This content was developed with help from students on our Learning by Leading Museum Education team.

To provide multiple ecosystem benefits, students on our Learning by Leading Waterway Stewardship team are creating riparian (water edge) habitats around the newly constructed weirs throughout Phase One of the Arboretum Waterway Maintenance and Enhancement Project. Concrete and rock-filled, wire baskets (gabions) used to line the banks to provide erosion control. Those have been replaced with native rushes and sedges that provide erosion control, increase water and habitat quality, and enhance the beauty of the Waterway.

The roots of these plants bind to the soil along the banks and prevent it from being washed away, absorb pollutants that flow into the Waterway, and serve as a new habitat for many species. 

Egrets may soon be seen wading in the water edge (riparian) habitats created by our Learning by Leading Waterway Stewardship team.