BFEC working with National Committee for the New River, Clean Water Management Trust Fund, NC State University, Watauga County Cooperative extension, and the gracious landowners to complete the project in the summer of 2011. The project includes streambank stabilization and stormwater control elements. The project was funded by a CWMTF “Innovative Stormwater Grant.” This is the first known permeable paver parking lot project installed in the Town of Boone. The project helps to decrease stormwater velocities in the flashy Boone Creek watershed.

Check out all of the project details and photos. Casey & Casey Stormwater Management

Upper Watauga River Enhancement was completed in the summer of 2011. Thanks to CWMTF, NC Construction Grants and Loans, Western NC Alliance, Watauga River Partners, and Watauga County for helping make this project happen! This is one of the largest stream construction projects ever managed by BFEC. We are proud to have been a part of enhancing and preserving this section of the Watauga River!

Check out the project page and photo slideshow for details. Upper Wautaga River Enhancement Project

Awards Flow From River Conservation Group

The Watauga River Conservation Partners (WRCP) formed in 1999 as a chapter of the Western North Carolina Alliance in response to the growing pressures on the water quality of the Watauga River and its tributaries.

The organization has worked to protect and restore the Watauga River and educate the community about the Watauga River.

Three awards for outstanding service and contributions to the WRCP were made at the WRCP annual potluck on June 25 at the Valle Crucis Park.

As one of the founding members, Richard DeMott received the “Decade of Dedicated Service” Award. “In order to protect the river, you must be aware of its fragile systems and experience the benefits of having a clean river resource in your county. Richard instigated seven years of Riverfest where community members came to learn about the river and engage in protection and conservation,” a spokesperson for the WRCP said.

“Richard has also spearheaded the groundwater research and studies that are currently taking place throughout the High Country. He has got the conversation going about how much water is available to residents in the counties, and what are we doing to conserve and prepare for the future. Richard has been a wonderful mentor and idea man for this organization. He has invaluable insights and strategies to make things happen. His leadership has directed this organization through 10 years of accomplishments,” the spokesperson said.

“Dick and Joan Hearn have spent hundreds, if not thousands, of hours over the years teaching thousands of youth about our water resources and received the Inspiring our Youth Award,” the spokesperson said.

“Most kids know Dick and Joan as ‘Mandy the Mayfly and the Stream Doctor’ because that is how they go into the schools. They are an invaluable part of the Kids in the Creek program. They connect with the kids on a level that captures their imagination and respect for our environment.

“Not many people have this kind of talent. They are the reason the Kids in the Creek program is successful. We’ve been doing the Kids in the Creek program long enough now that see kids years later (middle school and even high school) and they remember the water program that they had while they were in fourth-grade.”

From left, Adam Williams receives the Conservationist of the Year award and Richard DeMott receives the Decade of Dedicated Service Award.

Adam Williams and the Brushy Fork Environmental Team received the Conservationist of the Year award for the hard work that they have committed to the Watauga Watershed.

“Their work has included many long hours of grant writing, meetings, designs and permitting, much of which is in-kind services. WRCP thanks Adam for not giving up on the Upper Watauga Project and Elk River Project. Even though there have been obstacles they have pushed on and worked out any issues. Adam and his staff have always been there whenever we have needed them for any map, grant review, and support in numerous other ways. Thank you so much for your perseverance in protecting our watershed,” the spokesperson said.

“WRCP’s efforts to protect the Watauga River serve all members of our community and visitors to it. The Watauga River Watershed is perhaps the most outstanding natural resource of the High Country, where it is a center for outdoor recreation, a site of scientific research, a fragile ecosystem that is home to endangered species of aquatic life, a source of high-quality water, and a contributor to local and regional economies,” the spokesperson said. “If you are interested in coming to a Watauga River Conservation Partners meeting, we meet the first Monday of the month at the Agricultural Conference Center (252 Poplar Grove Road) in Boone at 5 p.m.”

Originally published in the Mountain Times on 7-9-2009. To see the original article please follow the link http://archives.mountaintimes.com/mtweekly/2009/0709/award.php3

Two stormwater reduction projects — one of them large, the other a small “rain garden” in a subdivision yard — have been completed in the College Creek watershed in Greeneville and Tusculum.

Adam Williams, left, president of Brushy Creek Environmental Consulting, Inc., of Trade, Tenn., and Teresa Buckwalter, a landscape architect with the firm, in front of a newly-constructed "rain garden" that captures and slowly releases storm runoff at the home of Jeanie and Tom Yancey, on Dobson Drive in Tusculum. At right is Paul Hayden, who is working with the Greene County Soil Conservation District to improve water quality in College Creek, which flows thorough Tusculum. Sun Photo By Tom Yancey.

