The Pocomoke River

Just about 25 miles west of Ocean City, Maryland, the Pocomoke River is one of Maryland's nine “Wild and Scenic” rivers. “It’s a really interesting watershed. The Pocomoke is probably—with the exception of the Appalachian forests in Maryland—the most intact forested landscape we have in this state,” says Amy Jacobs, who oversees The Nature Conservancy’s work across the Chesapeake. That’s critically important for clean water and habitat for a wide diversity of species, she notes, particularly migrating songbirds who move in masses so large they show up on radar.

The Pocomoke’s Headwaters: The Great Cypress Swamp

Home to Rare, Threatened, and Endangered Plants and Animals

“The Great Cypress Swamp is the last true wilderness in Delaware, home to species of conservation need and providing habitat they need to grow and survive,” says Marcia Fox. She is the executive director of Delaware Wild Lands, the nonprofit that oversees the 10,800-acre swamp. 

Yet over time, dredging and ditching in the Pocomoke watershed have been so extensive that the Great Cypress Swamp also now drains eastward and feeds Delaware’s Rehoboth Bay.

Supported in part by The Nature Conservancy’s past work to restore the floodplain at the swamp’s lower section, she says that over the past 30 years, there has been a 124% increase just in the species of flora in the swamp. “The seedbed is there - all it needs is a chance to grow,” she notes.

The northernmost range for Bald Cypress trees, the swamp is also seeing the return of young Atlantic White Cedar, both trees that had been heavily timbered in past years to support shipbuilding and commerce. She also points out that the Swamp is home to a significant stand of fruit-bearing native pawpaw (Asimina triloba) trees and five different rare orchids.

New plant species are continually being discovered and documented in the swamp, including the Seaside Alder (Alnus maritima), known to live only in a few counties in Delmarva, as well as Georgia and Oklahoma. It is the only Maryland alder that blooms in late summer or fall and is at risk of global extinction or collapse. 

Restoring the Pocomoke’s Floodplain

Righting the Wrongs of the Past at Whiton Crossing

From its headwaters in the Great Cypress Swamp, travel just 18 miles down the Pocomoke and you’ll encounter a massive restoration project led by a collaboration of partners, including The Nature Conservancy. Working with partners, landowners, and allies, The Nature Conservancy reversed years of human impact to restore the Pocomoke River’s natural shorelines.

To support the expansion of agriculture and development in the region, the Pocomoke Drainage Project was initiated in 1939 to quickly move water off the land to the Pocomoke Sound. The main channel of the Pocomoke was deepened and straightened, and in the process, miles of steep berms were created along the river’s banks. Corralled, water that previously slowly soaked into the marshland to be filtered was now quickly funneled down the river, carrying sediment and nutrients with it. As adjacent wetlands were cut off from the river, they no longer stored water during rain events, and habitat for plants and animals changed.

That’s where TNC and Mike Dryden, then a restoration specialist, came in. Beginning in 2012, Mike led landowner outreach efforts for The Nature Conservancy’s work with partners, including US Fish and Wildlife, NRCS, and the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, to engage landowners to restore the river and adjacent wetlands. Using LiDR ground penetrating technologies, partners identified areas along the river where they could most easily break down the artificial berms and create channels back out into the floodplain. 

In addition to benefiting wildlife and habitats, the restoration work is good for business. The river supports a tourism industry that has become one of the largest economic sectors in Worcester and Wicomico counties. Keith Donoway, Co-Owner of the Pocomoke River Canoe Company, credits the restoration work, combined with local infrastructure investments in bringing about significant decreases in the flooding of Porter’s Crossing Road above Snow Hill. With the shoreline not covered in water as often, he also reports seeing more small plants growing near it. “For instance, I have noticed more Jewelweed this season than in past seasons,” he said. 

It’s all work that helps preserve the wildness of the Pocomoke. Keith notes, “After less than half an hour of paddling, it seems like you are miles away from civilization, and you know this river looks the same as it did hundreds of years ago.”

Pocomoke Communities

Valuing the River and Planning for Its Future in Pocomoke City

About 22 miles below that massive restoration project, we come to the small urban center of Pocomoke City, Maryland. In its Delmarva Discovery Museum, a large mural depicts the vital role the river and its tributaries played in the lives of the Pocomoke Indian Nation prior to Colonial contact. 

