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PORT TOBACCO RIVER CONSERVANCY PRESENTS ITS TENTH ANNUAL

NIGHT ON THE RIVER SUNSET FUNDRAISER

Join us Thursday, August 10, from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. at the Port Tobacco Marina Restaurant, 7536 Shirley Boulevard, Port Tobacco MD.

Tickets are $50 each or 10 for $475 and are available online using the PayPal button at right. Enjoy hot and cold hors d’oeuvres and desserts, a silent auction, 50/50 and Cooler of Cheer raffles, and more!

We will hold the first of our monthly shoreline cleanups at Chapel Point State Park, 8160 Pisces Rd., Port Tobacco MD 20677, on Saturday, May 27, from 10:00 am to noon. We will provide bags, gloves, water, and snacks. Come out to enjoy the park and help make our river more beautiful.

Summer is here, and Port Tobacco Green Drinks (Happy Hour) has moved to the Port Tobacco Restaurant, 7536 Shirley Blvd., Port Tobacco MD 20677. We will be there Thursday, June 22, from 6:00 to 8:00 pm. Come learn what PTRC has been up to, make new friends, and just have fun. Hope to see you there!

Green Drinks (Happy Hour) is Tuesday, March 28, at 6:00 p.m. at the Blue Dog Saloon, 7940 Port Tobacco Rd, Port Tobacco MD 20677. Come enjoy Blue Dog Happy Hour Specials, learn what PTRC has been up to, make new friends, and just have fun. Hope to see you there!

 

 

 

The 29th Annual Potomac River Cleanup is on Saturday, April 8, 2017. We will be at Chapel Point State Park, 8160 Pisces Rd, Port Tobacco MD 20677, from 9 a.m. to noon. We will supply bags, gloves, drinking water and snacks. Please come join us to have fun and to help make our river more beautiful.

PTRC’s next public meeting on Thursday, March 9, from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Historic Port Tobacco Courthouse, 8430 Commerce Street, Port Tobacco MD 20677, will feature an all-star line-up of trash busters:

• Julie Lawson, Executive Director, Trash Free Maryland, will update us on the status of legislation to ban polystyrene food containers statewide, as well as the Trash Trawl project to gauge the prevalence of micro-plastics in the Bay;
• Hannah Seligmann, Volunteer and Outreach Coordinator, Alice Ferguson Foundation, will tell us about the Trash Free Potomac campaign, including this year’s Potomac River Cleanup;
• Frances Sherman, Recycling & Litter Control Superintendent, Charles County, will let us know about the County’s litter control programs;
• Mike Bellis, Executive Director, United Way of Charles County, will tell us about the UW’s new Watershed Discovery and Exploration grant. The grant will fund kayak outings for low-income families that increase public awareness of the value of our watersheds and how we can all protect them, with a focus on litter control.

Light refreshments will definitely not be trashy. We will offer complimentary beer, wine, and soft drinks served by Kaley, our professional bartender, as well as delicious snacks. For more information, contact us at 301 934-2025 or ptrc@porttobaccoriver.org.

The event is free and open to the public. Hope to see you there!

Join PTRC and Peace Lutheran Church as member Don Zimmer describes his research on the ship True Blue, which he began when he discovered an announcement in the August 16, 1759, edition of The Maryland Gazette announcing the ship’s arrival in Nanjemoy carrying 350 Gold Coast slaves. What became of the captured and kidnapped people aboard the ship, and what can we learn about those who brought them to Maryland? The whole story of the True Blue is a difficult and complicated one, filled with people who have left their mark in history.

The program is free and open to the public.

Original oil painting by Don Zimmer.

 

Step away from your devices and join us for an actual conversation. The next Port Tobacco Green Drinks will be at the Blue Dog Saloon, 7940 Port Tobacco Road, Port Tobacco MD 20677, on Tuesday starting at 6:00 pm. Come enjoy Blue Dog Happy Hour Specials, learn what PTRC has been up to, make new friends, and just have fun.

Hope to see you there!

