Taking Back the Farm: A Pilot Restoration Project at the Watershed Resource Education Center, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville.

Anthropogenic activities, such as the manipulation of natural stream channels and introduction of high impact land uses, can markedly damage freshwater stream morphology, ecology and water quality. The functional and desirable qualities of the ecosystems themselves are destroyed, as well as the natural cleansing ability of freshwater stream ecosystems, that depends in part on slowing velocity and purifying the water running through them. In the United States, urban and agricultural land use has led to higher nutrient loading, and allowed the proliferation of invasive species and subsequent losses in biodiversity. The reduction in these qualities leads to a decrease in functionality of freshwater streams, as well as decreased water quality downstream. The Crop, Soil, and Environmental Sciences Club at the University of Arkansas is forging a new path by participating in a pilot restoration effort of a freshwater stream heavily impacted by urban and agricultural land uses. The Watershed Research and Education Center (WREC) stream, recently adopted in a collaboration of several departments at the University of Arkansas research station in Fayetteville is the site of the restoration effort.  The WREC stream is the first research and education effort of its kind in the area.  The CSES Club is assessing and quantifying the current soil conditions and biodiversity of vegetation in the riparian area surrounding a road crossing of the stream.  Club restoration activities throughout the year have included the raising of native plant species from seeds in a greenhouse to planting of the mature plants at the site, as well as opportunities for students to learn valuable research and restoration techniques.  The goal of the WREC stream restoration by the CSES Club is to help establish baseline conditions at a heavily impacted freshwater stream and set an example for future efforts to restore similarly impacted stream systems.