Restoration Projects

PTRC has partnered for years with Maryland, Charles County, La Plata, the Chesapeake Bay Trust, and local groups to carry out projects from the Port Tobacco River Watershed Restoration Action Strategy

Restoring Wetlands

PTRC’s advocacy for restoration of a wetland along a 2,800 foot section of Port Tobacco Creek has resulted in the award of $70,000 in grants to for the mapping, permitting, and engineering work to support construction of the wetland.

Building Rain Gardens

PTRC worked with Charles County Public Schools and a CBT grant to design and construct three rain gardens at McDonough High School that filter runoff water from 61,020 square feet of parking lots and other impervious cover. Students from the McDonough High School and the Stethem Educational Center helped plant the gardens.

Managing Storm Water

PTRC partnered with the CBT and six local partners in the construction of a demonstration storm water management project in the parking lot of the La Plata Commerce Center off US 301. The facility slows and cleans polluted storm water runoff before it reaches pipes that carry it directly into the Port Tobacco River.

Filtering Runoff

In partnership with CBT, Maryland Department of Natural Resources, and the property owner, PTRC obtained a grant to direct run-off water from Hawthorne Golf Course to a constructed wetland, which filters nitrogen, phosphorous, and sediment that were once carried directly into the Port Tobacco Creek.

Planting Trees

Through a Charles County Forestry Grant, and with the help of Charles County Schools students and local Boy Scouts, PTRC planted over 10,000 trees to create fifty-foot riparian buffers in a wetland mitigation area along eroded banks of the Port Tobacco Creek near the intersection of Hawthorne and Mitchell Roads.