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Funded by grants from the Richard King Mellon Foundation and The Steinman Foundation, the interdisciplinary Chesapeake Watershed Initiative (CWI) studies the legacy of human impacts on floodplains within the Chesapeake Watershed and applies its findings through targeted action focused in Lancaster County, PA. The CWI, housed at local Franklin & Marshall College, aims to understand the effects of colonial settlement, dam construction, dam removal, and restoration. The Initiative interacts with a wide variety of disciplines including history, hydrology, earth science, communications, politics, and economics to understand the complex relationship between our society and the Chesapeake Watershed. The CWI carries out its mission through a three-fold approach of research, education, and action.
CWI Conference Scholarship 2025-26
CWI Conference Scholarship 2025-26
This year, CWI researchers have presented at academic conferences from State College to Louisiana! See below for details and links to the scholarly work of nearly a dozen members of our team.
CWI Takes the Stage at the PA Aquatic Resources Restoration Conference (PAARRC) in State College, Pennsylvania, March 2026:
Seven members of the CWI team presented their diverse areas of research at PAARRC! See the conference agenda, abstracts, speaker bios, and more here.
Postdoctoral Research at American Geophysical Union (AGU) annual meeting, New Orleans, Louisiana, December 2025:
Postdoctoral Fellow Shuyu Chang presented on Cooler Waters, Reconnected Valleys: Restoration Gains from Milldam Legacy Sediment Removal
Postdoctoral Fellow Julia Carr convened a session on Fluvial Reorganization: Linking Mechanics, Morphology, and Biological Impacts on Reach and Network Scale and three sessions on Fluvial Dynamics and Landscape Evolution in Tectonically Active Mountains.
Student Research at Geological Society of America Northeast Section Meeting (NEGSA) in Hartford, Connecticut, March 2026:
Mia Aaronson '26: A Synthesis of Water Temperature Signatures of Streams in the Continental United States during Oral Presentation Session Functions of River Corridors, Floodplains and Wetlands
Maria Fernanda Araoz Pozo '26: Late Quaternary Wetland Development and Wildfire Regimes from a Central Appalachian Peat Bog: Bear Meadows, Pennsylvania
CWI in the News
CWI in the News
The following articles, published on the Franklin & Marshall College website, demonstrate the excellent 2025-26 work of CWI students and faculty!
A Landmark Investment in Geosciences: Honoring Professor Robert C. Walter
A Landmark Investment in Geosciences: Honoring Professor Robert C. Walter
A recent transformative $2.1 million gift to Franklin & Marshall College from an anonymous donor establishes the Distinguished Professorship of Geosciences in the Department of Earth & Environment in perpetuity in honor of CWI Principal Investigator Robert C. Walter, Ph.D. ’75 and creates the Earth & Environment Instrument Support Endowment. The gift shines a light on the prolific career of Walter, whose expertise in geochemistry, geochronology, and hydrogeology has not only advanced the field but also shaped the lives of generations of F&M students.
AI Research Bridges Environment and Economic Studies
AI Research Bridges Environment and Economic Studies
Under the guidance of CWI Principal Investigator Patrick Fleming last summer, seniors Nancy Nguyen ’26 and Vu Nguyen ’26 used AI as a preliminary expert to gauge the influence of six water-quality indicators on children's health, fish health and flood risk. The six key indicators - nitrogen, phosphorus, turbidity, E. coli, water temperature, and water discharge - are a part of CWI’s ongoing stream monitoring efforts.
Students Make Waves as Susquehanna River Watchdogs
Students Make Waves as Susquehanna River Watchdogs
Last summer, F&M seniors Roselyn Ovalles ’26 and Grace Uwezukwe ’26 interned with the Lower Susquehanna Riverkeeper Association, a CWI partner organization. The two were tasked with community engagement and monitoring bacteria levels at 22 sites along the Susquehanna River and its local tributaries, including the Little Conestoga Creek (pictured). Alongside CWI's ongoing monitoring efforts, this work is a crucial puzzle piece of tracking changing water quality along the Blue Green Connector (BGC) project restorations, to be displayed on our upcoming BGC online water quality dashboard.
How Floodplain Wetland Restorations Reduce Floods
How Floodplain Wetland Restorations Reduce Floods
After immense storm events hit Lancaster County in June 2026, PI Dorothy Merritts spoke on the WGAL 8 local news to explain how floodplain wetland restorations can help slow and reduce the impacts of floodwaters on local communities.
F&M Alumni at the CWI
F&M Alumni at the CWI
F&M Alumni Alice Fodor and Hannah Connuck put environmental science degrees to work at the Chesapeake Watershed Initiative! Full story by Caroline Miller available on the F&M website.
Publication: Peck et al.
Publication: Peck et al.
Back from the past? Assessment of nitrogen removal ability of buried historic wetland soils before and after a 1-year incubation on a restored floodplain
"Ultimately, our results suggest that while inclusion of historic, hydric soils and their legacy micro-biomes is valuable for N-removal in floodplain restoration, the recovery of historic, hydric soils is predictably slow, and attainment of restoration goals, such as increased denitrification, may require multiple years."
Our team in the field, investigating The Trench...
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