FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 16, 2024
Schenks Branch Tributary Stream Restoration Celebration!
CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA – The City of Charlottesville invites the community to celebrate the newly restored Schenks Branch Tributary with snacks, tours, and educational information! Join us at the Botanical Garden of the Piedmont on September 24th from 10:30AM-12PM to learn first-hand about the Schenks Branch Tributary Stream Restoration Project, a significant undertaking by the City’s Stormwater Utility and its partners to restore an extremely deteriorated landscape.
Join us for a fun and community-focused event on September 24th from 10:30AM to 12PM at the Botanical Garden of the Piedmont (BGP), located at 950 Melbourne Road, to meet the experts who were involved with the Schenks Branch Tributary Stream Restoration Project. Take a guided tour, learn from before-and-after exhibits, and gain insights into the goals, challenges, and innovative techniques used to perform the restoration. See how this green stormwater infrastructure project has helped the City meet regulatory requirements, improved the health of our local waterways, and enabled residents to access and enjoy a thriving natural area.
The City’s Stormwater Utility manages both the built and natural stormwater conveyance infrastructure of Charlottesville. The maintenance of this infrastructure includes the pipes, structures, and outfalls that help manage stormwater runoff, as well as the creeks and streams that run through Charlottesville, which provide an equally important role in stormwater management and water resources protection. In spring 2019 the City received a grant from the Stormwater Local Assistance Fund (SLAF), administered by the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), for the design and construction of the stream restoration project. SLAF is a cost-share fund that provides matching grants for planning, design, and implementation of water quality improvement projects. With supplemental funds from the City’s Stormwater Utility Capital Improvement Program (CIP), the project consisted of restoring 840 linear feet of the Schenks Branch Tributary stream in McIntire Park that runs through the BGP from the railroad right-of-way to the John Warner Parkway bridge overpass.
Prior to restoration, the stream was actively experiencing severe erosion, sending excessive amounts of sediment and nutrient pollution downstream. Some of the unstable and eroding stream banks were as high as 12 feet tall and data collected indicated that 436,000 pounds of sediment was eroding from the stream every year. Additionally, the stream provided an extremely poor habitat for plant and animal life and was largely inaccessible to the public for recreational or educational purposes. The City hired the environmental engineering firm Hazen and Sawyer, and working closely with the DEQ and the BGP, the partners implemented innovative techniques to restore the area over a six month period between the fall of 2023 and the spring of 2024, with incredible results.
“Both the City of Charlottesville and the Department of Environmental Quality recognized the stream restoration’s importance to the Garden’s development. The stream, now home to over 1,000 native trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants, stands as the Garden’s first major completed feature,” said Jill Trischman-Marks, Executive Director of the Botanical Garden of the Piedmont.
We invite the community to celebrate the newly restored stream, learn first-hand about the restoration process, and see how the restoration has seamlessly integrated into the Botanical Garden of the Piedmont.
For questions about the event, please email Utilities Outreach at utilitiesoutreach@charlottesville.gov or call Utilities Outreach at 434-970-3686.
Media Contact
Ryan Willis
Utilities Outreach Program Coordinator
City of Charlottesville
434-970-3686
willisr@charlottesville.gov