Habitat
Price Holman
local educator & environmental scientist
When nature is ignored in planning, everyone loses. The unchecked spread of buildings, roads, and industry—without comprehensive environmental assessment—has fractured ecosystems, removed natural defenses to polluted runoff, and displaced both wildlife and people.
In too many neighborhoods, particularly in lower-income areas, access to nature is limited, disconnected, or unsafe. Instead of being invited to coexist with the Potomac, these communities are cut off from it. True restoration goes beyond conservation—it requires reinvestment in places where both ecosystems and communities have been neglected.
How you can help
Advocate for responsible zoning and land-use laws at the city and county levels to stop local pollution.
River Health Indicators & Analysis
As it flows from its headwaters in the Appalachian Mountains to its sluggish pace past tidewater towns, the Potomac River supports some of the most vibrant and unique wildlife in the country. From wintering flocks of wood ducks to schools of shad making their way upstream in the spring, wildlife in the Potomac have benefited from healthy habitats for hundreds of years.
Thanks to the advocacy and dedication of hardworking watershed residents, Potomac habitats are on the rebound. Nutrient levels are on the decline and the amount of forest buffers are slowly increasing along the river. While this progress is encouraging, water quality and underwater habitats are lagging in their recovery, proving that river restoration is a long-term endeavor.
Submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) are essential to water quality in freshwater and estuarine environments. These underwater grasses not only provide oxygen to the water through photosynthesis, they shelter juvenile aquatic organisms and help with wave attenuation, preventing erosion along the shoreline. Unfortunately, SAV needs clear, clean water to thrive which has limited its growth in the watershed for the past decade. Increased runoff has caused elevated levels of turbidity, limiting growth, and urban runoff has hurt water quality in prime SAV habitat.
In 2022, Potomac River SAV totaled 3,728 hectares across the mainstem and its major tributaries, accounting for 43% of our restoration goal. Data from 2022 was used as 2023 data had inconsistent reporting of SAV extent. SAV proliferation has slowed in the past decade but is still steadily increasing, pointing towards improved conditions for growth. By increasing the number of BMPs across the watershed we can decrease the amount of sediment reaching key underwater grass beds and, hopefully, seed the right conditions for larger SAV beds.
Forest buffers along riparian corridors are one of the best land management practices landowners and regulators can put in place to most directly impact stream water quality. Forested streambanks hold sediment in place and help prevent erosion of streambanks all while slowing the amount of runoff reaching local streams. Despite every state in the Chesapeake Bay watershed setting targets for forest buffer implementation, progress has been slow over the past decade. Thankfully, Potomac watershed states have experienced an uptick in installed forested buffers over the past three years. In 2023, Virginia saw a large uptick in installed forest buffers with almost 300 miles installed across the state. Maryland and West Virginia were both far behind with only 40 and 13.1 miles installed, respectively. However, overall, forest buffers across the Potomac watershed are increasing.
While this increase in forest buffers is promising, it shouldn’t mask the fact that all Potomac and Chesapeake watershed states are far behind their WIP implementation goals. In fact, as of 2023, states were still collectively 132,645 acres short of meeting restoration goals established in 2025 WIPs. To remedy this, states need to investigate barriers to implementation and work with landowners and funders to streamline the process of project planning and installation to get more forest buffers planted faster. This requires collaboration from a variety of stakeholders, including local, state, and federal governments, private landowners, organizations, and community members
Small, headwater streams often serve as vital refuges for wildlife as their waters are often shaded, cool, and clear. However, due to the growth throughout the Potomac region and the stretch of urban sprawl, previously sheltered freshwater streams are now increasingly suffering from the effects of urbanism. While overall freshwater health can be difficult to assess, a common metric used is a multi-metric biotic index that examines macroinvertebrate populations in streams. These small bugs are often considered the “canary in the coal mine” for stream health as certain species are more tolerant of pollution while others are more sensitive to changes to excess pollutants in the form of sediment and stormwater.
For the Potomac watershed these scores are updated periodically as sampling occurs in sub-watersheds across the larger Potomac region. In 2023 the Potomac watershed was almost 60% of its way towards meeting restoration goals (based on newly updated data from the ICPRB) while the entire Chesapeake watershed also saw increases in the number of streams classified as healthy. Because of these moderate scores, it's becoming more important for local watershed managers to ensure that local headwaters streams are protected through a combination of BMPs, land conservation, and comprehensive watershed management plans.
While a majority of the watershed is composed of freshwater, a large portion of the lower mainstem river transfers to brackish as it flows into the Chesapeake Bay. These tidal portions of the Potomac are vital rearing grounds and habitat for aquatic and terrestrial wildlife alike. Unfortunately, these large stretches of the river experience some of the highest rates of development and human use. In 2023 tidal water quality remained mostly steady when compared to previous years, achieving a score of 41 while the average score over the past decade has been 43. These scores note moderate tidal water quality that is still suffering from slightly degraded conditions relating to dissolved oxygen, chlorophyll, and water clarity.
A benefit to scores remaining static year-over-year means that, when it comes to tidal water quality, restoration and conservation measures are working. As a watershed we’ve managed to stymie the continued degradation of the watershed, however, looking into the future, progress needs to be made to raise those scores. With improved tidal water quality the river can hope to see rebounding fish stocks, improved habitat for underwater grasses, and more vibrant and healthy ecosystems.
