Jim Halley Pens Article for Land and Water Magazine

The current issue of Land and Water magazine features an article written by Jim Halley, a senior project manager with EcoEngineering, a division of The John R. McAdams Company. The article titled, North Carolina’s First Headwater Stream Restoration Project, describes how EcoEngineering was selected by the North Carolina Department of Environmental and Natural Resources Ecosystem Enhancement Program to develop a comprehensive restoration plan involving wetland and stream mitigation for an unnamed tributary flowing into Pembroke Creek in Chowan County. This project is the first headwater stream and wetland restoration project developed and constructed in North Carolina.

“Because there was no precedence set for such a project in North Carolina, we had to interpret new Corps guidance and develop our own design criteria for these important Coastal Plain ecosystems”, said Halley. “We wanted to reverse the detrimental effects of historical ‘ditching and draining’ and allow these headwater wetlands to re-establish. Now we have a site that improves water quality, provides a diverse habitat for local fauna, and does not impede adjacent land use.”

The 60-acre site located near Edenton consisted of 4,488 linear feet of headwater wetland corridor that needed to be restored, 18 acres of wetland that needed restoration and six acres that would benefit from enhancement. Construction on the project took place in 2007 and is currently in the second of five years of monitoring and is performing as designed. Vegetation is becoming established and the headwater wetland surface flow regime has been restored.

Land and Water is a national bi-monthly magazine published for contractors, landscape architects, consultants, engineers and government officials involved in natural resource management and restoration from the idea stage through project completion and maintenance. To view Halley’s story, visit www.landandwater.com.