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Written on: July 24th, 2024 in Natural Resources, Wetland Research
By Gabby Vailati and Brittany Sturgis, DNREC’s Watershed Assessment and Management Section
Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control’s Habitat and Biology Program began in the early 1990s after the passing of the Clean Water Act and awareness about local water quality began increasing. The program assessed a vast number of streams and assigned each a grade for their overall health and function. The work is ongoing and streams in the piedmont region of Delaware are being re-evaluated for habitat and stream health – go science!
The DNREC Habitat and Biology Program evaluates the biological, physical and chemical pieces of a stream and combines these components to assign a grade for a stream’s habitat quality and its biology. These grades are categorized as severely degraded, moderately degraded, good or excellent. These grades do not necessarily have to be the same; a stream may grade moderately degraded for habitat but good for biology, and vice versa. Are you curious about the health of your local stream? Check this neat resource out. The streams that are classified as severely or moderately degraded may then be placed on the State’s 303(d) list of impaired waters, meaning that they are subject to the Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) process. TMDLs are meant to ensure actions are taken to limit the pollutants that enter the stream. If you’d like to learn more about Delaware TMDLs, visit here.
The first step in grading a stream’s health is to look at the biology present within the stream. We do this by collecting any and all aquatic macroinvertebrates (bugs) that live in the stream – we love finding those critters that live under the rocks! These types of bugs are important because they live a portion of their lifecycle within the stream itself. We use different field techniques to find the bugs while they are living in the water. The aquatic macroinvertebrates are important because we know that certain bug types can tolerate pollution, while others cannot (mayflies, stoneflies and caddisflies). If a stream has a lot of the intolerant bugs, then it scores a higher grade for biological stream health because the intolerant bugs are very sensitive to water pollution.
After we collect bugs, we perform a stream habitat assessment to look at the health of the surrounding land. Some habitat characteristics that are evaluated include the vegetation type along the bank, the amount of sediment/dirt that has accumulated within the stream, the amount of overhead shade, the number of riffles (think ripples in the water around rocks), or how embedded rocks are in the ground of the stream. How embedded rocks are within the ground can tell us about available surface area a bug has for shelter and reproduction. A rock only 25% embedded in the ground provides a niche habitat and is most ideal, while a rock embedded about 75% in the ground is less than ideal with less surface area available for use by the aquatic macroinvertebrates. Riffles, where rocks may break the water’s surface and create bends in the stream, are a great way to judge habitat in a stream as well. Riffles attract a wide array of bug types and make a stream more diverse. These factors can help tell us about the different habitats available in the stream, or the stability of the stream. Water quality parameters (dissolved oxygen, nitrogen, etc.) are also collected at each site. We then combine all of the bug, habitat and water quality scores to rate and score the stream.
All of this is a fancy way of saying our streams are very important. Whether used for recreation or drinking water or wildlife habitat, these streams feed into larger bodies of water that we all rely on. Keeping these streams healthy benefits all of us in the long run. Next time you’re near a stream, take a moment to appreciate all the tiny, diverse bugs that call it home and remind yourself that these streams are a small part of a much larger system of water.
Written on: July 22nd, 2024 in Outreach, Wetland Research
By Alison Stouffer, DNREC’s Wetland Monitoring and Assessment Program Have you ever wondered what wetlands look like around the country? For the most dedicated among us, you might travel to all 50 states to find out. Alternatively, you can grab your favorite car snack (mine is Twizzlers), get comfy on the couch, and buckle your […]
Written on: July 22nd, 2024 in Natural Resources, Outreach
By Olivia Allread, DNREC’s Wetland Monitoring and Assessment Program Get your gloves out and your hoses turned on, we’re going to the garden to get to know wetlands in this blog installment. Now the hobby of gardening may seem like a daunting task, and taking care of plants may seem even more challenging to the […]
Written on: May 20th, 2024 in Beneficial Use, Wetland Research
By Alison Rogerson, DNREC’s Wetland Monitoring and Assessment Program For any homeowner with a dock leading out to tidal waters in Delaware or any boat angler who likes to put in at a public ramp and go crabbing, fishing or just boating around the Inland Bays, you are familiar with the issue of rivers shoaling […]
Written on: May 17th, 2024 in Outreach, Wetland Research
By Olivia Allread, DNREC’s Wetland Monitoring and Assessment Program Behind every grant package and backpack full of gear stands a key agent of the natural resource world: a woman. We have long known that women play a crucial role in the management, provision, and safeguarding of natural resources across our globe. In recent decades, even […]
Written on: May 17th, 2024 in Natural Resources, Outreach, Wetland Animals
By Ashley Tabibian, DNREC’s Shellfish Program What do you think of when you think of oysters, clams, and mussels? For being so small, they are somewhat complex creatures with almost superhero like abilities. Do you think of how nutritious they are? According to WebMD, shellfish are low in calories, high in protein and contain omega-3 […]
Written on: March 13th, 2024 in Outreach, Wetland Research
By Caroline Kurtz and Beth Wasden, The Nanticoke Watershed Alliance Let’s dive into a fantastic program out of the most biologically diverse watershed on Delmarva. But first, who are we! The Nanticoke Watershed Alliance (NWA) is a non-profit environmental organization that includes partners from Maryland and Delaware including representatives from industry, agriculture, environmental agencies, and […]
Written on: March 13th, 2024 in Natural Resources, Wetland Animals
By Alison Stouffer, DNREC’s Wetland Monitoring and Assessment Program It’s that time of year again where the days are getting longer, the weather is getting warmer, and life begins to return to our beloved wetlands. The sea of monotonous brown and gray will slowly make way for gorgeous greens, speckled with the purples, pinks, yellows, […]
Written on: March 13th, 2024 in Outreach
By Olivia Allread, DNREC’s Wetland Monitoring and Assessment Program Time is ticking when it comes to protecting and conserving our precious resources in Delaware. From the 90 miles of coastline to the forested areas on the western side of the state, all three counties have diverse habitats which provide a myriad of benefits free of […]
Written on: December 14th, 2023 in Living Shorelines, Outreach
By Alison Rogerson, DNREC’s Wetland Monitoring and Assessment Program Hot off the press this month from the Delaware Living Shorelines Committee is a guidance document that aims to help landowners and professionals design and install nature-based shoreline stabilization projects. The Techniques and Application of Living Shorelines in Delaware guidance is the newest resource released by […]
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