Stream Corridor Assessment Survey
Of The Little Patuxent River
In Howard County


The first step in developing a Restoration Action Strategy for the Little Patuxent Watershed is to do an overall assessment of the condition of the watershed and the streams within it. This initial step is being accomplished using two approaches. First, a watershed characterization is being done that compiles and analyzes existing water quality, land use, and living resources data about the Little Patuxent Watershed (Shanks, 2001). While the watershed characterization provides good overall information on environmental conditions within the Little Patuxent Watershed, for the most part, information on the location of specific environmental problems is limited. To provide specific information on the location of environmental problems and restoration opportunities, a Stream Corridor Assessment (SCA) survey of the Howard County portion of the Little Patuxent River Watershed was also done.

The Stream Corridor Assessment survey is a new survey that has been developed by DNR’s Watershed Restoration Division as a watershed management tool to identify environmental problems and help prioritize restoration opportunities on a watershed basis. As part of the survey, specially trained personnel walk the watershed’s entire stream network and record information on a variety of environmental problems that can be easily observed within the stream corridor. Initial field surveys were done from November 1999 through March 2000, with some follow up investigations of specific problems done during the winter of 2001.

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