Organization Profile
Stroud Water Research Center
Organization Overview
Stroud Water Research Center seeks to advance knowledge and stewardship of global fresh water systems through research and education. Since its creation in 1967, teams of scientists have conducted pioneering research on streams and rivers locally, regionally, and throughout the world. Today, the Center’s research team blends its talents in chemistry, microbiology, aquatic entomology (insects & other invertebrates), ichthyology (fish), hydrology, fluvial geomorphology, and ecosystem modeling in collaborative studies of the physical, chemical, and biological processes of streams and rivers. The Center’s Education team helps to interpret our research findings and builds education programs about freshwater ecology, management, and stewardship that are oriented to a wide audience. The Center’s Watershed Restoration program develops and implements watershed restoration programs that connect landowners, stakeholders, and the general public with best management practices for conserving, restoring, and protecting watersheds. While we work in watersheds all over the world, most of our ideas are generated and pilot tested at the Center’s main campus in the White Clay Creek experimental watershed where the Center’s has a 45-year research and monitoring record and a unique facility that includes indoor “wet” labs and streamside flumes fed by flowing water pumped in from the creek.
In 2012, the Center expanded its campus to 50 acres and constructed a Platinum-certified LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) building. The “green” building provides improved and expanded space for educational, outreach, and watershed restoration programs, while making more space available in the main building for research. Learn more at www.stroudcenter.org/mec/
Organization History
Fresh Water is Our Only Focus
Since 1967, the Stroud Water Research Center’s internationally acclaimed scientists and educators have been focused on one thing — fresh water.
While our research concentrates on streams and rivers — including how they function as a whole and the complex web of life that inhabits them — there’s a much larger story behind our efforts. The health of these freshwater ecosystems is our first line of defense in preserving clean water — and clean water is essential to all life.
Only through knowing how healthy streams and rivers work, and what happens when they become polluted, can we determine how to protect and preserve this vital resource now and for generations to come.
Science Without Bias
We’re not an advocacy group. We practice science without bias.
Our scientific rigor ensures the research integrity that is critical to building trust in the preventative and prescriptive measures that we recommend for water conservation and watershed stewardship.
Businesses, government policy makers, landowners, and community volunteers alike use the Center’s research findings to make informed decisions about issues that affect water quality and availability — from land use planning and storm water management to water treatment and conservation.
Groundbreaking Research
At the heart of the organization is an interdisciplinary team of scientists whose research efforts are dedicated to understanding the ecology of streams, rivers and their watersheds — both pristine and polluted.
Driven by the philosophy that understanding the science of fresh water is fundamental to our ability to protect this finite and vital resource, Stroud scientists apply their unique, interdisciplinary approach to the critical questions that affect water quality and availability around the world.
While the Center’s research is done in streams, rivers and watersheds across the globe, our sites near White Clay Creek in Chester County, Pennsylvania, and the Maritza Biological Station in the Guanacaste Conservation Area of Costa Rica are ideal natural laboratories for studying temperate and tropical freshwater ecosystems in areas protected from manmade disturbances. This unique advantage and our time tested approach to the science of fresh water set us apart and enable the pioneering research for which we are known.
To the Center’s credit are a host of internationally recognized concepts and paradigms describing fresh water ecosystems that are being leveraged today — and which provide the foundation on which innovative and collaborative research begins anew.
Benefits
Flexible work environment, quiet rural environment, historic and green buildings, traditional retirement pension with access to employee contributions to a 403(b) retirement savings plan
