SAV Workgroup Meeting Thursday, April 12, 2007 10:00 am - 3:00 pm USFWS Chesapeake Bay Field Office 177 Admiral Cochrane Drive Annapolis, MD 21401 Minutes Presentations and the SAIC Report can be viewed at: http://www.chesapeakebav.net/cbpo/calendar/web calendar/calendar.cfm?EventDetails=8407&DefaultVie w=2&ReauestDate=04/16/2007 ~~~ Attendance Name Phone/Email Address Affiliation Mark Lewandowski 410-260-8634 mlewandowski(S?dnr. state.md.us MDDNR Kendra Scheminant 410-694-9401 kscheniinant@bavlandinc.coni Bay Land Candy Croswell 410-887-3778 ccriswell@baltimorecountvmd.aov Baltimore Comity DEPRM Keith Tate 410-694-9401 ktate@bavlandinc.com Bay Land Court Stevenson 410-221 -8442 court@liDl. unices. edu University of MD Lee Karrh 410-260-8650 lkarrh@dnr. state.md.us MDDNR Evamaria Koch 410-221 -8418 koch@liDl.umces.edu UMCES-HPL Bennett Anderson 302-739-9939 bennett.anderson@state.de.us DE/DNREC Howard Weinberg 410-267-5735 hweinber(S?chesapeakebav .net UMCES-CBPO Becky Golden 410-260-8698 raolden@dnr.state.md.us MDDNR Katie Preen 410-260-8654 kpreen(S?dnr.state.md.us MDDNR Becky Thur 443-482-2415 (Temporary) thurb@si.edu CRC Keely Clifford 410-269-9853 clifford.keelv@eDa.aov EPA-CBPO Mike Fritz 410-267-5721 fritz.mike@eDa.aov EPA-CBPO Peter Bergstrom 410-267-5665 Deter. berastrom@noaa. aov NOAA CBO Tom Parham 410-260-8633 tDarhamfS?dnr.state.md.us MDDNR Bob Ortli 804-684-7392 iiortlifS)vims.edu VIMS Mike Naylor 410-260-8652 mnavlorfS)dnr.state.md.us MDDNR Debbie Hinkle 410-221-8257 liinklefS)hDl.umces.edu UMCES-HPL Genevieve Trafelet 410-267-5718 trafelet.aenevieve(S)eDa.aov CRC-CBPO 4^ Chesapedke Bay Program A Wfi.twshvxi tnerabip ------- ~~~ Action Items •S Peter Bergstrom will use the means and then try it with and without the exclusion zones. •S Genevieve Trafelet to post Peter's report on the calendar. Completed •S Bill Romano Look at trends of water temperature; possible work with Mike Williams and his data. •S Bill Romano Plotting salinity in addition to other parameters may show a pattern. •S Bob Orth/VIMS to send grass samples to Evamaria Koch to use; send sediment analysis to Lee Karrh •S Peter Bergstrom will talk with Deborah and circulate draft proposal for project. •S Tom Parham will contact MDE to see about funding sources for restoration activities. ~~~ Introductions/Announcements Mike Naylor announced he will be stepping down as chair of the SAV workgroup. ~~~ Mike Fritz- SAV Aerial Survey RFP Matt Fleming will decide who the next chair of the SAV workgroup will be. If you are interested, call Matt Fleming at 410-260-8719. Lee Karrh said he would like to serve as chair/co-chair. Jeff Lape is the new chair of the Chesapeake Bay Program. He is currently going around and meeting with various partners of CBP. For the FY2008, EPA will be issuing an RFP for SAV aerial surveys. EPA is also looking for other agencies to cost share for the project. There will be a panel formed to advise EPA on the selection of the grantee. The award will be made in early 2008 for the 2008 data collection season. The workgroup supported the continuation and inclusion of ground-truthing and organization of the data in the RFP. Having species data is important information to have and the accuracy of the species identification should also be checked. It was suggeted that the ground-truthing component be split apart and into a separate RFP because EPA is not getting any additional money in 2008 so there would be no funding available for additional projects. The workgroups would like to have an error estimate on the data collection. Possibly have one group to make maps and a separate group to check their work to get an estimate of error. This should be done every 5 years or so; not necessary to do every year. People were concerned about what will happen to coastal bay SAV surveys. The possibility of a joint RFP to be made with the National Estuary Program was suggested. Some members felt that the Bay survey and the Coastal Bay survey should be advertised separately. People with additional concerns should talk to Mike Fritz, 410-267-5721. ------- ~~~ Peter Bergstrom- Comparing Water Clarity and SAV area, 2001-2005 Peter gave a presentation explaining his analysis of water clarity and SAV area. The workgroup suggested using data that excludes the exclusion zones. Segments that are completely exclusion zones will probably never have grasses. It may be important to include the partials because they also have good water quality. It was suggested that 3 years of data from various salinity regimes be used in the analysis. This may help to determine PLW for the shallow water. Some areas will have 6- 7 fixed stations. You can obtain data per bed instead of per segment by overlaying the areas. It was suggested to look at water temperature and grass beds in the lower Bay (especially Tangier Sound). However, current temperature data for Tangier Sound is not available. ~> Howard Weinberg- How SAV is Used in Determining Water Clarity Attainment Howard noted that some outstanding issues have already been addressed. Any changes to the methodology of how SAV is surveyed will affect whether places will be in attainment or not for water quality. Continuous sensors will be deployed next year by VIMS instead of data flow in some places. ~~~ Kendra Scheminant- Magothy River, Mill Creek SAV Trends Mill Creek was studied in response to the Dec 17, 2005 wastewater main collapse that pumped sewage into the creek. The species, density and maximum depth of SAV were recorded from field surveys; the same density scale as VIMS was used. The percent cover trends were similar to what was occurring in the Bay. The Magothy River trends were very close for the field surveys and the aerial surveys. There was a decline in SAV in Magothy River and Mill Creek in 2006. It is possible that the spill could have magnified the effects in Mill Creek. A restoration plan is in place and they want to develop a habitat restoration and enhancement plan. There is maintenance on the channel that needs to be done which includes the removal of areas of high sedimentation to make the areas accessible to boaters, stabilization of the banks, making multiple