Cottonmouth Creek

Cottonmouth Creek, a tributary to the Colorado River that flows through the heart of the Easton Park community, has been impacted by its decades-long agricultural history. In restoring the creek’s riparian corridor, Biohabitats and the community’s developer recognized the opportunity to restore the Blackland Prairie, a critical ecological resources that had previously flourished but had become increasingly rare. The residential development would alter the site’s hydrology, making it challenging to reestablish prairie vegetation.

Biohabitats designed innovative green infrastructure to restore pre-development sheet flow through the riparian uplands. Seepage berms capture point source discharges from storm drainage outfalls and allow the water to slowly seep-out and re-create sheet flow to hydrate the newly established prairie. Biohabitats also designed a regenerative stream restoration for 2,000 linear feet of the lower reach of the creek, which was highly incised and forming deep gullies. Cobble riffle structures raise the channel invert to near top of bank to allow storm flows to access and rehydrate the floodplain and help maintain the vegetated corridor.

Before construction started the team collaborated on the best methods for managing invasive weed species in the floodplain and clustering tree and shrub species in the prairie. A site assessment recommended hand pulling new ragweed growth instead of spraying herbicides to preserve existing native herbaceous species within the ragweed infestation. This ecologically friendly approach encouraged the rapid establishment of native prairie species.

TAGS

• Analysis+Planning
• Assessment+Monitoring
• Design
• Ecological Restoration