NORTH CAROLINA
OPEN SPACES
RESILIENCY PROJECT
BUILDING RESILIENCY in NORTH CAROLINA
Open Spaces Resiliency Project (“OSRP”) is exploring the use of North Carolina open spaces to improve resiliency to drought and wildfires through a proven approach to stream restoration and stormwater management. This approach focuses on slowing, spreading, and storing stormwater to restore and expand the state's wetlands and flood plains through nature-based methods. OSRP’s stream restoration efforts are achieved using low cost, low impact techniques.
Get to Know Us
Process Based Restoration
OSRP’s initial projects use Low-Tech Process Based Restoration or "LTPBR," low-tech structures made from posts and tree limbs to slow water, trap sediment, reconnect streams to their floodplains, and restore wetland function.
Strategic live-stake plantings help rebuild natural processes, improve stream health, expand wildlife habitat, and encourage beavers to return and maintain these systems naturally over time.
Benefits of Natural Methodologies
Beavers once shaped rivers and streams by building dams that slowed water, created wetlands, stored groundwater, and supported rich biodiversity. These natural systems strengthened riparian habitats and improved the health of surrounding landscapes.
On government-owned lands, OSRP will create ecosystems through process-based methods that mimic beaver dams and encourage beaver migration to sustain the stream and wetlands.
OUR WORK
In the Broad, Catawba, French Broad, and New River basins of Western North Carolina, OSRP aims to implement hundreds of low-tech process-based restoration (LTPBR) structures. These low-cost, low-impact dams are constructed from natural materials to mimic the ecological functions of beaver dams. Drawing on the experience gained in western states, OSRP utilizes LTPBRs (BDAs) as a primary tool to restore watershed health and aquatic habitats.
Southern Conservation Partners (SCP) serves as OSRP's project partner and fiscal sponsor. SCP is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) service center that promotes partnerships and sponsors creative innovations to conserve, restore, respect and care for natural heritage resources in the southern U.S. SCP is a change-agent, sponsoring innovative approaches to conserve environmental resources and engage greater community involvement in protecting our natural heritage assets. In addition to its own directed projects, SCP serves as fiscal sponsor for projects led by others who need partnership with a nonprofit, public charity organization that is qualified to receive charitable donations and grants.
Southern Conservation Partners EIN: 47-2181285.