AROUND THE PARK AGAIN by Sharon Lee Tegler
Brought to you by Jing Ying Institute of Kung Fu & Tai Chi
and Lean On Dee Senior Home Care Services
For decades, the all-volunteer Magothy River Association has been battling the environmentally harmful effects of development at locations critical to the health of the river. Since 2019, MRA has focused its efforts on two locations – Mt. Misery and Cattail Creek. These ongoing battles are by no means MRA’s first. In fact, according to president Paul Spadaro, they are the very reason for the organization’s existence.
We’d bumped into Spadaro and MRA volunteer Lise Crafton, who’d come from a meeting, at The Big Bean and he revealed how the association was born.
“Right after the Second World War in 1946, the Navy got the idea that they wanted to build a naval air station on Cape St. Claire. For a seaplane base, it seemed like an ideal spot with the Naval Academy nearby…but the residents didn’t want to hear that,” said Spadaro. “So, the residents organized, took on the government and prevailed. That organization became the Magothy River Association.”
He added that, from the outset, MRA has been a traditional all-volunteer organization. During the 30 years he’s been involved, he’s made it a priority to seek out volunteers who are professionals.
“We usually follow the directions in which our volunteers lead us,” he said. “For a while, we had a very strong diving program. It was so impressive that we partnered with and received funding from the World Bank for a joint diving project in Africa. Our initiatives are primarily science-based, requiring a lot of effort on our volunteers’ part. It’s not just fun.”
The Magothy River Association has a long history of opposing and preventing commercial interests that threatened the watershed. The volunteers managed to defeat plans for several major marinas to be constructed along the river – among them, a 200-slip marina that was planned off Dobbins Island and a 300-slip marina off Mago Vista.
MRA also banded together with the Berrywood community, the Anne Arundel County County Watershed Stewards, the Bay Wise Master Gardeners and others to complete the Cattail Creek Stream Restoration & Living Shoreline Project.
Restoration Project Leader Molly LaChapelle. 
Just a few of the adults and children who volunteered to plant trees and shrubs on Earth Day of 2019.
Master Watershed Steward and Berrywood Restoration Project Leader Molly LaChapelle’s dream of restoring Cattail Creek was realized on Earth Day, April 22, 2019, after six years of hard work and persistence. Spread out along the banks of the creek, over 130 volunteers worked side by side to plant 1,000 trees, shrubs and plants – the last step in a three-stage construction effort by Annapolis-based Underwood & Associates beginning with the creation of a regenerative stream channel that required raising the stream bed to increase flood plain connectivity and creating multiple weirs to slow down stream flow and reduce erosion.
Since the restoration’s completion, MRA has taken action to prevent encroachment from developers. They were able to persuade one developer to abandon the Marsh Landing project but now they are fighting a large enclave subdivision that stretches from behind the Brian Boru restaurant to behind Joe’s Seafood. It has been a struggle because political pressure and big money are involved, and the association will likely be going to court.
As for Mt. Misery, a peak which overlooks Round Bay and is designated a Critical Area, they are still fighting a developer, along with others, but currently losing the battle as the developer is suing Anne Arundel County and has begun building on the property. (With dirt and trees being removed for a driveway, MRA is concerned the hill will be destabilized causing mudslides and other environmental damage.)
Mt. Misery is historically significant in that it was the sight of a Union fortification during the Civil War. The fort was later used as a camp for local Boy Scout Troops. In fact, the Magothy River Association has made an excellent Youtube video (one of several award-winning MRA videos) about the history of the Union encampment spearheaded by volunteer Charles Germain.
For the last ten years, Spadaro has made it his personal goal to circumnavigate the Magothy from end to end. The annual sojourn provides him a good barometer, from year to year, of what is changing in the river.
He now knows every inch of it. He checks on the Submerged Aquatic Vegetation (SAV) growth so important to the health of the river and monitors the water quality. He also looks for places where erosion is occurring or places that have been hardened with rock (known as rip rap) in bulkheads along the shoreline. Meant to replace wooden bulkheads, the rock bulkheads create thermal pollution by absorbing and holding heat. The heat thus created cooks the algae that washes in, causing the river to become murky.
MRA volunteer Lise Crafton, who works with MRA’s SAV and water monitoring programs, explained that some of the aquatic grasses that would normally germinate in areas filled with rock are no longer able to do so because the waters are too hot.
