Mill Branch Creek—Streambank Restoration Project

 

Mill Branch Creek—a project to demonstrate and document stream restoration practices which can be shared with landowners and community members in order to reduce the amount of sediment entering the Kings River. The goal is to provide tools that landowners can use to address, or more importantly, to abate the problem of streambank destabilization and subsequent erosion.

 

Explore the details of this project as presented by Joe Scott, Berryville Parks Department director in a PDF file.

 

More information on the impact of sedimentation on water quality in the Kings River Watershed. See KRWP Landowner's Guide to Streamside Living—2017.

 

The restoration site is a 1,105 foot stretch along Mill Branch, a tributary of Osage Creek. Mill Branch flows directly through Berryville, Arkansas (population: 4,745), the only incorporated city within the Kings River Watershed. This stream acts as a catchment for approximately 40% of the urban area. One mile downstream from the project site, Mill Branch serves as the receiving stream for effluent from the Berryville Wastewater Treatment Facility. Through landowner interviews and numerous site visits, it is estimated that this reach has contributed approximately 7,000 ft3 of sediment in the past year.

 

The City of Berryville expressed an interest in restoring the stream bank at the project site during the KRWP watershed planning meetings in 2005. Over the past two years the City has explored a few avenues for restoration, but all options became either too expensive (lining the stream with rip rap) or technically challenging for a small city to employ. At its present rate of erosion, the stream is estimated to erode into the City’s new skateboard park, located along the stream’s banks, in less than 3 years. Berryville is very interested in transforming the area into an attractive greenspace that is useful for both the public and wildlife.

 

 

Local Partners for this project:

• Berryville Chamber of Commerce

• City of Berryville
• Arkansas Game and Fish Commission
• Berryville Community Center
• Jimmy Jones Excavation

 

For more information on streambank restoration click here.