Watershed Restoration Project to Benefit the Chesapeake Bay

May 11, 2007

Contact: Joseph Hankins, 304.876.2815, x212

Shepherdstown, West Virginia - Thousands of pounds of nitrogen and phosphorus will be intercepted and captured before reaching the Potomac River and the Chesapeake Bay as a result of a $400,000 grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) to The Conservation Fund (TCF). The grant will fund a restoration project “Meeting Regional Goals through Local Benefits” in Rockymarsh Run watershed in Jefferson and Berkeley counties by restoring brook trout habitat, expanding riparian buffers and creating economic incentives for environmental best practice adoption.

“Rockymarsh Run watershed has all the elements that make West Virginia’s response to downstream Bay water quality restoration so challenging,” said Joe Hankins, Vice President of TCF and Director of the Shepherdstown-based Freshwater Institute. “We are hoping to create a model for West Virginia right here for creating innovative relationships between rural landowners, developers and wastewater utilities that will restore trout habitat and watershed health.”

The Rockymarsh Run project will center on restoration and protection of riparian buffers, the trees and vegetated stream bank edges that shade the stream and intercept nutrients and storm water, as the key to native brook trout return. The project will also work to create collaboration between economic development interests and conservationists by using the tools of low impact development, best agricultural practices and upcoming regulatory provisions for total nutrient offsets to advance watershed recovery.

The Chesapeake Bay Targeted Watershed Grants, announced at a ceremony Thursday at Watts Branch Park by EPA Assistant Administrator for Water, Benjamin H. Grumbles, and NFWF Executive Director Jeff Trandahl, will help the eight regional organizations implement innovative programs designed to reduce the amount of nutrients and sediment flowing into the Chesapeake Bay.

“These projects have tremendous potential to accelerate the restoration of the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries,” stated Trandahl. “Collectively they demonstrate promising market-based strategies for addressing some of the most challenging impacts to the Bay, including impacts from agriculture and residential development, as well as demonstrating the positive impacts of large-scale stream and riparian restoration in both urban and rural settings.”

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