The Cabin Branch Stream Restoration project was designed to restore the headwaters of Saltworks Creek and treat highly polluted runoff from the adjacent shopping mall and warehouse store complex. The project is located in an urban area encompassing seven corporate properties and a high concentration of impervious surface and stormwater runoff. 

 

Cabin Branch features three distinct prototype demonstrations for the Regenerative Design approach. First, a Legacy Sediment Removal End-of-Pipe restoration restored the upper 750 linear feet of stream into a system of cascades, riffles, and vegetated pools flowing through a valley ringed by fill and bisected by a filled utility right-of-way. In order to accommodate the fixed elevations of the existing culverts thousands of cubic yards of sediment were removed, which provided the space to construct the riffles and pools at the appropriate elevations. The second part of the project was a retrofit of a Stormwater Dry Pond identified in the Anne Arundel County Watershed Implementation Plan (WIP) as in need of conversion to current practices. The landscape was to capture water from the adjacent parking lot and channel it through 490 linear feet of pools, cascades, and seeps before flowing into the stream. Third, a Sand Seepage RSC raised the invert of the incised stream channel and established riffles and berms to reconnect 500 linear feet of the stream to the floodplain. The total project extends 1,740 linear feet.

   

Cabin Branch RSC quickly became a demonstration project since it is located in a highly visible area with ample parking. Representatives from the Anne Arundel County Department of Public Works, Maryland Department of Natural Resources, Maryland Department of the Environment, Army Corp of Engineers, Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services, the Maryland State Senate, and many others have participated in tours of this project and continue to visit the site regularly. The project won 

Best Urban BMP in the Bay Award (BUBBA) for Best BMPs in a Series in 2014.