For tribal nations, the Pocomoke’s are living waters, a place of connection to a heritage and culture that tribe members continue to foster today. 

But Chief Norris Howard Sr. of the Pocomoke Indian Nation believes that people need to do more than respect that native connection. He hopes that everyone who visits or lives near the river appreciates it as a valuable natural resource and joins in the effort to protect its waters, uplands, marshes, and all that go with them. “It’s a beautiful river. A lot of stories go along with the Pocomoke,” he says.

GMU enlisted TNC’s help to ensure those plans are built on the community’s self-described cultures, stories and values. 

With learnings from a similar outreach project in Crisfield, Maryland, TNC Coastal Resilience Manager Joseph Galarraga and Environmental Anthropologist Elizabeth Van Dolah, Ph.D., began a community outreach initiative, with support from Environmental Anthropologist and Master’s candidate Ayanna Healy. 

Some of their early findings: Among the treasured areas the community wishes to protect and restore is the once vibrant Cypress Park along the river. It used to be home to family cookouts, a concert series, and the Great Pocomoke Fair, but now the ground is so saturated, equipment can get stuck in the mud. 

TNC is working with community members, scientists, and stakeholders to provide technical support tailored to local needs, connecting residents with funding opportunities, building strategic partnerships, and raising awareness about the impacts of sea level rise on Pocomoke City. This effort strengthens nature-based solutions by aligning conservation with community priorities, fostering healthy ecosystems and resilient livelihoods.

In the Pocomoke Sound

Protecting Oysters and Vanishing Shorelines Along the River's End

Tracing the river’s 20 miles of twists and turns below Pocomoke City, it finally meets the Chesapeake Bay near the tiny village of Saxis, Virginia, which sits on the southern edge of the Pocomoke Sound.

Created by stacking long rows of specially designed, interlocking cinderblock squares, oyster castles offer places for young oysters to attach and grow. As they do, they add to the size of the castles. Installed in long rows along a shoreline, oyster castles absorb the energy of incoming waves, reducing their impact on eroding the shoreline. With every year of growth, the extra shells and oysters are cleaning the waters of the Chesapeake and also protecting the shoreline. 

The Saxis community experiences extreme high tides and storms that cut the town off from the mainland.

The TNC team is eager to continue to work with Saxis to support the waterside community and the nature surrounding it. 

TNC Coastal Science Program Manager Susan Bates and TNC Volgenau Virginia Coast Reserve Program Director Jill Beir have been working with the Saxis community for several years, a community Susan says is eager for partnership. Susan recalls conversations at the Saxis annual oyster roast. “Everybody that we interacted with was really interested in what we were talking about doing…They all know there is an issue because the road into town floods. They have to time their trips to the grocery store and tell visitors to check the tide charts before making the drive out to Saxis.”

Connecting the Past and Future

Honoring the Pocomoke’s past while shaping its future.

The Pocomoke’s enduring wildness and free-flowing waters reach across centuries, local history, and communities, to provide a future for the people, plants, and wildlife who call it home. Restoring the river means caring for the wider watershed. Building on partnerships with landowners, local governments, and river advocates of all kinds, mile by mile, The Nature Conservancy is fostering a bright vision for the Pocomoke’s future and building momentum around the protection of the wider watershed. 

By taking this watershed-wide view of the Pocomoke, The Nature Conservancy is protecting and preserving a vital natural resource and the lives connected to it. 

Lifelong Pocomoke River advocate Joe Fehrer worked with TNC and has spent his life exploring the river. Go out on the Pocomoke in the winter, Joe says, and you’ll see the vistas and evergreen species. In the spring, immerse yourself in the hundreds of shades of green against the dark tannin-stained waters. Celebrate the summer's cacophony of sound and color as thousands of songbirds migrate and nest in the area. In the fall, he says, watch the Bald Cypress trees most identified with the Pocomoke River as their needles turn from lime green to deep green to cinnamon brown before they fall. 

Protect the river and treasure these sights, Joe urges, and keep coming back: “Whether you are in a canoe or boat on the river or mucking through the swamp, there’s always something to see in the Pocomoke.”