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Delaware River Watershed Initiative

750 971 Stroud Water Research Center

Since 2016, Stroud Water Research Center has been a part the Delaware River Watershed Initiative (DRWI), a groundbreaking, multi-year project to monitor, protect, and restore critical freshwater sources for 15 million people from New York to the mouth of the Delaware Bay. The Stroud Center helps guide community science volunteer monitoring of water quality in eight regional subwatersheds in the Delaware River basin.

Deforestation and runoff from farms, cities, and suburbs threatens the health of the Delaware River watershed. With funding from the William Penn Foundation, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, the Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection, USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, and others, the Stroud Center’s Robin L. Vannote Watershed Restoration Program is helping Berks and Chester County farmers implement pollution reduction practices and riparian forested buffers.

The wide-ranging initiative features eight ecologically significant “sub-watershed clusters” — about 25 percent of the total Delaware River Basin — across four states. Of these, the Stroud Center is collaborating with over 14 organizations in the Brandywine-Christina, Middle Schuylkill and Schuylkill Highlands cluster groups. As this effort progresses, we will be using a variety of techniques to measure the ecological responses to these restoration efforts.

DRWI News

Carol Armstrong plants a tree in a streamside forest.
Volunteering With Scientists Changed How I Advocate for Clean Streams
Carol Armstrong shares how knowledge she gained from collecting high-quality data in streams empowered her as a clean-water advocate in her community.
Volunteers at the Darby Creek salt snapshot.
We, the Community Scientists
People in the Delaware River Watershed are joining forces and collecting data to protect the vital freshwater resources that sustain their communities.
Rachel Johnson installs a sensor bundle in a streambed.
EnviroDIY in the Delaware River Basin
Watch this video to learn about the progress made through the Stroud Center’s community science project.
A hand holding a chloride test strip near a creek.
Why Volunteers Are Tracking Down Road Salt in Streams
With help from the Stroud Center, community scientists and watershed groups are measuring the impact of salt pollution on fresh water and taking action.
Rachel Johnson and Dave Arscott at the Watershed Heroes event.
Stronger Together: A Nonprofit Partnership Raises Road Salt Awareness
Stroud Water Research Center is honored to have received the Watershed Heroes Nonprofit Steward award from Tookany/Tacony-Frankford Watershed Partnership.
Entomologists collect freshwater insects for a project that examines the impact of streamside restoration on water quality.
Breaking the Fall
How the Clean Water Act changed the trajectory of America’s waterways and became a beacon for freshwater science.
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DRWI Projects and Publications