Stream restoration near an urban environment

The 2025 Ohio Stormwater Conference kicked off its educational sessions on May 8, 2025.

Bradley Petru, MS, PWS, ISA-CA, principal & Columbus ecosystem restoration lead for Civil & Environmental Consultants Inc., gave a presentation on restoration of the Harroun Community Park Stream in the city of Sylvania, Ohio.

The project was in a watershed park setting, covering roughly 125 square miles.

Throughout the 1940's and 50's, the area around the stream remained rural, but in the 80's industry began to take over. The banks within the Ottawa River Watershed were quickly eroding. 

The company looked into tree assessments, wetland delineation, bedrock delineation, mussel surveys and a longitudinal profile. As far as mapping goes, the company did existing bankfull flow shear stress mapping and proposed bankfull flow shear stress mapping. With the mapping and assessments, the company came up with a design plan. The focus was on the bridge, gazebo, waterway, banks and a sewer line that ran diagonally across Ten Mile Creek.

“One of the most rewarding things is seeing people wanting to be in the water before the construction is even finished,” Petru said.

The project was done during the wet season, and experienced multiple flooding scenarios while construction was ongoing. Petru stated they experienced about five floods during a four month window.

“The grant dictated when I was going to build this,” Petru said, referencing the grant coming during the winter months.

Another issue was dealing with sewer lines that ran across the river. Petru highlighted the need for construction quality assurance and having the design and engineering team be apart of the construction.

Petru concluded by saying that the city will need to focus on watering and post construction care to see the full results of the planted vegetation.