Madison Wisniewski and Henry Stahl with the Franklin Soil and Water Conservation District walked through a shallow stream in a Jefferson Township neighborhood. They lifted rocks and dipped nets into the water in search of creatures, and found little fish, diving beetles and an abundance of snails.
Around 1,000 feet of stream weaves behind houses in the Fieldstone area off Havens Corners Road. The unnamed tributary of Blacklick Creek is rocky with gentle curves. Small dogwoods and willows sprout along the bank. The stream didn’t always look like this, though. Until recently, it was basically a ditch.
The naturally winding stream was straightened in 1989 so the area could be used for agriculture.
“Historically, channelizing and straightening out streams, it was just to get water downstream faster, right?” said Stahl, a watershed resource specialist.
Over time the fast-moving water caused erosion. When the houses were built, flooding became a problem and the stream itself encroached on backyards. The channel also sent pollutants like sediments and fertilizer runoff downstream.
The Franklin Soil and Water Conservation District recently completed a restoration project that slowed the stream down and returned it to a more natural flow.
Stahl pointed to a tree in a backyard, indicating where the stream had been before – rather close to residential back porches and firepits.
“So, the stream has been moved about 50 feet this direction, pulling away from those houses, kind of giving it a more stabilized profile and giving floodplain on the north side away from the home so that it can flood this direction,” Stahl said.
The project reflects the changing needs of central Ohio as the population grows and the region sees more extreme weather, and with it, the chance for more flooding. Stahl said it also shows that the way we think about our environment has evolved.
“As the philosophies of change, you realize some of the error of some of our ways,” he said.
The stream restoration was possible thanks to nearly $253,000 from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s 319 Grant Program. The program offers funds to mitigate non-point source pollution, or pollution that doesn’t come from a single place, like a pipeline or well.
The federal funding was temporarily paused this year, but ultimately went through, according to Kori Sedmak, the public outreach coordinator for the Franklin Soil and Water Conservation District. Sedmak hopes the funding will remain available in the future.
“We're seeing more projects like this one where, you know, it's not just a benefit to wildlife and habitat, it's benefiting homeowners and these new housing developments,” Sedmak said.
The Fieldstone area stream is a headwater stream, or the uppermost part of its watershed. Protecting it also protects Blacklick Creek, about a mile away.
“These are kind of that first sponge that absorb the water and distribute it before it really starts to build up steam downstream,” Stahl said.
With its restoration, the stream is now a better habitat for wildlife, like the green heron that perched on the bank while he walked past.
“And I think it's just a good amenity now for the community as opposed to this kind of ditch that was there. So, it's really nice to see how it's changed,” Stahl said.
Eleven-year-old twins Deacon and Scarlett Wood, who live at the far end of the neighborhood, love playing in the stream.
“I like finding random rocks and bugs and things that I can find random stuff around there,” Deacon said.
Deacon and Scarlett said the stream looks weird now. It’s covered in bright green algae at the moment, but they’re glad the area will flood less.
“We would play back here and then sometimes after it rained it would be really muddy and sometimes we would slip and then it's kind of hilly and then we would fall into it, and it would be like a water slide,” Scarlett said.
She said that’s not as fun as it sounds, especially because she doesn’t like getting wet.
“I’ve lost a pair of shoes,” Deacon added.
The children look forward to continuing to enjoy the stream, hopefully while staying mostly dry.
While the restoration is nearly complete, Stahl said the stream will only get better with time. The algae will die off as the banks get shadier. Plants will grow taller, and more fish, bugs, birds and mammals will make the stream their home.
“It's early days, but it'll kind of create its shape naturally a little bit more and then we'll get plenty of plants in there and it'll look like we weren't ever here,” Stahl said.
