Streams also serve as corridors for various wildlife and plant species, and the riparian zone that surrounds them is crucial for the filtration of contaminants and sediment from runoff.

Unfortunately, the diversity of plants and animals that depend on streams can be threatened by invasive plants, both in the water and along stream banks. Invasive weeds multiply and dominate the stream, shading out other plants and reducing the biodiversity of the stream habitat.

Stream quality can also be easily degraded by clearing forested land up to stream edges, which causes erosion that kills stream life not only in the immediate stream environment, but also all the way downstream to the Chesapeake Bay. To maintain water quality, forested buffers should be maintained around all streams.

The Landowner Incentive Program is funding the following projects in Maryland stream systems:

• Stream buffer reforestation and invasive species removal in Baltimore, Carroll, Frederick, Charles, and Washington Counties
• Invasive plant control to benefit plant and animal communities on steep ravine slopes adjacent to Bear Creek in Garrett County.
• Installation of bat boxes along Big Pipe Creek and Little Gunpowder Falls Creek in Carroll County, to provide maternity roost sites for the endangered Indiana Bat. This bat relies on streams with forest on either side for hunting and catching its insect prey.
• Removal of water chestnut, an invasive aquatic weed, from a farm pond in Kent County. This pond is a known source for water chestnut infestations in the downstream creek and Sassafras River.