Several projects to improve creeks and streams on the Route 1 corridor will begin in 2022.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has signed an agreement with the Prince George’s County Department of the Environment to begin restoring eroded stream banks and wetlands and eliminating barriers that prevent fish from traveling upstream.

Overall, the Anacostia Watershed Restoration is expected to restore seven miles of stream banks, open four miles for fish to swim and connect 14 miles that are currently diverted.

A list of likely projects includes removing fish blockages on the Northwest Branch in Hyattsville, restoring Paint Branch Creek and the Northeast Branch near Calvert Road Park in College Park and improving Indian Creek in College Park.

The Army Corps, which has been working with the county on the proposal since 2014, is slated to receive $30 million in the 2022 federal budget for the projects.

While the Anacostia watershed covers 176 square miles in Prince George’s County, Montgomery County and D.C., scientists estimate that more than 2,500 acres of wetlands have been lost since the 1800s as land was cleared for farming and growth.

You can catch fantastic views of some of these remaining wetlands from the Anacostia River Trail just south of the Bladensburg Waterfront Park, where you will find an information plaque about the important role wetlands play in the watershed such as filtering polluted runoff, providing food like wild rice to various bird species, creating habitats for  different types of wildlife, and acting like a sponge during storm surges and soaking up floodwaters and stopping erosion.

If you want to help the Anacostia Watershed Society, a nonprofit based in Bladensburg that is working to restore local streams and creekbeds, click here.

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