With Gratitude for their Service to WSA

WSA is extremely grateful for the service of its departing Board Members, Kevin Green, Steve Russo, and Ron Snyder

Kevin Green joined WSA during our very first certification course in 2009 and has truly been a part of growing the organization since then. Kevin’s incredible leadership as a Steward has made his community projects in Hillsmere a favorite stop on WSA’s restoration tours. On the Board, Kevin has not only represented the perspective of the communities we serve, but has also been committed fundraising partner, connected many donors to support WSA’s mission.

Steve Russo has served as WSA’s treasurer for nearly 8 years, during which time, our organization’s budget and financial sophistication has grown tremendously. He has guided us through our first formal financial reviews and helped the organization prepare for upcoming audits. We are grateful for Steve’s steady and consistent guidance over the last several years.

I first met Ron Snyder at the Stormwater Workgroup convened by Anne Arundel County in an effort to better support communities with environmental site design practices required after Maryland’s Stormwater Management Act of 2007. As a developer, Ron’s commitment to helping HOAs successfully understand and maintain stormwater practices led him to partner with WSA and Steward Steve Miller to create our Stormwater Success course(link). Thank you Ron for lending your unique perspective to help WSA support communities with stormwater facilities! Registration for our next Stormwater Success course is current open. Click here for more information and to register.

With gratitude,

Suzanne Etgen

Latin for Gardeners: October 2024

Latin for Gardeners

 

October’s Native Maryland Plant

Juncus effusus L.

(JUN-kus eff-YOO-sus)

Common Name: Soft Rush

October is Riparian Buffer month¹ – a time to reflect on the waterways that surround us and how we can each play a part in maintaining their health, for ourselves and for all the life that lives in, on and around our shorelines. The word riparian is from the Latin word ripa, meaning "bank" or "shore”, the Latin noun for river is riparius.  Riparian refers to the land that borders a river or body of water – including forests, floodplains or the outskirts of wetlands. Buffers are things that form a barrier to protect against or moderate the impact of other incompatible things. Riparian buffers are vegetated areas that safeguard streams and aquatic ecosystems from harmful things like stormwater pollution (pesticide, fertilizer, …), animal waste and sediment while also creating habitat and providing cooling shade to rivers. Raising awareness of the benefits and need for riparian buffers is one way we can all help preserve the health of the waterways we enjoy.

Juncus effusus is a plant often found in riparian buffers. Its fibrous roots help stabilize embankments and uptake nutrients - a major contributor to algal blooms. Its seeds are eaten by waterfowl while its long arching stems provide them protective habitat.

Many animals eat the seeds of Juncus effusus, including rabbits, songbirds, and waterfowl. Rushes provide habitat for amphibians and spawning areas for fish. Herons feed on the rootstalks of soft rush, and various wetland wading birds find shelter among the stems.

Juncus effusus can be an aggressive plant, its rhizomes weave together to provide excellent erosion control and to suppress weeds.  Because of its ability to tolerate total inundation and drought stress, Juncus effusus is especially useful in rain gardens or landscapes with fluctuating hydrology, a common feature in Maryland residential properties.

Our riparian areas can’t wait to be buffered from the increasing harm of stormwater pollution.  This fall we should all rush to find ways to use Soft Rush (or other native plants), in our own landscapes or communities, to help protect our streams and to provide habitat for the fauna that we love.  

¹ https://www.chesapeakelandscape.org/riparian-buffer-month/

Alison Milligan – MG/MN 2013

Watershed Steward Class 7/CBLP

aligmilligan@gmail.com

Latin for Gardeners: September 2024

Latin for Gardeners

September’s Native Maryland Plant

Rudbeckia fulgida Aiton

(rud-BEK-ee-a FUL-gih-duh)

Common Name: Orange Coneflower, Black-eyed Susan

Some plants are tougher than others when it comes to withstanding heat or drought. When I was choosing plants for a new pollinator garden along my circular driveway, I knew I’d need plants that could take the heat and even, on occasion, a bit of running over by my small pickup truck; my driveway is narrow and plants that lean into the driveway are in danger of being run over from time to time. I chose Orange Coneflowers for their hardiness and value to pollinators - little did I know just how tough this plant could be and what an amazing job it would do attracting and feeding insects.

