When it rains or snow melts, that runoff water needs to go somewhere. It flows over the land, and into the ground, and moves throughout the watershed until it reaches a body of water. One of the first stops for that runoff is a natural water storage system like a wetland. Here water is slowed and stored until it is able to calmly enter a river, stream, or creek. In wet times of the year like spring, streams naturally take on extra water. That extra water goes into the stream’s floodplain, or the area surrounding the stream that can take on water.

Over time, this natural system has been disrupted. Wetlands and other runoff storage systems have been lost, streams have been ditched and dammed and no longer have connections to their floodplains, and rain and snowmelt events are becoming more frequent and intense. This has resulted in there being an excess amount of runoff water moving too quickly through watercourses. Fragile streambanks are unable to handle the extra water load and are eaten away by the turbulent water. This sends large amounts of nutrients and sediment downstream and into our lakes.