North Creek Project

North Creek

Wake County, NC

Demonstrating Riparian Corridor Restoration, Stormwater Management, and Exotic Species Control in a Rapidly Developing Watershed

North Creek is located on North Carolina State University's new Centennial Campus, in Raleigh, NC (see Figures 1 and 2). Centennial Campus, a 1,334-acre site adjacent to NCSU's main campus, is a growing research and advanced technology community of university, corporate and government R&D facilities. At build-out, the campus will also include a town center, executive conference center and hotel, housing and recreational amenities. Channelization during past agriculture practices, as well as recent urbanization and other land use activities, have adversely impacted North Creek. NCSU desire is to establish this corridor as an outdoor field study area and a showcase to demonstrate how current and future development can be done in concert with watershed protection and water quality improvements. This project is intended to restore the ecological integrity and functions of North Creek and its riparian corridor, as well as utilize the restoration as an opportunity to demonstrate and educate youth, policy makers, and the public and campus community about protecting and improving surface water quality, riparian corridor health, stormwater runoff control, and watershed management.

The overall objectives of the proposed project are to 1) educate and demonstrate surface water quality and riparian area and stormwater best management practices to youth, landowners and policy makers; and 2) demonstrate how restoration a degraded stream and its associated wetlands and riparian area can reduce downstream flooding and pollutant movement, and improve aquatic and wildlife habitat.

Specific project goals include:

Establish an outdoor field study area to demonstrate how current and future development can be done in concert with watershed protection and water quality improvements.
Utilize the study area for youth programs (including NC Wildlife Resources Commission, Wake County Soil and Water, 4-H) to demonstrate and educate youth, policy makers, and the public and campus community about protecting and improving surface water quality, riparian corridor health, stormwater runoff control, and watershed management.
Improve the water quality and biological habitat in a degraded riparian corridor.
Provide innovative stormwater management opportunities with existing and planned development.
Demonstrate natural channel design restoration techniques utilizing restoration on North Creek (restoration funded with alternative funding).
Restore the ecological integrity of North Creek riparian area through removal of invasive, exotic species and revegetation with native species.
Monitor and evaluate restored creek and riparian area. 8. Integrate the restored creek sections with the planned greenway for North Creek.
Develop a fact sheet for landowners on use of conservation easements for riparian area protection.
Develop a fact sheet for policy makers on design of storm drain culverts for stream stability, including best management practices for maintaining grade control.
Develop a fact sheet on riparian area restoration using native vegetation, including best management practices for invasive species control.

Funding Agency:

USDA Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service

Cooperators

NCSU Water Quality Group
NCSU Soil and Water Environmental Technology Center
NCSU College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
NCSU College of Natural Resources (Dept. of Forestry)
NCSU Centennial Campus Development
NCSU Construction Management
NCSU Environmental Health & Safety
NCSU Facilities Planning & Design
NCSU Facilities Operations
NCSU Office of the University Architect
NCSU Office of Extension & Engagement
GreenVest
Invasive Plant Control
NC Wildlife Resources Commission

Land Use

Construction on Centennial Campus

Sediment-laden water entering a storm drain

Most of the contributing watershed to North Creek on Centennial Campus is urbanized and highly impervious. There is ongoing development on Centennial Campus, and while efforts are being made to control site erosion, there is still a large amount of sediment entering the stream.

Area of North Creek on Centennial Campus

Creek Conditions

Sections of North Creek on NCSU's Centennial Campus have been channelized, straightened and filled with riprap. These unnatural stream manipulations which cause excess energy in the stream, in addition to watershed buildout and culverted stream crossings have created an unstable and incised (down-cut) stream. The stream keeps more of its energy as it flows towards Lake Raleigh due to a steep slope. This problem is worse as a result of the watershed being highly impervious. The upstream waters of North Creek are all underground in drainage pipes, causing the stream to be very flashy. During rains its flow is very high and forceful, but soon after the stream becomes a trickle. The low base flow is a result of the urbanized watershed and the piping of the stream.

North Creek is also biologically impaired. Due to channelization and lack good riffles and pools, there is relatively little available habitat. Stream macroinvertebrates were sampled in North Creek using a kick net, a D-frame sweep net, and visual collection techniques. The majority of the project reach was sampled, including riffles, pools, debris jams, and rootmats, between the Varsity Dr. culvert and just below the Research Dr. culvert. Although there were many sampling attempts, there was a relatively low abundance of stream macroinvertebrates. The majority of specimens were tolerant genera, including midges, mosquito larvae , and black fly larvae. The orders Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera, and Tricoptera (EPTs) were essentially absent, indicating poor water quality and limited habitat availability in the reach. Habitat degradation was evident by a thick layer of sediment covering the gravel substrate within the channel and a relatively homogeneous bed form.

A photo of muddy water
Bank erosion and scouring

Outfall pipes cause erosion and dump sediment from construction into North Creek

Highly incised area of North Creek
above Varsity Drive

Kudzu Control

The North Creek riparian area is overburdened by invasive vegetation, including kudzu, Privot, and Japanese Honeysuckle. An aggressive management program needs to be initiated to eliminate these species from the riparian area. As a result, Centennial Campus has been turned into the site of a research project to test a low cost, environmental-friendly alternative to kudzu control on Centennial Campus using goats as a biological control. The control of kudzu is a multi-year effort. The status will be evaluated next spring (2004) and recommendations will be offered for follow-up control option. Currently, there are 20 female goats from NCSU Meat Goats & Forage Systems being roatated among several dense kudzu areas on campus. Results have been very positive and a lot of interest has been generated within the community concerning using goats as a control for kudzu.


Before goats arrived.....	4 days after goats arrived....
Kudzu in July 2003	July 2005

Paper: The Use of Goats as Biological Agents for the Control of Unwanted Vegetation, J-M Luginbuhl, J T Green , M H Poore and J P Mueller

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NC State University Stream Restoration Program

Stream Restoration Program