden to be constructed on the slope as a Capstone project for the Watershed Steward Academy. The first step was to clean the rock swale which was accomplished with the assistance of a local Scout Troop and the Master Gardeners. The rocks were also repositioned to create small berms to slow the water flow.

The next step was outlining a draft garden design, including dimensions, construction supplies and plant lists. From there a budget was created, and we applied for funding sources. We were able to obtain a grant from the Calvert Garden Club with additional money from the Master Gardener budget. The plants were selected for full sun and to tolerate both wet and dry soil conditions. The garden is not watered, and can be dry at times.

In the spring of 2022, the garden was created with the assistance of Master Gardener and Master Naturalist volunteers. This included the creation of four tiers with cement blocks and back filling it with soil and leaf grow. We also added an overflow drain in the top tier, to prevent a possible collapse during heavy downpours.  Karen and Melanie presented an educational session on the “Creation of a Tiered Garden” at the Master Gardener Garden Smarter program in conjunction with the Calvert Library.

We are adding some additional plants this fall, to fill in open spaces in the garden. There continues to be stormwater issues on the slope, along side the tiered garden due to rainwater coming off the gutter on the side corner of the building. We are working with the County on proposed solutions including a rain barrel, French drain or dry creek bed. Future plans for the garden include educational tours, signage, and brochures.

Featured Watershed Stewards of Howard County - August 2022

The Glenmont Clean Stream Project in Howard County focuses on runoff pollution in a local neighborhood stream and unnamed tributary to the Little Patuxent River. The project is led by WSA Stewards Wendy Hall, Laurie Donnelly, and Anson Justi and was inspired by all the dogs living in the neighborhood – were they a source of pollution? Were other sources important? And importantly, what could the neighborhood do about them?

In December of 2021, the team began by conducting a Neighborhood Source Assessment to see if and how their community can improve its practices to be more environmentally conscious, particularly with respect to reducing sources of runoff pollution. They found lots of well-maintained gardens and lawns as well as quite a few dogs, along with some of their waste. The team noticed some room for improvement by implementing rain barrels to conserve water, better pet waste clean-up, and rain gardens to mitigate pollution from running off into the streams when it rains.

They have established four sites along the stream that they monitor, roughly once a month and periodically after heavy rains, to sample for phosphates, nitrites, and E. coli bacteria because these are the three most common measurement criteria indicating pet waste or fertilizer pollutants in the water. Since heavy rains flush these pollutants into the streams, bacteria levels often spike a day or two later. Macro-invertebrate population monitoring is another way of measuring water quality. The plan is to monitor these populations twice, once in May and once in August. For a more detailed understanding of the sampling methodology and the equipment used, visit their Sampling Methodology Link.

In early May of 2022, the team presented their project at the annual Glenmont HOA meeting. Later that month, they hosted a sidewalk tabling event in which they engaged neighbors out walking, presented the watershed model and gave away relevant literature and dog waste clean-up tools (poop bags).

In June, the Stewards held a community event where they taught local residents about stormwater pollutant effects and showed them how to measure these pollutants in their backyard. Quite a few neighborhood children showed up and had a great time in the field! The WSA team even had help from a neighbor and environmental educator at the local high school, Shari Rosenberg.

In addition, Wendy, Laurie and Anson are conducting two community surveys to explore Glenmont’s attitudes toward and awareness of stormwater pollution and to determine if there are actions that can be taken as a community to improve it. The first survey ran in March with the second planned for August to see if the community’s attitudes have changed over the course of the project.

There is always room for improvement in our understanding of ecosystem impacts within our community and it’s still too early in their project to interpret the stream pollution and survey data, but you can check back later if you’d like to see the data for yourself! For now, all their collected data are still in a living document with a final report coming later this Fall.

Featured Watershed Stewards of Calvert County - March 2022

A group of Calvert County Stewards in North Beach, MD is working to transform a turf area that is currently a problem area into a rain garden that solves stormwater flooding from the parking lot, removes pollutants from that stormwater before it enters the adjacent wetland, and educates folks visiting the local Wetland Overlook Park. 

Peggy Hartman, Robin Madel, and Luke Johnson are Stewards from the inaugural hybrid Calvert County WSA class that started in October 2020. They worked with the Town of North Beach to submit a Chesapeake Bay Trust Community Engagement mini-grant to install the project. The 200 sq ft rain garden will enhance the beauty of Wetlands Overlook Park, which will increase interest in, and draw visitors to the site, hopefully ensuring the continued viability of the site as an educational resource for the public.

