Chris Swann, Author at Center for Watershed Protection

The Evolution of Watershed Plans at the Center for Watershed Protection

Recently I was asked to compile a list of all the watershed plans and retrofit inventories the Center has been a part of since its beginning in 1992. The extent of the Center’s work surprised me, both in terms of the number of plans and the geographic reach. I thought I would share some highlights from this work through a map and a timeline. We appreciate all the partners who have supported the Center’s work on watersheds over the past 25 years! The Center has worked on nearly 100 watershed plans and retrofit inventories. Our plans have centered heavily around [...]

Chris Swann2021-11-05T11:26:44-04:00May 19th, 2017|

Cover Crops: A Multipurpose Conservation Practice

In the Upper Mississippi River Basin, cereal rye is still king when it comes to cover crops. Additionally, this winter hearty grain is the focus of most of the water quality research done surrounding cover crops in this region. When it comes to cleaning up nutrient rich water causing Hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico, state developed Nutrient Reduction Strategies are leaning on cover crops to help reduce nitrogen and phosphorus making it to the Mississippi River. Cereal rye is the “grass-based” cover crop forming the basis of the Nutrient Reduction Strategies for Illinois, Iowa, and Minnesota. All of that [...]

Chris Swann2021-03-25T11:06:55-04:00April 24th, 2017|

Road Salts in the Baltimore Reservoir System

As most of you probably experienced, last winter’s historic snowstorm Jonas, aka Snowzilla, was massive. In fact, it was the largest snowfall ever recorded in Maryland, at 29.2 inches (1). Baltimore County alone spent $9.4 million to clean up after Snowzilla, using over 21,031 tons of salt (2). This is not at all unique to this area; the U.S. sprinkles down around 137 pounds of road salt per person annually to melt ice that forms on roadways, airports, and walkways (3). This number is likely to keep rising as development continues, creating more impervious surfaces to de-ice. Studies by Baltimore [...]

Chris Swann2017-09-15T14:22:58-04:00March 8th, 2017|

The Center for Watershed Protection’s National Research Agenda for Watersheds

Did you know the Center for Watershed Protection has a national research agenda for watersheds? Some of you may know us for our consulting-style work helping communities in the Chesapeake Bay watershed, or for our training institutes and webcasts, but the Center is also an organization with a mission that includes research to better understand the effects of land use activities on water resources and to develop best practices to prevent and mitigate these impacts. This research provides the technical and scientific foundation to support all of our other work. In a tradition begun by our former ED Tom Schueler, [...]

Chris Swann2017-09-18T09:37:37-04:00December 14th, 2016|

“Standards” and Specifications- Retrofitting Is For Everyone, But Not All Manuals Are!

Fall 2015 marked the end of a somewhat dynamic project. It was a rewarding project, and a successful project, but it turned into a moving target at a certain point, and really did not settle down until we called "cut!" from the director's chair. The portion of the larger scope that we worked so hard to steer in a straight line was composing and developing an information and installation manual for residential and small commercial scale BMPs for our client, the Anne Arundel Watershed Stewards Academy (WSA). The Maryland Stormwater Design Manual is about 600 pages of dense specifications, with [...]

Chris Swann2017-09-15T14:34:02-04:00November 15th, 2016|

The Surprising Truth About Creating Sustainable Watershed Solutions

Clean water is a life interest. And the Center for Watershed Protection (and its allies in the Chesapeake Bay watershed) is dedicated to protecting and restoring the streams, rivers, lakes, wetlands, and bays that we all rely on. Whether it’s for drinking or for recreation, the waterways in our back yards are part of the life blood that keeps our communities diverse and thriving. But you already knew that. What you might not realize is that we often neglect a key aspect of creating the solutions that help us keep those waterways flourishing… What is that important part of the puzzle, you [...]

Chris Swann2017-09-18T05:42:43-04:00August 17th, 2016|

Feeding the Future and Preserving Earth’s Natural Resources

Feeding the future and preserving earth’s natural resources can be achieved collectively, at least that’s our goal at UNIBEST. In Agriculture, we provide advanced soil testing technologies and services that are simple to use and cost effective for farmers and crop growers. Our soil testing product, Ag ManagerTM, has the ability to act just like a plant root and detect nutrients in the soil that are readily available to a plant or cropping system. This means that Ag ManagerTM can be used as a leading indicator of plant health and nutrition, detecting nutrient imbalances or deficiencies early in a plant’s [...]

Chris Swann2017-09-18T09:40:18-04:00July 14th, 2016|

About Chris Swann