Volunteers Help RiverLink With Stream Restoration

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by karen cragnolin
on Thursday, January 28, 2010

On a stream that had no name and flowed right through a public park in West Asheville, RiverLink has raised both awareness and funds to name the creek officially through USGS mapping Services. RiverLink has also worked to restore its vitality using grant funds to hire technical expertise and recruit volunteers. The stream is now officially "Buttermilk Creek" after RiverLink worked with the neighborhood to discover its history (the headwaters of the creek was occupied by a milk factory and when they cleaned the trucks the stream ran white) in its NAME THAT CREEK program. The Park is Malvern Hills Park in West Asheville now has a creek with a name. It is much easier to care for something you can call by name.

Buttermilk Creek was eroding badly and causing large deposits of sediment to enter Hominy Creek and the main stem of the French Broad River.

Thanks to a grant from the Clean Water Management Trust Fund the stream is getting much needed attention with a stream restoration project that will greatly improve water quality, the appearance of the stream and reduce the sediment flowing into it from the eroded stream banks.

Karen Cragnolin, executive director of RiverLink said, "We are looking to partner with neighborhoods that have stream than needs attention. It is just about impossible to love and care for something that does not have a name. So that is why we started the Name That Creek Program."

Margie Eblen Chair of the RiverLink Board of Directors said, "We are thrilled that so many people from the community and from UNCA came out to help us with the restoration at Malvern Hills Park on Martin Luther King Day. This is another one of RiverLink's community involvement projects. By working together we can make our water cleaner, more accessible and just better."

RiverLink is a regional organization spearheading the economic and environmental revitalization of the French Broad River as a destination where everyone can live, work and play. Visit our website at www.riverlink.org to sign up for our monthly email newsletter and to volunteer.

Content Source: www.riverlink.org

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About the Author - karen cragnolin

Contact karen cragnolin:
RiverLink
828-252-8474, ext 110
KAREN@RIVERLINK.ORG
www.riverlink.org

Learn more about karen.