DAPHNE, Ala.—“Sediment is the No. 1 problem,” Ashley Campbell, the city’s site containment inspector, said.

That’s why the D’Olive Comprehensive Watershed Management Plan aims to deal with issues in the D’Olive and Tiawassee creeks, where erosion causes problems like turning water bodies into mud banks and harming the natural flow of water from Eastern Shore tributaries into Mobile Bay.

Campbell explained that water from TimberCreek, U.S. Interstate 10, Baldwin County 31, Tiawassee and D’Olive Creeks and Lake Forest Lake are part of the watershed that flows into Mobile Bay. A collaborative effort by the cities of Daphne and Spanish Fort, Baldwin County, Mobile Bay National Estuary Program and others has begun collecting research, stopping erosion and searching for grants and other funding.

Planning, projects and funding, are the necessary steps, according to Campbell. Environmental concerns must be researched so that data collection can lead to area-specific erosion-control designs; these steps must be completed before funding can be sought for a project.

The project should be completed by July 2010, according to Glen Coffee of Thompson Engineering. He said in the team’s contract literature, “initial efforts will be devoted to collecting and compiling information from existing studies, reports, data, etc. developed to date for the D’Olive Watershed.

“Field visits will also be conducted to characterize existing known problem areas and identify possible new areas of concern within the watershed’s streams caused by accelerated surface runoff and sedimentation resulting from land-use changes.

The information will be used to evaluate the types of corrective projects that could be pursued to restore and improve the watershed’s streams; special attention will given to addressing sedimentation issues affecting Lake Forest Lake and the Lake Forest Yacht Club, he said.

The watershed management planning team will hold its first public meeting at 8: 30 a.m. Aug. 27 at the Lake Forest Country Club. Meetings will be held once a month or every two months thereafter, she said.

Meetings are open to the public; the team hopes to hear concerns from citizens and to educate the public on what they can do to help.

It will take on one project at a time as funding becomes available, according to Campbell.

Work is nearly complete on the D’Olive Creek area—the first of many projects. Excesses of storm water had flooded through culverts under U.S. Interstate 10 during hurricanes Gustav and Faye. The city of Daphne and others worked to stop erosion by temporarily re-routing the water and placing rocks, stumps and erosion control blankets in the area.

They also used a type of erosion control blanket that helps hold soil in place so that grass can grow again—then the grass will naturally hold the soil in place, Campbell said.

Some large stumps were buried at the stream’s edge to help hold soil, she said. They’ve also created habitats for fish and wildlife to live in the recesses and safety created by the stumps.

She said they used a gradation process to step the water down gradually instead of allowing the water’s force to cause extreme erosion and carve out a gorge. They placed boulders in a semi-circular shape to pull water toward the center; this should deter flow from the outer banks, which causes further wash-out, she said. This also created habitats with the small pools where fish can live.

“I haven’t seen fish here for years until we did this,” she said.

Between November and January they plan to replant native trees and shrubs to further help control sedimentation at D’Olive Creek, she said.

Gena Todia, an environmental consultant with Wetland Resources, will head up the project.

“We’ll re-establish a native plant community with natural species that would be there in a natural condition,” she said. “We need plants to keep the soil in place; they provide wildlife habitat and will be more aesthetically pleasing in that many of these areas are in subdivisions.”

They will plant such species as red maple, Tupelo gum, tulip tree and sweet bay magnolia.

Erosion flow from D’Olive and many area tributaries has helped cause sedimentation in Lake Forest Lake; many of these sites and issues are tied together like dominoes, Campbell said.

Sedimentation impacts are as follows:

“The root of the problem is storm-water run-off—we have a greater volume of impervious surfaces,” Todia said. “They (owners) can minimize impervious surfaces by choosing a gravel driveway instead of a paved one; building rain gardens to capture as much run-off as we can; and retention areas need to be designed and maintained properly.

“Leave natural areas with trees because root systems absorb a lot of that water.

Campbell said change is in the air.

“Seeing the difference is exciting,” she said, noting the measures taken at D’Olive Creek.

“Everybody’s coming together as a team—we’re going to really see a difference,” she said.