The program will include streambank fencing and restoring riparian areas, restoring wetlands, and reestablishing stands of native warm season grasses. The emphasis in wetland areas will include fencing out cattle and the restoration of hydrology by blocking file drains, filling ditches, and constructing dikes to recreate wetlands. The primary goal of the project is to demonstrate the effectiveness of combining proven habitat restoration and improvement techniques in a watershed treatment program. Wetland and riparian vegetation will start to develop as soon as the areas are protected and will dominate the sites by the end of the first growing season. Wildlife use of the areas will parallel the development of the vegetation.
Invertebrates rapidly colonize restored wetlands and form the basis of much of the avian food chain.
Native grasses take about two years to fully dominate the site. The primary sources for funding are Ducks Unlimited, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection and tentatively, a section 319 grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. A Catalog of Local Initiatives to Protect and Restore the Chesapeake Bay Watershed.