The Delaware River Basin Restoration Program is a collaborative network of organizations working to improve the health of the Delaware River basin and improve equal access to nature in surrounding communities.

Nature-based Intervention:

The Delaware River Basin Restoration Program focuses its interventions on improving wildlife habitat, water quality, reducing flood damage and recreation access. These interventions have taken many forms, such as the removal of the Columbia Dam on Paulins Kill River, a tributary of the Delaware river. This removal was the accompanied by a habitat restoration for the surrounding area. Many of their projects focus on habitat restoration and connectivity at all levels of the river basin. This includes riparian habitats, but also supporting forest restoration and natural floodplain regeneration. At the mouth of the river’s tributary projects focus on marshland restoration to prepare for storm surge impacts in the surrounding areas. Interventions also focus on adding equitable recreation sites along the course of the river.

Overview of context and outcomes:

The Delaware river and its tributaries cover a wide range of habitats, levels of human occupation and 4 states along its course to the sea. This project represents a coordinated network of interventions designed to improve the overall health of the river basin. The project has been widely viewed as a success for its ability to coordinate a complex network of stakeholders, interventions, and organizations in order to facilitate improvements across the range states. In recognition of this success in 2022 they were awarded additional funding to support the expansion of the project into 12 more interventions.