Watershed Restoration Action Strategy The Breton Bay watershed
encompasses over 55 square miles of land lying on Marylandís
Coastal Plain between the Potomac and Patuxent Rivers (Figure
1). The watershed includes some of the most ecologically diverse
and sensitive biological communities in the Chesapeake Bay
region. McIntosh Run, the largest tributary to Breton Bay, has
not only been designated a Natural Heritage Area by the State of
Maryland, but has been identified as a significant forest block
by the Nature Conservancy in the Chesapeake Bay Lowlands
Ecoregional Plan (Figure 2) (TNC, 2002). The Nature Conservancy
found that this 10,480 acre forest block had the lowest road
density of any forest block in the State of Maryland and that it
was one of only three that exceeded 80% overall forest cover.
McIntosh Run also supports a significant population of dwarf
wedge mussels, a federally endangered, globally rare species. In
addition to the dwarf wedge mussels, the Breton Bay watershed
also supports seven plant