The Delaware National Estuarine Research Reserve consists of two unique components, one on Blackbird Creek (39.396275°N 75.617824°W) and the other on the St. Jones River

St. Jones River

The St. Jones River is a river flowing to Delaware Bay in central Delaware in the United States. It is long and drains an area of on the Atlantic Coastal Plain. The river is believed to have been named either for Robert Jones, an early European property owner in the region, or for "St. Jone",...

 (39.092466°N 75.445433°W). Freshwater wetland

Wetland

A wetland is an area of land whose soil is saturated with water either permanently or seasonally. Wetlands are categorised by their characteristic vegetation, which is adapted to these unique soil conditions....

s, pond

Pond

A pond is a body of standing water, either natural or man-made, that is usually smaller than a lake. A wide variety of man-made bodies of water are classified as ponds, including water gardens, water features and koi ponds; all designed for aesthetic ornamentation as landscape or architectural...

s and forest

Forest

A forest, also referred to as a wood or the woods, is an area with a high density of trees. As with cities, depending where you are in the world, what is considered a forest may vary significantly in size and have various classification according to how and what of the forest is composed...

 lands dominate the Blackbird Creek component. The St. Jones component is dominated by salt marsh and open water habitats of the Delaware Bay

Delaware Bay

Delaware Bay is a major estuary outlet of the Delaware River on the Northeast seaboard of the United States whose fresh water mixes for many miles with the waters of the Atlantic Ocean. It is in area. The bay is bordered by the State of New Jersey and the State of Delaware...

.

The reserve monitors long-term changes in weather and aquatic conditions in the estuary

Estuary

An estuary is a partly enclosed coastal body of water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea....

. The reserve’s research and monitoring programs address key management issues, such as biodiversity and the impacts of land use on estuarine habitats, ecological impacts on horseshoe crab

Horseshoe crab

The Atlantic horseshoe crab, Limulus polyphemus, is a marine chelicerate arthropod. Despite its name, it is more closely related to spiders, ticks, and scorpions than to crabs. Horseshoe crabs are most commonly found in the Gulf of Mexico and along the northern Atlantic coast of North America...

 populations from migratory shorebirds, beach replenishment activities in relation to habitat preservation/ reclamation, and eutrophication

Eutrophication

Eutrophication or more precisely hypertrophication, is the movement of a body of water′s trophic status in the direction of increasing plant biomass, by the addition of artificial or natural substances, such as nitrates and phosphates, through fertilizers or sewage, to an aquatic system...

 and contaminants in the estuary.

The reserve offers a wide variety of educational programs for the general public, school groups, private and nonprofit organizations, educators and coastal decision makers. Coastal decision-maker workshops have included such topics as land use planning and smart growth

Smart growth

Smart growth is an urban planning and transportation theory that concentrates growth in compact walkable urban centers to avoid sprawl and advocates compact, transit-oriented, walkable, bicycle-friendly land use, including neighborhood schools, complete streets, and mixed-use development with a...

, energy resource conservation and development for the next decade and acoustical bay bottom mapping.

Reference

• Delaware National Estuarine Research Reserve