North Toe River Restoration
Newland, NC
The North Toe River is a trout stream flowing through Newland. Due to past channelization and vegetation management practices, the streambanks were eroded, and the bedform was mostly run with little diversity. The river was confined by an historic levee on the right bank. The goals of the project were to provide a naturally stable stream channel with floodplain connection, provide natural step-pool and riffle-pool bedform diversity, provide natural bank vegetation, improve aquatic habitat, retain and treat stormwater from adjacent urban land uses, and provide an aesthetically pleasing educational stream demonstration for the Town of Newland. The project included in-stream boulder and log structures, streambank stabilization, and riparian buffer planting. The portions of the streamside levee that are not stabilized by native vegetation were removed to reconnect the river to its floodplain.
A 10-acre property including the North Toe River and its floodplain was recently purchased by the Town of Newland for use as a public green space. The Town has worked with North Carolina State University to design and build a 1.4-acre stormwater wetland and an 800-linear foot stream restoration project. The stormwater wetland on the eastern portion of the property captures stormwater runoff from downtown Newland. This runoff is routed through the wetland for treatment prior to discharge to the North Toe River. A flashboard riser outlet structure was utilized to control the water surface in the wetland. The wetland was designed to capture and treat the runoff produced by the first flush (precipitation = 1.2 inches) from a 17-acre drainage area from a portion of downtown Newland. The outlet structure was designed to draw this volume of water down over a 72-hour period to optimize the stormwater treatment. An emergency spillway was designed to convey and discharge the runoff from significant rainfall events (>2-year storm) at non-erosive velocities.
| Project Length: | 800 ft. |
| Date of Construction Completion: | Fall 2007 |
| Designer: | NC State University Biological and Agricultural Engineering |
| Contractor: | North State Environmental, Inc. |
| Partners: | Town of Newland, NC NC Cooperative Extension Service – Avery County NC State University Biological and Agricultural Engineering |
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