Trout Brook Nature Center: Sanctuary & Stream Daylighting, Minnesota
The Capitol Region Watershed District (CRWD) selected Inter-Fluve and HR Green to conduct a feasibility study, develop concept and final plans, and oversee construction (2014) for day-lighting of 3,000 linear-feet of Trout Brook after decades of confinement within a storm sewer. Photo shows project in 2019, five years after construction.
The team assessed the ecological potential of the reconstructed stream and associated ponds and wetlands, and provided concept designs of a channel and floodplain that will function under short term hydrologic regime as a headwater, but long term as the lower portion of a much larger restored stream.
Designs were integrated into regional trails, interpretive overlook areas and park artwork. Photo shows the St. Paul skyline in the background of the project five years after construction.
The day-lighted reach of Trout Brook and floodplain restoration was an abandoned industrial site.
