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 The Stroud Center is overseeing a federally funded project to plan the restoration of riparian (streamside) buffers along approximately 50 miles of the Red and White Clay Creeks in southern Chester County.
Another 26 miles of buffers are planned for the Tulpehocken River, which runs through Lebanon and Berks Counties into the Schuylkill River.
The project got under way this summer, and to date about 10 miles of stream buffers are in various stages of completion.
Native landscape designer Jessie Farrell will plan and coordinate the project for the Stroud Center. Ms. Farrell, whose landscape design firm, Taproot, is based in southern Chester County, will work with landowners to plan, fence (where necessary), plant and manage the riparian buffers.
The funding, which comes through the Natural Resources Conservation Service, will pay 75 percent of fencing and planting costs, with the landowner contributing the remaining 25 percent.
Once landowners have signed on, Ms. Farrell said, she will plan the buffer, walk the landowners through the installation phase, help them choose the plants, demonstrate planting methods and be on site on planting day. She plans to revisit each site again a year after the initial planting.
The amount of planting that needs to be done and the width of the buffers depend on existing conditions and the terrain. Open stock grazing fields will have to be fenced. The buffers, in the form of trees, shrubs and grasses, are planted to filter sediment and nutrients from stormwater runoff. Stroud research has shown that wooded streams are also more efficient in processing pollutants that get through to the waterways.
One of the sites now in the planning and planting phase is the tributary of the East Branch of the Red Clay Creek that runs through the Willowdale Steeplechase course in East Marlborough Township. Because of its accessibility, the Stroud Center hopes to use the site to educate the public about stream buffers. The Center plans to hold meetings this fall for landowners and others interested in the project.
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