Summary
Watershed protection prevents degradation before it occurs and is almost always cheaper and more successful than restoration after the fact. Watershed restoration seeks to return damaged systems to healthy function. Both are essential in AML/AMD work in Pennsylvania, where decades of mining have left thousands of miles of impaired streams.
Watershed Protection #
Watershed protection measures reduce impacts to waterbodies and prevent degradation through both voluntary and legally mandated actions: conservation easements, water quality permits, and land management practices that keep existing healthy watersheds intact. Protection measures that prevent degradation before it occurs typically cost less and succeed more often than restoration measures implemented after watersheds are impaired.
Watershed Restoration #
Watershed restoration seeks to return damaged systems to healthy function. Working definitions include the manipulation of physical, chemical, or biological characteristics to return natural or historic functions; the return of an ecosystem to a close approximation of its pre-disturbance condition; and the reestablishment of pre-disturbance aquatic functions and biological characteristics.
In practice, restoration activities seek to restore healthy aquatic communities and provide clean waters for recreation, irrigation, and public consumption. Most efforts focus first on the most impaired segments, where investment produces the greatest measurable improvement.
For a detailed discussion of restoration principles, see EPA’s River Corridor and Wetland Restoration resources at epa.gov/owow/restore (verify link before use).
Related Pages #
- The Watershed Approach
- Addressing Watershed Problems
- Restoration Planning (Watershed Tools)
- Riparian Buffers (Watershed Tools)
Source and Last Reviewed
Source: EPA Office of Water, Protecting and Restoring America’s Watersheds, EPA-840-R-00-001.
Last reviewed: 2026-03
Tags: planning, assessment, practitioner, program-manager, pa
