Watershed Restoration: A Shared Public and Private Investment
Stroud Water Research Center works hand in hand with landowners, helping them use their land more effectively through whole-farm planning and watershed stewardship. In return for our program services, landowners are asked to install forested buffers on streams on their properties and to allow us ongoing access to their sites to gather the scientific data from these efforts.
Our expert team sets up the collaborations and partnerships necessary to achieve the highest level of freshwater conservation. The Stroud Center and many partner groups and agencies have secured over $20 million dollars through USDA’s Resource Conservation Partnership Program to support agriculture conservation and restoration projects on farms in the Delaware and Chesapeake Bay watersheds.
The Robin L. Vannote Watershed Restoration Program is named for Robin Vannote, Ph.D., a research scientist and the Stroud Center’s first director. Under Vannote’s leadership, the Stroud Center evolved from a dream to an institution at the forefront of freshwater research. The Stroud Center has benefited enormously from Vannote’s hard work, keen insight, and long-term scientific vision since 1966, and the naming of the Watershed Restoration Program is a fitting tribute.
Quick Links
- Before laneway installation.
- After laneway installation. Limiting livestock traffic to the stabilized area will mean much less runoff of manure and sediment to waterways.
- Walkway area before stabilization. Note the stream in the background.
- After stabilization. The amount of nutrients, sediments, and pathogens reaching surface waters will be much less with this work in place.
Watershed Restoration Staff
Watershed Restoration News

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Restoring the River Continuum Community

Volunteers Help Plant Trees for Healthy Streams

What Do Hemp Fiber, Soil Health, and Water Quality Have in Common?

700 Trees, Three Volunteers, and a Quilt

Focusing on Farms to Safeguard the Delaware River
Watershed Restoration Projects
Outreach and Installation of Agricultural Best Management Practices in Brandywine-Christina
Healthy Soils, Healthy Streams Training, and Technical Assistance
Restoring Flood Attenuation and Ecological Resiliency in the Mid-Atlantic Piedmont
West Chester Area School District Water Quality Education Center
Water-Quality Monitoring at Fair Hill Training Center