Restoring Beards Creek

Restoration Sites in the Beards Creek Subwatershed

For over a decade, the Arundel Rivers Restoration Department has had its sights set on Beards Creek. Let’s revisit some of the restoration projects completed over the years and how they have contributed to the improvement of Beards Creek and the greater watershed.

In 2012, Arundel Rivers partnered with Homestead Gardens to transform an eroded channel, carved out by an outfall pipe, into a set of cascading step pools planted with wetland plants that slow, cool, and filter the stormwater before it reaches Beards Creek.

Two years later, we joined forces with the Davidsonville Wildlife Sanctuary to restore its former wetlands. With numerous animal residents, the sanctuary had become a significant source of bacterial runoff. To address this, we installed large step pools designed to rehydrate the land, filter pollutants, mitigate flooding, and reinforce the shoreline. Though the sanctuary closed in 2017, the revitalized wetlands continue to thrive, providing lasting benefits to Beards Creek.

In 2015, Arundel Rivers was invited to complete a series of Best Management Practices (BMPs) around the Sylvan Shores Community. Between 2015 and 2016, we installed and/or repaired multiple unique BMPs throughout the community to ensure stormwater is slowed and filtered before reaching Beards Creek. 

In 2017, we joined forces with Killarney House Irish Restaurant in Davidsonville. This project captures runoff from over 20 acres and stretches through the back lot of the Killarney House restaurant, through Tropic Bay Gardens, and then through two private properties to slow flow and improve water quality in Beards Creek.

The Annapolis Landing Stream Restoration, wrapped up in 2020, marks our first project in the Beards Creek subwatershed as Arundel Rivers Federation. Using wood-based structures, this eroding stream was stabilized and the floodplain reconnected, creating and enhancing valuable forested wetland habitat.

Today, we have two more projects on the horizon of Beards Creek: a stream and a shoreline. In 2023, Arundel Rivers began the design process to remove a failing pipe in the Southdown Shores community and transform that area into a natural stream channel providing water quality treatment and habitat creation. Currently, every storm even sends a sediment plume into the Creek from the failing pipe, which has also created a sink hole in the community area posing a significant safety hazard. We look forward to beginning construction by the end of 2025. 

We are currently partnering with the Edgewater Beach - Shaded Section community to design living shorelines that will stop erosion and protect critical marsh habitat at three separate shorelines throughout the community. 

Project Funding Partners:

*The South River Federation is one of our legacy organizations, founded in 2000. In 2019, Arundel Rivers Federation was forged from the merger of the West-Rhode Riverkeeper and South River Federation.