Streams and Rivers

Join Penn State Extension to plant tree seedlings as part of a riparian buffer and help protect local waterways. No experience needed—just bring your enthusiasm and love for the environment!

Become a Meaningful Watershed Educational Experiences Ambassador while learning about proper tree planting and stream health assessment for watershed protection.

Tree shelters help newly planted trees survive to maturity.

An evening at Alecraft Brewery explores how the Indian Rock Nursery grows native trees for riparian buffers across south-central Pennsylvania—plus trivia, prizes, and local brews.

Learn about these smallest beginnings of rivers and streams.

Educators can help students learn how to observe local stream conditions to determine watershed impacts.

Explore the vital role of headwaters and use haiku to notice nature's details, connecting science and poetry—no background needed, just curiosity.

During the First Investigation of Stream Health (FISH) activity, one optional data field records the number of frogs and toads observed or heard. Different species are active during different months in Pennsylvania.

Understanding basic water law principles can help landowners better understand their rights.

Thoughtful selection of streamside trees and shrubs can have the added bonus of producing fruit, nuts, berries, or woody florals for profit or personal enjoyment.

Warming trends affect streams and rivers in Pennsylvania.

A video guide to affordable and easy stream bank restoration using branch cuttings called live stakes.

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.