2026 Ann Jackson Steward of the Year

2026 Ann Jackson Steward of the Year: Paul Rickett

watershed steward

When Paul Rickett moved to South County over 25 years ago, he knew he couldn’t live here, surrounded by water, without taking an active role in caring for the environment. Since then, Paul has led and supported major community projects - from dredging and waterway cleanups to erosion control and shoreline restoration. He is the Founder and Executive Director of the Broadwater Creek Coalition, a nonprofit advocating for clean water and shoreline restoration throughout South County. Paul has also been part of WSA since the very beginning, serving on our founding board and as our first Board Treasurer - and he’s continued to inspire us ever since.

Paul maintains the pollinator garden at Tracey’s Landing/Deale Elementary School, which many proudly claim is one of the best in the County. When the school reached out to WSA about a neglected pollinator garden, Paul stepped in and rebuilt it from the ground up. Community members shared milkweed, local gardening groups donated nearly 100 plants, and Paul continues to lovingly maintain the garden - yes, even pulling wire grass by hand.

He also took on a challenging two-year project to remove phragmites and stabilize an eroding shoreline in his community. Today, that once-struggling stretch is a healthy, stable shoreline filled with grasses, shrubs, and marsh mallow.

Paul was a key local contact in the Coastal Resiliency through Beneficial Use Project, a $4 million marsh restoration effort launching in 2026 that will restore 50 acres of marsh into bird sanctuary habitat. This past year, he has also been leading community meetings across the Deale-Shady Side Peninsula following the County’s Flood Risk Reduction Study, helping neighbors understand their options and prioritize projects. He’s worked closely with the Resilience Authority and the County to coordinate funding and resources - turning plans into action.

Paul’s passion shows up everywhere, especially at the Captain Avery Museum, where he serves on the board and helped shape a new strategic plan to grow the museum into a center for environmental education. He led major garden restorations there, planting and caring for hundreds of plants, and oversaw the construction of a new dock - one of the few public water access points in the area.

Paul’s leadership, heart, and tireless commitment have truly made him the go-to person in South County for climate resilience and environmental stewardship.

2026 Consortium Member of the Year

2026 Consortium Member of the Year Honoree: Rachel Carey

GREENHOUSES MANAGER, PROVIDENCE OF MD

WSA is thrilled to honor Rachel Carey, Providence of MD Greenhouse Manager as the 2026 Consortium Member of the Year.  

WSA's Consortium of Support Professionals amplifies the reach of WSA programs by going above and beyond, contributing their expertise and knowledge, and offering essential guidance to Stewards. By assisting Stewards in the planning and execution of projects across Anne Arundel County, the Consortium plays a vital role in ensuring their success.

Providence of Maryland is an Anne Arundel County-based nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering people with intellectual and developmental disabilities to achieve their fullest potential and lead fulfilling lives. Their Greenhouse staff specializes in wholesale production of native plants, using environmentally friendly practices to cultivate a diverse range of native plants and offer them at competitive prices. Like WSA, their organizational commitment lies in an unwavering dedication to personalized support, meeting each person where they are, and collaborating with them individually to help them realize their unique individual goals.

As the Greenhouse Manager, Rachel has not only helped carry out Providence’s mission in her work with her team members where she handles each and every challenge and opportunity professionally and with grace. She has also carried their mission forward by happily supporting many Stewards, Steward communities, environmental nonprofits, and the public by supplying them with a reliable source of locally grown native plants. Here are just a few examples of how Rachel has supported Stewards in the past year:

·       Working with WSA staff to contract and grow over 5,000 native plants for WSA’s Wildflowers in a Weekend kits.

·       Generously providing space to WSA’s RePollinate Anne Arundel Program volunteers to stratify and prepare seeds for spring sowing.

·       Supporting the Cape Conservation Corps in their First Flowers Program.

·       Providing low-cost plants to several Steward communities for native plant sales, restoration projects, and community events.

·       Taking her team out to hand-collect local sources of native bay grass seed to be grown out  for shoreline restoration projects.

Rachel consistently works to find thoughtful solutions to help Stewards and beyond to reach their wildest native plant dreams. Stewards and WSA staff alike were continually so impressed with Rachel’s level of professional support, guidance, and enthusiasm for the Steward projects that we knew Rachel would make a great addition to WSA’s List of Consortium professionals. Her work meets both the mission of Providence of Maryland and WSA; helping people learn, grow, and achieve better lives and improve communities through planting native plants. 

Congratulations, Rachel! Your significant and lasting impact is clearly evident in your dedicated contributions to WSA, our Stewards, and beyond and we are incredibly thankful for all you have done for the community.

