Woodard Creek Restoration Project
The Pratt Museum has planned rehabilitation of Woodard Creek as an important part of its long-term site vision. Initial discussion of “daylighting” the creek began in 2007, and a concept plan of the museum grounds showing the creek removed from the existing culvert was circulated to the public in 2008. The development of a final design will be completed in cooperation with city planners, appropriate local and national regulatory agencies, and our architecture team. The community will have an opportunity for input on the draft design. Our intent is to develop a project that is both ecologically sound and responsive to the civic concerns of the city and other downstream property owners. Homer-based geophysicist Geoff Coble is the lead contractor on the project. We have just received notification on the success of our CIAP (Coastal Impact Assistance Program) grant intended to fund project planning and design. Work will proceed on the design and engineering for this project over the next couple of years.
Approximately 500 feet of Woodard Creek flows across the Pratt Museum’s property. During the construction of the current building, about 120 feet of the creek was diverted through a culvert to allow for the construction of the existing paved parking lot of the Museum. In addition, runoff from the museum roof and much of the paved parking was designed to discharge directly into the creek. As a project connected to the larger capital project for a new building, the Museum would like to remove this culvert, convert the asphalt area adjacent to the creek to pedestrian and garden space, and rebuild the creek bed and floodplain. A major goal of the creek rehabilitation will be to restore much of the lost wetland functions, including improving infiltration, restoring floodplain area, creating stream bank habitat, and reducing flow velocity at both low and high stages.
During the week of September 24, activity on the Pratt grounds will include soil testing for the capital building project as well as boring wells for the creek project. There will be some noise and disruption during the clearing and drilling activities.