Volunteer Of The Month: Lise Crafton Wants The Magothy To Thrive

Master Gardener, Master Naturalist and a jack of all trades for the Magothy River Association (MRA). When it comes to environmental stewardship, Lise Crafton is all in.

She and her husband, Jim, moved to Severna Park from the Harford County community of Jarrettsville in 2008.

“We live on a piece of property that has been in Jim’s family for over 100 years, so I kind of married into the Magothy,” she said.

She married into the Magothy and moved onto the land where she and Jim were married. Growing up in Jarrettsville, “there were not a lot of limits as to where you could explore,” Crafton said. “I would always be collecting rocks or bringing insects home.”

That curiosity and love for the outdoors fit in naturally in Severna Park and with the MRA.

“The first thing was the floating garden project and working with Anne Arundel Community College, trying to figure out which emergent plants thrived in different levels of salinity,” Crafton said. “We encouraged people to plant with the part of the river they were compatible in.”

The MRA wanted to stop using Styrofoam and the floats became too expensive, so the nonprofit paused the project. That did not stop volunteers from educating homeowners about their human footprint.

“We’ve been trying to encourage people that what we do on land has an impact on the rivers,” Crafton said. “Plant on the edge of your lawn to keep nutrients off the lawn from going into storm drains. Plant along the bulkhead to provide habitat, oxygenate and remove nutrients from the water. We also try to impress upon people that everyone has a storm drain or asphalt driveway whether you live on the water or not. With Bay-Wise, we have the same lesson we try to teach people: to keep the rain and water off their lawns.”

Crafton is involved in Bay-Wise, a University of Maryland extension program that promotes sustainable landscape practices, and she volunteers with the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center.

Her contributions are wide-ranging. MRA President Paul Spadaro has known that since the Craftons moved to Severna Park, two doors down from him.

“For more than a decade, Lise has stepped up time and time again to support MRA programs and activities,” Spadaro said. “She is currently planning our 80th anniversary celebration on September 20 and is coordinating the MRA road show, where we are reaching out into the watershed to focus on friend-raising and increasing membership.”

Crafton has worked with her fellow volunteers to secure a location and caterer for the anniversary, which will feature music by Ginger and the Other Dave. Justen Garrity will help attendees compost their crab shells.

The anniversary is the latest task in a busy year for Crafton. She and another MRA volunteer visited Whitehurst residents to discuss the Magothy River’s health.

“Bob Royer talked to people about what we can do,” Crafton said. “Bob had this horrible graph of oxygen levels and how quickly they degraded over the summer.”

At the end of spring, she and Brad Knopf represented the MRA as community stakeholders for Broadneck High School’s Signature program, which has an environmental literacy focus.

“The teachers and kids are just so enthusiastic and help us build floating gardens,” she said.

Other students serve as interns for MRA members Charles and Andrea Germain, using drones and gathering footage for MRA videos. No matter the role of students, Crafton enjoys seeing them supporting their environment, just as she has for so many years.

“They don’t necessarily have to be a kid who wants to get their feet wet or their hands dirty,” she said. “There’s something for everyone.”