2026 Ron Bowen Award

More About Rich Piluk, WSA’s 2026 Ron Bowen Awardee

Anne Arundel County's main attraction is its approximately 500 miles of shoreline. In the past many waterfront communities were developed with small lots on sites unsuitable for conventional septic systems. Homes, typically summer cottages, were built with substandard septic systems. As the homes became year-round residences, many of the septic systems started to fail.

Rich Piluk started designing septic systems for the Anne Arundel County Department of Health in 1973. Dealing with failing septic systems on sites unsuitable for conventional systems, he  developed the Innovative and Alternative septic system program for Anne Arundel County.

For some sites with high ground water levels, Rich in the 70s introduced the use of sand mound systems. Although initially used only for repairing failing septic systems, they eventually became accepted as conventional systems statewide based on the work Rich was doing in Anne Arundel County.

In the early 80s Rich experimented with sand filters to treat septic tank effluent. Sand filters greatly reduced the levels of BOD and bacteria in septic tank effluent. However, sand filters transformed the nitrogen in septic tank effluent to nitrates. Nitrates travel readily throughsoils and can contaminate wells and surface waters. This was an unforeseen problem. 

Wanting to learn how to deal with the nitrogen problem, Rich, with the support of the department of health, acquired a Master's degree from The University of Maryland. His 1986 Master's thesis was 'Designing a Recirculating Sand Filter for Nitrogen Reduction.” 

With his advanced knowledge of wastewater treatment, Rich was able to convert hundreds of septic systems to nitrogen reducing systems well before state funding of nitrogen reducing systems. To promote the use of nitrogen reducing systems, Rich helped in the creation of Anne Arundel County’s Limited Home Addition Policy and the adoption of Appendix D: Groundwater Protection Plan, of the Anne Arundel County Water and Sewer Master Plan.

The Limited Home Addition Policy allows homeowners to make limited improvements to their homes if they improve their substandard septic systems with the addition of a nitrogen reducing system.  This policy allows homes to be upgraded while upgrading onsite wastewater treatment. The addition of a nitrogen reducing unit can extend the life of a substandard on-site system while reducing nitrogen protecting the groundwater of the County. 

Rich’s over fifty years of designing septic systems has been confined primarily to Anne Arundel County with one notable exception. In 2025 he spent two weeks in Uganda, Africa volunteering with Engineers Without Borders to help design and install a septic system for a new girls bathroom at a school. The system replaced pit privies which were unsanitary.  In the process he also introduced a new concept for septic systems to that part of Uganda, deep trenches.

Even after over fifty years working in government, Rich is still passionate about onsite wastewater treatment, always looking for ways to improve on-site sewage disposal systems while attempting to keep costs down. His goal is to reimagine septic systems. Septic systems are often considered temporary inconveniences until public sewer is available. Instead they have the potential of being self-watering and sel- fertilizing beautiful landscape features. The challenge is how to deal with root intrusion.  Rich savors the challenge and is encouraged for future improvements to on-site sewage disposal systems.

Latin for Gardeners: February 2026

Latin for Gardeners
February’s Native Maryland Plant

Kalmia latifolia L.
(KAL-mee-ah lah-tih-FOH-lee-ah)

Ready to “spring” into action? This Kalmia latifolia will be getting ready to do just that – in May. Mountain laurels have a unique method of ensuring cross-pollination – their anthers (1) , coated in pollen, are positioned under spring-like tension. When a pollinator visits, it inadvertently releases the tension, causing both the anther, and thus the pollen to be forcefully released. Freshly coated in pollen, the pollinator moves on to the next flower, spreading the pollen on its stigma (2) . This catapult-like mechanism is just one of the wonders of a shrub that is known for its evergreen leaves and ability to grow in deep shade.

Mountain laurels are treasured plants in Maryland – their late spring blooms are a welcome sight in their preferred habitat - acidic woodland forest. Planted in too much shade they will have reduced blooms and can become spindly and even gnarly, adding another dimension to their attraction, IMO. The county of Laurel was named for the abundance of laurels in the area, and in Crownsville, MD you can find both a community on a ridge and a court, named for them. But K. latifolia can also be right at home in a backyard setting – if the conditions are right. This plant thrives in well-drained, moist, acidic soil, in partshade. The plants in my yard are on a north-facing slope in part-shade; here they stay cool, even on some of the hottest days of the year, and their unique and exquisite blooms are a welcome site to myself and the many pollinators who enjoy visiting them.

I’m getting ready to ‘Spring Into Action’ at the WSA conference this month. I hope to see many of you there. In the meantime, I’ll have to be a bit more patient to capture the spring action of the Mountain Laurel.

Alison Milligan – MG/MN 2013
Watershed Steward Class 7/Anne Arundel Tree Trooper
Chesapeake Bay Landscape Professional (CBLP)
alison@lifewithnativeplants.org