Green Really Is Green: Environmental Economics

Everyone knows that money doesn't grow on trees. But did you know that trees do have value that can help you keep money in your pocket? Natural resources provide us with environmental goods, services, and opportunities that have real economic value. While there are some different opinions over putting a dollar amount on our natural resources, it can be an important educational tool for promoting conservation. Many people don’t realize that the environment is providing us with free services that we would otherwise have to pay for ourselves.

Coming up with dollar values for environmental goods and services is no easy task, and there are many different techniques that can be used. They include: surveying people to find out what they would be willing to pay to protect a natural resource (like donating money to protect the Florida Everglades); calculating the cost of replacing an environmental service if it were lost (like water filtration from a wetland if it were developed); assessing the commercial value of sporting good industries that revolve around environmental resources (like bird watching, hunting, fishing, hiking, and mountain biking); just to name a few.

The Water Resources Agency at the University of Delaware Institute for Public Administration recently released a report on the economic value of the White Clay Creek Wild and Scenic River watershed. Depending on the valuation technique administered,

“The water, natural resources, and ecosystems of the White Clay Creek watershed contribute an economic value of $165 million to $1 billion annually to the economies of Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland.” 

Specifically, this report looked at three different ways to measure environmental economic contributions: direct economic values, calculated ecosystem goods and service values, and jobs and wages values.

The first technique, direct environmental values, measures the economic activity associated with things like water supply, recreation, and wildlife. For example, how much money is generated through water utility bills each year, or how much money do people spend on bird and wildlife watching in the White Clay Creek? The answers might surprise you. Those two dollar values alone total more than $95 million per year in the White Clay Creek. All of the components combined (water supply and quality, fish and wildlife, recreation, agriculture, forests, and public parks) are estimated to generate $520 million annually.

The second technique, calculated ecosystem goods and services values, are a little more difficult to estimate but are equally as powerful. The White Clay Creek watershed provides our community with certain environmental goods and services that we would otherwise have to pay to replace. For example, did you know that a conservative estimate of the value of a freshwater wetland is roughly $13,600 per acre per year? That means that each year, a single acre of wetlands provides more than $13,000 worth of goods and services that include water filtration, water storage to reduce flooding, natural habitat for birds and fish, and nutrient removal from suburban and agricultural fertilizer use. Wetlands aren’t the only natural features to provide such benefits. Farmland, forests, open water, and even urban areas benefit society economically in a variety of different ways. Combined, all ecosystem goods and services in the White Clay Creek are valued at more than $165 million per year.

Finally, the third valuation technique, jobs and wages, draws a link between nature and the economy by counting the number of jobs within the watershed that are related to the environment. Each time you rent a canoe, chat with a state park ranger, have a glass of wine or beer or even visit this website, the person on the other end of the interaction has a job (either directly or indirectly) because of the environment. Environmental industries within the White Clay Creek watershed (like eco-tourism, agriculture, fisheries, recreation, environmental nonprofits, and more) directly and indirectly employ about 25,000 people and provide more than $1 billion in annual wages.

While these dollar values are estimates, they provide simple but compelling proof that, in many ways, our economy and the environment are connected. Protecting natural resources in areas like the White Clay Creek watershed makes both environmental and financial cents. Though these dollar figures don’t tell the complete story of the White Clay Creek, it does confirm what many people already know: this is an incredibly invaluable watershed!

For more information on the University of Delaware Water Resources Agency's reports on environmental values, click here.

Will The White Clay Run Silver Again?

It’s a good year to be a fish. In fact, plans are well underway for the partial removal of a historic dam along the White Clay Creek. This dam, known as Dam #1 or the Byrnes Mill Dam, is located on the White Clay Creek Country Club golf course at Delaware Park. It’s the most downstream dam on the Wild and Scenic River, a little over four miles from the mouth of the creek. When it’s completed, this project will mark the first dam removal for fish passage in the entire state of Delaware!

The main goal of removing this dam is to restore fish passage up the creek. Specifically, this dam is blocking the upstream movement of American and hickory shad, fish with a long history in the region. Shad are anadromous fish, meaning that they live in the ocean but spawn in freshwater streams and rivers. The American shad measures about two feet long. The hickory shad is slightly shorter and can be distinguished by its protruding lower lip. Shad are affectionately referred to as America’s “founding fish” because they were a main source of food for General George Washington’s troops during their long winter at Valley Forge. However, because shad can't "jump" like salmon can, they have been barred from their traditional spawning grounds by even low lying dams like Byrnes Mill Dam, which are scattered throughout the region.

Byrnes Mill Dam is currently obsolete and its north side has already been breached by large storms like Hurricanes Floyd and Irene, but it does have historic significance in our area. The University of Delaware Center for Historic Architecture and Design estimates that this dam was constructed during colonial times (between 1773-1777) to divert water to a mill at the historic Hale Byrnes House. Mills were operating along the White Clay Creek by the early 1700s, typically grist (grain) and sawmills. These mills were a cornerstone of the early American economy. Grain from the mill associated with this particular dam supplied George Washington's troops on their march from the Battle of Cooch's Bridge near Newark to the Battle of the Brandywine near Chadds Ford, PA during the Revolutionary War. Byrnes Mill Dam is a variation of a plank crib dam (shown in the picture below). 

