The Chesapeake Bay Program, a regional partnership working to restore the Chesapeake Bay, celebrated its 40th anniversary last month with a tour of conservation projects in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.
Attendees made three stops, which included one of Stroud Water Research Center’s farm stewardship projects to restore local water quality and the Chesapeake Bay.
Denlinger Farm, which abuts an unnamed tributary to Mill Creek, is the site of the project. The owner of the 93-acre farm has planted a streamside forest and installed roof runoff controls, an alternative watering source, fencing to keep livestock out of the stream, and manure storage.
The local community’s response to this and similar watershed restoration work has been positive. Other landowners and farmers in the watershed have also chosen to join the effort. As a result, Lancaster County has included the tributary in its strategy to restore streams and get them removed from the state’s list of impaired waters.
Stroud Center scientists have been monitoring the stream to evaluate its response to these improvements. Recovery will take years and is possible because the community and conservation organizations are working together across the watershed.
