YMCA Camp Letts

Description

The design for 954 linear feet of living shoreline was completed by Sustainable Science, LLC and the entire project has been built by Environmental Concern. The first phase of construction has also been planted with the help of Anne Arundel County’s Department of Outdoor Education (from henceforth referred to as Arlington Echo). The portion of the project built is a 214 linear foot long sill that was placed 50 feet off shore to height of +1ft MHW, sand was placed landward of this sill so that it would connect with the bank. This portion of the project created roughly 4,380 sqft of marsh. This portion of the project also removed some dead and dying trees that were growing along 80 feet of eroding bank to prevent them from shading out a small strip of marsh. Now that the trees are removed, the existing marsh gets more sunlight. Students from Arlington Echo planted marsh grasses to help the marsh spread and also planted low growing shrubs along the bank to help stabilize it. This enhanced strip of shoreline created 800sqft of additional marsh. 600 middle school students from local schools were involved in the planting of this portion of the project. These students planted 148 native trees and 129 native shrubs, throughout the entire project. They also planted roughly 4,500 native marsh grasses in the 294 linear feet of the project that was stabilized through this grant. These students were growing Submerged Aquatic Vegetation (Redhead grass) in their classrooms, so they planted these grasses near the large breakwater. As the project was being built a group of students in a Montgomery County Schools program that targets at-risk students visited the site. The project was discussed including information about stressing factors, reasons for the stressors and the engineered plans. After discussing all these factors of the project to students were brought to the in process construction site to be shown what the process really looked like. Countless visitors also attended camp and staff discussed the project with them in a more informal fashion.

Technical Details

Include quantitative, site specific data like sill heights and project area, as well as other descriptive information. A good example is: "This project included the construction of 300 linear feet of a stone sill structure at the north end of the property, stone revetment along 426 linear feet of bulkhead on the western part of the property, restoration of 0.25 acres of tidal marsh, and the regrading of upland area for vegetation growth."

Funding

“This grant program was a partnership between the Chesapeake Bay Trust, the Maryland Department of the Environment, and the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. Other partnerships include West/Rhode Riverkeeper, Inc., YMCA Camp Letts and Sustainable Science, LLC.”

Contact

  • Abbi Huntzinger
  • This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Location