A riverkeeper is a full time advocate who works to improve and protect a designated waterway. The Riverkeepers are independent organizations affiliated with the Waterkeeper Alliance, a group headquartered in New York on the Hudson River. Each independent Riverkeeper program reflects the needs, organizational dynamics and strategies suitable for the water body and community it represents. The common thread is that for each water body and community there is a full-time person who serves as the Waterkeeper, the public interest advocate for that waterway. The Patuxent Riverkeeper works under the umbrella of Earth Reports, a non-profit tax-exempt organization devoted to environmental preservation and stewardship.

What does the Patuxent Riverkeeper do?

Sediment and Erosion choking the River in the Northern areas near the Patuxent Wildlife Refuge

As a professional advocate, the Patuxent Riverkeeper works full time to improve, protect and preserve the river. The Riverkeeper pulls from a variety of resources to provide advocacy. The Patuxent Riverkeeper is especially concerned with facilitating private citizen empowerment to ensure that existing laws designed to protect the river are actually being complied with, that we raise awareness and involvement in activties that can improve the river and that there is better collaboration and syneregy between the many people and groups that are active on the river.

The Patuxent Riverkeeper uses, science, activism, legal skills and a mixed bag of tools, tactics and resources to champion the causes of the river. The riverkeeper patrols the river and the watershed on foot and by boat in order to facilitate first hand monitoring, organizing, intervention and advocacy to assure that existing preservation laws are complied with.

The riverkeeper also works with other public and private sector organizations to build coalitions and strategies that pool the efforts of all the stakeholders throughout the watershed who wish to help preserve and enhance the river and its surrounding watershed.

Why do we need a Patuxent Riverkeeper?

The Patuxent River covers 930 square miles of overall watershed and runs north to south for 110 linear miles through nearly the entire length of the State. It is the largest river completely within Maryland and is home for more than 100 species of marine life. The Patuxent sustains nesting and over wintering bald eagles and a large extended habitat for indigenous wildlife. The river is wild and quite rural in some places, yet heavily suburbanized in others. There are many threats and challenges to be overcome to restore the health of the Patuxent watershed to its former glory.

While there are many collaborations already in place to help save Maryland’s river, few if any are engaged in a river-wide firsthand monitoring and citizen based “intervention” and fewer still seek to find solutions and strategies that apply to the entire river instead of just a part of it. The Riverkeeper augments the array of statewide and local groups, all of whom seek the preservation of the river. The Riverkeeper also works in tandem with Riverkeepers on the other tributaries of the Chesapeake Bay to bring about broad based strategic action. Also, in many instances Federal and State laws designed to protect our river are delegated to local jurisdictions for enforcement. Lack of funding, lack of diligence or lack of awareness of the applicable laws cause neglect, and the degradation of our public water resources. Competing needs and priorities at the local level sometimes cause preservation to be marginalized in the interest of economic development or other goals. The river cannot speak for itself and so the riverkeeper serves as a collective voice for the river community.