channels into the stream, and SAV enhancements. Partnership with Mill Creek Scientific Review Committee will continue. They will engage agency employees often and early and get input from SAV workgroup regarding ideas on how to conduct SAV restoration. The citizens will have to pay for the spur channels ($1,000-3,000 a piece) and the county/state will pay for the main channel. The new channel will be about 4 feet deep; this may be difficult to achieve with current regulations and the fact that it has been 2 feet deep for the past 10 years or so. The SAV workgroup offered some suggestions and comments regarding SAV restoration. If boater stir up is decreased, then the seed bank may come up in a few years after the water clarity improves. Within 3 years of the dredging the grasses should come back. It is important to have citizens focus on shoreline and land BMPs and tell them their SAV will come back once they implement the BMPs and some time has passed. Possibly do mixed species plantings to see what works best. Keith Tate: ktate@bavlandinc.com Kendra Scheminant: kscheminant@bavlandinc.com ------- ~> Bill Romano- Water Quality Trends in Chesapeake Bay 1985-2005 There are links between SAV and water quality but it is difficult to represent statistically. Labs were changed in May 1998 from Department of Health and Mental Hygiene to Chesapeake Biological Lab and the TSS concentrations results have shifted greatly; but there is no difference in the overall trends. This change is possibly due to the difference of methods for preparing filters for analysis. There seems to be a greater difference when the TSS is low. The mainstem data has been analyzed at CBL; samples from the Potomac River may potentially be affected. Chi a has seen lots of improvements possibly due to the improvements at Blue Plains. Secchi depth however is decreasing although TSS is increasing. This is of great concern and can not be explained easily. Data from the upper bay seems to be related to SAV data. SAV has gotten a lot better in the upper bay but the water quality trends are stable. This may be a reason why the mid channel data are not good to use. The invasion of hydrilla may have some relation to this. The comment was made that the invasion of dark false mussels helped to improve secchi depth. They tried to correlate SAV improvement with water quality data. Completed regression analysis from some areas to see if they could be used to predict SAV success; was not successful as a reliable tool to make predictions. 2005 and 2006 had high temperatures and high diebacks of SAV. Summer time temperatures seem to be very important in SAV success. Critical temperature areas (above 30C) are where eelgrass diebacks occur. The percentage of time above critical temperature also has an impact on SAV abundance. Critical turbidity is 22%. High temperatures and high turbidity are not a favorable combination for SAV. Pulses of increased turbidity and decreased temperature could be due to rain events. ~~~ Bob Murphy- Baywide monitoring and assessment of SAV restoration projects, 1997-present: A Proposal Many different agencies and organizations have been involved in SAV restoration in the Bay. Methodology and origin of plants are different for various restoration efforts. Different methods can teach different things; adult plant based restoration, seed based restoration, site selection, site suitability, etc. There are many military installations along the Bay (about 12) and most of the military installations are on the western shore of the Bay. There is currently about 10 years of restoration data available from these sites. Funding is restricted to military site surveys. Bob Murphy would like feedback from SAV workgroup on the SAV Restoration Monitoring matrices for: 1. Methodology Input The water quality data will be a snapshot for that day. You can draw additional data from other larger water quality monitoring programs. Sediment assessment is important to analyze when visiting sites. Suggestion: Put HOBO temperature instrument at sites with grasses. It would also be beneficial to get data on waves. 2. Thresholds for "success" or "failure" ------- They would like to expand sites to those beyond DoD sites. There is a 10 year cutoff. They are looking for active restoration programs and seeking funding opportunities. Deborah Schaeffer, Verna Harrison, Peter Bergstrom have some money available to do a data analysis project. This may be a more lessons learned report and include mitigation projects, coastal projects and NOAA/ACOE funded projects. DNR and VIMS have a similar project and the information will be available/are available online; this could dove tail with the CRC proposal. This would be an excellent independent follow-up on projects that have been completed already. The time of year and frequency of visits are important to make sure grasses are recorded accurately. Species can vary and grasses are not present all year. ~~~ Tom Parham- Changes in MD DNR's SAV Program DNR has very small amounts of general funds to use discretionally. The Green Fund was not passed and that was going to be a source of additional funding for Bay restoration activities. DNR will now have to look for outside funding sources but will continue with its current projects. It was suggested that MDE has Nontidal/Tidal Wetland fee which could be a potential source of funds for SAV restoration projects. There is also a mitigation fund. ~> Mike Naylor- Chesapeake Bay Program Strategic Implementation Planning for SAV Mike gave a quick overview of his presentation given at the Feb. 21-22, 2007 SIP meeting. The SAV Strategy is very thorough and first came out in 1988. Funding gaps and water quality are two main obstacles in SAV restoration. ~~~ Closing It was suggested to change the current SAV workgroup structure to have a co- chair to teach new chairs and shortening the term to 2-3 years. This would only be successful if there were enough people willing to serve in the positions. The process for changing the procedures needs to be determined; does it need to go through LRSC? Talk to Mike Fritz or Matt Fleming concerning this issue. Adjourn ------- |