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NATURAL CHANNEL STREAM RESTORATION USING FLUVIAL GEOMORPHOLOGY, LITTLE CREEK, CHATTOOGA RIVER WATERSHED, CHATTAHOOCHEE NATIONAL FOREST, GEORGIA
Impact/Purpose:
The project was initiated when the U.S. Forest Service requested technical support from EPA to use natural stream design techniques to restore a section of stream channel. The stabilized stream channel now protects a section of forest road and stabilizes the remnants of a breached dam. The restoration reduces siltation to down stream reaches of Little Creek and the Chattooga River. An additional goal of the project is to protect the wetland area that has formed in the sediments deposited in the pond that existed before the dam breached. Since the breach, a wetlands community has formed upstream of the dam.
Description:
This project involved removing a portion of an earthen dam that had collapsed. The problem solved by the project was to stabilize the eroding banks left from the remnants of the dam as well as stabilizing eroding banks adjacent to the forest service road. The channel constructed through the former dam site was designed applying the science of fluvial geomorphology (the study of stream landforms) as taught by Dave Rosgen of Wildland Hydrology, in Pagosa Springs, Colorado. Bioengineering techniques were employed to revegetate the newly constructed floodplain and riparian zone.