PROBLEM: In much of the watershed, stream habitat has been severely degraded by urbanization, the associated inability to control stormwater runoff and by dozens of miles of engineered river and tributary modifications. COG staff have conservatively estimated that approximately 50 miles (17 percent) of the original Anacostia stream system have been directly altered in some fashion by human activities (Figures 21 and 22). Urbanization has also caused changes in the biological diversity, hydrology or stream flow, physical structure, ecology and overall water quality of the tidal Anacostia River and its tributaries.

Figure 21. Anacostia Watershed Channelized/Modified Areas

Figure 22. Lower Beaverdam Creek - Channelized Stream Reach

STRATEGY: Design and implement stormwater retrofits to control runoff and restore an environmental balance to the receiving streams; protect and enhance the remaining habitat; apply stream restoration techniques to improve habitat in the most degraded streams; implement land-use controls and stringent stormwater and erosion and sediment control practices at new development sites, prioritizing the most critical and sensitive subwatersheds.

PROGRESS:

Stream Restoration During the period 1991 to 1997, the Montgomery County Department of Environmental Protection, the Maryland Department of the Environment, the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Prince George's County Department of Environmental Resources completed six major stream restoration projects. Approximately six miles of degraded habitat in Sligo Creek, Brier Ditch, Northwest Branch and Northeast Branch have been rehabilitated for fish and other aquatic life (Figure 23). Efforts are currently underway in both Montgomery and Prince George's counties to enhance aquatic habitat in approximately another 12 miles of stream by the year 2000.

Figure 23. Boulder Placement: Sligo Creek Stream Restoration Phase II, 1994.

The D.C. Environmental Regulation Administration, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments have initiated efforts to restore a one-mile portion of Hickey Run (which flows through the USDA National Arboretum).

In 1993, the National Park Service, in conjunction with the Interstate Commission on the Potomac River Basin, began restoration work on the North Branch of Still Creek (which flows through Greenbelt National Park, located in the Northeast Branch).

As a first step toward the restoration of Watts Branch, the District of Columbia Environmental Regulation Administration in partnership with the Natural Resources Conservation Service, from 1989 to 1990, stabilized several hundred feet of badly eroding stream banks downstream of 44^th Street.

As part of its Section 1135 Anacostia Floodway Rehabilitation Project, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 1995 restored pool and riffle habitat and modified two major fish barriers within a two-mile length of the lower Northeast and Northwest Branches.

From 1995 to 1997, the Prince George's County Department of Environmental Resources, the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission and the Maryland Department of the Environment undertook initiatives to restore portions of Little Paint Branch, Quincy Manor Run, Brier Ditch and other Anacostia tributaries. Both the Little Paint Branch and Quincy Manor Run restoration projects will feature bioengineering techniques such as the use of willow stake plantings and live fascines in combination with streambank regrading and riparian reforestation. Construction in 1998 is anticipated.

Native Fish Reintroduction Between 1992 and 1994, seventeen species of native fish were reintroduced into a restored portion of Sligo Creek by an interagency cooperative team composed of the Montgomery County Department of Environmental Protection, the Maryland Department of the Environment, the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission, the Interstate Commission on the Potomac River Basin, the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments and local citizens (Figure 24). All reintroduced species, both pollution tolerant and intolerant such as the rosyside dace, mottled sculpin and northern hogsucker, are surviving. Figure 24. Children Stocking Native Fish in Wheaton Branch, 1992. Figure 25. Paint Branch Brown Trout Captured One Mile Below Capital Beltway (I-495), 1996.

Paint Branch Trout Protection In the Paint Branch subwatershed, the Anacostia's highest quality stream system, a naturally reproducing brown trout population has existed since the 1930s (Figure 25). Since 1979, annual electrofishing surveys by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources have documented both the distribution and relative abundance of Paint Branch trout. While facing increasing pressure from development, the Good Hope tributary (Paint Branch's principal spawning and nursery stream) has consistently produced trout for over 19 years in a row (Figure 26). This level of consistency remains unparalled anywhere in the state of Maryland.

Figure 26. Good Hope Tributary to Paint Branch: Station No. 1 Brown Trout Population Estimates, 1979-1997 (Gougeon, 1997).

Figure 27. Approved Upper Paint Branch Special Protection (SPA) and Environmental Overlay Zone Areas (modified from M-NCPPC, 1996).

 

In recognition of the growing threats to this unique resource, a diverse workgroup, consisting of the Montgomery County Department of Environmental Protection, Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission, Interstate Commission on the Potomac River Basin, Audubon Naturalist Society, Trout Unlimited and the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, developed a comprehensive watershed protection and restoration strategy for the Good Hope tributary. The Workgroup's recommendations, which were officially endorsed and distributed by the Anacostia Watershed Restoration Committee in October 1994, served as an important starting point for a triad of Upper Paint Branch watershed protection initiatives which soon followed. Through the joint efforts of the Montgomery County Department of Environmental Protection and the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission, the Montgomery County Council in July 1995 officially designated the Upper Paint Branch (Figure 27) as a Special Protection Area (SPA). In addition to officially elevating the status of this subwatershed, the SPA designation featured environmentally strict restrictions and conditions for new development based on biological, physical and chemical performance monitoring goals. This major step was followed by an aggressive stream valley conservation park acquisition initiative by the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission. The Limited Park Acquisition Amendment to the 1981 Eastern Montgomery County Master Plan (approved by the Montgomery County Council in May 1996) will add an additional 248 acres of parkland along both the Good Hope and Gum Springs tributaries of Paint Branch. The cost of this additional parkland is estimated between $13 and $15 million. In July 1997, the Montgomery County Council approved an Environmental Overlay Zone developed by the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission for the Upper Paint Branch. The zone places a 10 percent imperviousness cap on new watershed development and importantly prohibits highly polluting uses, such as the construction of new gas stations. Countywide Stream Protection Strategy In 1997, the Montgomery County Department of Environmental Protection in partnership with the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission developed a draft Countywide Stream Protection Strategy which establishes restoration and management priorities for the more than 200 sub-basins present in the County. The draft report is expected to be finalized and approved by the County Council in 1998. Little Paint Branch Workgroup In response to citizen concerns about the health of Little Paint Branch, the Maryland Department of Natural Resources formed a workgroup to determine the stream's present condition and make recommendations on what future actions are needed for its protection and restoration. The Workgroup, which includes local citizens, environmental groups, and local, state, Federal and regional agency representatives, is expected to present its findings and recommendations to the AWRC in 1998.