2012 Monitoring Plan

For the 2012 monitoring season that began in April, the Shallow Water Monitoring Program is set to continue in sixteen Chesapeake Bay segments, as well as in Maryland’s Coastal Bays. In addition, monitoring will expand into six new segments of the Chesapeake Bay. In total, MDDNR will have approximately 38 continuous monitors deployed throughout the Chesapeake and Coastal Bays with a third of these providing real-time data via cellular telemetry.

Continuous Monitoring, in which water quality data is collected every 15-minutes around the clock, will continue on the Bush and Sassafras Rivers and the Susquehanna Flats in the Upper Bay, the Corsica, Big Annemessex, and Manokin Rivers and Coastal Bays on the Eastern Shore, the Patapsco, West, and South Rivers and mainstem Bay near Sandy Point on the Lower Western Shore, as well as several sites in the mid- and lower-Potomac River. Continuous monitoring will also be expanded to sites in the Nanticoke and Pocomoke Rivers on the Lower Eastern Shore. MDDNR will also be continuing partnerships with the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) and the National Estuarine Research Reserve System (NERRS) for continuous monitoring stations in the Rhode, Bush, Patuxent, and Wicomico Rivers. Water Quality Mapping Cruises, which intensively map water quality in shallow and open waters, will continue in three segments of the Chesapeake Bay watershed (Big Annemessex, Corsica, and Manokin Rivers) and will expand into six new segments (Nanticoke and Pocomoke Rivers).

A vertical profiler, which monitors water quality throughout the water column, will be deployed in the summer. MDDNR will also be continuing a partnership with the Dominion Foundation, Coastal Conservation Association of Maryland (CCA MD), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Maryland Artificial Reef Initiative (MARI), Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Chesapeake Bay Observing System (CBOS), and Friends of the John Smith Chesapeake Trail to maintain an open-water monitoring buoy over the Dominion Reef at the Gooses in the Chesapeake Bay. This buoy is a part of the Chesapeake Bay Interpretive Buoy System (CBIBS), which monitors current conditions and the health of local Bay waters, and are a part of the Captain John Smith Trail, the nation’s first national water trail covering 3,000 miles of the historic route Smith took in 1607-08.

Links

For more information concerning the history of and methods used in our monitoring program, please visit the Chesapeake Bay Monitoring (http://www.dnr.state.md.us/bay/monitoring/index.html) and Project Overview (http://mddnr.chesapeakebay.net/newmontech/contmon/index.cfm) webpages. For detailed, technical information concerning protocols, the Shallow Water Monitoring Quality Assurance Project Plan is also available (http://mddnr.chesapeakebay.net/eyesonthebay/documents/SWM_QAPP_2011_2012_FINAL.pdf). Data for MDDNR's Water Quality Monitoring Program can be found on the Eyes on the Bay website (www.eyesonthebay.net) and you can follow monitoring-related news via Twitter (http://twitter.com/eyesonthebay). MDDNR also provides updated maps of harmful algae blooms in Maryland's waters (http://mddnr.chesapeakebay.net/eyesonthebay/habs.cfm) and satellite images of the Chesapeake Bay watershed (http://mddnr.chesapeakebay.net/eyesonthebay/satellite.cfm) on the web.

Water Chestnut Eradication
DNR Continues Eradication Efforts
on the Bird and Sassafras Rivers

Water chestnut (Trapa natans) is an aquatic plant native to Asia characterized by a floating rosette of leaves around a central stem that is rooted in the bottom sediments. Originally introduced as an ornamental plant in North America, water chestnut is an invasive species known for its aggressive growth habits. One acre of water chestnut can produce enough seeds to cover 100 acres the following year. With four, hard half-inch spines that are sharp enough to penetrate shoe leather and large enough to keep people off of beaches, water chestnut seeds are major hazards to water contact recreation. Additionally, water chestnut can wipe out native bay grasses from some areas, prevents nearly all water use where it occurs, creates breeding grounds for mosquitoes and provides only marginal habitat to native fish and birds.

In 1997, water chestnut was observed on the Bird and Sassafras Rivers after nearly three decades without water chestnut present. The water chestnut population on the Bird River reappeared with approximately 50 plants and spread to three acres in 1998 and approximately 30 acres in 1999. The Sassafras population was larger and difficult to quantify due to its remote location. A massive eradication effort utilizing a mechanical harvester in 1999 resulted in the removal of approximately 400,000 pounds of plants from both rivers.

Despite the immense nature of the 1999 efforts, the fact that water chestnut seeds can remain viable in the sediments for up to 12 years meant that follow-up surveys and harvesting were necessary. Less than 1,000 pounds of plants were removed from both rivers in 2000. Since then, small teams of DNR biologists have been able to survey both rivers each year and remove small populations as necessary.

Water chestnut eradication efforts took place in July of 2009 on both the Bird and Sassafras Rivers. On the Bird River, water chestnut plants have consistently been found in the same areas of the river, namely, Railroad Creek and Day’s Cove. Approximately 12 bushels of plants were removed from Railroad Creek and Taylor Creek (adjacent to Mariner Point Park). No plants were found in Day’s Cove. On the Sassafras River, DNR biologists removed plants from Lloyds Creek, Woodland Creek, Island Creek and Freeman Creek. Only 2 bushels total were found on the river, which was a sharp decline from the previous years' 60 bushels. While this years' low harvest is encouraging, DNR staff will continue to monitor these rivers and continue eradication efforts in 2010.

Read more about the history of water chestnut in Maryland tributaries.

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This page was updated on 11/17/2011.