Coastal Resilience and Stream Restoration at Eagle Harbor

A historically Black waterfront community enhances resilience by restoring a degraded stream, thus reducing flooding, enhancing habitat, and improving the quality of water flowing into the Patuxent River

Incorporated in the late 1920s as a resort community for Black families from the Washington, D.C., area, Eagle Harbor is situated on the shores of the Patuxent River, a major tributary to the Chesapeake Bay. Faced with issues of ongoing erosion and increasingly intense and frequent flooding, the Town of Eagle Harbor launched the Eagle Harbor Resiliency Project. The project called for the restoration of Coleman Creek, a tributary to the Patuxent that had become eroded and degraded by stormwater from surrounding development.

With funding from the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, the Town turned to Biohabitats for help in designing and building the restoration of 1,400 linear feet of Coleman Creek. The project was then expanded to 3,100 linear feet by GreenVest LLC to delivery sediment TMDL credits to Prince Georges.

After conducting comprehensive ecological assessments of the creek, Biohabitats developed restoration design. Crafted in collaboration with the Town and construction subcontractor Meadville Land Service, the design involved the use of wood harvested on-site within the headwaters to enhance system’s stability and ecology while also slowing down and storing storm flows. Channel-spanning log jam grade control structures hold normal baseflow water surface just below the floodplain. The use of wood for grade control results in a resilient, low carbon, nature-based restoration solution. Within the lower portion of the project, a newly excavated broad, shallow wetland/stream complex attenuates storm flows to further reduce flooding in the community.

The restoration enhances resilience by stabilizing banks, improving water quality and habitat, and reduce flooding.

TAGS

• Assessment+Monitoring
• Design
• Climate Adaptation + Resilience
• Ecological Restoration