PotomacRiver

West Virginia's Chesapeake Bay Update

WV Chesapeake Bay Program Website  

Winter 2016, Issue 21

Quick Links

 

U.S. EPA's Chesapeake Bay TMDL website

  

What's My Watershed?

In This Issue
From the Headwaters to the Bay
Corn & Soybean Workshop Jan. 15
Energy Workshop for Educators Jan. 29
Free Stormwater Webcast Series
Apply for Elks Run Watershed Rain Garden Cost-Share
Chesapeake Bay Workplans Available for Comment Jan. 22
Water Diverters Installed at Greenway Cemetery
Local Watershed Group Plants Over 900 Trees in 2015
First United Methodist Church Receives New Trees
South Branch Water Trail Maps
PEOPLE MAKING A DIFFERENCE
From the Headwaters to the Bay
Melissa Merritt

As of January 4, 2015, I will be in a new position at the Chesapeake Bay Program Office in Annapolis, MD to work as a Staffer supporting the Scientific, Technical Assessment, and Reporting team (STAR). STAR is the main team that coordinates all science activities that help decision makers achieve goals and outcomes for the new Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement. Click here to read more.
GET INVOLVED: UPCOMING EVENTS
Corn and Soybean Workshop January 15, Martinsburg, WV
Eastern Panhandle Conservation District & other partners
 
Learn about regional conservation programs, fundamentals of corn and soybean production, producing high yield corn, cover crops, the Penn State
Inter-Seeder, and soil health.   
Click here for the workshop information
Energy Workshop for Educators, Jan. 29 
Regional Educational Service Agency Beckley, WV

WHO SHOULD ATTEND?  West Virginia K-12 Educators, STEM, Environmental Science, CTE Educators

HOW CAN YOU ATTEND? Go to http://www.need.org/calendar_list.asp and find the date of the workshop. Click and complete your registration

QUESTIONS? Contact Wendi Moss at wmoss@need.org or call 1-800-875-5029. 

The event is free and lunch is provided.
Chesapeake Stormwater Network
Registration for Free Webcasts Now Open!

Here are a few upcoming webcasts to help you kick off the new year right! 

* Jan 14: Identifying and Targeting High Risk Turf Areas using GIS
* Jan 21: The State of Urban Nutrient Management
* Feb 4: Modeling Pollutant Load Reductions for TMDL and Pollution Reduction Plans

As always, our webcasts are offered free of charge but registration is required. You can register on our website here.
 

Now Accepting Applications!

Elks Run Watershed Rain Garden Cost-Share Program
  
Homeowners and communities located in the Elks Run Watershed of Jefferson County, WV are eligible for a 50% rebate on the installation of a rain garden up to $1,200 in addition to a free rain garden design and free plants! The application deadline for the Elks Run Residential and Community Rain Garden Rebate program is March 1st. Click  here for the application.

Please contact Suzy Campbell at 304-263-4376 ext. 3 or at scampbell@wvca.us with any questions. Visit www.elksrunwatershed.org to learn more about Elks Run.
  
Environmental Literacy and Education
Frank Rodgers, Cacapon Institute
  
The NOAA Chesapeake Bay Office and Chesapeake Bay Program Education Workgroup have begun an effort to survey and inventory environmental literacy efforts across the Mid-Atlantic, including all of West Virginia. In support of this effort Cacapon Institute, working with WV Department of Education's Sustainable Schools and The Mountain Institute, is collecting information about ongoing environmental education. We've begun by focusing on river and watershed education in the Potomac Basin of West Virginia (Berkeley, Grant, Hampshire, Hardy, Jefferson, Mineral, Morgan, and Pendleton counties).
 
Our preliminary investigation has turned up some impressive efforts to reach K-12 youth with hands-on watershed education. We were pleasantly surprised to learn how many groups are reaching students, and with the sheer number of students being reached.  Click here to read the full article.
Comment Period for Chesapeake Bay Workplans opens January 22 
Alana Hartman, West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection 
 
The Chesapeake Bay Agreement of 2014 included 31 outcomes that many partners will work together to achieve. Several outcomes are directly related to our work here in West Virginia, such as Tree Canopy, Healthy Watersheds, and 2017 Watershed Implementation Plans.  Each outcome now has a management strategy in place, and the Chesapeake Bay Program partnership seeks your input on recently drafted biannual workplans.  Visit the Chesapeake Bay website, www.chesapeakebay.net, to view the workplans and provide comments between 
January 22 and March 9, 2016.  
Water Diverters Installed at Greenway Cemetery
Submitted by Kate Lehman, Warm Springs Watershed Association
 
