- [Rossie] This is what we think rivers should look like, straight lines and deep banks.

But actually, left to their own devices, they look way more chaotic.

They curve and twist and flood their banks and all that chaos is great for animals and for us.

Traditionally we don't allow rivers to run free.

So this creek behind me is an example of something we don't want to see.

It's like really steep banks.

The water just rushes through really quickly.

It doesn't come out and flood the floodplain.

It's just functioning basically like a pipe.

But all that is about to change.

There's a big construction project coming which will hopefully fix five miles of stream in this watershed and transform it into a healthy thriving ecosystem again.

And scientists want to know will it actually work?

To answer that question, we need to know what animals are living here now and what will be here when the project finishes?

- So I'm gonna bait the traps with a little bit of rolled oats, sunflower seeds because the rodents love this.

[seeds clattering] - [Rossie] We're here with Radmila Petric a researcher at UNC Chapel Hill.

She's setting out traps to see what small mammals are living here in the Stinking Quarter Tributary.

It's a network of streams that eventually flow into Jordan Lake, a drinking water reservoir that serves around a million people.

Landowners straightened these streams decades ago using state and federal grants.

The goal was to drain water more quickly from farmland.

While it did create more acreage for farmland, it completely destroyed the ability of this stream to filter water and support wildlife.

The construction crew will completely rebuild this section, adding curves and planting the banks with native trees and herbaceous plants.

This will hopefully slow the water down and allow more time for microbes and plants to break down pollutants and create habitat for wildlife.

This method has been used for decades to fix stream and river ecosystems.

- And one of the things that has been grossly understudied is these mitigation projects, we really don't know how effective they are.

We're looking at mammals, we're looking at birds, reptiles, macro invertebrates, as well as water quality and seeing how this is all changing.

Because we're going to monitor for seven years after the mitigation takes place, we're gonna really look at the long-term effects.

And so this is something that has not been done.

- [Rossie] Projects like this are expensive so it's important to understand how they can work better.

Even down to details like which plants they choose for the project.

- Are we planting enough pollinator species?

Because a lot of the plants I look at have like two or three flowering species and that's really not enough for, you know, pollinators.

We really need to add some diversity to it.

- 37 empty.

- [Rossie] One of the things they look for is the balance of native and invasive species.

More native species generally means a more balanced ecosystem.

For example, we found two native field mice which is actually a good sign.

- Our native species are excellent seed dispersers.

They aerate the soils, they're an important food source for lots of the other animals that we have around here.

And basically it maintains a very healthy balance of an ecosystem.

And look how beautiful their little ears are.

- [Rossie] And we also ran into this species, canis lupus familiaris, AKA, somebody's lost dog, Jake.

- Where are your owners?

- [Rossie] Don't worry.

We called his owners and they came to get him.

- That's a bad place to go.

Come here, love.

Come here, it's okay.

- [Rossie] You can see how much trouble Jake had getting out of the stream, AKA, ditch.

Imagine all the other animals trying to use this space and failing.

- I mean they're steep in that not much can go in and out.

Like if you have salamanders, there's not much opportunity for them to, you know, go out and, you know, breed.

- The team is also collecting wildlife data here on another section of the Stinking Quarter Creek that will eventually be restored.

The biggest issue here is the cows.

[cow moos] Okay, so this is a spot that's gonna need some work.

You can see that like cows are coming through here all the time, stomping on the banks, pooping everywhere.

So it's really pretty down here but it's actually a pretty good example of what we don't wanna see.

The restoration team will fence out the cows and stabilize the banks with native vegetation.

They'll also be creating a wetland here right next to the stream.

This field used to be a wetland until it was drained with these large ditches that run through it.

So the restoration team will plug the ditch and allow the water to stay on the land.

- Wetlands are absolutely fantastic at filtering out a lot of these pollutants that we don't want to have in our clean drinking water.

They're important breeding grounds for so many different animals including amphibians and lots of birds.

Many mammals rely on them and so it's an important foraging ground, for example, bats, which I love, I'm clearly biased.

- I'm really excited about this project.

We'll be checking in for part two to see how the landscape has changed after the restoration happens.

And of course we'll have that long-term data from Olivia and Radmila to tell us how the wildlife is responding to these big changes.

- This is why it's really important to do these monitoring projects, not just like a snapshot of one year but over a longer period of time, so we can truly understand how the mitigation is influencing the entire ecosystem.

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