Freshwater ecosystems are essential to human life. They support us with water, food, and building materials. They provide a wealth of natural services that support human civilization, including cleansing the waters that flow through them, delivering nutrients to floodplains, wetlands, and estuaries, and moderating floods and droughts.

The Nature Conservancy is providing global leadership in demonstrating how water flows can be managed to meet human needs while sustaining ecosystem health. We work with local stakeholders to help bring their ecosystem-dependent needs and values to the decision tables. We help craft scientific approaches and tools to define the water needs of ecosystems. We work with water managers around the world to protect and restore natural patterns of water flow. We build alliances to push for new water policies that embrace environmental sustainability.

The Conservancy’s Michele DePhilip, director of freshwater conservation in Pennsylvania, answers questions about what makes freshwater ecosystems so special and what we can do to protect them.

nature.org: What’s your role at The Nature Conservancy?

Michele DePhilip: As director of freshwater conservation, I’m responsible for leading conservation projects for the three major river systems within the state as well as Pennsylvania’s portion of the Great Lakes watershed.

nature.org: Is your work concentrated in any particular area?

Michele DePhilip: Although my work is statewide, I focus primarily on the Susquehanna River, which is the largest tributary to the Chesapeake Bay. Portions of this watershed are in New York and Maryland, but the majority is within Pennsylvania.

nature.org: What’s the most important project on which you’re working?

Michele DePhilip: Our work in the Susquehanna is particularly important because of the influence it has on the Chesapeake Bay, which supports the 16 million people living within the watershed and is legendary for its marine life. Our protection efforts on the Susquehanna include: restoring connections between habitats used by migratory fishes; improving water quality by reducing sediment and nutrients in the watershed; and ensuring that sufficient quantities of water flow in to the Chesapeake Bay.

nature.org: In what condition would the Susquehanna River be in if the Conservancy wasn’t working there?

Michele DePhilip: Even though Pennsylvania doesn’t border the Bay, the waters here have a significant impact on it. And, the Susquehanna’s migratory fish, including American eel and several species of shad and herring, must travel through the bay during migrations between feeding and spawning habitats. Historically, these fishes were extremely abundant in the Susquehanna.

Sadly, their migratory cycle has been disrupted, primarily by dams in the lower portions of the river. Because of potential changes to the management of these dams, the Conservancy and other agencies and organizations are collaborating to restore migratory fishes by providing passage and reconnecting habitats wherever possible. Management of agricultural, forested and developed lands contributes sediment and nutrients to streams and rivers within the Susquehanna and the habitats of the Chesapeake Bay.

Guided by results from bay watershed models, we’re initiating at least two watershed projects to reduce sediment and nutrient inputs to the Bay, which supplies drinking water for millions living in the watershed.

nature.org: What is the Conservancy’s long-term goal for this project?

Michele DePhilip: Statewide, our goal is to increase migratory fish runs in the Delaware and Susquehanna rivers, restore rare mussel species in rivers where water quality and habitat conditions have improved, and reduce sediment and nutrient inputs to the Chesapeake Bay.

Nature picture credits (top to bottom, left to right): Photo © George C. Gress/TNC (Susquehanna River at McKees Half Falls); Photo © Marcus Schneck/TNC (Michele DePhilip); Photo © Dave Spier (Winter, aerial view of the snow covered riverbank along the Susquehanna river)