Once the historic permits are received, construction on the dam will begin in early winter of 2014. Only a 40 foot portion in the middle of the dam is to be removed, which will allow for increased fish passage upstream (3.5 stream miles) without compromising the site's historical significance or drastically increasing the erosion of the stream bank. In addition to the partial dam removal, the plan also includes tree plantings along the stream bank, debris removal, and rock re-positioning to improve bank stability and restore the floodplain. Educational signage will also be installed to inform visitors about the historic dam and the restoration process. 

Byrnes Mill Dam is only one of seven dams along the Delaware portion of White Clay Creek slated for partial or total removal. Future studies for dams 2 (along Red Mill Road) and 3 (downstream of Paper Mill Road) have already been funded. Removal of these dams not only benefits fish passage by opening up stream miles for shad and other anadromous fish, it also contributes to making the White Clay Creek more reminiscent of its wild and free flowing historic state when the upstream stretches were said to 'run silver'. Stay tuned to learn about volunteer opportunities and become a part of White Clay history!

 Note: The University of Delaware’s Water Resources Agency has served as the head of this project, which has been in the works for several years now. Funding and support have been provided by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, the FishAmerica Foundation, NOAA, and American Rivers. Other partners include DNREC, the New Castle County Conservation District, the Brandywine Conservancy, the Christina Conservancy, the University of Delaware Center for Historic Architecture and Design, the White Clay Creek Country Club, the White Clay Wild and Scenic Management Committee, the Historic Hale Byrnes House, and New Castle County. Click here to learn more about Shad Restoration and Dam Removal in the White Clay.

Adding 'Mussel' to Strengthen the White Clay!

Watersheds have many unsung heroes. One of those heroes is the mighty freshwater mussel, a tiny creature with the capacity to provide significant water quality benefits. Despite their importance to natural aquatic ecosystems, mussels are among the most imperiled animals in both the Delaware River Basin and the nation as a whole. Their decline in (and in some cases, disappearance from) our waterways has prompted the Partnership for the Delaware Estuary to launch a Freshwater Mussel Recovery Program (FMRP), with efforts targeted in the White Clay Creek watershed.

Freshwater mussels are long-lived, bivalve creatures that once thrived in many of the major streams in northern Delaware and into Pennsylvania. Twelve species of freshwater mussels are considered native to the White Clay Creek region, and at least four of these species could still be found in the upper reaches of the Creek as recently as the early 1900s. These animals require a fish host during the early stages of their lives, which makes the presence of mussels in a stream a powerful indicator of healthy aquatic conditions.

Mussels don’t just indicate good water quality, though; they actually contribute to it. According to the Partnership for the Delaware Estuary (PDE), a nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting the health and integrity of the Delaware Estuary ecosystem, a single adult mussel can filter suspended sediment and pollution from up to 15 gallons of stream water per day! In the neighboring Brandywine Creek watershed, surviving mussel populations filter out as much as 25 tons of suspended pollution every year. That's equivalent to about 3 dump trucks full of dirt!

Unfortunately, all across the country mussel populations are in jeopardy, and the Christina River Basin is no exception. In the past decade, only one species of freshwater mussel has been found above the tide line in Wilmington. According to PDE, reasons for the decline are numerous, and may include overall impaired water quality from changing land uses, overharvesting and predation, and the loss of the species of fish that mussels rely on as hosts, and dams that block fish passage.

To help bring freshwater mussels back to their native waters, PDE has implemented a Freshwater Mussel Recovery Program in the Delaware portion of the White Clay Creek. This program is funded in part by the Delaware State Tax Check-Off (also known as the White Clay Creek Restoration Fund). The first step in this initiative was to survey the streams in the watershed to search for existing mussel populations. This surveying, completed in May 2013, spanned more than 4,000 stream meters and took roughly 20 person hours to complete. Unfortunately, the researchers came back empty handed with no mussels found in the non-tidal portions of the creek in Delaware.

The good news, though, is that this isn’t where the story ends for freshwater mussels. Phase II of PDEs recovery initiative involves transplanting about 200 healthy adult mussels from the Brandywine Creek to carefully selected areas within the Delaware portion of the White Clay Creek. These mussels were reintroduced during the summer of 2013 and each mussel was electronically tagged so that they can be easily located and studied over the following year to measure the success of the reintroduction. Whether these species can withstand the erosive forces of excessive stormwater and flooding, as well as the pollutants carried in stormwater runoff, remains to be seen. Success or failure aside, information derived from this study will benefit future freshwater mussel restoration efforts.

PDEs Freshwater Mussel Recovery Program is an exciting initiative for the White Clay Creek watershed. Not only will restoring mussel populations contribute to local biodiversity and water quality improvements, it will also help add a bit more “wild” to this already Wild and Scenic River.

Freshwater Mussels Update 2014

For more information, visit the PDE website at:  http://www.delawareestuary.org/freshwater-mussels.

Help search the White Clay for existing mussel populations. Learn more about volunteer opportunities here.