Stream projects are one component of the NYC DEP Stream Management Program. The primary goals of stream management projects include water quality improvement through the reduction of bed or bank erosion and the associated turbidity and other pollutants, infrastructure and/or property protection (flood hazard mitigation), aquatic habitat enhancement and riparian restoration and/or protection. These locally-based demonstration projects support the education and training component of the Stream Management Program. Natural channel design principles are incorporated wherever possible into projects to ensure multiple benefits are achieved. For example, a bioengineering approach to streambank stabilization may be taken to provide aquatic habitat benefit in addition to bank stabilization.
Since the Stream Management Program’s inception in 1996, the DEP and its Soil and Water Conservation District Partners in Greene, Ulster, Delaware and Sullivan Counties have designed and constructed 65 full channel stream restoration projects, 25 stormwater and infrastructure projects, 60 streambank stabilizations, 3 floodplain restoration, 5 post-flood response projects and 236 riparian buffer projects restorations. Since 1996 Stream Management Program partners have improved natural channel stability over 24 miles of Catskill stream channel and planted over 115 acres of riparian buffer.
