Watershed Management

What is a watershed? What is your watershed address? How to protect your watershed Streambank stabilization / Bioengineering Invasive Species Native Landscaping  Growing Greener  Pollution Sources Links to Watershed Organizations MCCD Home

What is a Watershed?

A watershed is a geographic area of land across which water, and the sediments and dissolved materials it contains, flow on their way to a single common outlet - a storm system, stream, lake, or river.  It can be compared to a huge basin collecting all the precipitation that falls within it and carrying this to the common outlet.  

                                                                                                Picture 1: Montgomery County Streams

What is your watershed address? 

Everyone lives in a watershed.  Do you know which one you live in?  Check out the maps of Pennsylvania and Montgomery County to figure out your watershed address.     

How to protect your watershed

Watersheds are natural systems that link the land and water resources, and the living organisms, including people, within its boundaries.  How we live on the land affects the quality and quantity of water within the watershed.  Want to join a local watershed group visit the Pennsylvania Directory of Watershed Organizations to find one near you.

        Steps you can take at home to protect water quality

Streambank Stabilization\Bioengineering

Stabilizing streambanks with shrubs and trees, filters stormwater run-off and minimizes soil erosion, while providing an excellent habitat for wildlife species.  Want to get involved in local streambank restoration efforts?  Visit the Montgomery County Tree Vitalize website for more information on local projects.

Bioengineering techniques use a combination of structural and biological methods to stabilize streambanks, providing a more natural looking solution than traditional rip-rap and concrete structures.  Native plant materials are incorporated into the natural restoration.  The species used are adaptable to living in riparian habitats.  These plants include herbaceous species such as sedges and rushes; and woody species such as dogwoods, and willows.  The species have fibrous root systems that can bind the soil of the streambanks in place.  There are many techniques using native plants as stabilizing materials.  If installed and monitored correctly, bioengineering can be a successful, less expensive, environmentally sensitive approach to preventing soil erosion and stabilizing streambanks.  For more information on Bioengineering techniques, please visit the Natural Resource Conservation Service's Stream Restoration Manual.  

Invasive Species

A species that has been introduced from an outside ecosystem which aggressively dominates a landscape and minimizes the biodiversity of a given landscape. Invasive plants grow aggressively, spreads, and displaces other plants.  Invasive plant infestations can be extremely expensive to control, as well as environmentally destructive. For more information on PA Invasive species identification and control, visit the Department of Conservation and Natural Resource's Invasive Exotic Plant Tutorial.

Native Landscaping

An area maintained as a meadow versus conventional lawn has the capability of recharging 16x more rainfall into the ground.  Native plants have deeper root systems then turfgrass.  They thrive in local habitats, so require less maintenance and fertilizers to survive.  For more information on Native Plants visit the Department of Conservation and Natural Resource's "Landscaping with Native Plants in Pennsylvania" publication.

Growing Greener

This grant process puts $650 million of state funding into the hands of local communities to protect their watersheds from nonpoint sources of pollution.  For more information on Growing Greener and other DEP grants, please visit the Department of Environmental Protection's Grant website.

Pollution Sources

Sources of stream pollution include; 

1) Point Sources -  easily identified sources where pollutants are discharged into a waterway.  These sites are most often permitted by the State for a specified discharge volume. 

2) Nonpoint Sources - pollutants that are picked up when run-off flows across the landscape.  These pollutants include everything from fertilizers from lawns and fields, sediment from construction sites, salts from icy roads, and gasoline and oils from parking lots. Non-point Source pollution makes up the majority of the pollutant load on our waterways.

Links to Local Watershed Organizations

For more information on any of these topics, contact:

Susan Harris

Watershed Specialist

(610) 489-4506 (ext. 19)