Welcome to the WRAS documents page! The icon links found in the table below will take you to both the final Watershed Restoration Action Strategies (WRAS) and their associated supporting documents. Local governments receiving WRAS Partnership Awards developed the Watershed Restoration Action Strategies. The associated supporting documents, including the Characterization, Synoptic Survey, and Stream Corridor Assessment, were developed by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) during the assessment phase of WRAS development. DNR provides technical and assessment services to local governments in order to assess the attributes of a watershed's landscape and streams. The services provided by DNR are summarized in the brief descriptions below. A more detailed description of each of these services can be found at DNR's Technical Watershed Assessment Services.

The Watershed Characterization Report, produced by DNR, is a summary of all, readily available, natural resources and other data for a given watershed. Typically this is data that the State of Maryland has at a broad-based, state scale, but the Characterization Report can include local data as well. The Characterization Report includes information on water quality, land use and cover, living resources, and habitat. For more information on the Watershed Characterization Report, please contact Ken Shanks at DNR at 410-260-8786 or kshanks@dnr.state.md.us. Click on the icons below to access the documents. The Synoptic Survey Report, produced by DNR, is a water chemistry analysis (nutrients, temperature, conductivity, pH), and a biological survey (macro invertebrates, fishes, habitat) on between 30 and 80 sites along stream corridors in the watershed. Local governments and DNR collaboratively choose the sites that DNR will sample. Please contact Niles Primrose at 410-260-8804 or nprimrose@dnr.state.md.us for more information. Click on the icons below to access the documents. The Stream Corridor Assessment Report, produced by DNR, summarizes results from a 100-mile stream corridor assessment survey using DNR's Stream Corridor Assessment Methodology (2.5 MB pdf file - requires Adobe Reader which can be downloaded free from http://www.adobe.com). The local government chooses the streams that they want DNR to walk and assess for such problems as pipe outfalls, erosion sites, lack of buffers, fish passage blockages, sewer outfalls, or unusual conditions. Each site is rated for accessibility, severity, and correctability. Local governments are given the geographically referenced information on compact disc. Reports accessed below are only summaries of the geographically referenced data. If you would like more information please contact Ken Yetman at 410-260-8812 or kyetman@dnr.state.md.us. Click on the icons below to access the documents. The Watershed Restoration Action Strategy is written by local governments. It is developed by considering the above technical assessment information plus local knowledge from stakeholder involvement. The final strategy or WRAS is the plan that can then be "shopped around" to secure funding for project implementation. The strategy includes: a well-stated, overarching goal aimed at protecting, preserving, and restoring habitat and water quality a description of the stakeholder process opportunities, concerns, and challenges a very detailed, prioritized, description of natural resource management objectives Click on the icons below to access the documents. The documents are presented alphabetically by watershed. If you would like more information about each of the technical documents please see DNR's Technical Watershed Assessment Services. If you would like more information from DNR's WRAS coordinators, the local government contacts involved in developing these WRASs, or report authors, please contact us. Note: (Documents are in PDF format and require Adobe Reader which can be downloaded free from http://www.adobe.com)