A historic city in Virginia is the site of a dam removal project that shows just how much we can do for the environment.
Blackwater Creek in Lynchburg was turned into College Lake with the construction of a dam in 1934, as The News & Advance reported in December. Over the years, the lake, on the campus of the University of Lynchburg, shrunk from more than 44 acres to 17.
It was a popular spot for recreation, but the dam also nearly collapsed during a major rainstorm and flood event in 2018, the newspaper reported. The lake was also polluted with agricultural and urban runoff, filling with vast amounts of sediment.
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Now, with the dam gone, a stream channel and wetland are being built. The project includes removing sediment, stabilizing the area, and creating an overlook from a former bridge, according to a city news release.
This includes moving 130,000 cubic yards of material, and the city will monitor the restored area for five years. The University of Lynchburg will then manage the stream, planting native species — wetland grasses, live stakes, trees, and vegetation — and removing invasive species, per The News & Advance.
"It's going to look worse before it looks better, but the idea is as we are implementing the vegetation and plantings and as we go through multiple growing seasons, it will begin to green up and it will begin to look a lot less like a construction site and much more like a stream valley as we more forward post-construction," project manager Erin Hawkins told the outlet.
The wetlands are expected to increase biodiversity, especially of amphibians and birds, The News & Advance reported, and there is hope that city regulations to mitigate erosion and control sediment will keep Blackwater Creek from feeding all that sediment that used to pile up in the lake to the James River and then the Chesapeake Bay.
The river is where Quaker abolitionist John Lynch founded a ferry in 1757, creating what became known as Lynchburg. The area, a bastion of Black history, had been home to the Monacan Indian Nation for over 10,000 years.
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