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Questions or Comments: nps@tceq.texas.gov

Urban Riparian and Stream Restoration Training and Demonstration

Texas Water Resources Institute is providing various professionals with training on restoring streams and riparian areas in major Texas urban centers and demonstrating restoration methods in eroding sections of creeks.

Map of Texas with polygons indicating watersheds that have EPA-accepted watershed protection plans.

Project Area

Location: Statewide

Background

The Texas Integrated Report of Surface Water Quality for Clean Water Act Sections 305(b) and 303(d) (Integrated Report) evaluates if water bodies meet state water quality standards associated with the water body’s designated use. The term “impairment” refers to an instance where a water body does not meet the standard for a parameter associated with one of its uses. The 2020 Integrated Report includes 614 impaired water bodies with elevated bacteria accounting for roughly 34 percent of all impairments. One of the solutions to these statewide water quality issues is to restore healthy riparian areas by revegetating and/or stabilizing channels.

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Project Description

September 2017 – August 2027

Through several sequential projects with TCEQ the Texas Water Resources Institute (TWRI) coordinates the Urban Riparian and Stream Restoration training program which teaches participants to assess the functional status of streams and their riparian areas, and the impact of urban development on streams. Trainings are held in and around large urban centers such as Dallas, Houston, Austin, and San Antonio and target surrounding watersheds with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency-accepted watershed protection plans. The target audience for this program is engineering professionals, government employees, and water quality professionals.

In the first two projects (Sept 2017 – Feb 2021 and Sept 2020 – Aug 2023), TWRI also established a stream restoration demonstration at the Irma Lewis Seguin Outdoor Learning Center in Seguin, at which they revegetated sections of the Geronimo Creek bank to reduce erosion and associated sediment and pollutants entering the creek. TWRI conducted water quality monitoring to establish baseline data (various stream characteristics such as stream bank recession rate, bedload and suspended sediments rate in the stream, and bank erosion hazard index) prior to restoration and to assess the effectiveness of revegetation in reducing pollution and erosion. TWRI compared these measurements to a section of the stream that was not revegetated.

In the third project (Sept 2024 – Aug 2027), along with the education programs TWRI will monitor a streamside management zone along Wolf Pen Creek in the Navasota River watershed. The team will work with project site groundskeeping teams to establish a no-mow area and will conduct one native planting event. Erosion pin transects will be installed to monitor the management measures effect on reducing stream bank erosion. TWRI will compare the results to a section of the stream that has no active management will be performed.

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For More Information

Urban Riparian Stream Restoration Program webpage

To find out more about the NPS Program, call 512-239-6682 or email us at nps@tceq.texas.gov.

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