Community outreach for this project will include rain barrel and rain garden workshops for residents, a public education campaign (see “Everyday Ways That You Can Help” below), and a ribbon cutting event for the rain garden after installation of the plants and signage. This project has received support from the Town of North Beach Department of Public Works, and North Beach Stormwater and Flood Mitigation Action Committee. The Community Conservation Department plans to offer tours of the site to local schools and youth groups. We look forward to continuing to work with this great group of Stewards and seeing this project installed in the spring!

Featured Watershed Stewards of Harford County - January 2022

Master Watershed Stewards Class of 2020 Rain Garden Installation

With the help of community volunteers, and current & former Stewards, the Class of 2020 completed their class project, a raingarden installation located at the Churchville Rec Center. Native plants and grasses from Kollar Nursery were used including Cardinal flower, Woolgrass, Northern Blue Flag, and Shamrock Inkberry to name a few. This rain garden will collect stormwater runoff from the roof of the picnic pavilion and help prevent sediment and other pollutants from making their way into the soil among many other benefits.

Featured Watershed Steward - December 2020

Mary Beth O’Bryan is a member of the Harford Watershed Stewards Academy’s second class. Mary Beth currently works in administration for Ecotone, Inc, a design-build ecological restoration company headquartered in Forest Hill, MD. She joined the WSA in part to better understand and be able to explain in simple terms to other residents the restoration work that Ecotone does. Mary Beth is most interested in connecting community HOA’s, and landowners to the resources they need to address stormwater management issues. She is also passionate about leading community efforts for trash cleanup along the Ma & Pa trail and encouraging citizens to get involved in community projects.

Although the completion of the second class project was interrupted by COVID restrictions, Mary Beth has started contributing to the Harford WSA by creating and Harford County Watershed Stewards Academy Facebook page. The page helps stewards to connect as they pursue projects, helps advertise the program to the public, and showcases the type of work that stewards do. As of November 24, 2020 the page has 74 followers.

Featured Watershed Steward - November 2020

Kim Righi of Cecil County WSA is a native to the Eastern Shore, currently living along the Sassafras River. She was the Executive Director of the Sassafras River Association until they merged with the Chester and Mid-Shore Riverkeeper organizations in 2018, forming ShoreRivers, where she is now Restoration Manager.

Kim feels strongly in the efforts of WSA and enjoys the opportunities she finds to spread the word. She also believes that water quality starts in our own backyards and that it is up to us to educate ourselves. She, along with a few neighbors, have been working one-yard-at-a-time, as called upon, to assist and educate their neighbors on the water quality benefits of native plants and trees, forest buffers, and soil testing to minimize overuse of fertilizers.

Featured Master Watershed Steward - September 2020

Kellie Walsh joined the inaugural class of St. Mary’s County Watershed Stewards Academy, with goal of becoming a knowledgeable messenger for her community and to help take a proactive approach to some of the land use changes that she saw negatively impacting a local creek. Her capstone project had two main components: a rain garden installation and behavior change campaign in her neighborhood. Kellie shared witty “Watershed Wisdom – Did you know?” tips and information on a variety of topics including: septic system management, lawn care practices for healthy waterways, pet waste, and even oysters! Her rain garden boasts a variety of woodland native plants, and she invited neighbors to “garden parties”, so that they could experience the process from planning to installation. We greatly enjoyed Kellie’s creativity and passion during the course, and look forward to working with her on future projects!

Featured Master Watershed Steward - August 2020

Julie Potyraj joined the National Capital Region WSA in the spring of 2019 and is also a Master Naturalist through AWS.  She and several other WSA graduates worked with Living Classrooms to develop a picnic area on Kingman Island where people could enjoy the river and learn more about the local ecosystems. Leading approx. 50 volunteers over several days of work, they were able to remove invasive honeysuckle plants and tree stumps, breaking down old trees with a wood chipper, and clearing a view to the river. However, with the winter weather and then the pandemic, we are hoping to finish the project in the coming months so that it can be a socially-distancing friendly recreation area. 

Since COVID-19 put a damper on the volunteer projects she was planning to work on (adopting a stream through the Alice Ferguson Foundation, and leading an Earth Day clean up event through AWS), Julie was eager to stay involved. She began picking up trash around her neighborhood, later posting on Nextdoor and Twitter to see if her neighbors in nearby communities were interested in joining in. The first community clean up event had just one other person, the second had 8 and the third event had 7 volunteers.  Between the three events, they were able to clean up their neighborhood and pick up about 75 bags of trash…that won't end up in the river!

