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DIPP Newsletter  August 2016, Volume 10

 

Dear DIPP Stakeholders and Participants,

 

We hope you are enjoying the dog days of summer, and gearing up for the Labor Day Skipjack Race and Festival next weekend! We're looking forward to seeing many of you there. Below you'll find updates on various activities we've been involved in over the last month, including an announcement about a potential shoreline project on Deal Island, an overview of the landscape conservation workshop, and some more photos from Julia Keane of some of the Integrated Coastal Resiliency Assessment (ICRA) focus areas. We are in the midst of planning the ICRA Collaborative Field Assessments scheduled for this fall, and will have a schedule and more details about the CFAs available for you very soon. We hope many of you will be interested in participating, so stay tuned! In the meantime, feel free to get in touch if you have any questions. 

 

Best Regards, 
The DIPP Team

The 57th Annual Skipjack Race and  Festival

We're looking forward to another exciting Skipjack Race and Festival this coming Labor Day! The festival will be held September 3-5 on Deal Island and will include good food, music, arts and crafts, and much more. The Skipjack Race will kick off on Labor Day morning. Come visit DIPP on the main festival grounds. Sarah Hartge, UMD graduate student, will also be there with some of the results from her Rock Creek Cemetery mapping project. Sarah is hoping to connect with people who may have stories, photos, and/or copies of obituataries of family or friends buried in the cemetery. She'd like to incorporate these documents into the online ancestry tool she is developing for the Deal Island Peninsula communities. Stop by and say hi! 

Potential Living Shoreline and Marsh Enhancement Project

We are proud to announce that members of the Deal Island Peninsula Project stakeholder network have applied for a grant to secure funding for a living shoreline and marsh enhancement project along the Tangier Sound in Deal Island.

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The site (in between Crowell Rd. and Hunt's Hill) was identified as a key area of vulnerability through the work of the NOAA NERRS science collaborative projects and community workshops. A living shoreline would help to reduce wave action on the beach and help prevent further erosion. This will hopefully protect not only the marsh and dune areas nearby, but also local residents and the greater Deal Island area and Wenona by helping to prevent additional flooding of Deal Island Rd. Mr. Bhaskar

Subramanian at MD-DNR along with other DNR staff including Sasha Land and Becky Swerida were integral in developing the grant proposal for submission to NOAA's Coastal Habitat Resiliency Grant.  We will know in October/November if we have been awarded the grant and work would begin in early January 2017. For more information about the proposed project, please contact Sasha Land. 

Meet a Project Stakeholder

My name is Jen Dindinger and I work for University of Maryland Extension as part of the Sea Grant Watershed Protection and Restoration team. I moved to Maryland in 1998 and have been working for Extension since 2009. I serve the towns and neighborhoods of Dorchester, Somerset, Wicomico, and Worcester counties. My role in Extension is to help communities improve their local water quality.

I do this by teaching workshops about small-scale landscape practices; working with local decision makers to identify suitable restoration project areas; and providing people with information about grants and technical resources. I am also very interested in helping communities decide what they want to “look like” in the future, which is why I’m involved in the Deal Island Peninsula Project. The stakeholder network has been very welcoming and has a lot of energy and ideas about how to ensure that Deal Island remains the special place they all love; I am looking forward to working with everyone to help achieve that vision.

ICRA Focus Area Photos

See more of Julia Keane's photos of the ICRA Focus Areas through the link below. Julia is helping DIPP Coordinators photo document the focus areas in preparation for the Collaborative Field Assessments (CFAs), scheduled to take place this fall. More information about the CFAs coming soon!

Conservation Landscaping Informational Meeting Overview

Thanks to all of those who braved the heat to participate in the Conservation Landscaping Informational Meeting on July 23rd! We had some great discussions about which plants work best in areas prone to saltwater intrusion or spray, sandy soils, and for soaking up excess rainwater. Becky Grinath, from Worcester County Health Department, also provided information on Maryland Health Connection, a health insurance assistance program available for watermen and small business & agricultural communities throughout the lower Eastern Shore interested in acquiring or renewing health coverage. Special thanks to Bill Princiotta for hosting us and to Katelin Frase of Environmental Concern, Inc. for leading the workshop.

 

For more information about the workshop, please contact Jen Dindinger (dinding@umd.edu). For more information about Maryland Health Connection, please contact Becky Grinath (rebecca.grinath@maryland.gov).  

Newsletter Updates? 

We are looking for old photos or stories about the ICRA focus areas (Deal Island and Wenona Harbors, Deal Island area adjacent to the Crowell Rd. and Hunts Hill shoreline area, Dames Quarter and Webster Sanctuary marsh area, Oriole, and Monie Bay) to share in the newsletters. If you have photos or stories about any of the focus areas, or general announcements that you'd like to share with DIPP stakeholders and participants, please send them to Katherine Johnson and Liz Van Dolah (dealislandpeninsulaproject@gmail.com).

Interested in receiving a hardcopy of the newsletter? Send your name and mailing address to dealislandpeninsulaproject@gmail.com

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