DURHAM, N.C. – The Durham Soil and Water Conservation District has honored the 91 Wetland Center with a 2009 Gold Star Award for environmental achievement.

The award was presented to Curtis J. Richardson, director of the center, at a ceremony on May 1. It recognizes the center for “outstanding stormwater treatment through the creation of the Stream and Wetland Assessment Management Park (SWAMP).”

SWAMP is a 14-acre restored wetland-stream-lake ecosystem located along a stretch of Sandy Creek in Duke Forest, at the edge of Duke’s campus. Prior to its restoration, the site was so heavily eroded and degraded by stormwater runoff that it no longer functioned as a healthy wetland.

“Its ability to sop up pollutants and act as a wildlife habitat was significantly impaired. Essentially, it had become a straight chute for pollution,” says Richardson, professor of resource ecology at Duke’s Nicholas School of the Environment. Sandy Creek is a tributary of New Hope Creek, which flows into one of the region’s major drinking water reservoirs.

By re-contouring and replanting the degraded Sandy Creek ecosystem and constructing a new earthen dam and a four-acre stormwater reservoir below it, Richardson and his colleagues reduced nitrate levels flowing downstream into the drinking water supply by 64 percent, and phosphorus levels by 28 percent, at a cost of about $2 million. “Compared to the costs of other water-treatment options,” he says, “that’s a solid return on investment.”

Species diversity in the restored ecosystem also is improving. Field surveys done prior to and after restoration show that the stream today provides habitat for two new orders and five new species of aquatic insects, with a total of more than 90 species now found there.

“The return of macroinvertibrates is one of the first signs that you’ve done the job right,” Richardson says. “We’re also seeing species of birds and mammals that haven’t been spotted at the site in years.”

In addition to its roles as a pollution buffer and wildlife habitat, the restored ecosystem serves as an outdoor classroom, training center and field laboratory.

Hundreds of students from the Nicholas School, the Pratt School of Engineering at Duke, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics and other area universities and schools, as well as staff members from the North Carolina Museum of Life and Science, attend classes and take part in hands-on training sessions there.

Researchers from numerous local institutions use the site to conduct studies on biological diversity, hydrology, water quality, mosquito control, invasive plant species and other environmental concerns.

“What we learn here will benefit wetland and stream restoration projects nationwide,” Richardson says. “SWAMP provides a unique opportunity to train students on real-world restoration techniques and modern hydrologic modeling approaches, as well as basic principles of stream, lake and wetland ecology.”

Signs along the Al Buehler Trail, which crosses and then parallels a section of SWAMP, educate the public about the role wetlands play in environmental health.

Future plans call for the restoration of a second tributary of Sandy Creek, upstream from the current project. After that, Richardson hopes to investigate the possibility of expanding the project to two additional tributaries, both of which have headwaters near a Durham elementary school, so that the entire Upper Sandy Creek watershed eventually is included.

“Our goal is to ‘green’ the entire stream-wetland system on campus and aid the City of Durham and Durham County in improving water quality,” he says.