Stream Restoration

Stream Restoration Gallery

November 24, 2023

December 4, 2023

December 12, 2023

January 27, 2024

April 10, 2024

August 10, 2024

WHY was the stream restoration necessary?

A Schenks Branch tributary stream runs through the Botanical Garden of the Piedmont and is a focal point of the Garden’s design.

Before the restoration, the stream had become unhealthy. Its banks were heavily eroded and unsafe, the plant life and trees were damaged, and the stream created sediment issues downstream, which ultimately impacted the Chesapeake Watershed. As a result, the City of Charlottesville, in close consultation with the Garden, began an effort to repair the stream.

The project included removing approximately 70 damaged trees and invasive shrubs from the banks of the stream and planting nearly 1,000 new trees and shrubs – all native to the region. Creating a healthy and sustainable resource that can be enjoyed for generations.

“In its current state, the stream is severely eroded and nearly inaccessible due to its very steep banks. It has been challenging to bring students down to the water and to collect adequate samples of aquatic organisms for them to study. RCA’s certified stream health assessments confirm that the stream is in poor condition, and far from meeting Virginia’s water quality standard for aquatic life. By putting sediment and nutrient pollution into the water, the continuing erosion of the stream’s banks and bottom is also likely exacerbating water quality problems in Meadow Creek, the Rivanna River, and ultimately the Chesapeake Bay.”

– Rivanna Conservation Alliance

“The improvement of the buffer at the Botanical Garden can offer many benefits to water quality and wildlife. It can also help educate the public about the benefits trees provide to society as a whole. As the buffer grows it will create an easily accessible natural space for the public to enjoy. Additionally, this new buffer will not only protect water quality at a local level, it will also count towards the goal of planting more trees as a means to protect water quality within the Chesapeake Bay Watershed.”

– Virginia Department of Forestry

“Charlottesville Area Tree Stewards support The City of Charlottesville and The Botanical Garden of the Piedmont in their reconstruction of a stream, a central feature of the Botanical Garden. The stream area, with a length of 820 feet, has huge, eroded banks, caused by storms and the area is seriously dangerous for walkers. Erosion issues will only get worse without efforts to re-channel the curves and insert flood slowing systems which engineers have designed.”

– Charlottesville Area Tree Stewards

Stream Restoration Information

Thanks to a grant from the Bama Works Fund at CACF the Garden now has informational signs on site. You can find them on the path by the railroad tracks close to the stream. Part of the Stream Restoration Educational Program, these signs provide important details about why stream health and clean water are important, what factors impact stream health, and how the restoration will occur.