Every Thursday morning, Donna Jefferson walks to one of three sites along Spa Creek, collects a water sample, and heads back to process it. She is not a scientist employed by the city, the county, or the state. She’s a volunteer, one of many who make up the quiet, determined force behind the Spa Creek Conservancy.
“It’s not the city that does the testing or the county or the state,” she notes. “It’s this little nonprofit that takes care of all the water quality testing in Spa Creek.”
At Full Sail Media, we’re honored to spotlight the Spa Creek Conservancy as our June 2026 Changemaker community partner. This month, we spoke with Donna Jefferson, a longtime volunteer and leader with the organization, about what it takes to protect one of Annapolis’s most beloved waterways, and why the work is never really done.
How It Started (and Why It Had to)
The Spa Creek Conservancy grew out of a simple, urgent realization: someone had to care for Spa Creek. The organization’s mission is to make the creek fishable and swimmable, and to help the surrounding community understand why that matters and what they can do about it.
Since its founding, the Conservancy has secured over $8 million in grants and planted more than 4,000 trees in the watershed. It now tests water quality at 17 sites across Spa Creek and Back Creek, tracking bacteria levels week by week from May through September to see whether the creeks are improving, holding steady, or slipping backward.
A marker of how much that work matters came during the Conservancy’s 10th Annual Swim Across Spa Creek, when every single test site came back below unsafe bacteria thresholds. The water was safe to swim in.
“Every site that we tested, the bacteria levels were good,” Jefferson recalls. “That is unusual, and that’s a huge measure of success.”
How It The Challenges Are Real (and Complicated)
If the swim was a high point, Jefferson is candid about what makes the work hard.
Funding is a constant challenge. Some restoration projects run into the millions — the Conservancy has pursued grants for a single project priced at $2.8 million — and local government can sometimes be as much an obstacle as an ally. To stretch limited resources further, the Conservancy participates in Green Give, a 48-hour collaborative fundraising event that brings together nine environmental nonprofits across the region. Larger organizations like the Severn River Association and Scenic River Lands Trust participate alongside all-volunteer groups like Spa Creek Conservancy. “We’re all promoting it at the same time, so we all benefit,” Jefferson explains. “They were helping each other.”
Aging sewer infrastructure is a persistent problem too. At three of the sites Jefferson personally samples each week, sewer pipes run directly through the area, and the bacteria readings are frequently well above safe limits.
“The majority of the time, the bacteria levels way exceed safe limits,” she says plainly.
The fix is expensive, and government agencies are stretched. A live algae bloom in Back Creek was reported to DNR and has remained unaddressed. “Most of our problems are problems we created,” Jefferson reflects. “But I realize there are tons of problems, and we’re focused on one little place.”
That focus, though, is exactly what makes the Conservancy effective.
Teaching Kids to Be Creek Ambassadors
One of the Conservancy’s most creative initiatives has been working directly with students at Bates Middle School, which sits just a short walk from where Spa Creek runs behind the building.
The Conservancy partnered with the school’s science teacher to design a hands-on curriculum. Students took temperature readings across the parking lot, the track, the woods, and the creek. They watched fish seining in the water. They got an aerial view of the watershed via drone. And then — with guidance from a marketing professional — they created public-facing posters explaining what the community could do to protect the creek.
“They got it,” Jefferson says. “When you teach kids, they get it. I was at first like, you never know what you’re going to get. But they really understood the message.”
Ten student posters were selected and displayed at the library, city hall, and the county council. It’s the kind of civic participation that ripples outward: kids going home and telling parents, families beginning to think differently about what goes on their lawns and what they let run down the drain.
Unfortunately, Anne Arundel County has since cut science instruction time to focus on math remediation, making it difficult for the school to continue the partnership. It’s a setback Jefferson clearly feels.
What’s Living in the Watershed
The Conservancy’s ambitions go beyond water quality data. Jefferson describes ongoing efforts to conduct a native species survey, a formal accounting of what actually lives in and around the creek.
The organization has done fish seining to identify what species are present. Now they want to go further: installing motion-triggered cameras in the headwaters to document the beavers, foxes, otters, and snapping turtles that share this corridor. Osprey nests along the creek are being counted year to year, though Jefferson wishes she’d started documenting sooner.
“Just from personal observation, it seems like there are one or two fewer nests than there have been,” she says. “But I didn’t think to document it before.”
It’s the kind of honest, grounded environmental stewardship that doesn’t make headlines but builds the scientific baseline that real conservation requires.
Goals for 2026
The Conservancy’s biggest near-term focus is Truxtun Cove, a troubled inlet near the city recreation center on Hilltop Road where stormwater drains down a ravine directly into the creek, carrying trash, bacteria, and sediment with it. Securing grant funding to address that site is the top priority for the year.
Also on the wishlist: a real-time water quality buoy that would let anyone check creek conditions online. The Baltimore Inner Harbor currently rents one for $100,000 a year. “You would think you could buy it for that,” Jefferson says dryly.
How to Get Involved
The Spa Creek Conservancy runs on community participation, and there are concrete ways to plug in.
Water quality sampling happens every Thursday morning. Volunteers collect samples from designated sites along Spa Creek and Back Creek, directly feeding the Conservancy’s ongoing data record.
Fish seining events give volunteers a hands-on look at what’s living in the creek. The next one will be held at the Conservancy’s annual event, Kids on the Creek, which introduces students to the environment of Spa Creek, scheduled for August 29th.
Everyday actions matter too. Jefferson’s tips for keeping the creek cleaner:
- Pick up dog waste, even in your own backyard. It washes directly into stormwater.
- Replace impervious surfaces where you can. Permeable ground allows rainwater to filter down rather than rushing into the creek, carrying everything with it.
To learn more, volunteer, or follow the Conservancy’s ongoing work, visit spacreek.net.: From Donation to Delivery