In early November 2019 I planted 50 Rudbeckia fulgida plugs along a section high up on the outer strip of my driveway. It was late in the season to plant plugs, but the area was in full sun and the ground was still warm. After planting, I watered them, put down a light layer of mulch and looked forward to summer 2020 when I hoped to see their bright yellow flowers, greeting me each time I opened my front door.

It was just a few months later, in February 2020, when I came home to find someone had used my driveway and had not been able to make the narrow turn – a moving truck¹ had run over my plugs and many other plants I had recently planted. Oh no! At this time of year, the ground was frozen so there was nothing I could do - I left the area as a spring project.  In March I made the decision to leave the plugs as they were; I was worried they had been fatally wounded but I wanted to see if any could survive. Thankfully, and to my surprise, I had no need to worry. By July, the plants were already over a foot tall and beginning to bloom; throughout August and into the fall, I had a full strip of yellow coneflowers – ready to feed any hungry pollinators passing by. As it turned out, there were many pollinators nearby and they took notice.

It was not long before butterflies, skippers, bees, and beneficial wasps were enjoying the plants – I even found a camouflaged looper on one of the cones.

An added bonus: Rudbeckia fulgida attracts many beneficial insects that provide biological control of pest insects - an environmentally friendly method used in Integrated Pest Management (IPM). Non-aggressive, solitary thread-waisted wasps are excellent hunters who eat caterpillars and crickets. Scoliid wasps are parasitoids of the white beetle grubs that infest lawns. The larvae of flower fly (aka hover fly, syrphid fly) are efficient pollinators whose larvae eat aphids, thrips, and scale insects. The larval stage of elephant mosquito feeds on the larvae of other mosquito species – including Aedes, the ones that feed on people and spread diseases like Dengue and Zika. Crab spiders are ambush predators that eat mites and flies.

This perennial has proven hard to beat; it is a magnet for butterflies and beneficial insects, tolerates the dry, hot conditions found along asphalt, and perhaps most impressive, it has proven to be as tough as a moving van - and the occasional pickup truck.

As a group, Rudbeckia spp. are often referred to as ‘Black-eyed Susan’.  Maryland’s state flower, the Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta) differs from R. fulgida in a number of ways. R. hirta is a biennial or short-lived perennial and is typically taller than R. fulgida. R. hirta can be distinguished from R. fulgida by looking at its stems, bracts and leaves which are covered in stiff hairs – the specific epithet hirta means hairy. Both plants are the host for the Silvery Checkerspot butterfly.

¹ I discovered by looking at my Ring cameras that my neighbors’ moving truck company had not once, but twice entered my driveway as a shortcut to turning around. The plugs had withstood the weight of a moving truck with 6 tires – multiple times!

Alison Milligan – MG/MN 2013

Watershed Steward Class 7/CBLP

aligmilligan@gmail.com

2024 Consortium Member of the Year

2024 Honoree: Bill Bower 

Senior Project Manager, Atwell, LLC

WSA is thrilled to honor Bill Bower, environmental engineer and newly certified Watershed Steward as the 2024 Consortium Member of the Year.  

WSA’s Consortium of Support Professionals  extend and expand the impact of WSA’s training by  providing expertise and guidance to Stewards as they develop and execute projects. Bill has done just that and more!

As a professional engineer, professional land surveyor and pervious concrete technician  who has worked on many local stormwater projects, Bill brings timely, practical, in the trenches examples of projects - both successful ones, and projects gone wrong. Bill lends his professional expertise to help improve,  inform and instruct the Stormwater Success Course, a short course for HOA leaders and property managers to improve maintenance of stormwater BMPs, and provides continuing education  for Stewards on soils, erosion and non-plant solutions for residential stormwater problems. As a member of  WSA’s Watershed Steward Class 15, Bill consistently connected class topics to real world examples and answered the many Steward questions, providing insights, resources and illustrations to make stewardship topics come alive. Bill also helps Stewards from Class 15 and beyond to develop projects, attending site visits, reviewing documents and brainstorming solutions for difficult situations.  

Bill truly embodies the critical partnership between the professional restoration community and engaged community leaders to make change in the landscape. Clearly Bill has had an impact on our Stewards, and that is why they voted him Consortium Member of the year!

Congratulations Bill and Thank you!