Featured Master Watershed Steward - July 2020

Barbara Schmeckpeper became interested in stormwater runoff during her time volunteering as an outdoor environmental educator at the Chesapeake Bay Environmental Center. After giving her first lecture there in 2005, Barb knew her goal was to eventually bring stormwater education to her home county. She later became a Master Gardener and helped form a stormwater sub-committee of the Bay-Wise program. After graduating in 2011 from the Anne Arundel County Watershed Stewards Academy, she brought that knowledge back to Howard County and hosted her first WSA class there in 2012.

Barb has enjoyed many challenges and accomplishments through the years, from educating others about the environmental impact of stormwater runoff and management to installing rain gardens and conservation landscapes. She is most proud of assisting in the WSA partnership between the Howard County Office of Community Sustainability and the University of Maryland Extension. 

Featured Master Watershed Steward - March 2020

Lindsay Tempinson is a member of the inaugural class of St. Mary’s County Watershed Stewards Academy. She works as a contractor at NAS Patuxent River to assist with the coordination of easements and funding within the Department of Defenses’ Readiness and Environmental Protection Integration (REPI) program. Lindsay sees the WSA program as a way to stay involved with multiple watershed and school groups in St. Mary’s, and have a positive impact in her community.

She has participated in cleanup events, educational booths at community-wide events, and taught high schoolers about rain gardens and site design. Lindsay is currently serving on the Board of Friends of St Clements Bay, a new local watershed group. St. Mary’s County WSA looks forward to working with Lindsay on future projects!

Featured Master Watershed Steward - January 2020

Carla Ellern participated in the National Capital Region's WSA in 2013. As a landscape architect, she was excited to learn about stormwater management and the many people in our community working to safeguard our environment. 

Once WSA got her activism juices flowing, Carla developed a capstone project that combined a rain garden, infiltration planter, and permeable pavers into a demonstration garden at her synagogue, Tifereth Israel Congregation in Washington, DC. With a grant from the District Department of the Environment, Carla used the demonstration garden to educate multiple local communities of faith about practical and affordable strategies to combat runoff pollution through sustainable landscape practices at both community institutions and members’ homes. The demonstration garden won a 2015 BUBBA award in the Best Ultra-Urban BMP category. Carla has continued to provide care for the site since the installation.

Inspired by her WSA experience, Carla moved to the Montgomery County Department of Environmental Protection. working as a RainScapes Planner. After several years in government, Carla returned to private practice as a landscape architect, where she uses native plants and stormwater infiltration to develop landscapes that are both beautiful and environmentally sustainable.

Featured Master Watershed Steward - November 2019

Jim Cimaglio, an environmental engineer for over 40 years, had spent his career covering stormwater permitting and assessments of industrial sites, among other things. Shortly after retirement, Jim took the Master Gardener course, which led him to learn about the Watershed Stewards Academy where he quickly became part of Howard County WSA’s Class 3. As a Steward, Jim found conducting residential site assessments for stormwater solutions a natural fit given his past life.

For the past few years, Jim has taken on the additional responsibility of helping to coordinate the site assessments. He connects the 50 or so requests that come into the Howard County WSA annually to Stewards able to conduct an assessment. Jim then reviews draft reports from the site assessments along with a few other experienced Stewards for quality control before it is shared with the homeowners. Jim enjoys talking to homeowners about the stormwater issues they are experiencing. Whether they already had an idea of what they wanted to do and wanted a second opinion, or they had no idea of how to approach their issue, the homeowners are appreciative of the Stewards’ efforts.

Featured Master Watershed Steward - October 2019

As a Master Watershed Steward in the inaugural Harford County WSA class, Stephanie Noye worked in partnership with fellow Stewards, Megan Baldowski and Sarah Shpak, on a capstone project of a pollinator garden/conservation landscaping and rain barrel project in Havre de Grace, MD. The project, funded by a Chesapeake Bay Trust Grant, is located near a historic building in the city’s downtown. Given the garden’s location and high visibility, the Stewards have added signage to allow residents and visitors to learn about the water quality and ecological benefits of the garden.

Stephanie currently works as a stormwater management and reporting coordinator for Havre de Grace. The projects she is involved with are beneficial to the waters of Harford County, and demonstrate the natural beauty that is revealed when a restoration project comes together. Even as Stephanie thinks about retirement she plans to remain active as a Steward, spurring interest in others in activities and projects that will make a difference in the area. Mentoring and getting her hands dirty at the same time is enough to make Stephanie smile. 

