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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

Focusing on Farms to Safeguard the Delaware River
Focusing on Farms to Safeguard the Delaware River
An article in Edible Philly dives into the effort to protect and restore clean water in the Delaware River watershed by working with farmers.
David Bressler providing C-SAW technical assistance to volunteers of the Silver Lake Nature Center.
A Watershed of Curiosity
Not everyone has the opportunity to become a professional scientist, but a great scientist can come from anywhere. Anyone can be a part of science.
Stream Monitoring in the Delaware River Basin: More Than Just Numbers
Stream Monitoring in the Delaware River Basin: More Than Just Numbers
Master Watershed Stewards help develop science capacity to support stream and river protection and restoration by citizen science programs.
Farmer showing health soil in a field
New Funds Announced for Delaware River Restoration
The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation has awarded more than $1.9 million to the Stroud Center for watershed restoration projects.
Students counting E. coli colonies in a water sample
The Independence School Students Learn Freshwater Science Through STEM Partnership
“Our students have learned not only how to make contributions to a global community of researchers but have been empowered by sharing their own data with the world."
Joining Forces With Farmers to Protect Clean Water
Joining Forces With Farmers to Protect Clean Water
The Stroud Center and its Delaware River Watershed Initiative partners are helping farmers implement agricultural best management practices to protect clean water.

DRWI Projects and Publications