Lower Monocacy River
Watershed Characterization


Frederick County, Maryland is receiving Federal grant funding to prepare a Watershed Restoration Action Strategy (WRAS) for the Lower Monocacy River Watershed. The watershed covers about 194,700 acres in three counties. The WRAS project area focuses on the Frederick County portion of the watershed which encompasses nearly 87% of the drainage area -- about 264 square miles which is 40% of Frederick County.

As part of WRAS project, the Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is providing technical assistance, including preparation of a watershed characterization (compilation of available water quality and natural resources information and identification of issues), a stream corridor assessment (uses field data to catalog issues and rate severity) and a synoptic survey (analyzes benthic macroinvertebrates, fish and water samples with focus on nutrients). The County may use information generated in these efforts as it drafts the County Watershed Restoration Action Strategy.

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