Maintaining Forests in Stream Corridor Restoration

A recent, rapid increase in the implementation of stream restoration projects in the Chesapeake Bay watershed has led to growing controversy over the short-term adverse impacts of these projects on streamside forest buffers. Stream restoration may also contribute to long-term impacts on the riparian community as delayed tree loss occurs due to altered water levels, soil compaction, and other effects from the adjacent construction activity.  Both stream restoration and forest buffers are a significant component of state plans to restore the Chesapeake Bay by 2025; therefore, the EPA Chesapeake Bay Program has a vested interest in promoting synergy between efforts [...]

2023-05-23T13:46:38-04:00November 28th, 2022|

The Self-Recovery of Stream Channel Stability in Urban Watersheds

For more than 10 years, stormwater engineers in Carroll County, Maryland have experimented with the retrofit of existing stormwater ponds originally designed to reduce the rate of runoff to downstream receiving streams. Modeling results indicate that these retrofit designs—specifically, enhanced sand filter and wet pond designs—capture and retain enough rainfall that peak flows from the two-year storm are less than those from a wooded site in good condition. Carroll County also observed that the highly eroded streambanks downstream of the retrofits stopped retreating and began to re-vegetate over months or years after the construction of the retrofits. Given these results, [...]

2022-01-25T10:22:06-05:00January 24th, 2022|

Analysis of MS4 Monitoring Data in Maryland: What are the Effects of Restoration on Stream Quality?

National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Phase I Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System (MS4) permittees in Maryland have been conducting monitoring for more than 20 years to meet their permit requirements, the most recent of which specifies the use of monitoring to assess the effectiveness of watershed restoration efforts. The Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) directed the MS4s to focus their monitoring efforts on small watersheds where significant restoration opportunities were planned, and to conduct pre- and post-restoration monitoring to evaluate whether the best management practices (BMPs) were effective in restoring physical, chemical and/or biological conditions. As a result [...]

2021-05-20T11:56:22-04:00May 20th, 2021|

North Branch Bennett Creek Stream Restoration Complete

The Center completed a $1.3 million, three-year project to restore over 2/3 of a mile of stream at the Bar-T Mountainside property in Urbana, Maryland. The Center managed the overall project with design and construction support from Ecotone, and the work was funded by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, Frederick County, and Baltimore Gas and Electric. The North Branch of Little Bennett Creek flows through the 115-acre Bar-T Mountainside property, owned by Joe Richardson and operated as an outdoors summer camp and afterschool program. This project restored a 1,744-foot segment of the creek, which, prior to restoration, had three [...]

2020-12-02T14:25:33-05:00December 2nd, 2020|

Application of Reach Level Assessments for Stream Restoration Targeting and TMDL Accounting in the City of Frederick

Over the last decade, stream restoration has become an increasingly popular strategy for achieving sediment and nutrient load reductions.  In the Chesapeake Bay watershed alone, approximately 700 miles of stream restoration projects are expected to be implemented to achieve the nutrient and sediment load reductions defined by the Chesapeake Bay TMDL. In 2013, the City of Frederick developed a watershed management plan for meeting NPDES Phase II MS4, Chesapeake Bay TMDL, and local TMDL requirements that include a set of candidate stream restoration sites.  Before advancing these proposed projects, the City’s Sustainability Manager wanted to better understand the current conditions, [...]

2020-09-15T16:46:27-04:00September 14th, 2020|

Chesapeake Bay Program Stream Restoration Credits: Moving Toward Functional Lift?

I helped lead the effort in developing the Recommendations of the Expert Panel to Define Removal Rates for Individual Stream Restoration Projects with Tom Schueler of the Chesapeake Stormwater Network. The guidance was first published in 2013 with an update in 2014 after a 6-month “test drive.” There it is in print. I can no longer hide from the turmoil that I helped to create in the stream restoration industry. Honestly, the protocols breathed life into a practice that received very low scores in terms of sediment and nutrient crediting by state agencies and the Chesapeake Bay Program. Tom and [...]

2019-09-12T11:39:18-04:00September 12th, 2019|

Refining Stream Erosion Rates and Stream Restoration Credits in York County, PA

Stream restoration is a rapidly expanding and evolving science and understanding the nutrient, sediment, and habitat functions of individual stream segments has become increasingly technical.  Many communities, particularly MS4 communities in the Chesapeake Bay region, are wrestling with how to develop cost-effective strategies to meet their water quality and impervious treatment goals and stream restoration is often a significant component.  Unlike many other water quality BMPs, the benefits of stream restoration are largely based on the existing versus restored condition of the stream.  Therefore, to identify, prioritize and understand the benefits associated with the restoration of individual stream reaches, some [...]

2019-07-25T16:27:56-04:00October 15th, 2018|

Chesapeake Bay Program Urban Stream Restoration FAQs

By Lisa Fraley-McNeal and Bill Stack Stream restoration is a billion-dollar industry across the nation and is expected to grow exponentially to address water quality needs. In the Chesapeake Bay watershed alone, approximately 700 miles of stream restoration projects are expected to be implemented to achieve the nutrient and sediment load reductions defined by the Chesapeake Bay TMDL (Schueler and Stack, 2014). The Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP) convened an Urban Stream Restoration Expert Panel that was co-chaired by the Center for Watershed Protection and the Chesapeake Stormwater Network (CSN) to develop nutrient and sediment crediting protocols for stream restoration. The [...]

2021-08-02T08:38:30-04:00November 6th, 2017|

An Ancient, Buried Flood Plain Worth Over $1 Million

Read about a special discovery by one of our employees in The Frederick News-Post. https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/education/learning_and_programs/an-ancient-buried-flood-plain-worth-over-million/article_8c8b504f-cf39-5ee1-8c84-878823d14e54.html  

2017-09-22T14:40:14-04:00June 15th, 2017|

Center Staff Published in Sustain-A Journal of Environmental and Sustainability Issues

The Center staff had four articles published in the Spring/Summer 2015 edition of Sustain-A Journal of Environmental and Sustainability Issues. The articles include: “The Beauty of Stream Restoration and Pet Waste Reduction Programs” by Hye Yeong Kwon “The Challenges of Accounting for Pet Waste” by Karen Cappiella “The Most for the Least: Optimizing Water Pollution Reduction” by Reid Christianson “Illicit Discharge of Pollution to Our Water Resources” by Deb Caraco

2017-09-27T06:40:55-04:00March 25th, 2016|
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