Featured Master Watershed Steward - September 2019

Molly LaChapelle became an Anne Arundel Master Watershed Steward because she had witnessed the degradation of Cattail Creek in her community and the Berrywood Community Association was searching for help to “fix” the creek. Improving the waterways is important to Molly. When her family moved to Berrywood years ago, her sons fished, explored for frogs, walked the shallow water for soft crabs, watched the water ‘dance’ during early spring yellow perch run to spawn upstream. The water used to be clear in the winter as soft bottom sediment would drop out before the tidal area near their house. That no longer occurs due to upstream construction and stormwater runoff. Molly wanted her grandchildren to enjoy the water their fathers experienced.

In joining Class 7, Molly’s focus was to help restore Cattail Creek. Her capstone project was to write the application for a grant from the Chesapeake Bay Trust for design of a restoration plan. The WSA course prepared Molly to lead the Berrywood project by exposing her to all the resources available in the community to Stewards and communities for funding and project assistance. The course also introduced her to environmental techniques as well as project planning. The restoration of Cattail Creek in Berrywood has now been successfully completed through the hard work of many partners and local community leaders like Molly. Her advice to others is to build the project on a strong foundation of support with the stakeholders, and to be committed to stay the course because a project may take longer to accomplish than projected.

Featured Master Watershed Steward - August 2019

Since becoming a Master Watershed Steward, Janine Antoshak has played an integral part in achieving the designation of Sustainable Communities for Charlestown. Janine became a Cecil County Steward in 2017 and has taken on a number of projects since then. For her capstone project, Janine partnered with a fellow class member, John Gonzalez, to install a rain garden at Charlestown Elementary School. The rain garden alleviated a flooding issue on a nearby playground area that often disrupted recess activities for the students. Janine and John enlisted help from the students to not only help with the selection of the native plants but also with the planting of the garden itself.

The following year, Janine secured a $3,000 Keep Maryland Beautiful Grant that assisted with the installation of a native plant demonstration garden at Avalon Park, the capstone project for participants from the third class of the Cecil WSA. Janine also chairs the Town’s Green Team, made up of residents, community members, and educators from the Charlestown Elementary School. Through her leadership, several education events for the community have been created such as the Bay-Wise Review & Historic Highlight Tour and the Charlestown Elementary School STEAM/Green Fair, as well as having the Town host the annual Cecil County Wade In for 2017 and 2019.

Featured Master Watershed Steward - May 2019

Environmental Education has always been a major part of Bob Keddell’s 40+ year education career. Becoming an Anne Arundel Master Watershed Steward was an opportunity to extend and improve his career emphasis. Bob chose to focus on environmental literacy as a Steward because he is an educator first and foremost. His career spans opportunities to work with thousands of “at risk” or kids who need to get outdoors to feel whole. When working with youth, water is magic whether it is in the great outdoors or with an aquarium in a school.

Bob sees there being two parts to environmental literacy, 1) an ability to understand and appreciate ecosystems and, 2) an ability to act upon that knowledge to maintain all that one learns through civic engagement. To create those opportunities for youth, he runs PROJECT INTERGROW to bring environmental education in meaningful hands-on ways to minority populations in Inner Annapolis, runs community youth workshops, and much more. Bob shares his skills further by also teaching Stewards-in-training in Anne Arundel WSA’s Environmental Literacy track.

Edited with permission from interview at http://aawsa.org/blog/2018/10/4/steward-spotlight-bob-keddell

Featured Master Watershed Steward - July 2019

Bob Lewis joined the inaugural class of St. Mary’s County Watershed Stewards Academy, with many years of experience in environmental management and community engagement. He saw the WSA program as a way to build connections with local organizations and other community members interested in clean water, clean community efforts. His capstone project focused on educating a local high school class on water quality benefits of stormwater management, and then installing a rain garden at a local homeowner’s property. When Bob isn’t installing rain gardens, you will probably find him working with school groups to build oyster reef balls, to be used in restoration efforts within the St. Mary’s River.

Bob is currently the Executive Director of St. Mary’s River Watershed Association (SMRWA). His goal is to focus on a holistic approach to “protect, improve, and promote the sustainability of the St. Mary's River Watershed.” St. Mary’s County WSA looks forward to working with Bob on future projects!

