The White Clay Creek National Wild and Scenic River program is administered by the bi-state Watershed Management Committee that includes residents, interest groups, and state and local governments. The National Park Service provides funds and staff assistance to further the implementation of the Management Plan. The committee meets on a regular basis and works to:

• Improve and conserve water quality and water quantity.
• Conserve open space, woodlands, wetlands, and geologic features.
• Protect native plant and animal species.
• Preserve cultural, historical, and archaeological sites.
• Enhance outdoor recreation opportunities
• Encourage environmental education and watershed awareness.

This article review the plan and basis to maintain and improve the White Clay Creek's current state. Please click on the link below for more details on how the White Clay Creek National Wild and Scenic River Program is administered by the bi-state Watershed Management Committee.

This article reviews the support planned in aiding the restoration of the shad to the White Clay Creek after the planned removal of a dam. The Water Resource Agency, a unit of the University of Delaware's Institute for Public Administration, was awarded a $42,000 grant from the Fish America Foundation, part of the American Sport-fishing Association, to supplement ongoing work to help restore the American Shad back to the creek. (NOTE: see Surface Water-Groundwater Exchange Behind the Hale-Byrnes House section below for an update in 2015.)

"The FAF funds will be used for research, design, and investigative studies for the removal of Dam No. 1 at Delaware Race Track in Stanton, Del., seven miles downstream from the UD campus. Fish-abundance studies conducted by Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC) fisheries biologists last spring confirmed that this dam is indeed a barrier to migration and spawning of anadromous fish; up to 1,000 hickory shad were detected downstream from the dam and none upstream>'

UDaily

This 2015 article from The Hunt magazine, looks back over the history of Brandywine Valley Trees, including the George Washington Witness Tree, the great Sycamore Tree that stands next to the Hale-Byrnes House.

"There are over three trillion trees on our planet. In this area, trees surround us, but at one time, there were even more. It’s estimated that 75 percent of the original Piedmont watershed forests are gone. Those giants still living among us are special because they’re survivors —through the seasons, through the years and through the centuries.

What stories can these ancient ones tell us? What significant events in our history did they witness? Please click on the link below to read more.

This report is based on the project of removing Dam No. 1 in the White Clay Creek - the Daniel Byrnes' Mill Dam - at Delaware Race Track in Stanton, DE. The report goes over the project of removing the dam and the plan to restore the dam in due time to have the fish to return to their natural habitat before the dam was ever made.

"The objective of this project was to remove White Clay Creek Dam No. 1 (RM 4.2) to reopen 3.5 miles and 42 acres of spawning habitat along the National Wild and Scenic River for the passage of American shad, hickory shad, and herring in New Castle County, Delaware. The dam was removed by the contractor on December 4 and 5, 2014. This was the first dam removal project for fish passage in the State of Delaware."

University of Delaware

This 2015 article describes the science behind the surface water-groundwater exchange behind the Hale-Byrnes House and how that exchange affects the Tidal Freshwater Zones of the White Clay Creek in Delaware.

In coastal rivers, tides can propagate for tens to hundreds of kilometers inland beyond the saltwater line. Yet the influence of tides on river-aquifer connectivity and solute transport in tidal freshwater zones (TFZs) is largely unknown.... A clear need exists to understand contaminant removal and other ecosystem services in TFZs and adopt best management practices to promote these ecosystem services.

Cole Thomas Musial

This article from the May 24, 2015 edition of The News Journal questions whether or not Shad and other fish will return after the Daniel Byrnes Mill Dam was removed from the White Clay Creek. The dam was removed in an effort to restore fish passage up the creek because the dam was blocking the upstream movement of American and hickory shad. Knowing this, the main question asked by Gerald Kauffman, the director of the Water Resource Agency at the University of Delaware, was "Will They Return?". This question came up after Kauffman's inspection of the creek after the removal of the dam indicated that despite all the right conditions existing for the Shad's habitat there was a lack of schools of fish in the water .