{"id":2812,"date":"2016-06-15T23:53:54","date_gmt":"2016-06-16T04:53:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.savebuffalobayou.org\/?p=2812"},"modified":"2017-07-13T12:36:40","modified_gmt":"2017-07-13T17:36:40","slug":"can-an-urban-stream-restore-itself","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.savebuffalobayou.org\/?p=2812","title":{"rendered":"Can An Urban Stream Restore Itself?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yes, With Room to Move. Free Rivers Are Healthier and Better for Flood Control<\/h3>\n

June 15, 2016<\/p>\n

Updated with August 2016, April 29 and July 11, 2017, photos of self-repaired Hogg Bluff<\/em><\/p>\n

By Susan Chadwick, Executive Director, Save Buffalo Bayou<\/p>\n

This article is adapted from a presentation made at <\/em>the Southwest Stream Restoration Conference<\/em><\/a> in San Antonio, Texas, on June 2, 2016.<\/em><\/p>\n

Save Buffalo Bayou is a non-profit organization founded two years ago to fight a public project described as a \u201crestoration\u201d project on one of the last natural stretches of Buffalo Bayou as it flows through the middle of Houston, past 1,500-acre Memorial Park and another 15-acre public nature preserve, the Hogg Bird Sanctuary. Since then our organization has expanded into broader, related issues. But today\u2019s topic is restoration.<\/p>\n

Here are some of the most common responses I would get when I would say that this mile-long plus stretch of the bayou is natural, along with what were some of the most common defenses of the project.<\/p>\n

\"Sandy<\/a>

Sandy bank on a meander of Buffalo Bayou in Memorial Park. Photo by Jim Olive on April 2, 2016<\/p><\/div>\n

The river\u2019s not natural because the river changes.<\/em><\/p>\n

It\u2019s not natural because it\u2019s been altered by high runoff from urbanization.<\/em><\/p>\n

Trees fall into it.<\/em><\/p>\n

It has terrible erosion problems. Look at those steep high banks!<\/em><\/p>\n

It\u2019s terribly eroded. Look at those sandy banks!
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

It\u2019s eroding terribly. Sediment from the banks in Memorial Park washes up on the sidewalks of Buffalo Bayou Park we built downstream in the floodway right next to the river.<\/em><\/p>\n

All that sediment carries bacteria. If we stop the banks from eroding so much sediment, we will reduce the bacteria.<\/em> (Although sediment-laden Buffalo Bayou is less polluted than White Oak Bayou, which runs relatively clear and extremely foul due to being encased in concrete.)<\/p>\n

And of course the big one: the river needs to be stabilized because it moves around.<\/em><\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s the argument, both implied and explicit, that prompted me to select this topic for presentation today: an urban stream cannot restore itself.<\/em><\/p>\n

A Profound Misconception About How Nature and Rivers Work<\/h4>\n

All of those statements, of course, indicate a profound misconception about nature, about how a river works and how rivers benefit us.<\/p>\n

A river is a living symbol of change. A living system. A dynamic process of nature that works for our benefit. Even the simple grains of sand work on our behalf to cleanse the water.<\/p>\n

Read the rest of this post.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yes, With Room to Move. Free Rivers Are Healthier and Better for Flood Control June 15, 2016 Updated with August 2016, April 29 and July 11, 2017, photos of self-repaired Hogg Bluff By Susan Chadwick, Executive Director, Save Buffalo Bayou This article is adapted from a presentation made at the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[231,52,18,29,289,361,252,17,223,41,317,160,50,241,168,244,274,288,325,53,163,77,116,310,225,240,285,379,327,266,16,264,309,164,78,341,51,194,271,286,291,88,213,1,54,380],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-altered","category-bacteria","category-banks-2","category-bayou","category-bayou-greenways","category-bluffs","category-buffalo-bayou-park","category-bulldoze-2","category-chadwick","category-cliffs","category-dams","category-demonstration","category-erosion","category-flood","category-flood-control","category-flooding","category-floodplain","category-floodway","category-flow","category-golf-course","category-hogg","category-kondolf","category-memorial-park","category-myths","category-nature","category-planting","category-pollution","category-rebuild","category-repairs","category-restoration","category-riparian-2","category-riprap","category-rivers","category-sanctuary","category-scientific","category-sea-level","category-sediment","category-sidewalks","category-smartweed","category-storm-water","category-sylvester-turner","category-talbott","category-turner","category-uncategorized","category-vegetation","category-widening"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.savebuffalobayou.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.savebuffalobayou.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.savebuffalobayou.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.savebuffalobayou.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.savebuffalobayou.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2812"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.savebuffalobayou.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2812\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3996,"href":"https:\/\/www.savebuffalobayou.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2812\/revisions\/3996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.savebuffalobayou.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.savebuffalobayou.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.savebuffalobayou.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}