In partnership with the Army Navy Country Club, Inc. (ANCC), the Chesapeake Bay Field Office assessed and restored the 2,500-foot portion of Daniels Run on the ANCC property located in the City of Fairfax, Virginia. Daniels Run is a tributary of Accotink Creek, located within the Potomac River and Chesapeake Bay drainage area.

With 60 percent of its banks actively eroding throughout the restoration area, Daniels Run contributed both sediment and nutrients into the waterway, adversely impacting the aquatic habitat and wildlife of Daniels Run, the Potomac River, and the Chesapeake Bay.

Using natural channel design methods, the Service restored Daniels Run to a stable, self-maintaining state while meeting the aesthetic goals and golf course needs of the ANCC. Natural channel design methods use stable reference streams to develop restoration characteristics that are applied to the restoration design.

The Daniels Run restoration design consisted of reducing channel width, reconnecting the floodplain, reestablishing the meander pattern, and installing in-stream habitat structures.

In addition, 215 volunteers led by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation planted close to 6,000 native trees, shrubs and herbaceous plants to create a 1,100 foot stream buffer along Daniels Run. The remaining 1,400 feet of buffer was planted by a contractor. The riparian buffer, an integral part of any stream ecosystem, provides bank stability and nutrient uptake, serves as a food source for aquatic organisms, and provides terrestrial habitat and migration corridors for various types of wildlife. CBFO will monitor the success of the project for the next three years.

The total cost of the stream restoration project was $907,000, including the assessment, design, and implementation. ANCC contributed $730,000, CBFO contributed $70,000 of in-kind services, and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation contributed $7,000 of in-kind services and supplies. The project also received a National Fish and Wildlife Foundation Legacy grant of $100,000.

For more information about this project, contact

Chris Eng

Chesapeake Bay Field Office

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

177 Admiral Cochrane Drive

Annapolis MD 21401

410.573.4579

chris_eng@fws.gov