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Giving Props to Hunting Creek

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By Mary Hoover and Ron Klauda

A major Calvert County stream flows under Rts. 2/4 just north of the Plum Pt. Rd. intersection and then meanders west for about 6 miles to the Patuxent River. Hundreds of motorists cross this stream everyday. Most may not even notice it. If they do, how many know its name?

The name of the stream is Hunting Creek. Until recently, this important Calvert stream went largely overlooked, as it lacked signage to denote its existence. This all changed in October 2022 when two Hunting Creek signs were installed by the Maryland State Highway Administration in response to a request from the watershed advocacy group known as the Friends of Hunting Creek (FOHC).

This signage, although a seemingly minor achievement, is no small accomplishment for the FOHC, who had been waiting for over nine months to see their beloved creek acknowledged. The request was submitted in early January 2022, with the hopes that highway signs would help raise awareness–if even subconsciously–for the ecological environs of our everyday commutes. 

Despite Calvert County’s abundant wildlife and unique ecological diversity, it is surprisingly easy to live on the peninsula and remain largely detached from its astounding nature. With the county’s main road running through its center, many commuters drive back and forth each day without appreciating the intricate network of forests and streams interlaced among the plentiful strip malls and subdivisions. Just as highway signage denotes which town center you are entering or which neighborhood you are passing, should there not also be signs indicating the county’s significant environmental features? The FOHC believes that our natural environment deserves the same recognition as our built environment, and the installation of Hunting Creek signposts is just one of the many efforts the group has made to advocate on behalf of the watershed. 

Since its formation in early 2020, the FOHC has been active in the community, pursuing a range of stewardship tactics to promote the health of the watershed. Notably, the group has taken the initiative in monitoring stormwater management infrastructure in the area and reporting observed failings to the county. The FOHC has also been monitoring water quality in the watershed for the past couple of years and writing extensive reports on their findings. Furthermore, FOHC has testified at many planning commission meetings regarding the Prince Frederick Town Center Master Plan Update, and their strong testimonies on the environmental implications of the Phase II expansion may have contributed to its eradication from the plan.

Awareness is a necessary stepping stone for environmental change. By bringing environmental awareness to the county, the planning commission, Hunting Creek residents, and now anyone who notices the new sign on route 2/4, the FOHC is helping to affect positive environmental change in Calvert. So, next time you find yourself passing this little green sign, remind yourself of the stream it signifies, and know that this stream is not only highly important to the FOHC who steward it, but also to all Calvert residents. Because even the most seemingly minor natural features of our landscape play a critical role in the larger, shared ecosystem that ultimately sustains us.

Interested in joining the FOHC or learning more about watershed stewardship in Calvert County? Contact mary@acltweb.org to be added to the list!





FOHC members Kyle Greene (and children), Ron Klauda, and Bob Estes; along with Greg Bowen, ACLT Executive Director, and Mary Hoover, SMCA coordinator, admire the new sign along the northbound lanes
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The Generosity of Mother Nature

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By Ron Klauda and Mary Hoover

According to Dr. Elliott Campbell, Acting Director of the Office of Science and Stewardship at the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, the Hunting Creek Watershed, located in the heart of Calvert County, Maryland, provides a whopping $26 million worth of total ecosystem services benefits each and every year.  With a total area of 19,878 acres, that generous gift translates to $1,308 in annual free benefits per acre.

So, what are ecosystem services?  Simply stated, they are any and all benefits that people receive from the environment.  Ecosystem services make human life possible.  The ecosystem services concept offers a succinct description of how our well-being depends, in so many ways, on Nature.  Check out this video for an informative visual description (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIH2v4Nr9i4).

Hunting creek is highlighted in yellow on this map of Calvert County's 22 sub-watersheds.

The forests, fields, wetlands, and streams in the Hunting Creek watershed:

  • absorb and remove 578 tons of air pollutants, helping us avoid $192,116 in human health-related costs;
  • capture and store 8,364 tons of carbon dioxide, equivalent to the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from 6,000 cars (CO2 is a major contributor to global warming and climate change);
  • recharge and replenish 71,276,790 gallons of water to our underground aquifers that feed our wells and upon which all Calvert County residents depend, an amount equivalent to the annual groundwater usage of over 9,000 people; and
  • save us almost $11,000,000 in stormwater management and treatment costs.

Hunting Creek residents don’t receive an annual bill for the $26 million in ecosystem services benefits that the watershed provides.  But that doesn’t mean we owe nothing for these benefits.  As the adage goes, “There is no such thing as a free lunch.”  To ensure that we will continue to receive these essential ecosystem services, we have the dual responsibilities of (a) being good stewards of the environment and (b) protecting the watershed from degradation by our careless activities.