Installing the water diverters in Greenway Cemetery
On October 23, 2015, four water diverters were installed on a hilly road at the north end of Greenway Cemetery near Berkeley Springs, WV. The diverters, which are made out of treated lumber and recycled conveyor belts, were installed at a 30 degree angle to the road to divert water into an existing ditch and culvert system next to the road. Bob Wurster, Stan Oaks and Brian McCann constructed the devices. The Mellott Company in Warfordsburg, PA donated the recycled conveyor belts. GHS Incorporated, a Morgan County company, dug the trenches into which the diverters were fitted and then compacted the material replaced in the trenches. The project was funded by a Stream Partners grant awarded to the Warm Springs Watershed Association in an effort to reduce erosion and stormwater runoff on this road. To read the full article, click here.
 
Local Watershed Group Plants Over 900 Trees in 2015
Herb Peddicord, West Virginia Division of Forestry

spring 2015 SCWA planting
The Sleepy Creek Watershed Association (SCWA) had a busy year in 2015. With their solid membership base, the SCWA continues to be involved in many clean water initiatives. This year they organized a spring "Make-it-Shine" litter cleanup, supported a permeable paving demonstration project, and helped promote septic pumping and repair through the 319 program which cost-shared on 27 septic system pumpouts and repaired 2 failing septic systems this year. Members also found time to participate in the Master Gardeners Plant Fair, the Morgan county Fair and the Apple Butter Festival. Oh yes, and they planted over 900 trees on four separate planting projects.
The tree plantings began on April 18th with the modest planting of 16 large trees at Greenwood Elementary school.  
Click here for the full article.

First United Methodist Church Receives New Trees
Submitted by Kate Lehman, Warm Springs Watershed Association
 
WSWA fall 2015
Abigail Close, Annabelle Pennington, and Tim Close finish planting a tree.
On Saturday, November 7, fifty-nine Girl Scouts and their families as well as members of the Town of Bath Tree Board and the Warm Springs Watershed Association joined teens from First United Methodist Church to plant 24 trees on the church's property on Fearnow Road in Morgan County. The trees were provided through a West Virginia CommuniTree (CTree) grant made to the Warm Springs Watershed Association.   

Andy Swaim, the Town Council representative to the Tree Board and a WSWA board member, said that both organizations are interested in establishing future partnerships with faith-based organizations in the watershed. "Most of the churches in the area have large paved parking lots. Such impervious surfaces increase the volume and velocity of stormwater runoff.  Planting trees at strategic places would help reduce severity of flooding in the watershed. Also, trees could help to reduce the church's utility bills and enhance the beauty of the space. It's a win-win situation for everyone."  To read the full article, click here.
South Branch Water Trail Maps to be Available in Spring
Brent Walls, Upper Potomac Riverkeeper
  
The South Branch Water Trail map series is a compilation of three maps from Petersburg, WV to the confluence of the Potomac River. The design of the maps has been a coordinated effort between Potomac Riverkeeper Network, WV DNR, Eagles Nest Outfitters and Jerry's General Trough Store and Canoe Rental. Although the maps will be available in the spring of this year, there will be a presentation in June during our Paddle Potomac event. Stay tuned for more detail.  
About WV's Potomac Tributary Strategy Team
Fourteen percent (14%) of West Virginia drains into the Potomac River and on to the Chesapeake Bay. In June of 2002, Governor Bob Wise signed the Chesapeake Bay Program Water Quality Initiative Memorandum of Understanding. By signing this memo, West Virginia agreed to develop goals and objectives to reduce nutrient and sediment loading to the Chesapeake Bay. 

To help WV accomplish these goals, Project Teams began working in targeted watersheds. These groups build partnerships, gather funding, and identify priority projects that are most important to their local communities.

Reducing nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment in local creeks and rivers will mean healthier water resources that are better able to sustain tourism, fishing, drinking water supplies, wildlife habitat, and other uses. Each one of us can act locally to help achieve these goals.

 

WV's Potomac Tributary Strategy Team