OCTOBER 16, 2008 issue
Creekkeepers
Kraut Creek Committee Celebrates Restoration of Portion of Kraut Creek
Story by Sam Calhoun
On Tuesday, October 14, members of the Kraut Creek Committee gathered behind the ASU parking lot beside Café Portofino in downtown Boone to celebrate the restoration of 235 linear feet of Kraut Creek.
“This is just the beginning,” said Kraut Creek Committee member Nancy Reigel.
The idea to restore Kraut Creek came from an ASU class project in 2004. The North Carolina Clean Water Management Trust Fund subsequently provided the funds for a feasibility study that identified three potential demonstration projects for creek restoration—the area near Café Portofino, an area adjacent to Jimmy Smith Park and Raley Parking Lot and an area behind Varsity Gym.
“The feasibility study created a disciplined approach to how the creek was going to be restored—a vision that property owners are buying into,” said Reigel.
When work began on restoring the riparian buffers along the creek this summer, two landowners agreed to let workers restore the creek behind their respective businesses, enlarging the original size of the first demonstration project to 235 linear feet.
“Look around; this is a functional stream now thanks to this collaborative effort,” said Kraut Creek Committee member Jana Carp. “This is not only a creek restoration but a bank restoration and stabilization.”
Members of the Kraut Creek Committee are Patrick Beville, Bunk Spann, Wendy Patoprsty, Nancy Reigel, Dan Meyer, Jana Carp, George Santucci, Lynn Caldwell, Stephen Phillips, Adam Williams and Ron Redmon.
“This was one of the most unique ventures taking place in the Town of Boone in quite some time. This was a group of people who got together and said ‘this needs to be done.’ They all volunteered their help and the result is incredible,” said Dan Meyer, president of the Boone Area Chamber of Commerce.
The group gave special thanks to ASU for taking the lead on the project and sacrificing some of its parking spaces near the demonstration site. The group thanked Adam Williams of Brushy Fork Environmental Consulting, Inc., who conducted the work on the creek for a discounted sum of money, and also thanked George Santucci and Lynn Caldwell of the National Committee for the New River for their guidance and support.
“While the National Committee for the New River was critical, this wouldn’t have been possible without the large sums of money borrowed from the [North Carolina] Clean Water Management Trust Fund,” added Santucci. The North Carolina Clean Water Management Trust Fund donated funds for the feasibility study, the first demonstration project and $500,000 for the upcoming demonstration project behind Varsity Gym. “The [North Carolina] Clean Water Management Trust Fund has donated around $750,000 to Kraut Creek so far,” he said.
“And let me just say that the National Committee for the New River has been part of restoring 65 miles of creeks and streams in the New River watershed and we’ve never had to work with so many people, and we’ve never found it this easy to reach a consensus,” said Santucci. “This is great.”
“And I want to say, this may not look like much now because it’s new. Plants will grow—just the fact that there are plants that will grow here is good enough compared to what it was,” said Carp.
“This doesn’t even resemble what it used to be,” said Meyer. “This was an ideal demonstration project; it’s a great day in every way.”
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