2011
Wilson creek, like all streams, serves as a filter and regulator for the water coming through it and allows the water to go into the surrounding area slowly and more pure as opposed to an onslaught of liquid attacking it at once. The path of Wilson Creek remains similar to what it was 400 years ago before the onset of European settlers and the irrigation that followed. In 2003 the Bernheim Forest and the Universities of Louisville and Kentucky successfully petitioned for an Environmental Protection Agency grant. Much survey was done as to determine the original route of the creek before the European settlers arrived. From the data found researchers decided were best to place the routes so as to work with the already standing environment, not work against it. Biologist were called in to ensure that all life (fish, microorganisms and otherwise) were all around and in proper numbers. It does however become clear that to Bernheim it is important that “Wilson Creek is a stream with very good water quality….. This project helps ensure the stream’s future ability to purify water and maintain good habitat”. Ensuring that the end goal will and ought to remain a healthy environment and a sustainable environment for wildlife and people. As such Wilson Creek is being used as a workshop to teach locals about the importance of environmental protection and what homeowners on the property can do to properly care for the watershed around them.
“Snaking and Winding Again” Louisville.edu. University of Louisville. n.d. Web. Jun. 19 2011
Since the late 1700’s people have been altering Wilson Creek and its immediate vicinity. Sometimes simply diverting a bid of the creeks water flow into nearby crop fields other times far more extreme plowing straight through the area taking whatever trees and life that went with it. The Environmental Protection Agency gave 500,000 dollars to the cause. What is so impressive is the fact that “The restoration of Wilson Creek in rural …. Is being hailed as an unprecedented opportunity for engineers, biologists, arborists and landowners to see what happens when a stream is rebuilt virtually from scratch.” The magnitude of this work is being embraced by Art Parola the civil engineer in charge. The man who convinced Bernheim to take the extra effort to complete revamp the creek as opposed to repeating the normal vegetation and done policy. Explaining that the creek was incorrect and at a systemic level. After five years of preemptive research they finally decided to operate on the creek in its fullest. Even if for quite some time the renovation area looked more like a destruction site than it did a bed of creation. The local flora and fauna will take some years to completely regrow. Thus is the need for periodic checks.
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