Healthy Forest Healthy Waters plantings help reduce nutrients and sediment in the Chesapeake Bay.

Healthy Forests Healthy Waters

The Healthy Forests Healthy Waters program offers private landowners in Maryland a cost-free opportunity to establish new woodland cover on their property. Maryland Forest Service staff work with landowners to develop personalized tree planting plans Experienced service providers plant the trees and maintain the trees for three years Landowners agree to maintain tree cover for … Read More

Creek ReLeaf – Reforestation in Frederick County, Maryland

The Creek ReLeaf program is helping to plant trees and improve water quality in Frederick County, Maryland. Frederick County’s Office of Sustainability and Environmental Resources started the Creek Re-Leaf program in 2017 as a way to improve water quality and meet pollution reduction requirements of the County’s MS4 permit requirements under the federal Clean Water … Read More

Riparian Forest Buffer behind strawberry field.

Buffer Success Story in Chestertown, MD

Roberta Ingram and her husband, Albert Deagazio, decided to enroll a total of 4.1 acres of their farmland in Chestertown, Maryland, into the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP). In 2001, 2.1 acres were converted into a runoff pond surrounded by grasses, and in 2003, 2 acres were converted into a riparian forest buffer consisting of native trees and grasses. They first … Read More

Bobby Whitescarver smiles next to a mature riparian forest buffer

Bobby Whitescarver

Bobby Whitescarver, a longtime USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) guru, retired in 2011 to start a conservation consulting service, Whitescarver Natural Resources Management. Bobby is a lifetime farmer in Swoope, Virginia, and has worked tirelessly with Virginia’s farmers and landowners to enroll buffer acres in the CREP program. Today, Bobby has been involved with over … Read More

volunteers survey a healthy, green buffer at common thread farms in Hamilton, New York

Susquehanna Joint Chief’s Grant

In 2014, the Upper Susquehanna Coalition (USC) awarded $280,000 to the Tioga County Soil and Water Conservation District as part of the Susquehanna Watershed Riparian Buffer Enhancement Program. The grant aimed to increase the acres of riparian forest buffers in the Upper Susquehanna watersheds to meet the goal of 475 buffer acres per year. Funds were used … Read More

A healthy forest buffer in the Upper Susquehanna Watershed

Upper Susquehanna River Watershed

The Upper Susquehanna Coalition (USC) Buffer Program helps landowners fund and maintain valuable forest buffer projects in the Upper Susquehanna Watershed.

a field with treelings recently planted

Centre County Agricultural Conservation Program

The Upper Penns Creek Watershed is 240 square miles in size and includes approximately 30 linear miles of the Penns Creek stream channel and numerous tributaries including Sinking Creek, Elk Creek, and Pine Creek.

The Potomac River in West Virginia in autumn

Upper Potomac Riparian Buffer and Floodplain Forest Plantings

The Upper Potomac Riparian Buffer project applied hydrologic-based targeting for restoration, evaluated high priority locations, and planted forests and trees to reduce pollutants and enhance coldwater fisheries habitat in priority areas of the Upper Potomac.