The Other Linnean Restoration Project

by Marlene Berlin

When it rains, it pours… flowing just below Albemarle Street, at the edge of Linnean, and into Soapstone Creek. So the District Department of the Environment is doing another natural restoration project in our area: the Linnean Gully Project.

It is very similar to the Linnean Playgound stream restoration except it deals with much steeper terrain. This project will stabilize the slope that is being eroded by the storm water that gushes into Soapstone during rain storms.

DDOE says the Linnean Gully project is similar to this one, at the Anacostia’s Pope Branch tributary. Here you see the results as of winter 2012, before the vegetation grew back in around it. (both photos courtesy of Steve Saari, DDOE)

This agency just finished a similar project on the site of the Peruvian Embassy, which is part of the Broad Branch stream daylighting project. Steve Saari, DDOE’s watershed protection specialist, reassured me that it will be difficult to tell there was any construction. It will blend into the natural features of the area.

Another view of the Pope Branch conveyance project, looking down.

According to Steve, these projects are call regenerative storm water conveyance because “they are in theory self-regenerating and function better over time…. They require little maintenance but help treat and reduce stormwater pollution to the receiving body of water – in this case Soapstone.”