Road Salt is Polluting Fresh Water

Salt keeps us safe on icy roads — but it’s also quietly harming waterways.

IT’S TIME TO

Since 1967, Stroud Water Research Center has focused on one thing — fresh water.
We advance knowledge and stewardship of freshwater systems through global research, education, and watershed restoration.

What We Do

Freshwater Research

Environmental Education

Watershed Restoration

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Latest News

A split image, above and below the water of a forested stream in the Schuylkill Highlands, Pennsylvania.

Protecting Our Waters Starts With This Definition

A new proposed rule would narrow the Waters of the United States definition, potentially removing protections from many streams and wetlands.

Publication title with image of a mayfly

Fish assemblage integrity and watershed urbanization across national parks of the National Capital Region, USA

Peipoch, M., D. Myers, M. Daniels, D. Oviedo-Vargas, and J.P. Schmit. 2026. River Research and Applications, early online access.

Gordonville farm buffer installed fall 2023.

Connecting People, Restoring Streams in Lancaster County

Lancaster Clean Water Partners brings people together to tackle the county’s water quality challenge. The approach is already producing tangible results.

Celebrating Strong Partnerships for Healthy Waters With TNC

We’re proud to be featured in The Nature Conservancy’s Stream Stewards: A Guide to Watershed Stewardship Through Community Science and Youth Engagement.

John Jackson, Ph.D., accepts the 2025 York County Master Watershed Stewards Outstanding Partner Award on behalf of the Stroud Center.

Stroud Center Honored With 2025 Outstanding Partner Award

Partnerships are the keystone of a successful Master Watershed Steward program, and we are honored to have worked alongside the York County, Pa., group.

Stroud Center entomologists have been sampling macroinvertebrates in the Susquehanna River near Procter & Gamble’s Mehoopany plant since 1974.

Fund Long-Term Research Like Infrastructure

Long-term environmental research is how communities detect risks early. It is how we make smarter decisions, reduce costs, and protect public well-being.

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Featured Initiatives and Partnerships

WikiWatershed® web tools offer watershed data visualization, geospatial analysis capabilities, and science-based predictions of human impacts on stormwater runoff and water quality.

The Water Quality mobile app is a water-monitoring data-collection and learning tool designed for use by educators and their students, citizen scientists, and researchers.

EnviroDIY™ is a community where members ask and answer questions and network within interest groups to develop do-it-yourself environmental science and monitoring devices.

The Society for Freshwater Science Taxonomic Certification Program ensures skilled persons are providing aquatic invertebrate identifications in North America.

The Leaf Pack Network® is an international network of teachers, students, and citizen monitors using a simple experiment to determine the health of their local streams.

The Consortium for Scientific Assistance to Watersheds provides free technical assistance to Pennsylvania-based watershed and conservation organizations.