Dr. Elliott also informed the Friends of Hunting Creek that our watershed is special in other ways. More specifically, we learned that 80% of the watershed is identified by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources as being important wildlife habitat.  This designation comes from either being a targeted ecological area through Maryland Bio-Net or included in Maryland’s Green Infrastructure Network.   

With that, we thank the Hunting Creek watershed for the $26 million worth of ecosystem services benefits that it consistently provides each year.  We will strive to do everything possible to protect and enhance its ecological health to keep these benefits coming for many years into the future!

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William H. and Suddie Commodore: A Parkers Creek Family

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This blog was written by Kirsti Uunila and Carl Fleischhauer and depended upon Shelby Cowan’s research at the National Archives.  An early version of this draft benefited from advice from the ACLT board members Darlene Harrod and Shirley Knight.

ACLT’s Parkers Creek Heritage Trail project has assembled information about several African American families in the Parkers Creek area. One example is the family led by William H. (1861-1938) and Suddie Commodore (1871-1951). Her name is sometimes spelled Sudie or Saddie in records; her maiden name may have been Boom, also spelled Boome. As the map in this blog indicates, their land flanked Parkers Creek and, in part, occupied the northwestern segment of what is today called Warriors Rest.  Research continues and new findings may lead us to adjust the account that follows.

William H. Commodore was almost certainly the grandson of an enslaved couple and the nephew of a Civil War soldier.  As late as the 1930s (and perhaps a bit beyond), the Commodores owned about 220 acres of land, most of which is now owned by the ACLT or the State of Maryland DNR.

In the late 19th and early 20th century, the Commodores acquired at least five or six properties in south of Parkers Creek. This map prepared by Art Cochran shows four of those properties, containing a total of 171 ¾ acres. “WHC” stands for William H. Commodore. 1, 2, 3, and 4 indicate sequence of purchases, followed by year of purchase.

William H. Commodore and his family mastered a range of interests and skills beyond the farming that was no doubt their main source of income. Census data for 1940 names two of William and Suddie’s sons, John and Willis, and identifies their occupations as “Laborer” and “Fishing Nets.”  The latter is almost certainly a reference to their employment at Frank Richardson’s pound net operation at the mouth of Parkers Creek, a short walk from the Commodore home. 

An earlier newspaper item hints at an earlier connection to local fisheries.  The July 22, 1911, issue of the Calvert Gazette, carries William H. Commodore’s advertisement of a $25 reward for “information that will lead to identification of the party who cut my gasoline launch loose from her anchorage at Parker’s Creek and set it adrift in the bay Saturday night.” It is impossible to be certain from this notice, but the amount of the reward and the terminology “gasoline launch” suggest that this may have been a workboat for use in commercial fishing.

The occasional synergy between farming and Richardson’s pound net operation is expressed by a reminiscence from another fishing crew member.  In a 1999 interview, Bill Tettimer told about going to the Richardson’s fishing shanty and net yard during an exceptional snow storm in the winter of 1941.  “We went up there to mend twine,” Tettimer said, and “we was stuck in there for a week, and that Saturday night, we had to have three–the oxen–the Commodore boys, there was eight of ’em, had two oxen to get us out of that Parkers Creek. . . oxen pulling them two automobiles. . . Commodores owned the oxen.”

William H. and Suddie Commodore’s former home, September 1995. We believe that the segment to the right, with symmetrical window placement and a central door, is the older portion, and that the segment to the left, which has a cellar, is a newer addition. All photographs by Carl Fleischhauer.
William H. and Suddie Commodore’s former home, September 1995. It stands on high ground to maximize cool breezes in summer.
Shed (at center), grape arbor (foreground) and large apple tree (behind shed) at William H. and Suddie Commodore’s former home, September 1995.
House, shed, and apple tree (at far left) from behind, November 1998.

We cannot be fully certain of the connection, but the records of the 23rd Regiment of the U.S. Colored Infantry include service records for a man named William Commodore of Calvert County, who enlisted in February 1864 at age 21 and is listed as missing in action in July of that year. Images of the documents are shown below. We believe this to have been William H. Commodore’s uncle and one of his namesakes. We have not identified the Civil War soldier’s brother who would have been William H. Commodore’s father.

Documents from the service record for an earlier William Commodore who enlisted in the USCT in 1864.  We believe this to have been the uncle of the William H. Commodore, the subject of this blog. Click to enlarge.

In addition to the U.S. Colored Infantry records, we base our account on two other forms of documentation: (1) pension records associated with the Civil War military service, and (2) an enumeration in the 1880 federal census.

The pension records chronicle an application process that lasted for more than twenty years. The earliest documents date from 1867, when a William Commodore appeared before a Justice of the Peace and testified that his son, William, died in action at Petersburg, Virginia on July 30, 1864, leaving no wife or children. A later census record tells us that this elder William Commodore was born in about 1820; his wife Ellen was born in about 1816.  We believe that he was the grandfather of the William H. Commodore who is the main subject of this blog.

