Maiden Creek is a 216 square mile watershed located in the upper Schuylkill River Basin. The watershed covers most of north-eastern Bucks County and western Lehigh County, including the towns of Kutztown and Fleetwood. Agricultural uses cover 58% of the watershed, with mushroom farming, swine and dairy farms, and crops being the most common, while forests cover 39%. There are also over 100 miles of perennial streams within Maiden Creek.

This watershed was the first Keystone Project for the Watershed
Stewardship Option at Penn State University. This option is based at the Center for Watershed Stewardship. Keystone projects are one-year case studies in watershed management designed to bring together community groups, agencies, and students to learn more about their watershed. The Penn State students (Fig. 1), along with the Maiden Creek/Lake Ontelaunee Steering Committee, tackled issues of water pollution, habitat fragmentation, urban growth, and watershed education. A GIS of Maiden Creek is available that includes layers of census data, streams, gamelands, and sub-watershed information. Or, for more information, please visit the EPA's Surf Your Watershed for Maiden Creek, HUC # 02040203.

The project team identified challenges the watershed faced and developed solutions, which are listed below:

Waste pollution from agriculture:

• Promote industry to collect, package, and sell excess manure. An example industry is in Lancaster County.
• Create riparian conservation easements

Lack of watershed awareness:

• Have schools, universities, and citizens help with stream monitoring programs

Threats to groundwater supplies:

• Enhance municipal water conservation with pipe leakage control, pricing, and water meter accuracy
• Expand groundwater monitoring with deep wells and piezometers
• Study nitrates and pathogens in private wells

Habitat protection :

• Identify areas of concern
• Repair and connect riparian buffers and fragments using easements and grants