Deer Creek
Watershed Restoration Action Strategy


The Deer Creek Watershed Restoration Action Strategy (WRAS) was initiated by the Harford County Department of Planning and Zoning to help restore and protect the Deer Creek Watershed. The goal of the WRAS is to protect water quality, conserve fish and wildlife habitats, and restore those areas found to be impaired. The WRAS program is a statewide program that is implemented at the local level with public input and review. The WRAS is a planning document that defines the issues that affect watershed health and provides potential solutions, or management strategies that watershed and landuse managers can use to correct them. The strategies developed in the WRAS work in concert with other existing state and county programs to restore and protect Maryland’s waterways and meet the goals of the Chesapeake 2000 Agreement.

The Deer Creek Watershed is 171 square miles in size and is located in Harford and Baltimore Counties in Maryland and York County Pennsylvania. The Deer Creek flows to a confluence with the Susquehanna River. Close to 80 percent of the Watershed is located in Harford County. The Watershed retains a predominantly rural character with land use that is primarily agricultural (54 percent) and forest (30 percent). Less than one percent of the Watershed area lies within Harford County’s development envelope and it has an overall existing imperviousness of only 4.3 percent.

Note: (Documents are in PDF format and require Adobe Acrobat Reader which can be downloaded free from http://www.adobe.com)