April 2003
Contents

Message From the Executive Director:
* The Upstate as the next regional city

Conservation:
* Couple preserves land along highway 11
* Northern Greenville county tract preserved
* UF members donate land adjoining
Jocassee Gorges to State
* Conservation Bank Act signed into law!

Articles:
* The Upstate is being developed at the rate of a new Haywood Mall every three days!!
* Downtown Schools: a key step toward sensible growth
* Downtown schools in the Upstate
good news and bad news
* Can Stories Save a River?
Bringing Lawson's Fork back to life
* Main Street: Heart and soul of the Upstate
* Victory for streams in the Upstate!

Upstate Forever News:
* Events
* Awards
* Volunteers
* Staff

VICTORY FOR STREAMS IN THE UPSTATE!

by Katie Chamberlain
Last summer the City of Greenville proposed to bury about 200 feet of the beautiful stream in Rotary Park in a five-foot wide culvert. Upstate Forever, Friends of the Reedy River, and several concerned citizens couldn’t believe the City was serious. After all, the City had recently spent over $75,000 for several consultants to evaluate, and recommend ways to revitalize, the Sirrine-Haynie neighborhood, which has a number of small streams just like the one in Rotary Park. One of their principal recommendations to the City was: “Do not put any of these streams in a pipe.”
     Upstate Forever did not say simply “don’t do it.” As shown in the above drawing, we presented a better way to do it – a way that meets the City’s objective of improving the park but avoids destroying any part of the stream. It involves restoring the stream by smoothing out the banks and stabilizing them with shrubs and trees, constructing a loop trail for walking and jogging around the stream, and reconfiguring the playground equipment to provide increased open space. The increased cost is estimated at $35,000, but this could be reduced by using volunteers to do some of the work. What a
great opportunity for neighborhood children to help with planting the trees and shrubs and to learn about stream ecology!
     Other cities are spending big money to actually remove culverts and bring streams back to life–they are called “daylighting” projects. An outstanding study by the Rocky Mountain Institutue, Daylighting: New Life for Buried Streams (2000), www.rmi.org/images/other/W-Daylighting.pdf, discusses the many benefits of these projects. Here are just a few of them: (1) relieving choke points and flooding problems; (2) increasing hydraulic capacity; (3) reducing runoff velocities as a result of natural channel meanderings; (4) improving water quality by exposing water to air, sunlight, vegetation and soil, all of which help to transform, bind up or otherwise neutralize pollutants; (5) recreating aquatic habitat; (6) providing recreational amenities, such as a place for children to play or a streamside bench where people can relax; (7) serving as an “outdoor laboratory” for local schools; (8) reconnecting people to nature; and (9) beautifying neighborhoods–“perhaps serving as a focal point of a new park.”
     The stream at Rotary Park is already providing these benefits. Why would we want to do anything to lose them?!
     Another recent study shows that small headwater streams, such as the one at Rotary Park, are extraordinarily effective in keeping pollutants from reaching larger waterways. Peterson et al, “Control of Nitrogen Export from Watersheds by Headwater Streams,” Science 292: 86-90 (April 6, 2001). The authors conclude: “The small size streams may be the most important in regulating water chemistry in large drainages because their large surface-to-volume ratios favor rapid nitrogen uptake and processing. Yet small streams are endangered because they are the most vulnerable to human disturbance, such as diversion, channelization, and elimination in agricultural and urban environments. Restoration and preservation of small stream ecosystems should be the central focus of management strategies to ensure maximum nitrogen processing in watersheds, which in turn will improve the quality of water delivered to downstream lakes, estuaries and oceans.” (emphasis added).
     The stream at Rotary Park flows into the Reedy River which in turn ends up at Lake Greenwood, the site of massive algal blooms caused by excessive nitrogen and phosphorous contamination. Addressing this problem at the lake is an enormous challenge–we need all the help we can get, including the assistance provided by nature at no charge.
     We are delighted to report that last month the City abandoned its plan to bury the stream. The pipes will be removed from the site, and Upstate Forever’s alternative plan will now be seriously considered. Many thanks to all of the Upstate Forever members who spoke out for saving this stream. We now have an outstanding precedent for protecting other rivers and streams in the Upstate!