Upper Chester River
Watershed Characterization


The Upper Chester River and its tributaries are part of the Chester River basin that drains to the Chesapeake Bay and then to the Atlantic Ocean. The Upper Chester River watershed covers 178 square miles in Maryland and Delaware. About 137 square miles of the Upper Chester River watershed are in Maryland, which includes 82 square miles in Queen Anne’s County and 55 square miles in Kent County. Queen Anne’s County and Kent County are receiving Federal grant funding to prepare a Watershed Restoration Action Strategy (WRAS) for their portion of the Upper Chester River Watershed.

As part of the 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 Counties will consider the information generated in these efforts as they draft the 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)