Schillinger Wetland Restoration/Conversion
Purpose: This restoration/conversion project built 7.3 acres of wetlands to slow down and intercept runoff leaving a farm field and treat groundwater using wetland hydro-biogeochemistry in order to reduce the nutrients and sediment normally conveyed by the ditch and field to Island Creek.
After
Before
Project: The Schillinger Farm Wetland Restoration/Conversion is located near Centreville on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. The farm had a badly incised agricultural ditch that drained to Island Creek, a sub-watershed of Southeast Creek, which itself is a tributary of the Chester River. It also had a failed, eroded grassed waterway on another part of the same agricultural field. The goal was slow down and intercept runoff leaving the farm field and treat groundwater using wetland hydro-biogeochemistry, and to reduce the amount of nutrients and sediment conveyed by the ditch and field to Island Creek. This project converted approximately 1,325 linear feet of the ditch and approximately 6.9 acres of the surrounding farm field into a 7.3-acre wetland complex. It also created an additional wetland area on the part of the field that contains the failed, eroded grassed waterway.
ShoreRivers partnered with the Queen Anne’s Soil Conservation District for this project, which was funded by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources’ Chesapeake and Atlantic Coastal Bays Trust Fund.
Estimated Pollution Reductions: 289.82 lbs. of nitrogen, 7.96 lbs. of phosphorus, and 14,030.98 lbs. of sediment annually.