The bigger project involves reconfiguring the stormwater catch basin next to Ingles supermarket on U.S. Highway 11E.

That basin was installed to catch storm runoff from 37 acres of impervious pavement and rooftops (the former Walmart, which is now vacant, and the Ingles supermarket), said Paul Hayden, executive director of the Middle Nolichucky Watershed Alliance.

Hayden retired last year as Greene County soil conservationist, and formed his own environmental consulting firm, Hayden & Associates.

The Greene County Soil Conservation District is the lead agency attempting to improve water quality in College Creek, using federal funds provided from section 319 of the Clean Water Act of 1972.

The basic principles for reducing storm runoff, and the pollutants that fast-running water from thunderstorms tend to sweep into creeks and streams, can be summed up in a slogan Hayden likes to quote: “Slow it down, spread it out, soak it up.”

The catch basin next to Ingles, built about 20 years ago when the shopping center was constructed, was not very effective in slowing runoff from the parking lot and building roofs, he said.

Even when five inches of rain fell in a day in 2005, Hayden said, after two and a half hours of heavy rainfall, “There was not a drop of water” in the basin that was supposed to be to impounding storm water in a pond.

It took time, but after corporate officials at Ingles’ headquarters in Asheville, N.C., realized that the basin was not in compliance with the Clean Water Act, and that it was in the company’s interest to have it comply, they were very cooperative, Hayden said.

CAPTURES RUNOFF WATER

Hayden & Associates handled the Ingles project.

The redesigned runoff capture structure has a more effective outlet mechanism that allows a slower release of storm runoff as the water level rises. It also has a vertical pipe 38 inches in diameter that releases more water if the water reaches that level, and a spillway made of very large chunks of limestone.

The new design was by Altamont Environmental, an Asheville, N.C., firm that worked as a subcontractor with Hayden. Another environmental company, Brushy Fork Environmental Consulting, Inc., of Trade, Tenn. (in Johnson County, near Boone, N.C.) worked with the contractor, Bryants Industries, of Burnsville, N.C., to lay out the project.

Adam Williams, president of Brushy Fork, a trained hydrologist and certified wetlands scientist, “translated the design from paper to the ground,” and later installed appropriate wetlands vegetation.

Plantings, including native herbaceous plants and sedge grasses, help control erosion and have a filtering effect, Williams said.

The plantings are able to withstand periods of submersion, and also make the retention pond more attractive in dry weather.

‘RAIN GARDEN’ PROJECT

The other project looks like a landscaping feature in the front yard at 80 Dobson Drive, just north of Tusculum College.

Hayden said the property owners, Tom and Jeanie Yancey, live in the College Creek watershed. They were aware of efforts to improve water quality in the creek, and agreed to have an engineer take a look at reducing storm runoff from their home and lawn, almost two years ago.

When their home appeared to be a good candidate for 75/25 cost share funding (with the owners paying 25 percent), the Yanceys signed up, but later withdrew when their daughter wanted to continue her postgraduate education.

Hayden said others in the Greeneville area also expressed interest, but were not in the College Creek drainage area.

He said he obtained permission from state officials to make the Dobson Drive site a “demonstration” project, and the Yanceys agreed.

Hayden said a demonstration was needed because, “You can explain a rain garden, and show pictures, but until people can actually see one on the ground, a lot of times they don’t understand it.”

The Dobson Drive rain garden demonstration is fairly typical. Downspouts from three corners of the house are routed underground through perforated plastic pipes to a defined and landscaped area that measures about eight feet by 22 feet.

Former Greene County Soil Conservationist Paul Hayden, left, and Adam Williams, president of Brushy Creek Environmental Consulting, Inc., with the newly re-designed storm water containment pond that serves the Ingles Market on U.S. Highway 11E, in the distance.

The “rain garden” was excavated to a depth of about 30 inches, Hayden said, and the bottom was lined with a 10-inch layer of crushed stone. A tough layer of “geotectile fabric” was added next, followed by a layer of about eight inches of sand, followed by a layer of topsoil, then a layer of dark landscaping mulch.

Ringed by attractive stones, some gathered by the homeowners in the Greystone area after the 2001 flood, the rain garden looks like a landscaping feature.

The rocks, geotextile fabric and sand, as well as the plantings, filter storm runoff naturally, and retain a significant amount of it, releasing it slowly, and watering the plants above in the meantime.

Landscape architect Teresa Buckwalter, of Brushy Fork Environmental, said the rain garden will look like a flower garden by midsummer, and be even more attractive in the summer of 2010. The plants she selected are all native species that like moist or semi-moist conditions. The homeowner selected the foliage colors.