This document shows that Ellen Commodore appeared before a Justice of the Peace in 1892 to begin the application for a pension as the mother of William Commodore who was killed in the Civil War. Two Port Republic residents, Carl Weisman and W.S. Dawkins were her witnesses. The image is one of 30 pages in the pension record for William Commodore. From the National Archives.

In 1892, as the pension case continued, three friends from the Parkers Creek neighborhood submitted affidavits. They were Alonzo Bell; Jeremiah Boots, identified as “Jerry” in other, unrelated documents; and George Boots. Jeremiah Boots stated, “I know that Wm Commodore, husband of Ellen Commodore is dead. He died in December 1881. I know this from the fact that I was at his funeral. I think he left about thirty-five acres of land which he left to his children at his death.” Boots also stated, “I knew William Commodore, son of Ellen Commodore, he died or was killed in the service of the United States. He was never married and left no widow or children. He was a son of Ellen Commodore. She has no means of support except what she can do herself and what anyone may give her.” George Boots also testified that William Commodore left no wife or children. The outcome of the case was that Ellen Commodore was awarded a pension and she collected $12 monthly between 1892 and her death on March 22, 1897.

William Commodore’s 1867 testimony includes information that is somewhat incidental to the pension claim, but critically important to the family’s history. Commodore testified that he and Ellen Commodore “were slaves of the same master and live on the same plantation as man and wife, and have so lived since the date of their marriage in the year 1823.” (The marriage date of 1823 is inconsistent with the couple’s ages in the census and was likely written in error.) Two White residents who knew the family supported the testimony: Samuel B. Wilson, given the title Captain, and Dr. Benjamin Owen Hance, who lived on land called Angelica, not far from Plum Point on Wilson Road. Although we have not yet identified the enslaver, we conclude that William and Ellen Commodore and presumably their children including William, the soldier, and perhaps two of their grandchildren were all enslaved on the same property by the same man or woman.

The second item that adds to our knowledge of the family and its circumstances is the 1880 census enumeration of the William and Ellen Commodore household. This listing identifies five of the couple’s grandchildren who were counted with them: William, age 19, whom we believe to be the William H. Commodore central to the Parkers Creek story; Mary, 18; Major, 14; Harriet, 11; and Robert, age 8. Emma Anderson, age 19, also lived in the household as a boarder and was a schoolteacher. The 1880 census makes no mention of the in-between generation, meaning the parents of the five grandchildren. Since William and Mary were born before the end of the Civil War, in 1861 and 1862 respectively, it is possible that they had also been enslaved with their grandparents and, perhaps, their parents.

This blog is part of the Parkers Creek Heritage Trail (PCHT) project, supported by funding provided by the Maryland Heritage Areas Authority, part of the Maryland Historical Trust in the Maryland State Department of Planning. The project will explore a wide range of topics, including aspects of African American history in the area. Although a work in progress, you may be interested in a booklet produced by the project entitled, “The African American Community of Parkers Creek, circa 1800-1960,” available here: bit.ly/PrkCrkCommBook. Researchers Kirsti Uunila and Carl Fleischhauer will be happy to receive comments or corrections if you have things to add or spot mistakes in the booklet. Meanwhile, we hope to produce an expanded version after we finish a related oral history interview project next year. 

 

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BeaverCON 2022: A Dam Good Time

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By Clara Brill-Carlat, Assistant Land Manager

 

Earlier this summer, I had the opportunity to attend BeaverCON, a three-day conference all about beavers that was held in Baltimore County. While its name evokes images of Comic-Con, there were no people in beaver costumes running through the hallways at BeaverCON (at least until the last day, when a mascot named Castor made a brief appearance). Instead, there were experts from the East and West Coasts and even from Europe who presented on beaver dam analogs (BDAs), flow devices, beaver relocation, fish passage, and much more. Many of my fellow conference attendees were experts in their own right and had attended BeaverCON in 2020 as well, while I first learned about the conference this fall when I started to research BDAs and their many ecological benefits. Read more from an article I wrote about BDAs for ACLT’s Spring Newsletter here. (See pg. 3)

I quickly made my newcomer status known at BeaverCON when I tried to strike up a conversation with a young graduate student who, like me, had received a scholarship to attend the conference. “What are you studying in grad school?” I asked. She gave me a quizzical, almost pitying look and said, “Beavers.”

