Mussel May 2024

The Anacostia River's freshwater mussels are thriving thanks to the efforts of the Anacostia Watershed Society and our supporters and volunteers, and it's time to celebrate! All through the month of May 2024, we will be holding events to share the magic of mussels with watershed residents.  Our calendar is chock full of mussel activities like mussel surveys, specialized boat tours, mussel releases, and more.  You can learn more about our restoration efforts at this storymap.

 Be part of Mussel May by Adopting a Mussel! 

Yes, I want to adopt a mussel for $7!

    Check out our Bonfire Pop-Up Shop to purchase Mussel t-shirts!   

Events

Stay tuned on our Facebook and Instagram @anacostiaws for live event updates!

All month long: Follow the fun online and help us while you are doing your own explorations with our Mapping project on iNaturalist! You are encouraged to enter observations of mussels or shells you may see while hiking along or paddling in the river at any time.

Thursdays: Join our Discovery Series Boat Tours!

Meet the Mussels Open House - Saturday, April 27 1:30pm - 4:30pm
Buzzard Point, 2121 First Street, SW, Washington, DC 20024 (Best address for meeting point)
Join us for this fun event to meet the Anacostia River's mussels and learn what they do to help the river. Walk ons welcome, but registration encouraged!

Meet the Mussels at the Anacostia River Festival - Saturday, May 4, 1pm - 4pm
Anacostia Park, Marion Barry Ave SE & Anacostia Drive 
We are delighted to be part of the Anacostia River Festival!  Come to your Anacostia River for music, games, and MUSSELS!  We'll have our freshwater mussels as our special guests at this event. Come meet a mussels, do some fun mussel activities, and join us for a mock mussel survey in the river! Sign up for mock mussel surveys is first come first serve at our event table. 

VIP Event: Mussel Monitoring - May 9th
A special event for our Leadership Donors, volunteers will help us find and measure mussels at Kingman Island. Volunteers will have the chance to work with Natural Resource Specialist, Jorge Bogantes Montero. This workday we will focus on monitoring the freshwater mussels living in the bottom cages and removing extra sediment buildup from the cages. Want to learn more about how to be a Leadership Donor? Reach out to Kaila Cantens at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..  

Mussel Tagging with AWS - Thursday, May 16, 5:30 - 7:30pm
Bladensburg Waterfront Park, 4601 Annapolis Road, Bladensburg, MD 20710
Come help us tag our mussels! Our goal will be to tag and measure shell length of 300 mussels before we transfer and release them. Tagging is an important step to help us monitor the mussel population of the Anacostia River over time. This is a great event for all ages! Limited slots available, pre-registration is required. Register here. 

Mussel Walk with ICPRB, Saturday May 18th 11am - 1pm - POSTPONED to Saturday, June 29th 10 am - 12 pm due to weather - Register here
Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens, 1550 Anacostia Ave NE, Washington, DC 20019
Join AWS staff on a guided mussel walk with ICPRB to learn more about the amazing mussels of the Anacostia River. Great for folks of all ages. Limited slots available, pre-registration is required. Register here. 

Mussel Release, Saturday May 18th 1:30pm - 3:30pm - POSTPONED due to weather - stay tuned for rescheduled date
Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens, 1550 Anacostia Ave NE, Washington, DC 20019
One of our most fun Mussel May actitivies! Put on your waders and chuck our mussels as far out into their new habitat as you can. We'll aim to release 300 mussels into the Anacostia River as part of this event. Great for folks of all ages. Limited slots available, pre-registration is required.

Watershed Wednesday - Mussel Power, May 22nd 6pm - 7pm
Streetcar 82 Brewing Co. 4824 Rhode Island Ave., Hyattsville, MD 20781
Join us to discover more about mussels and their importance to the Anacostia River as well as how to become a community scientist!

Virtual Tour of the Smithsonian Mussel Collection with the Museum's Curator of Bivalves, John Pfeiffer - Tuesday, June 11  12pm - 1pm
Virtual live tour and Q&A
In a special thank you event to those folks who adopt the most mussels for Mussel May, we will hold a special virtual event! Participants will see the ins and outs of the Smithsonian's amazing freshwater mussel collection, and get to ask live questions from our guide, Jorge Bogantes Monter, AWS Natural Resource Specialist.