Sassafras River Association

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  • 2011
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  • 2012
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  • Weather
  • Tides
  • Water Quality
  • Safety
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  • At the Boat
  • At Home
  • At the Farm
  • At my Business
  • As a Volunteer
  • Become a Member
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  • Sassafest Overview
  • Fall Color Paddle 2011
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Volunteer Today

SRA is always looking for volunteers to help out in a variety of capacities:

1.) Sassafras Samplers Water Quality Testing. We need volunteers to participate in year round monthly sampling of various stream sites in the Sassafras Watershed. The RIVERKEEPER and science committee will provide all the training and equipment you will need to be an active tester.

2.) Advocacy. We need volunteers to read the local papers and notify us of regular and special meetings of the Kent and Cecil County Commissioners, Planning Commissions, and other agencies, where issues that may affect the Sassafras River watershed are to be discussed. We also need volunteers to attend those meetings.

3.) Outreach. We have an educational information booth that we take to public events in Cecil and Kent Counties, and need volunteers to help staff these events.

4.) Publicity. We always need help with event planning and publicity.

Sign up online or call 410-708-3303 today!

Upcoming 2012 Volunteer Projects:

Sassafras Samplers

For more than 6 years, SRA has sponsored a water quality monitoring program, called the Sassafras Samplers. It's a great way to learn the science of the River while making an essential contribution to our knowledge of River conditions. SRA provides all training, guidance and materials to make you a citizen scientist and get you started with this exciting, once a month, water testing project.

Stream Waders

Benthic macro invertebrates (often simply referred to as bugs) can provide an excellent snapshot of the health of our streams. Each year the Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) coordinates the Stream Waders project to collect samples from streams, and identify the abundance and diversity of bugs that dwell on stream bottoms. Volunteers participating in this project are trained by DNR biologists, and work with SRA to collect samples at Sassafras streams. Collected data is used by SRA to assess streams and produce grades for the Report Card. This project requires only one day of training, and a few days of sampling in the early spring.

Project Clean Stream

Project Clean Stream is an annual stream and shoreline clean up which engages volunteers throughout the entire Chesapeake Bay area. Each spring volunteers across the Bay participate in this project - with more than 5000 volunteers and more than 300,000 lbs of trash removed in 2011. Cleaning up shoreline litter is one of the easiest ways to improve our environment, and SRA is always looking for new volunteers and site captains to coordinate clean-ups throughout the watershed. For general questions, or if you are interested in becoming a site captain, please contact Jamie Brunkow at 410-708-3303, or riverkeeper@sassafrasriver.org

Water Chestnut Eradication

SRA and the Maryland DNR need your help in eradicating Water Chestnut from the Sassafras River. This invasive plant forms dense mats on the surface of water, which are often impenetrable for boats, swimmers, or waterfowl. Because Water Chestnut is not native to Maryland, it out-competes and displaces native vegetation, and provides poor habitat for other types of wildlife.

Office Support

Stuffing mailing envelopes, licking stamps, entering information into excels sheets – while office functions are not as glamorous as other volunteer projects, helping SRA staff around the office can really save staff time allowing us to focus on programmatic work. Get to know SRA and volunteer at our headquarters in Georgetown