This particular site had a polluted history: "Nine Mile Run underwent a $7.7 million restoration from 2003 to 2006. At the time, it was one of the largest #urban #stream #restoration projects in the United States.
Prior to the project, the stream had been known to locals as “Stink Creek.” Toxins leached into the creek from a slag heap — a 120-foot high pile of industrial waste — covering 238 acres along the stream."
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I love this so much: "Sewer lines discharged into the water, and much of the waterway had been diverted from its natural path.
This years-long effort to detoxify the #stream, led by the City of #Pittsburgh and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, included rerouting the stream channel by adding curves and ripple rocks to slow down the water and the rate of #flooding.
A decade and a half later, #fish and #beavers have continued the work of improving the surrounding #wetland environment."
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Park rangers are managing #beaver conflicts nonlethally: "To protect the trees they want Castor to stay away from, park rangers and conservation groups put protective cages around nearby trunks, prioritizing those that are young and native to the northeast, like oaks, aspens and maples.
#Invasive #species taking over the park’s #wetlands, like Tree of Heaven and Japanese honeysuckle, on the other hand, are fair game for Castor to munch on."
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Rachel Siegel