Cortland County Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD) recently completed a project to evaluate road-stream crossings in the northern portion of the county. Over the past couple of years, SWCD staff conducted an assessment of culverts and stream crossing in the Upper Tioughnioga River Watershed. The Tioughnioga River watershed is a priority “most-effective basin” in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. In order to evaluate and prioritize projects for nutrient and sediment reductions, as well as other ecosystem benefits, two assessments, aquatic connectivity and physical condition, were done at each identified crossing site using the North Atlantic Aquatic Connectivity Collaborative (NAACC) crossing dataset for the Upper Tioughnioga watershed, including the Otter Creek, Dry Creek, Factory Brook, Cold Brook, W. Br. Tioughnioga, and Tioughnioga Creek sub-basins. A total of 245 crossings were evaluated and assessments were completed on 193 structures that were located or accessible.
The work was highlighted as a presentation during Watershed Wednesdays provided by a collaboration of SWCDs in the Upper Susquehanna watershed – The Upper Susquehanna Coalition. Click to watch the presentation.
