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Watershed Planning
For more information, contact:
Cy Stober
Water Resources Manager
Malinda Ford
GIS Planner
Elizabeth Jernigan
Stormwater Outreach and
Education Coordinator
Yadkin River Basin • Roanoke River Basin • Haw River Basin • Deep River Basin
Yadkin-Pee Dee River Basin
The Yadkin-Pee Dee River Basin is the second-largest river basin in North Carolina, covering twenty counties totaling 7,213 square miles and 5,946 linear river miles. The river basin covers a diverse landscape from Blue Ridge Mountain headwaters to the expansive Charlotte metropolitan area, crossing much of the Piedmont region and including parts of the unusual ecology of the sandy Uwharrie Mountains. The topography, geology, and land use throughout the Yadkin River basin are diverse, presenting a patchwork of land uses, aquatic habitats (including trout-sensitive waters), and urban growth, and challenging the development of a uniform management strategy.
Current Projects:
Yadkin-Pee Dee River Basin Priority Watershed Atlas
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Final HUC Recommendations |
Planners in the Yadkin-Pee Dee River Basin now have a new tool to evaluate the river’s conservation and restoration priorities, thanks to a $51,000 grant from the 2009 American Reinvestment and Recovery Act. These funds supported a partnership among four Councils of Governments in the river basin to evaluate the basin’s 232 watersheds to determine their need for improvement or protection. Planning software was used to analyze publicly-available data describing land use and land cover in the river basin and estimate water quality in each watershed, with highly accurate results. This approach suggests that a simple and affordable approach to water quality planning for elsewhere in the Triad and North Carolina. To find out more, or to view the complete study, please visit the Yadkin-Pee Dee River Basin Priority Watershed Atlas homepage.
Lower Abbotts Creek Watershed Restoration Plan
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Abbotts Creek Arm of High Rock Lake |
11.7 miles of Abbotts Creek are currently listed as impaired for biological community: in-stream habitat is “support threatened” due to low dissolved oxygen. The Lower Abbotts Creek Watershed Restoration Plan relies upon a combination of public outreach, field work, GIS analysis, and computer modeling to establish a final report detailing policy recommendations, an implementation timeline, a detailed watershed assessment, and a project atlas listing the most significant restoration and mitigation sites in the area is the primary product of this project. To find out more about this plan, please visit the Lower Abbots Creek Watershed Restoration homepage.
Completed Projects:
Rich Fork Creek Watershed Restoration Plan
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Rich Fork Creek |
Rich Fork Creek is listed as impaired on the 2006 North Carolina 303(d) list for biological community, low dissolved oxygen, and fecal coliform. The Rich Fork Creek Watershed Restoration Plan identifies areas of concern and suitable sites for implementation projects. This Local Watershed Plan process included partnerships and stakeholder involvement, characterization of the watershed, identification of restoration opportunities, and creation of an implementation plan to carry out proposed projects. For more information on this plan, please visit the Rich Fork Creek Watershed Restoration Plan homepage.
