Back to the Basics: Changing the Course of Stream Restoration Practices

America’s streams and rivers are the silent lifelines of the landscape. Biological and agricultural engineers who focus on stream restoration work to keep these environments healthy and stable. This past summer, more than 400 experts from all across the industry gathered for NC State University’s EcoStream: Stream Ecology and Restoration Conference in the rolling hills of Asheville, North Carolina, to reflect on how stream restoration has changed over time and where the practice is headed.

The Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering (BAE) has been involved in stream restoration since it began to take shape as its own discipline.

Restoring streams and waterways, a newer biological engineering concentration, has evolved over the years from man-made solutions to more nature-based solutions. NC State alumni and faculty have participated in leading this shift in the industry’s approach from rigid, concrete-focused stabilization to sustainable restoration. 

Nurturing Healthier Streams

Faculty and staff worked together to form the NC State Stream Restoration Program which works alongside state and federal agencies and restoration practitioners. Spearheaded by BAE Department Emeritus Professor, Greg Jennings, the program’s work led to government agencies adopting more environmentally sensitive approaches for stabilizing and restoring degraded streams throughout the state.

The BAE program also created training courses to aid the industry in adopting and implementing the new restoration approaches.

Since 1999, the BAE department has taught more than 100 courses training thousands of professionals from across the southeastern U.S. and beyond. The concepts were also integrated into the BAE graduate and undergraduate curricula.

Rebecca Stubbs, who earned her bachelor’s degree in biological engineering from NC State in 2015, now works as the practice lead on the stream restoration team for McAdams, a civil engineering and land planning firm in Raleigh. She says protecting streams is vital because “all runoff from rainfall eventually flows into a stream.”

Stubbs believes “investing in the restoration of degraded streams, wetlands and buffers is crucial for improving the quality of surface waters on which we all depend.”

For decades, the standard practice in stream restoration used structures like rock, steel and concrete to stop erosion. The overuse of this method often stabilized the banks at the expense of the ecosystem. Banks would become bare, which would affect the stream and surrounding areas. 

Natural resource professionals, researchers and engineers worked together to implement a new approach that prioritized working with the natural environment, rather than against it. 

Darrell Westmoreland, a BAE alumnus who has spent 30 years in the industry, has been involved in this transition since it took root. Westmoreland is the founder of North State Environmental, Inc., which has projects all across the country. He has collaborated with experts in wildlife biology, hydrology and aquatic ecology from numerous agencies, including  the North Carolina Department of Transportation, the Army Corps of Engineers and the national and state forest services. 

Interdisciplinary collaboration has been key to developing the discipline as new challenges appear. “I feel like we’ve really come a long way through the years of developing that happy spot between bioengineering, the green side of stream restoration, into what is also equally important, the civil engineering side of the industry,” Westmoreland says. 

Tangible Impact

For NC State, the best example of this change in approach is right on campus. Before 2002, the Rocky Branch Stream, which cuts through the university, was one of the state’s most polluted streams and suffered from heavy erosion and narrowing. 

Barbara Doll, an associate Extension professor and Extension specialist at NC State, led the charge to restore Rocky Branch Stream.

Under her guidance, the team restored the stream by emulating natural channels and creating a new floodplain. The result is a thriving system where native vegetation grows along a greenway, providing essential wildlife habitat and a scenic public space for students and visitors.

By prioritizing the replication of natural forms and habitats of streams, this project became a living example of how the new approaches could make lasting impacts. As Doll puts it, they now find examples of “stable, healthy environments and use them as a template to incorporate natural features into restoration projects.”

Sharing case studies like Rocky Branch helps keep collaborators informed on how to apply emerging techniques to their own projects. 

“Because stream restoration is a relatively young discipline compared to other engineering and design fields, conferences like EcoStream, along with trainings and workshops, are invaluable,” Stubbs says. 

Doll, who leads EcoStream, strives to improve the “science and performance of stream restoration” through collaboration. She believes there should always be a line of communication between biological engineers, policymakers, researchers and scientists so that the discipline can continue to shape itself around emerging issues. 

This high-level involvement ensures that cutting-edge academic research directly informs professional practice and regulatory decisions. Through this comprehensive effort, NC State is leading by example, providing a space to share findings and develop stream restoration  methods to fit the changing landscape.