| The Monocacy River and Antietam Creek watersheds encompass over 469,000 acres in Central Maryland and southern Pennsylvania draining into the Potomac River, approximately 50 miles upstream from Washington, DC. The watersheds are Category I Priority Watersheds in Maryland’s CWAP Unified Watershed Assessment. Both experience water quality problems such as high nutrient loading attributed to agricultural uses. A watershed assessment has indicated that these watersheds also have a high potential for restoration.
The Monocacy and Antietam watersheds have over 18,000 acres of sensitive species habitat areas, including the upland sand piper, brook floater, white trout lily, and Short’s sedge. Many of these species could expand their habitat in restored streams, woodlands, warm season grass meadows, and wetlands. Once the home to superior cold and cool water fisheries, studies of biotic integrity currently show severely degraded benthic communities and elevated water temperatures. Years of gypsy moth infestations have left expanses of insect-killed standing timber, and have created a significant fire hazard. Forestland ownership has fallen into increasingly smaller parcels, making areas vulnerable to conversion from protective and productive forest uses to sprawl development.
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