Rapid Stream Delisting Strategy
A list no stream wants to be on is the federal Clean Water Act's impaired waters list. In 2024, following decades of primarily adding new Pennsylvania streams to this list, five stream segments were removed, providing tangible proof that restoring health to local creeks and streams is possible. An additional 12 segments are very close to being delisted.
Partners in Pennsylvania are working to rapidly restore 30 agriculturally impaired streams by 2030 by accelerating the strategic implementation of best management practices (BMPs) to improve water quality and wildlife habitat. Partners selected streams that could advance momentum in places that have the potential for the fastest recovery.
Collaboration and Precision Conservation
In 2019, the rapid stream delisting strategy was conceived during a pilot project aimed at prioritizing agricultural restoration projects using geographic information systems (GIS). More than 100 individuals from seven counties participated in workshops spanning months, during which thousands of data points about on-the-ground restoration efforts were collected. In 2020, partners, including nonprofits, academic institutions, state, local and federal governments, and businesses, rallied around using this data-driven approach to restore ecosystem health. The partners built momentum with amenable landowners of a few large properties where the work could have an outsized impact and focused their efforts on on-the-ground restoration projects such as barnyard improvements and streamside tree plantings.
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Courtesy Photo
The collaborative strategy soon took off. Among the partners, every individual and organization contributes unique strengths to help improve, monitor and delist agriculturally impaired streams. By using high-resolution land cover and hydrography mapping data to identify priorities and sharing farmers' stories about how restoration improved farm operations, the conservation community built a queue of high-quality, shovel-ready projects. The process also includes rigorous in-stream monitoring by qualified academic and nonprofit partners to help inform and change strategies as needed. Demonstrating improvements in fish and aquatic insect populations is motivating partners and farmers alike and, ultimately, the gauge by which streams are listed or delisted as impaired.
Proof Positive: A Celebration at Turtle Creek
In April 2024, partners gathered to celebrate two segments of Turtle Creek in Union County, Pennsylvania, that were removed or "delisted" from the federal Clean Water Act impaired waters list following 13 years of a partnership effort led by the Northcentral Stream Partnership. The Turtle Creek watershed is a prime example of how strong partnerships, innovation and sustained and strategic investments have restored local streams.
Turning Point for Chesapeake Bay Restoration: What's Next
In Lancaster County, Lancaster Clean Water Partners have embraced the strategy. Now, across Pennsylvania, partners are implementing the stream delisting strategy across 57 Pennsylvania streams in their goal to delist 30 streams by 2030.
Partners have completed outreach to over 400 farmers in the region. As of the end of 2024, 263 specific high-priority projects are fully funded and are either complete, underway or moving forward in 2024. With an additional queue of 35 shovel-ready projects and 112 landowners interested in restoring their properties, the program is 49% of the way to achieving its upslope restoration and 63% of the way to achieving its riparian restoration targets. Targets include 35,058 acres of land treated with BMPs and 1,675 acres of riparian forest buffers in the catchment areas, which drain to the priority stream segments.
With long-term ecosystem health in mind, the project partners are also committed to long-term maintenance, contracting with professionals and coordinating volunteers for periodic maintenance days to replace tree mortality and straighten or remove tree planting tubes. Permanent conservation and preservation easements are also a priority for the next phase of the program.
This project has been made possible thanks to the support of the following generous funding partners:
- The 1994 Charles B. Degenstein Foundation
- Bunting Family Foundation
- The Keith Campbell Foundation for the Environment
- Foundation for Pennsylvania Watersheds
- The Hamer Foundation
- National Fish and Wildlife Foundation Chesapeake Bay Stewardship Fund
- Natural Resources Conservation Service Conservation Collaboration and Regional Conservation Partnership Programs
- Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protections' Growing Greener and Countywide Action Plan funding
- Pennsylvania Dept. of Conservation and Natural Resources' Community Conservation Partnerships Program Grants
- and matching funding provided by generous and dedicated project partners
Project Partners:
- Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay
- American Farmland Trust
- Bucknell University
- Centre County Ag Land Preservation Board
- Centre County Conservation District
- Chesapeake Bay Foundation
- Chesapeake Conservancy
- ClearWater Conservancy
- Clinton County Conservation District
- Donegal Trout Unlimited
- Franklin and Marshall College
- Herbert, Rowland, and Grubic, Inc.
- Juniata College
- Huntingdon County Conservation District
- Lancaster Clean Water Partners
- Lancaster County Agland Preservation
- Lancaster County Conservation District
- Lancaster Farmland Trust
- LandStudies, Inc.
- Lycoming County Conservation District
- Merrill Linn Land & Waterways Conservancy
- Mifflin County Conservation District
- Mowery Environmental
- National Trout Unlimited
- Native Creations Landscape Services
- Northcentral PA Conservancy
- Northumberland County Conservation District
- Octoraro Watershed Association
- Partners for Fish and Wildlife Service
- The Pennsylvania State University
- Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources
- Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection
- Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission
- Pheasants Forever
- Rosetree Consulting
- Seven Willows LLC
- Snyder County Conservation District
- Stroud Water Research Center
- Susquehanna University
- TeamAg., Inc.
- The Nature Conservancy
- Trout Unlimited Penns Creek Chapter
- Union County Conservation District
- University of Montana
- US Fish and Wildlife Service
- USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service
- Water Science Institute
- Weaver Environmental Consulting
- Western Pennsylvania Conservancy
- WHM Group
- Woods and Waters Consulting
Feature Photo by Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection
Left to right: Chesapeake Bay Program Deputy Director Khesha Reed, Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection Acting Secretary Jessica Shirley, Pennsylvania Secretary of Agriculture Russell Redding, Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources Policy Director Nicole Faraguna, Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission Executive Director Timothy Schaeffer, Pennsylvania State Senator Gene Yaw, Pennsylvania State Senator Scott Martin, Chesapeake Conservancy President and CEO Joel Dunn, Northcentral Pennsylvania Conservancy Executive Director Renee Carey and Union County Conservation District Watershed and Program Specialist Savannah Rhoads
