Fencing Livestock

View of herd

PTRC worked with a local farmer and the Charles County Soil Conservation District to eliminate access of cattle to a stream that flows into the Port Tobacco Creek (the non-tidal portion of the River). The cattle’s use of the stream for drinking had severely eroded the stream bank. Grant funding from the Chesapeake Bay Trust covered the cost of fencing to prevent the cattle’s access to the stream and a well to provide an alternate source of drinking water.

Because excluding livestock from streams reduces sediment loss from eroded banks and pollution from manure and urine, it significantly improves water quality downstream.