The Lancaster County Planning Commission recognized LandStudies, Inc. with one of seven 2007 Smart Growth Leadership Awards for its publication, “Floodplain Restoration.”

The award was presented during the Lancaster County Planning Commission’s Envision educational event and Smart Growth Leadership Awards Ceremony at the Pennsylvania Railroad Museum in February.

“Floodplain Restoration” describes how a previously undocumented source of watershed pollution – “legacy sediments” eroded from stream channels and floodplains –

were discovered through an unusual combination of history and science and how LandStudies’ approach to restoration provides multiple benefits to communities and the environment.

The 11 x 17, 30-page booklet, which explains how stream systems are supposed to work, the intended interactions of stream system components, and how they can be restored, is written and designed for broad audience – technical, scientific, and lay persons alike.

“We developed our floodplain restoration technique based on studies we conducted in numerous watersheds over the last several years,” said Mark Gutshall, LandStudies president.

Watershed assessments in the Susquehanna River Watershed have demonstrated that 50 to 80 percent of the sediment loads in certain watersheds are coming from stream beds and banks, along with the nutrient pollution they carry. Measured rates of bank erosion in the field are often exponentially greater than commonly used models indicate.

“Our work revealed stream beds and banks as a major source of sediment and nutrient pollution,” added Gutshall, “but it wasn’t until we began talking to geologists at Franklin & Marshall College who were studying land-use history that we gained a fuller understanding of how and why that happened.”

“Drs. Dorothy Merritts and Robert Walter at F&M showed us their research, recently published in the journal Science, that identified hundreds of mill dams built in the 18th and 19th centuries,” Gutshall continued, “and behind each dam, sediment had been trapped up to the height of the dam – in some cases up to 20 feet of sediment stretching hundreds of yards.

“When the dams collapsed or were removed, the old sediments were still there. The stream began cutting its way down through those sediments toward the original channel and floodplain elevations and, in the process, is carrying away significant amounts of soil.

“Our floodplain restoration technique speeds up that natural and often destructive process and returns a stream system closer to its natural, stable pattern,” Gutshall explained.

More than 200 copies of “Floodplain Restoration” were distributed in Lancaster County, throughout Pennsylvania and nationally during the two months following the first printing last September and a second printing now being distributed.

Since the documentation of legacy sediments as a pollution source, the floodplain restoration technique has been recognized by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection in its Stormwater Best Practices Manual and as part of its Nutrient Trading Program for the Chesapeake Bay Tributary Strategy.

The agency is also in the process of developing a formal floodplain restoration Best Management Practice and is studying how to incorporate this technique into local sewage facilities planning.

LandStudies is working with several developers in the Central Pennsylvania region to incorporate floodplain restoration into their development sites to fulfill stormwater management, open space, and other requirements.

LandStudies also is working on municipal projects to apply floodplain restoration to Act 537 sewage facility planning and nutrient reduction credit generation for wastewater treatment plant projects.

“Floodplain Restoration” is available for sale by contacting LandStudies at 717-627-4440, by sending email to: land@landstudies.com

4/11/2008