The America's Watershed Initiative Report Card project continued with a regional workshop for the Arkansas River and Red River Basins, held in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on May 14–15, 2014. At the workshop, stakeholders and experts from social, economic, and environmental sectors identified easily understood and transparent ways to measure status and trends for the Arkansas River and Red River Basins in relation to six broad goals.

Read more

This project analyzed existing aquatic sediments, plants, and animals collected throughout the watershed to pinpoint key sources of nitrogen. As submerged aquatic vegetation has disappeared in regions heavily impacted by land-use activities, macroalgae and oysters were deployed and incubated in situ to help trace the origin of nitrogen inputs by identifying, delineating and mapping the relative influence of the varied urban and agricultural land uses in the watershed.

Read more

In 2013, Baltimore's streams, river and Harbor scored between 51% and 57%. While this is a failing score, it is an improvement over the 2012 scores, which ranged from 40% to 42%. These modest improvements show that we are headed in the right direction, but there is still a lot of work to be done. Without significant infrastructure repair and environment restoration, areas dominated by urban and suburban development will continue to have poor water quality.

Read more

This report card provides a transparent, timely, and geographically detailed assessment of Chesapeake Bay. In 2013, the report card includes five water quality indicators and two biotic indicators. In 2013, the overall grade for Chesapeake Bay is a 45%, a C. This means the Bay is in moderate health. Fisheries indicators as well as trajectories of reporting region health are also presented. For further details, visit the Report Card website.

Read more

The America's Watershed Initiative Report Card project continued with a regional workshop for the Lower Mississippi River Basin, held in Memphis, Tennessee, on March 25-26, 2014. At the workshop, stakeholders and experts from social, economic, and environmental sectors identified easily understood and transparent ways to measure status and trends for the Lower Mississippi River Basin in relation to six broad goals.

Read more

This is a 12-page Executive Summary of the Catoctin Mountain Park Natural Resources Condition Assessment.

Read more

This is a 12-page Executive Summary of the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal National Historical Park Natural Resources Condition Assessment.

Read more

This is a 12-page Executive Summary of the Harpers Ferry National Historical Park Natural Resources Condition Assessment.

Read more

Mills Creek is a small tributary to Sandusky Bay on the south-central shore of Lake Erie. The Mills Creek watershed is largely developed by a combination of urban and agricultural land uses. Mills Creek is also part of a Karst geological region, which is characterized by a series of sinkholes and underground rivers flowing through cracks and cavities in the limestone bedrock.

Read more

Old Woman Creek, on the south-central shore of Lake Erie, is one of Ohio’s few remaining examples of a natural estuary and is designated as a National Estuarine Research Reserve and a Ohio State Nature Preserve. It is the only Great Lakes freshwater estuary in the National Estuarine Research Reserve System and is managed cooperatively by NOAA and the ODNR.

Read more