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This project will restore water quality in the Casselman River in Maryland by constructing an acid mine drainage treatment system along affected tributaries in the watershed. Restoration of the water quality will support the biological health of the Casselman and allow the recolonization and repopulation of native brook trout to the 20 mile river.

An historic mine water discharge tunnel draining a deep mine is contributing 80 percent of the pollution load of acid and aluminum impairing Catawissa Creek. The objective of this project is to complete a limestone mitigation project that will treat the source of AMD and restore the pH regime of the stream. The project will enable the return of extirpated brook trout to 36 miles of the main stem of the Catawissa Creek. It will also reconnect the entire watershed including more than two dozen tributaries, many of which are not impaired and have healthy brook trout populations.

The natural course and riparian corridor of the Kings River have been significantly modified by various landowners over several decades, leading to channel instability and decreased habitat and water quality. The Nature Conservancy (TNC) purchased a preserve on the Kings River that includes nine miles of river. To protect and restore river and riparian habitat, TNC has created a stream channel and floodplain restoration project along 0.5 miles of the river.

The Chipola River Watershed (HUC # 03130012) is located in northwest Florida/southeast Alabama and includes parts of Jackson, Calhoun, Gulf, Washington and Bay Counties in Florida and Geneva and Houston Counties in Alabama. Some of the smaller tributaries that encompass the Chipola River watershed include: Chipola River Dead Lakes, Spring Creek, Muddy Branch and Otter Creek (subunit 020, 050). The Chipola River Watershed traverses over 100 miles through 812,800 acres with 200,000 acres being utilized in crop production, which is vital to the economy of the region and is the primary socio-economic resource. The Chipola River is defined by Northwest Florida Water Management District as a major Florida river. It originates from freshwater springs in the upper watershed and accounts for approximately 20% of the waters to the Apalachicola River, which is the largest river in Florida. High base flow in Chipola River is supported by over 63 known Floridan aquifer springs. The Chipola River is defined by Florida Department of Environmental Protection as an “Outstanding Florida Waterbody”. However, threats have been identified that could degrade water quality, reduce habitat, or negatively impact rare or imperiled species within the Chipola River watershed. In the past three decades, nitrate concentrations in spring waters have increased substantially in northern and central Florida. Jackson Blue, a tributary to the Chipola and first magnitude spring has the second highest concentration of nitrates of any spring in Florida. The Chipola River and its subunits Dead Lakes (WBID 51B), Muddy Branch (WBID 175) and Otter Creek are 303(d) listed due to agricultural non-point source pollution within the watershed area (EPD 305b report). A great diversity of habitats exist within the watershed from xeric upland longleaf pine forests, to bottomland hardwood swamps, freshwater wetlands, numerous natural springs, and meandering creeks with multiple tributaries. These habitats support rich animal communities with several hundred species of fish and wildlife. There are six federally threatened and endangered mussels species that occur within the Chipola River i.e., oval pigtoe, fat three-ridge, Chipola slabshell, Gulf moccasinshell, purple bankclimber, and shinyrayed pocketbook. The Chipola River is also a managed resource for striped bass and the unique shoal bass fishery. Other threatened and endangered species include: Amphibians & reptiles- American alligator, eastern indigo snake and flatwoods salamander; Fish; Gulf sturgeon; Birds; Arctic peregrine falcon, southeastern kestrel, bald eagle, wood stork, red-cockaded woodpecker; Mammals: i.e. Indiana bat and gray bat. Chipola plants listed on the state or federal endangered list include Marianna columbine, sicklepod, and Apalachicola wild indigo. Endangered and threatened species under serious threat from habitat loss, degradation and fragmentation have been documented and a watershed based plan of action should be developed and initiated for their recovery. A Chipola River watershed partnership between the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) and Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) have been initiated since 2006. The purpose was to develop and lead a research-based platform for environmental restoration and conservation. The Service, along with FWC, West Florida RC&D; Council and others developed a Chipola River Watershed Management Plan (CRWMP) to achieve management and conservation of fish and wildlife resources. This proposal is for the next steps toward management activities under the CRWMP.

The objectives of this project are to restore riverine and riparian habitats as well as to improve ecological stream processes for native brook trout in the Sunday River drainage. Stream habitats in this drainage have been degraded by poor land use practices, including timber harvesting, log driving, farming, and commerical and recreational development. A half mile long treatment of each of two tributaries will receive woody debris. These tributaries and a nearby control will be monitored for geomorphic, chemical, biological, and flow responses.

Brook trout habitat in the Sunday River drainage has been degraded by poor land use practices, including timber harvesting, log driving, farming, and commercial and recreational development. Much of the river and its tributaries are unstable, over-widened, and lacking in deep pools, thereby reducing nursery and adult brook trout habitat. Although degradation is being addressed through a comprehensive watershed survey and main-stem restoration effort, the causal problem of accelerated runoff has not been addressed. This proposal will assess the efficacy of adding woody debris to reduce peak flows, create pools, and trap organics to enrich depauperate headwater streams.

This project will build intertidal shorelines with oyster reefs.

This project will create and protect intertidal oyster reefs and saltmarsh, essential fish habitat, within the Ashepoo-Combahee-Edisto (ACE) Basin National Estuarine Research Reserve in South Carolina. Organization: South Carolina Department of Natural Resources.

This project will create intertidal oyster reefs and Spartina saltmarsh (.78 acres of intertidal oyster reef and 0.1 acre of adjacent saltmarsh) in the Charleston Harbor Watershed and Cape Romain Wildlife Refuge. Organization: South Carolina Department of Natural Resources.

This project will restore over 1.6 miles of Southern Appalachian brook trout habitat contained within the Cooper Creek Watershed of the Chattahoochee National Forest in Georgia. Habitat within Bryant Creek and Tretty and Burnett Branches will be restored using only hand labor to minimize soil disturbance. After non-native trout species are removed, trees will be cut into and across the various stream reaches to provide in-stream cover and create pool habitat for brook trout.