The MRA is part of the MD DNR’s Chesapeake Bay SAV Workgroup. Every summer, MRA volunteers kayak to different parts of the Magothy looking for SAV’s and use a laminated guide to underwater grasses found in Chesapeake Bay tributaries to identify what they’ve found. The DNR provides training for this effort, but the differences in the plants are sometimes subtle, hence the “cheat sheet”.
The Magothy River Association was one of the first watershed organizations to create a water monitoring program and to compile the results for an annual State of the Magothy Report. Crafton’s husband Jim is a member of one of MRA’s water quality monitoring teams. The team measures critical attributes at 9 points on the north shore every 2 weeks from April through October. Additional teams cover other north shore, south shore and mainstem sites.
The Craftons became MRA members 15 years ago after moving to a Severna Park property that had been in Jim’s family since the 1920’s. Jim recalls skeining soft crabs off the clear waters of the Magothy as a kid and getting a boat propeller stuck in the underwater grasses.
One of the most exciting times of the year for the association’s members is about to happen. Every year MRA monitors the yellow perch spawn which takes place when the water temperature reaches 50 degrees.
In the 1970’s MRA observed that the yellow perch population had decreased. The association was able to use its history of monitoring and its longstanding partnership with Anne Arundel Community College as leverage to begin stocking some yellow perch.
“In the 80’s, we collaborated with AACC on a yellow perch project where we were taking water from the Magothy over to the Eastern Shore where we collected their egg sacks. We then spawned the eggs we collected in that Magothy water in the Magothy River because the yellow perch is one of those salmon type fish that go back to the waters in which they were born. We did this for a number of years and many of the perch you see in the river today are direct descendants of that project.
We’ve been very fortunate that we have on the Western Shore a “yellow perch corridor” now between Catherine Avenue and Lake Waterford. Every year Lise and I are busy documenting the spawn and counting the egg sacks and seeing the thousands that swim up in the stream no wider than the front window of The Big Bean. It’s very exciting.
Lise agreed that the spawn is amazing to witness.
We barely have space to scratch the surface of all that the Magothy River Association is doing. However, they have been building a relatively large oyster reef off Dobbins Island and have started a program, in partnership with McGuire Marine and students from Broadneck High School, to make concrete reef balls for it.
Crafton likes to emphasize MRA’s efforts to attract, educate and engage youth to become involved with the river and the Magothy watershed in general. Each year the MRA provides two scholarships to Environmental Studies students attending Anne Arundel Community College.
She also supplied the link below for information on AACC’s Youth Summit coming up this Saturday, February 10, at the college.
“Since we ‘mature’ environmentally engaged folks won’t be around forever, events like this will help engage and excite the next generation, which is absolutely essential if we are to save the Magothy for future generations,” said Crafton.
You can follow the activities of the Magothy River Association by visiting Home – Magothy River Association or at Facebook.
Jing Ying Institute students celebrate the Chinese Lunar New Year
The Chinese New Year of the Dragon begins Saturday, February 10 and, for Jing Ying Institute of Kung Fu and Tai Chi, that day marks the beginning of two weeks’ worth of celebrations ranging from performances of the Chinese Lion Dance to Chinese calligraphy classes, a Self-Defense Workshop, Valentine’s Day Partners Tai Chi classes and a special Tea Tasting. The culmination of the celebration will take place from 2:30 to 4 pm on February 24th with a free Lunar New Year Open House at Jing Ying Institute at 1195 Baltimore Annapolis Boulevard.
If you haven’t attended one of Jing Ying’s Lunar New Year celebrations before, they are very colorful and fun. This particular open house will feature traditional treats as well as the Chinese Lion Dance and Kung Fu and tai chi demonstrations. There will be “Year of the Dragon” crafts, traditions of the Chinese New Year, giveaways and prizes and more. You are welcome to bring friends & family of all ages to enjoy the fun. Registration is not required; but if you register, you will be entered into a contest. To see a full schedule of all the Lunar New Year events, visit Best Martial Arts Program in Annapolis, Severna Park (jingying.org).
The Around The Park Again column is brought to you this week by Jing Ying Institute of Kung Fu and Tai Chi at 1195 Baltimore Annapolis Blvd. – For over two decades providing martial arts training that improves cardio-vascular health, strength and flexibility while reducing stress. Jing Ying is again bringing Tai Chi to the Severna Park Community Center.)
and by Lean On Dee Senior Home Care Services at 815 Ritchie Hwy., Suite 206 – When you need someone to lean on, Lean On Dee. Their experienced team of personal care management specialists and friendly companions provide high quality consistent care.
