The city of Frederick owns approximately 7,000 acres on the eastern side of Catoctin Mountain, known as the Frederick Municipal Forest, which protects the watershed for the Fishing Creek Reservoir. The reservoir provides the city with about 20 percent of its water supply. Managed as a cooperative wildlife management area, this property has required many years of forest and wildlife management, in cooperation with Maryland Department of Natural Resources - Forest Service and the Wildlife and Heritage Division, to protect its forest resources.

Unfortunately, soon after the plan was developed, the leading edge of the gypsy moth infestation arrived and killed most of the canopy trees on thousands of acres. Extensive salvage harvesting was conducted to use the dead and dying trees, reduce the forest fire hazard, and provide favorable conditions for oak regeneration. However, since then little has been done here in the way of forest management.

With funding and personnel available through the Potomac Watershed Partnership, work began in early 2002 to prepare a Forest Stewardship Plan for the Frederick City Watershed. “New” technology is being used -- such as ArcView GIS, Global Positioning System (GPS), and the Northeast Decision Model (NED) software program -- to assist in data collection and plan preparation.