Watts Branch Stream Restoration-In Progress!!!

The Watts Branch watershed covers an area that is roughly 2,400 acres with 47% of the watershed with the borders of the District and the remaining 53% of the watershed upstream in Maryland. Years of urbanization and suburbanization has caused the stream to degrade over time. After a thorough assessment, design, and planning process The Watershed Protection Division of the District Department of the Environment will be breaking ground on a 1.75 mile stream restoration project on the Watts Branch tributary of the Anacostia River in December 2010. The first phase of the project began in October 2010 with invasive species control work taking place along the entire stream corridor from Southern Ave. to Minnesota Ave. NE. This project involves a partnership among the District Department of Parks and Recreation, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Natural Resources Conservation Service of USDA. The stream restoration will reshape the channel using natural channel stream design techniques to reduce channel erosion, create pools and riffles to support aquatic life, and reestablish streamside vegetation through the plantings of 10,000 trees and shrubs in the riparian corridor.

In addition to stabilizing the stream banks through re-grading and the planting of an extensive riparian corridor the stream banks will be further stabilized by the installation of rock structures such as cross vanes, j-hooks, and double winged deflectors to help keep the high velocity flows in the center of the channel and off the banks in both straight and curved stretches of the stream. These structures will help improve both habitat conditions associated with the streams while also protecting infrastructure in and near the stream.

Upon completion of the project and over the ensuing years after completion there will be an aesthetically pleasing stream corridor filled with native riparian plant species that will both help reduce erosion and provide habitat for wildlife. This project will not only improve the environmental health of the stream but will also complement an array of District Government and local non-profit work in Marvin Gaye Park which includes but is not limited the construction of a bike trail that parallels the stream, sewer line replacement work along the stream valley, native tree plantings and low impact development projects throughout the watershed, and a local green jobs training program along the stream corridor.