Mudlick Creek Stream Restoration at Garst Mill Park Completed
Garst Mill Park in Roanoke County is one of the County's most frequented parks with people of all ages particularily enjoying the pedestrian and bike trail that runs along Mudlick Creek. Beginning in 2007, the County of Roanoke received grants totalling almost $300,000 from the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation, Water Quality Improvement Fund, to perform an urban stream restoration on Mudlick Creek in Garst Mill Park. This stream restoration has successfully been completed. A Ribbon Cutting and Dedication Ceremony was held on May 14 to celebrate the completion of the project. Photos of the completed work are shown below.
Mission of the Project
The Restoration of Mudlick Creek at Garst Mill Park focused on controlling the hydrologic regime by restoring natural channel geometry (recreating meanders and accessing the floodplain) to reduce stream bank erosion, restoring the in-stream habitat structure and augmenting the riparian cover through native vegetation plantings.
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Mudlick Creek is one of 16 watersheds in Roanoke County that have been identified as high priority watersheds in the Roanoke Valley Regional Stormwater Management Plan and upon which analyses were conducted at both the watershed and sub-watershed levels.
Mudlick Creek is an approximately 6.2-mile tributary of the Roanoke River and receives flow from a watershed of approximately 6,000 acres. Mudlick Creek drains to the Roanoke River which has previously been designated as an impaired waterway.
Roanoke County has been conducting stream assessment along Mudlick Creek for several years. The Mudlick Creek watershed has been viewed as the County's "pilot" watershed for looking at urban stream restoration, flooding, and stormwater quality issues since the construction the of Hidden Valley Storm Water Management Facility.
Stream restoration efforts began along the Mudlick Creek in Garst Mill Park in 1997, when the Roanoke County Department of Parks, Recreation, and Tourism received a grant to construct the Garst Mill Park Pedestrian and Bicycle Trail. In addition to the creation of the trail, several sections of the stream bank were successfully stabilized as a result of this project.
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To view more information regarding Mudlick Creek at the Garst Mill Park site and additional grant details, click on the Grant Application below. To download the map of Garst Mill Park, click on the thumbnail.
Grant Application (2006)
Grant Application (2007)
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