Member Highlight: Mattawoman Watershed Society
For this Member Highlight, the Coalition’s Maryland Lead, Marisa Olszewski, interviews Bonnie Bick, Vice President of Mattawoman Watershed Society and Tina Wilson, MWS Committee on Strategies and Coalition Building. Their conversation was edited for clarity.
Tell us about your organization and your mission.
The mission of the Mattawoman Watershed Society (MWS) is to protect, preserve, and restore Mattawoman Creek, its tributaries, its watershed, and its living resources for the enjoyment of all. MWS works to unite citizens to encourage government policies that will align with this mission.
Through educational activities, we spread the word about what makes Mattawoman Creek special and how important it is within the Potomac River and Chesapeake Bay systems. MWS sponsors and conducts research activities that collect data on the state of the watershed, and report issues of concern about the health and integrity of Mattawoman Creek, fish nursery, and watershed.
What is one of your current projects you are the most excited about?
Common to all its various interrelated projects, MWS is striving to protect the Watershed Conservation District (WCD), an innovative zoning tool developed by state agencies working with a previous board of county commissioners that understood the importance of protecting Mattawoman, for the sake of Charles County, Prince George's County, and the sake of the bay. The current commissioners lack that understanding and are laboring to undo the WCD piecemeal. MWS Vice President, Bonnie Bick, and member, Tina Wilson, are acting as a committee to develop and implement strategies and coalition building. Saving the WCD will protect the Mattawoman from a harmful airport expansion project in an Environmental Justice community near two schools, in a highly sensitive environmental area. Saving the WCD will require contesting land use plans that are inconsistent with the County's comprehensive plan and in opposition to conserving the watershed, and climate protection.
There is an alternative direction—the new US Fish & Wildlife Southern Maryland Woodland Refuge—which includes all of Mattawoman Creek, in Charles County, and Prince George's County, and the Nanjemoy-Mattawoman Rural Legacy Area designation are important conservation tools that open the heritage tourism option. The Bryans Road area will become an intentionally designed Heritage Gateway to the town of Indian Head, and Mallows Bay, the National Marine Sanctuary, or, as presently proposed in the new Sub-area Plan, remove the WCD, and become urbanized.
What issue area do you hope to focus on more in the future? How is it relevant for clean water restoration?
A healthy Mattawoman Creek means a healthy bass fishery. We intend to increase awareness and support for saving Mattawoman Creek and its nationally famous bass fishery. Success in the protection of Mattawoman's living resources will allow us to focus on supporting the bigger picture, Mattawoman as part of a natural bioreserve south of Washington, D.C., anchored by NOAA's National Marine Sanctuary.
What do you hope to gain from being a member of the Coalition?
MWS was an early member of the Coalition. We were introduced to the Coalition by Joy Oakes, previously with the National Parks Conservation Association and Sierra Club, and Stella Koch previously with Nature Forward, Fairfax County. Working with them and many others we had success saving Chapman Forest, an exceptional 2,200-acre biodiverse property (this campaign was the catalyst for Maryland's Smart Growth legislation); and with the special help of Chesapeake Bay Foundation, defeated a major highway—including a rare outright denial of permits by the Army Corps of Engineers and MDE (wetlands). These successes stemmed from a high degree of cooperation and a shared vision of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts. We see the Coalition as the way to foster successful, regional collaboration for the benefit of Mattawoman, Potomac, and the entire Chesapeake Bay.
Header photo: The headwaters of Mattawoman Creek flow through Mattawoman Natural Environmental Area in Charles County. Photo courtesy Will Parson/Chesapeake Bay Program.
