News

Introducing SRA’s new Executive Director, Jesse Iliff

Published: March 8, 2022

The Severn River Association is pleased and excited to announce that native son and environmental attorney, Jesse Iliff, joined our team as Executive Director on March 1, 2022. Jesse brings a wealth of experience as an environmental advocate and Riverkeeper to lead SRA, the nation’s oldest river group, to ensure that we achieve our new […]

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SRA Surveys Locations For New Severn Oyster Reefs 

Published: March 7, 2022

Thanks to a grant from the Chesapeake Bay Trust and the Chesapeake Oyster Alliance, SRA will be expanding our oyster restoration research operations this spring and summer to identify the best new locations for future oyster restoration reefs in the Severn River. The $10,000 grant will support a major study of river bottom conditions where historic […]

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SRA’s Water Quality Data Online For Your Review!

Published: March 7, 2022

All of SRA’s Severn River water quality monitoring data for the 2021 season is now available to review and study on the Chesapeake Data Explorer data sharing platform. You can review oxygen, pH, temperature, salinity and clarity data collected by SRA’s team of citizen scientists collected at 51 monitoring stations between April and November. The […]

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New Report: Oysters Thriving In Severn River; Reefs Rebuilding

Published: March 7, 2022

Recent efforts to bring oysters back to the Severn River are succeeding! The good news comes in a new report on a scientific oyster diver conducted by the Severn River Association. The report highlights that oyster populations on three restoration reefs are exceeding oyster restoration thresholds of 50 oysters/m2 and the oysters are starting to naturally […]

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Fertilizers: The Big Threat To Oysters, Fish, Crabs

Published: March 7, 2022

–by Joan Treichel, SRA Science Reporter If you love your Severn River, please be very cautious about fertilizing your lawn this spring. Although fertilizers are remarkably valuable in feeding the world’s populations, when they end up in the Chesapeake Bay or the rivers that flow into it, they can inflict grave damage. What can be […]

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Call For Volunteers: Water Quality Crews Forming

Published: March 7, 2022

Starting this April, SRA’s famous water quality (WQ) monitoring program will begin for the 2022 monitoring season. We could use your help! By joining our WQ crew, you’ll be: tracking conditions in your river, collecting scientific data that is shared with the regulatory and scientific communities, discovering places you’ve never seen, meeting new friends, and […]

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Will You Help Protect Our Underwater Grasses?

Published: March 6, 2022

We are starting an outreach campaign to bring attention to protecting our submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV). As the sign says: For A Healthy Bay, Let Grasses Stay. The goal is to get the word out that SAV is a key to restoring our river’s habitat because the grasses: protect shorelines from erosion, add oxygen to the […]

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Raising Oysters Returns In Full Swing To The Severn!

Published: November 29, 2021

A big thanks goes to our team of oyster growers throughout the Seven River who participate in the Marylanders Grow Oysters (MGO) program this year. Our volunteer oyster growers will be out there all winter raising our next crop of oysters under their piers. Then in June, they’ll plant their one-year old oysters on the Traces Hollow restoration […]

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Floating Classroom Looks Forward To 2022!

Published: November 26, 2021

It was a great year for students this summer participating in our Floating Classroom program aboard our scientific research vessel, Sea Girl.  During the peak of the summer, our Habitat Instructor, Briana Nancy, sets sail nearly every week on our scientific research vessel, Sea Girl, to develop young scientists and encourage stewardship of our waterways. SRA’s […]

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Calling All Boaters! Paddlers, Fishermen, Crabbers!   

Published: November 24, 2021

What is our scientist friend from the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) doing? Taking pictures of Chessie the Sea Monster? No, it’s even more exciting … SERC Researcher Elizabeth is taking pictures of turbidity in the water! Huh? This summer, SRA was proud to help the folks at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) ground […]

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