During the first two and a half days of the conference, I attended presentations about stream restoration projects, human conflict and coexistence with beavers, mapping beaver habitat, and even the history of beavers in North American literature. One of the most engaging talks was by Emily Fairfax, a researcher at California State University Channel Islands, who studies how beaver complexes protect land during wildfires. She presented striking satellite images of landscapes in the Western U.S. before and after fires; the images showed that areas with active beaver populations burned much less than areas without beavers. Her most recent research has focused on megafires, which are becoming increasingly common due to climate change. Megafires cover much larger areas than typical wildfires (over 100,000 acres), often spread extremely fast, and burn landscapes so severely that ecosystems struggle to recover. While people are often unable to control these fast-spreading megafires, Fairfax found that beavers are still able to significantly reduce the acreage that gets severely burned.

Watch the presentation here: https://youtu.be/wa1B4ijrgcc

Another particularly memorable presentation was by NOAA Fisheries biologist Chris Jordan, who dispelled some common misconceptions about streams. Humans have spent countless time and money transforming streams into conveyance systems that efficiently transport water from one place to the next while rarely overflowing their banks. However, a truly healthy stream is inefficient (to the human eye), meandering, and messy. We might imagine that a stream channel lined with old, tall trees is the epitome of ecological health, but counterintuitively, the presence of such trees can indicate that the stream has been prevented from flooding its banks. When it comes to trying to reverse the damage done to streams, Jordan explained, we are our own worst enemy. He spoke about how regulations designed to protect infrastructure from flooding and to protect streams from environmental degradation have created unintended barriers against nature-based restoration projects. For example, although building BDAs is a relatively low-tech way to reconnect a stream with its floodplain by raising the water level of the stream, regulations meant to prevent flooding make the implementation challenging. Having researched the permitting process for building BDAs at ACLT, this part of Jordan’s presentation certainly rang true. Luckily, as I would soon see, large-scale BDA projects are possible and are becoming more popular here on the East Coast. 

Watch the presentation here: https://youtu.be/6h005lBptLE

A beaver dam analog under construction at the Carroll Branch restoration site in April. The BDA is made of sticks woven between cedar posts, with silt fence material on top (photo courtesy of Ecotone).
Two beaver dam analogs at the Carroll Branch restoration site in July. BDAs can be built close together, like natural beaver dams sometimes are, to increase their resilience during storms (photo courtesy of Ecotone).
Two beaver dam analogs at the Carroll Branch restoration site in July. BDAs can be built close together, like natural beaver dams sometimes are, to increase their resilience during storms (photo courtesy of Ecotone).
A beaver dam analog made with large logs at the Carroll Branch site, shown in July (photo courtesy of Ecotone).

After the official end of BeaverCON, I joined an impromptu tour of a stream restoration site composed of BDAs and log jam structures. Ecotone, an ecological restoration company based in Maryland, had designed the project on the Carroll Branch in Baltimore County. The tour was led by Scott McGill (a co-founder of BeaverCON and the CEO of Ecotone) and was made possible by the persistent begging of some of my fellow conference attendees. 

This was the highlight of BeaverCON for me since we were able to walk right up to each of the structures, which had only been put in place about eight weeks before, and pester McGill with questions. I was struck by how the restoration was both a science and an art. The project had clearly been thoroughly planned, down to each impeccably sharpened cedar post that formed the backbone of the BDAs. At the same time, the materials used (sticks, logs, mud, vines, and netting) and the spacing between the structures varied such that no two dams were exactly the same. Most of the structures were BDAs, meaning that they spanned the entire channel, but a few were constructed log jams that only took up part of the stream. Since all the structures were so new, we could see that they were beginning to slow down the water but had not ponded it yet, and Ecotone was in the process of extending some of them farther onto the banks because the stream was cutting around them. McGill explained that adaptive management is critical for nature-based restoration projects like this one and that Ecotone had a five-year grant to continue managing the restoration.

After the three days of the conference were up, I returned to ACLT with a lot to chew on. Although I felt like a kit (the term for a baby beaver) compared to all the experts, restoration professionals, and beaver-researching grad students in the room, I learned more about beavers in those three days than I have in most of the rest of my life. I know the knowledge and connections I gained at BeaverCON will be helpful as we continue to explore the possibility of beaver dam analogs here at ACLT.

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Little Lending Library Now Open at Double Oak Barn

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ACLT’s New Little Lending Library Now Open at Double Oak Barn

We are pleased to announce that ACLT’s long-time supporter and super talented-carpenter, Tay Vaughan, has built us a new Little Lending Library for the barns at both trailheads. The south side library will be installed soon, but the first one is now installed and fully stocked on the barn porch at Double Oak Farm. The books are primarily intended for children. Please feel free to take a couple and bring back a couple of yours to share. We are looking for books having anything to do with nature, the earth, climate, etc. If the library is full, please do not leave your books – just bring them back at another time. 

The renovations/updates being done on the D.O. porch are part of a group project by graduates of this year’s Master Naturalist class. We think you will enjoy the work they have done! They have added and organized the artifacts found along the trails, added informative posters, and plenty of new chairs to welcome you! There’s more to come, include an exhibit on climate change, so visit often!

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