Mattawoman Creek Estuary

Mattawoman Creek is a high-quality but threatened tributary to the freshwater-tidal Potomac River in southern Maryland. Its name in the Alonguian tongue means "where one goes pleasantly,"  and it remains so today. But in the last decade, its waters have faltered from their status as "the best, most productive tributary to the Chesapeake Bay," according to fishery scientists, who implicate the effects of overdeveloping its watershed.