Restoring a degraded creek

Dried Indian Creek is located in the towns of Covington and Oxford in Newton County Georgia and is considered a second/third order urban stream (Erulker & Baker, 2020). Newton County is located in the Central Piedmont Province of Georgia. The health of the stream has been degraded because it runs through the City of Covington making it subjective to typical urban runoff, litter, pollution, and other harmful human activities (Baker & Homer, 1998). Until 1986, the wastewater treatment plant of Covington was contributing to pollution through sludge runoff during heavy rainfall. This has been resolved through the installation of a tertiary treatment system (Baker & Homer, 1998).

The scope of this restoration project is the stream reach located near the Waterbury-Oxford Airport. The banks of the stream and surrounding acreage have been subjected to mowing and reduction of trees and shrubs. There has also been a removal of a beaver dam mid-stream and near the stream’s culvert. The beavers were eliminated and the dam was dug up by a backhoe with the debris piled next to the stream. Based on the 2020 Working Draft of the Dried Indian Creek Corridor Protection and Connection Initiative, the restoration goals are to:

• Protect the Dried Indian Creek corridor from further degradation through land donations/acquisitions, and conservation easement purchases.

• Provide public access to the corridor via an ecologically sensitive multi-use trail along the land acquired or secured through conservation easements.

• Restore ecological structure and functions, to the extent practicable and appropriate, to ensure the long-term health and viability of the Dried Indian Creek corridor.

• Learn and share the history of the creek and surrounding area

My role involved:

• Site surveying

• Restoration design

• Landscape plan

• Management plan

• Report writing

*All work was completed while a graduate research assistant at the University of Georgia, 2021