Featured Master Watershed Steward - June 2019

While with the State Highway Administration, Cathy Rice worked with managers to meet the new requirements of the Clean Water Act to improve the quality of the water running off the roads. Now Cathy continues to care for the waterways in retirement as a Master Watershed Steward. She sees her role as a Steward to educate people about the impact that they have on water pollution and encourage ways to reduce water pollution. As an active member of First Lutheran Church in Ellicott City, she has led a multi-year effort to bring environmental stewardship to the forefront. Through a Chesapeake Bay Trust Restoration and Outreach grant, Cathy has organized the installation of two rain gardens and Bay-friendly landscaping on the church’s front lawn. These serve to reduce the amount of stormwater funneled into the local stream, and through signage to also educate the congregation and neighborhood about the value of stormwater management at an individual level. Cathy hopes that with a project like this all the neighbors will benefit from their example of teaching people to be aware of their impact on those who live downstream.

Featured Master Watershed Steward - April 2019

Meet Allison Mosley and Bryon Bodt, members of the inaugural Harford County Master Watershed Stewards Academy. Already active members of the environmental community, Allison and Bryon took on the creation of floating wetlands at Ladew Topiary Gardens in Monkton, MD as their capstone project.

Working closely with Ladew staff, Bryon and Allison were able to both gain approval for their concept and funding for the implementation in a former quarry pond on the garden grounds. The floating wetlands, in addition to filtering nutrients entering the pond before they discharge to nearby waterways, provides habitat for everything from songbirds to fish to beneficial bacteria. Dedicated to teaching others about environmental stewardship, both Stewards have committed to assisting Ladew in integrating the new feature into their existing education and outreach materials for visitors and school group tours.

Featured Master Watershed Stewards - March 2019

Rachel Mulbry and Danielle Hedquist participated in the National Capital Region WSA in Fall 2017. Both are employees of The Nature Conservancy, but they wanted to learn more about on-the-ground community-based restoration programs occurring in the DC area. During the fall program, the NCR WSA program facilitator was approached separately by the President of the Langston Civic Association in DC to help clean-up and brand their historic neighborhood to encourage more community awareness and interaction. Immediately Danielle and Rachel came to mind to help with that project. Danielle is an accomplished artist and Rachel is an effective communicator and project coordinator. Over the course of almost a year, Danielle and Rachel met with community leaders, solicited their input on what images and concepts resonate within the community, and facilitated the design of two storm drain murals for the Langston neighborhood.

In the fall of 2018, Danielle and Rachel secured all the appropriate permits, materials and supplies, and got to work painting two beautiful storm drain murals with the help of community members. With these efforts as a great kickoff, members of the neighborhood are moving forward with Anacostia Watershed Society to develop and implement additional projects to educate residents on stormwater management, organize neighborhood clean-ups, and develop more personal relationships with the nearby Anacostia River.

Featured Master Watershed Steward - February 2019

Bryan Lightner, part of Cecil County’s inaugural class of 2015, has gone far beyond his original goal of learning more about stormwater management for his job through the Academy. For Bryan’s capstone project, he aimed to improve water quality and beautify an underused courtyard at Calvert Elementary School where his children attend. Bryan’s inspiration comes from walking in mature undisturbed forests, and Bryan aimed to bring a little piece of that feeling to the built environment. With a Chesapeake Bay Trusts Mini Grant, he constructed two planter boxes filled with native plants to capture and treat runoff from the school’s rooftop, a trellis with integrated seating, educational signage, and two rain barrels. The keystone event for the project was the unveiling of the practices at the school’s Fall Festival, where parents and their children helped to plant the boxes and decorate the rain barrels. Bryan continues to be active within the community as a Steward and has taken the lead on a variety of projects. Bryan’s biggest takeaway from the Watershed Stewards Academy was the artistic license to approach various community groups and institutions about taking part in more conservation landscaping projects. Cecil County is a relatively small community, where everybody eventually knows everybody. Bryan enjoys the connections he has made along the way, especially the ones where unforeseen mutual benefits have been realized from unique partnerships.

Featured Master Watershed Steward - January 2019

For Liz Curtz, a St. Mary’s County Class 1 Master Watershed Steward, the WSA program was just the beginning of her dive into improving the environmental health of St. Mary’s County. Her capstone project focused on assisting a local elementary school to revitalize the school’s rain garden. In January of 2017 Liz founded Friends of St Clements Bay, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization to provide organizational support for community watershed projects. She has applied for, and received, Chesapeake Bay Trust Community Mini-grant funds to support her projects. Liz has collaborated with many community partners to restore the rain garden and get the students involved in: a mosaic garden path, native plant signs, planting of native plants, and watershed science activities. The rain garden has over 30 different types of native plants.

Liz is currently leading Friends of St Clements Bay engagement in projects with Maryland Grows Oysters, stream restoration, and septic health. She excels at building partnerships and organizing projects. St. Mary’s County WSA looks forward to continuing working with Liz and Friends of St Clement Bay!