University of Washington Bothell/Cascadia Community College Co-Located Campus, North Creek Riverine Ecosystem Restoration Project

The University of Washington Bothell/Cascadia Community College - North Creek Riverine Ecosystem Restoration Project is located in Bothell, Washington. This project involved ensuring compliance with the Washington State Higher Education coordinating Board’s mandate to maximize environmental goods and services on new construction. At UW Bothell, the solution was to restore the degraded North Creek ecosystem, by moving the main channel of North Creek out of its leveed, straightened and degraded channel and reconnect North Creek to its historic floodplain by constructing a new channel system. The overall project goal was to restore the suite of hydrologic, biogeochemical, plant community, and faunal support/habitat functions that the North Creek ecosystem performs.

L.C. Lee & Associates Inc. (LCLA) led the stream restoration design team through all phases of the project. We were hired by the state of Washington Higher Education Coordinating Board/NBBJ to participate in the site selection and pre-design phases of Master Planning for the new campus. Several possible alternative sites were reviewed for environmental impacts by LCLA, and after a thorough review of existing sites, the lower North Creek site was chosen as the preferred alternative.  LCLA then worked with the State and campus design team to minimize impacts waters/wetlands. We developed a mitigation/restoration package, participated in intensive public review and vetting proceedings, and obtained all necessary environmental permits to allow construction of the campus to proceed on schedule. LCLA then helped finalize construction drawings and specifications, and worked side by side with construction and landscape crews to complete all earthwork, log jam construction, planting and weed control. LCLA also oversaw all sediment and erosion control systems for the entire project.

The UW Bothell project involved the restoration of 58 acres of floodplain wetlands and the relocation of approximately 5,000 ft of stream channel from a straightened and leveed channel to a newly constructed meandering channel system. The restoration design was guided by use of and ecosystem approach that relied upon local and regional reference systems. Floodplain restoration included the creation of complex microtopography and re-establishment of native forested, scrub-shrub, and emergent plant communities. Large wood was used in both the channel and floodplain. LCLA also managed an onsite nursery for propagation of native plant materials to augment nursery stock purchased from regional plant nurseries. Construction was completed in July 2002.  LCLA also conducted the first two years of compliance monitoring and maintenance oversight for the University of Washington and Cascadia Community College.