NORTON ENGINEERING | WETLAND RESTORATION

	Norton Engineering LLC "Engineering a Better World" (937) 223-5848
		Consultants in Dayton, Ohio

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Beavercreek Wetland Restoration:

The Beavercreek Wetlands behind Phillips Park has been drying up over the recent years. Professor Jim Amon of Wright State University has been working to restore the wetland and asked Norton Engineering for some design assistance.

From time to time, we will offer pro-bono assistance for projects that benefit our local communities, especially when the projects don't receive much government funding. This is an example of one of those projects.

Pre-existing Dam

Several factors are responsible for the wetland drying up over the recent years. For one, silt is being carried down the creek during times of high flow and gets deposited in the wetland, raising the overall elevation of the wetland and making it harder for water to pass through and back into the Beavercreek. Also, the major rock dam downstream of the wetland's mouth has been deteriorated over time from natural and possible human factors.

In order to get more flow through the mouth of the wetland upstream, Norton and Professor Amon agreed on a plan to reconstruct the rock dam -which would raise the water level to a point where inflow into the wetland would be possible again in all seasons. Also, dredging out the "sandbars" in the wetland itself would help the water flow through the entire wetland as it is supposed to.

Dam After Rehab

Norton used computer modeling to get a more accurate prediction of how the water level would change in respect to changing the shape and elevation of the dam downstream. We also created scaled plan drawings for the area of interest and used some crude surveying to obtain elevations for some key points in the plan.

Wetland Area

The site will continue to be monitored closely throughout the wet and dry seasons. Because there are so many uncertainties in a project like this, time will be the best test of performance.

When engineering something that affects nature, it is good practice to make small changes at a time in order to get the positive results you want without causing an unexpected reaction that could cause new problems for the ecosystem. You can always make more adjustments as time goes on.