Uploaded August 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
What if the key to restoring a damaged stream was buried right beneath our feet? In Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, scientists and restoration experts uncovered fossil seeds hidden in layers of “legacy sediment” and used them to help bring Big Spring Run back to life as a thriving wetland.
Big Spring Run is now filled with native plants, birds, and wildlife, all thanks to a restoration plan inspired by clues dating back thousands of years.
Bill Hilgartner, lecturer at Johns Hopkins University, explains his involvement in the restoration, how fossil seeds, macrofossils, and sediment analysis revealed what this landscape looked like before European settlement and how this sort of restoration could be used as a model moving forward.
Fossils don’t just tell the story of the past - they helped shape the future.
Video by:
Aubrey Morse
What if the key to restoring a damaged stream was buried right beneath our feet? In Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, scientists and restoration experts uncovered fossil seeds hidden in layers of “legacy sediment” and used them to help bring Big Spring Run back to life as a thriving wetland.
Big Spring Run is now filled with native plants, birds, and wildlife, all thanks to a restoration plan inspired by clues dating back thousands of years.
Bill Hilgartner, lecturer at Johns Hopkins University, explains his involvement in the restoration, how fossil seeds, macrofossils, and sediment analysis revealed what this landscape looked like before European settlement and how this sort of restoration could be used as a model moving forward.
Fossils don’t just tell the story of the past - they helped shape the future.
Video by:
Aubrey Morse
