The main goal of this project was to restore a natural sandbar habitat located on the banks of the Arkansas River that collects and filters runoff from a large watershed from east Little Rock. Our team worked closely with city officials, the public, nonprofit organizations and specialists from various fields of expertise in river sandbar habitat restoration. The design included opening a manmade revetment which allows the river to flow into a 6' deep aquatic passageways into the sandbar. This channel creates prime aquatic spawning habitat for various indigenous species of the Arkansas River.
Other significant elements of this site include the boardwalks that hover just above the fluctuating water levels, creating viewing opportunities of the real life display of nature at work. The creation of an upper wetland area placed above the highly fluctuating water level allows native aquatic plants and trees to be on full display. A trash boom was added to collect trash from a 48" stormwater pipe emptying directly into the sandbar habitat. The trash is left in the boom for the public to see where our discarded waste goes and is periodically emptied and taken to the landfill.
The project site essentially functions as the kidney for the highly impervious urban fabric of downtown Little Rock by filtering the surface runoff from the eastern half of downtown. Polluted water, trash, and debris regularly find their way to the wetland. In addition to providing natural habitat for many of the species living along the river, the wetland allows for sediment collection and the settling of some impurities that may be found in the stormwater. The creation of this living outdoor classroom provides innovative insight with regard to stormwater management.
This outdoor classroom attracts nearly 200,000 local, national, and international visitors that walk its boardwalks yearly, but the most important visitors are the flora that embrace its banks and the fauna that utilize this restored habitat on a daily basis.
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