There is so much to share with you about the Port Tobacco River Conservancy as 2016 comes to a close. As you know, protecting and preserving our watershed continues to be our goal, along with providing educational and community outreach programs. Let us share with you some of this year’s highlights.

• Construction is complete at the new Meditation Garden at Christ Church, Port Tobacco Parish. The garden is a cooperative effort between the church and PTRC that converted an unused courtyard on the church grounds into a rain garden open to the public.
• PTRC partnered with the Charles County Department of Recreation, Parks, and Tourism, Conservancy for Charles County, high school students, and local scout troops to plant 2700 native trees in the new Port Tobacco River Park.
• We engaged community members in seven shoreline cleanups this summer at Chapel Point State Park, collecting hundreds of bags of trash and recyclable materials. We also conducted fish-sampling surveys at the Park, where we netted this beautiful pumpkinseed sunfish.
• We have been working with the Maryland Park Service and the Charles County Department of Recreation, Parks, and Tourism as they develop a strategic management partnership plan for a portion of Chapel Point State Park.
• PTRC is the beneficiary organization for an Eagle Scout Candidate project of planting 225 bald cypress seedlings near the Historic Port Tobacco Courthouse and installing four wood duck nesting boxes in the nearby swamp.

Requirements at the state and local level for cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay leave many tasks still to be completed. We remain committed to working with the County to take advantage of these opportunities for achieving success.

We are again asking for your generous support as we continue to move forward with our mission. You can donate online using the PayPal button on the sidebar, or by mail to PO Box 104, Port Tobacco MD 20677-0104.

We extend our many thanks and best wishes for the New Year to you all.

On Friday, February 10, 2017, the Port Tobacco River Conservancy will be holding its second annual ChocolateFest!

Join us from 7 to 11 pm at the Greater Waldorf Jaycees (3090 Crain Hwy, Waldorf), for a night filled with fun, romance, and chocolate. Bid on beautiful items in our silent auction, try your luck gambling with real money, and enjoy the company and conversation of fellow PTRC supporters as we dance the night away to wonderful music by local musicians GrooveSpan.

Tickets are only $45 per person, $400 for a table of 10, and all proceeds go directly to our work of protecting and restoring the Port Tobacco River and its watershed. Each ticket includes a free glass of wine, beer, or non-alcoholic drink and heavy hors d’oeuvres. This year’s menu will include:

• Maryland crab balls with cocktail sauce
• Roast top round of beef with a carver
• Variety of egg rolls
• Cheese and fruit tray
• Vegetable crudites with dip
• Spanakopita
• Dessert buffet
• Signature drink — Mudslide

Tickets are on sale now! Buy your tickets online or by mail at P.O. Box 104, Port Tobacco, MD 20677. For more information, please contact us at 301.934.2025 or email PTRC@PortTobaccoRiver.org.

 

We are very pleased to have Tina Wilson as the newest member of the PTRC Board of Directors. Tina joined the Board on January 7.

Tina is a lifelong resident of Charles County. She grew up on a small farm along Neale Sound near Cobb Island, where she nurtured her love of the water. After attending college on the eastern shore, she pursued a career in the Army, retiring in 2005. She served as a logistics officer on a variety of assignments, including at Schofield Barracks in Hawaii, and in Stuttgart, Germany, and Skopje, Macedonia. She is a veteran of Desert Shield and Desert Storm. Several of Tina’s assignments involved providing water to villagers as part of humanitarian support, and this work brought home to her the importance of clean water and how so many take it for granted.

Upon retiring from the service, she renewed her love of boating and moved to Port Tobacco. While on a boating trip to Chapel Point, she learned of the dangers of a high bacteria count in the river from fellow boaters, which lead her to join the PTRC. Monitoring the river provides wonderful opportunities to see the watershed in ways many locals don’t get to see. Once you have muddied your boots and collected a few samples, the river as well as many of its contributing streams is no longer just a feature you drive by and take for granted; you begin to take ownership of it. It is Tina’s hope that many more people will become members of the PTRC and learn to better appreciate the Port Tobacco River. In addition to being a member of the Board of Directors, Tina serves as PTRC’s Water Monitoring Coordinator.