Ben Ford became the Miles-Wye Riverkeeper in 2023. Ben is dedicated to improving the water quality in the Miles and Wye rivers and Eastern Bay, and ensuring that they remain bountiful, safe, healthy, and beautiful. He joined the staff of ShoreRivers in 2023.
Ben was born and raised in Talbot County, and spent his early years on the water as a sailing instructor at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum, as a living shoreline technician, and as professional crew on a sailing yacht.
For the last 13 years, Ben has deepened his passion for the Chesapeake’s people and places as the program manager for the Chesapeake Semester with Washington College’s Center for Environment and Society. During the Chesapeake Semester, a 16-credit interdisciplinary experiential education program for undergraduates, students study the complex history, ecology, and culture of the Chesapeake and learn about the challenges and transitions confronting coastal communities around the world. As part of the initiative, Ben led short-term study abroad programs for undergraduates in Peru, Guatemala, Belize, and Baja Mexico.
Former Miles-Wye Riverkeeper Elle Bassett is now the South, West & Rhode Riverkeeper at Arundel Rivers Federation.
Just north of the Choptank, the Miles River, comprising approximately 54 square miles, runs past the town of St. Michaels, out into Eastern Bay, and up into Kent Island Narrows where it touches the Chester. Branching off of the Miles, the Wye River complex includes the Wye East, the Wye Main Stem, and Wye Narrows, covers 78 square miles, and winds around historic Wye Island, a state preserve that includes a magnificent old-growth forest, walking trails, and picnic areas. These rivers are largely tidal. Surrounded mostly by agricultural land use, they share similar demographics with the Choptank and Chester and face threats from excessive fertilizers, unwise development, and sprawl.
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A Voice for the Rivers: ShoreRivers version from Sandy Cannon-Brown on Vimeo.
Advocacy and Enforcement
ShoreRivers advocates for waterways in a number of ways—developing and influencing state and local policy, lobbying for beneficial state legislation and regulatory change, testifying at bill hearings in Annapolis, working with county commissioners to effect positive change, and reaching out to members to call and write to their elected officials. They work on the local, state, and federal level to ensure that laws and regulations reflect what is best for the health of Eastern Shore waterways. Riverkeepers also regularly patrol waterways – monitoring river health, identifying pollution hot spots that need to be addressed, and looking for illegal pollution sources. When necessary they take legal action to curtail illegal polluters.
Recent efforts include:
- Helping develop and support legislation to protect our oyster sanctuaries
- Testifying in support of the Phosphorous Management Tool and Poultry Litter Management Act
- Applying for a No Discharge Zone in the Chester River
- Opposing in court a major development project in Kent Island’s critical area
Agriculture
ShoreRivers is recognized as a leader in working collaboratively with farmers to solve problems of nutrient and sediment loss to waterways from agriculture. They are an incubator for new ideas and technologies for best farming practices that benefit farmers and our Eastern Shore waterways.
Recent accomplishments include:
- Decreasing fertilizer loss from farm fields by piloting on-farm application of new technology on 24,000 acres to variably apply fertilizer only where, and in the amounts, it is needed
- Increasing buffers on farms by advancing markets for an alternative crop of native grass for marginally productive areas of fields
- Installing multiple bioreactors and other innovative practices to clean agricultural runoff
- Convening 200 farmers annually to exchange best practice ideas and information
- Convening an annual community event, attended by more than 350 citizens, for farmers and non-farmers to voice concern about pollution from agriculture and discuss potential solutions
Restoration
ShoreRivers is a leader in designing, funding, and managing major restoration projects on agricultural lands, on public county-owned properties, in urban areas, at schools, colleges, and churches, and with private landowners to reduce the sediment and nutrients that pollute our waterways. They have in-house technical expertise and work with engineers, contractors, local governments, and landowners to implement strategic restoration projects throughout our watershed. ShoreRivers is certified by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation as a Technical Service Provider.
They have brought dozens of innovative, strategic, pollution reduction projects to our communities, including:
- installing Maryland’s first nutrient removing bioreactors on agricultural land
- planting over 10,000 native trees, shrubs, and wildflowers
- growing 200,000 oysters for sanctuaries on the Wye River, in Langford Bay on the Chester, and near Love Point
- installing living shorelines
- installing 27 acres of wetlands and 350 acres of native riverine buffer as part of the Natural Lands Project
- retrofitting much of the stormwater infrastructure at Chesapeake College and Gunston School
- initiating a multi-faceted conservation drainage program for the Eastern Shore
Oyster Restoration
ShoreRivers supports native oyster restoration. Each native oysters filters about 50 gallons of river water per day, so their resurgence is an essential component of river health. Growing oysters gives citizen volunteers an opportunity to learn about the river and to be a part of the effort to restore it. The Marylanders Grow Oysters (MGO) program is a collaboration between ShoreRivers, the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science’s Horn Point Lab, the Oyster Recovery Partnership, and Washington College.
Science and Monitoring
From Cecilton to Cambridge and everywhere in between, ShoreRivers staff and an army of volunteer citizen scientists monitor water quality at nearly 200 stations throughout the Chester, Choptank, Miles-Wye, and Sassafras River watersheds. They evaluate the water for common indicators, including dissolved oxygen, nutrient pollution, algae, pH, and clarity. In addition, they publish bacteria results in the SwimGuide and just kick-started an Submerged Aquatic Vegetation (SAV) monitoring program. They post our monitoring data for public use on a Digital Atlas (coming soon). They use our monitoring data to develop annual Report Cards, to track the trends in water quality in our rivers, to identify and mitigate pollution sources, and to strategically prioritize restoration efforts. Our data is relied on by state and federal agencies and is used to support our policy advocacy efforts region-wide.
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