On the surface, the “rain garden” is edged with stones placed in roughly the shape of an arrowhead or heart. A “spillway” on the end closest to the street is lined with flat stones to prevent erosion when the rock, sand and mulch-filled pit reaches its capacity, after prolonged or very heavy rain. Underneath the spillway, another perforated plastic pipe leads to a covered outlet in the ditch in the street right of way.

Hayden said cost-share funds are available for others who might be interested in installing a rain garden at an existing home or where new construction is planned.

For more information, call the Soil Conservation office at 638-4771, ext. 3.

TREE PLANTING

In addition, Brushy Fork Environmental has been hired to plant trees along College Creek to maintain bank stability near the Tusculum Body Shop on Rufe Taylor Road.

Hayden noted that the Soil Conservation district installed large crushed stones to stabilize the creek bank after it threatened to undermine the building’s foundation. The trees are intended to add more natural stability.

Buckwalter said the trees to be planted were selected because they will not produce excessive pollen or seeds meant to be carried on the wind, because pollen or wind-borne seeds might be a problem for fresh vehicle paint jobs at the body shop.

Story by Tom Yancey

Originally published in the Greenville Sun on 4-29-2009. To see the original article please follow the link http://greenevillesun.com/story/303052

An effort to restore a well-known stream in downtown Boone has brought together a diverse group of community partners in what organizers hope will continue to flow into the future.

Once a free-flowing trout stream, Kraut Creek suffers from erosion and a diminishing wildlife ecosystem.
In 2004, Appalachian State University professor Jana Carp and her project management class made a plan to help restore the creek to its natural state.
Through their initiative, the Kraut Creek Committee was formed and includes business owners, ASU faculty and other members of the Boone community.

A section of Boone Creek near the back of Café Portofino is one of several projects identified by the Kraut Creek Committee for a creek restoration project. Photo by Tiffany Allison

”The Kraut Creek committee is ad hoc, just concerned citizens trying to see things restored,” Boone Area Chamber of Commerce president and KCC member Dan Meyer said.

“This is a community project. It’s community stewardship.”
He said the group has been meeting for three years and is now starting the process of renewal. The National Committee for the New River joined the KCC and wrote a proposal to N.C. Clean Water Management requesting and receiving money for the project.

“The grant was between $20,000 and $30,000,” Adam Williams, president of Brushy Fork Environmental construction and project constructor, said.

Williams is responsible for the bank enhancement project near Boone restaurant Café Portofino, which was finished July 27.

Construction crews built a rock retaining wall against the creek near the Boone Area Chamber of Commerce office to stop the creek from undercutting the slope.

They also leveled out the land making a gentler slope, which allows the water to cover the area near its banks instead of rushing downstream. This will help the water level in the stream to be more constant.

Native vegetation has been planted around the stream to hold the soil in place. The vegetation varies from silky dogwood, elderberry, silky willow and rhododendron, which were purchased through Foggy Mountain Nursery.

Since the restoration has begun, other landowners have taken an interest in the project.

John Mena, owner of Haircut 101, SC&S Futures, and Dee Keith have offered to help with the project.

“Our goal was to have a demonstration project to show folks what could happen,” Meyer said.

The university, as a project partner, has provided funding through direct payments to project designers, university personnel and equipment.

Patrick Beville, project manager of the ASU office of design and construction and project manager of the Kraut Creek project, said the university gave up 20-30 feet of the parking lot next to Cafe’ Portofino for the expansion of the creek.

The stream’s bank is pictured here before the project, showing signs of erosion and slowed flowage. The National Committee for the New River joined with the KCC and wrote a proposal to N.C. Clean Water Management requesting and receiving money for the project.

“The next phase of the Kraut Creek restoration is to restore the reach (length) of the creek that runs from Depot Street to the Goodnight property,” Beville said.

“The university has agreed to, once again, reduce the size of the parking area on our land and side of the creek in order to return that land as riparian area for the creek.”
He explained that schematics for the design have already been developed, but they will be unable to start the project until the KCC receives another grant from N.C. Clean Water Management.

Teresa Buckwalter, environmental landscaper, Wendy Patoprsty, Watauga County river watershed coordinator, and Nancy Regiel, KCC director, also helped with the landscaping and development of the project.

“I think the key to all of the efforts has been an immense spirit of cooperation between the KCC, NCNR, the town of Boone, the chamber of commerce and the university,” Beville said.
“The KCC is hopeful that this sense of partnership and community will carry forward with our future projects and our future partnerships with landowners.”

Story by Tiffany Allison

Originally published in the Watauga Democrat on 7-22-2008. To see the original article please follow the link http://www.wataugademocrat.com/2008/0721/0722keepingkrautcreek.php