Streams and Rivers

Growing Great Buffers is a series of short, helpful videos that describe step-by-step maintenance tasks needed for newly planted riparian buffers.

This large Pennsylvania salamander is an important inhabitant of our waterways.

Do you enjoy outdoor activities? Become a community scientist. First Investigation of Stream Health (FISH) monitors changes to local streams and their habitats.

Remember summertime maintenance of riparian buffer areas.

This article described how to plant and maintain a grass buffer around riparian areas for wildlife. Grass buffers do not replace forest buffers, but they can be used in areas where planting and maintaining a forest would not be possible.

Healthy streams typically don't follow the straight and narrow.

Embeddedness is a complex word to describe a simple concept. Are the rocks, gravel, and boulders in the stream bed exposed? Or are they buried by sediment, surrounded by soils, and barely visible?

One of the many visual indicators you might use to assess the health of a stream is the amount of stream bank vegetation and other cover.

Monitoring our waterways is important for assessing stream conditions and water quality and using visual assessments is a low-tech way to evaluate stream health.

Live stakes are an increasingly popular way to repair eroding streams on a budget. However, moving plants always comes with the risk of spreading pests and diseases.

Transparency tubes are popular for use in stream monitoring programs. They are also part of the "First Investigation of Stream Health" activity.

A brief introduction and instructional guide to using live staking as an inexpensive and simple technique to restoring eroding stream banks.

This restoration includes stabilizing and/or altering the stream channel to slow and direct the flow of water to reduce erosion and flooding.

A riparian buffer involves planting or retaining trees, shrubs, or tall grasses along the banks of rivers, streams, lakes, and ponds.

This manual for landowners describes where wetland restoration is possible and how it is done. It covers basic wetland concepts, ecological concepts and terms, wetland restoration, and maintenance.

Tree shelter cages constructed with metal garden fencing help protect newly planted tree and shrub seedlings from wildlife damage and other problems such as overheating, and wind knock-over sometimes associated with plastic tree tubes.

Actively replenishing dead wood in forest streams improves fish habitat while enhancing water quality and aquatic ecosystems.

Is your stream healthy? Would you like to explore it a little closer or monitor changes in your stream over time? Have you recently done something to improve your stream, and now you want to measure the successful results?

Having a stream in your yard can be a beautiful addition to your property. It can also be a source of frustration and confusion when things aren't going well.

Learn how the FISH tool helps you monitor and improve stream health. Perfect for water enthusiasts and professionals, you'll explore our new app, reporting tool, and data sheets.

Data collection in the Conewago Creek Watershed looks at surface water quality.

A guide to causes of riparian buffer tree mortality.

Introduce children to Dr. Watt R. Shedd in this new book that shows readers aged 8–10 how they, too, can be stream doctors.

There are "benthic connections" happening all the time and the creatures below have their own way of interacting with the more than 86,000 stream miles in PA.

Answers to frequently asked questions related to backyard stream repair, including stream evaluation, live staking, plant selection, grading, and permitting.