Raleigh buried a network of streams and creeks. They could be making a comeback.

Most mayoral candidates urge action on issues such as taxes, crime and transportation, but Raleigh mayoral candidate Janet Cowell is adding a new cause – free the streams.

Cowell, a former city councilor, state lawmaker and state treasurer, now serves as president and CEO of the Dix Park Conservancy. Along with the city, she is working on the restoration of one such waterway, the portion of Rocky Branch, which runs under Western Boulevard and along the edge of the new, 308-acre Dix Park. As mayor, she would like to bring more streams and creeks currently buried or channeled into culverts back to their natural state.

Restoring that network would help “re-wild” Raleigh, she said, and help a city dealing with the stress of rapid growth to “get its meander back.”

It’s a good idea, but not a new one. Charlotte recently reclaimed its once neglected and polluted Little Sugar Creek and made it into a linear downtown park. Durham and Greensboro have undertaken similar efforts. But Raleigh has been slow to bring its buried or diverted network of creeks and streams into the open, a process that restoration experts call “daylighting” the waterways.

Raleigh is a prime candidate for such restoration. The city has 36 watersheds that feed into creeks and streams that eventually drain to the Neuse River. It also has a history of neglecting what should be a prominent natural dimension of a city that is otherwise known for its tree canopy and greenway trails.

Signs of that neglect are sometimes obvious and sometimes hidden. Crabtree Mall, built on a floodplain, sees its parking lots fill with water when Crabtree Creek overflows. In downtown Raleigh, creeks are routed through tunnels.

The flooding at Crabtree Mall inspired Bill Hunt to specialize in stormwater management. Hunt, a professor and extension specialist in N.C. State University’s Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, said restoring streams reduces flooding, a growing concern as climate change produces heavier rainstorms.

The restoration process is expensive, Hunt said, but it’s worth it, not only for flood prevention but for improving water quality, supporting wildlife and creating tree buffers that help cool urban areas.

There’s also a psychological benefit.

“The big thing of restoring these streams is connecting people back to water,” he said, “Water is an important part of the human condition. Having us see it more frequently in natural settings is really important.”

Barbara Doll, an N.C. State engineer who specializes in ecological restoration, helped restore the portion of the once badly polluted Rocky Branch stream that runs through N.C. State’s campus. Now the creek is buffered by trees and seeing a return of wildlife.

Doll said Raleigh is making strides on restoration, but needs to do more. She recalled during the pandemic seeing children out of school fishing and swimming in polluted waterways.

“It behooves us to make these environments the best they can be,” she said.

For Cowell, stream restoration is about bringing forward a dimension of Raleigh that still flows beneath its surface.

“Before we became a city of streets, the streets were made of water, a network of streams and creeks,” she said.

Transforming the city’s waterways from obstacles to assets should be part of a green agenda that Cowell said the city should “lean into.”

Raleigh is making headway. Its greenways make use of floodplains, the Rocky Branch is being restored, and the city plans to revive the Pigeon House Branch as part of a park along Capital Boulevard north of Peace Street.

But to fully bring Raleigh’s lost waterways back to their natural flow will require a city commitment to meeting the expense and volunteers to defray the costs of making and maintaining the improvements.

That the long-overlooked idea of stream and creek restoration will be part of this year’s mayoral discussion is a good start. The city would move forward by going back to nature.

This story was originally published March 28, 2024 at 12:25 PM.