Shanley explains that detention ponds can be made into grassy soccer fields with dips and hills, wooded parks or even constructed wetlands. Enhanced detention sites boost land values by providing recreational benefits for communities, he says. Enough detention could completely offset the need for channelizing Clear Creek, but the community could lose the federally authorized funding that was explicitly designated for channelization. Woodrow explains that bayous like Clear Creek have both ecological and economic value. Riparian forests bordering streams provide habitat and cover for waterfowl, migratory birds and other wildlife.
Animals use the forested streamside corridors to move from one region to another.
If you channelize, it is the beginning of the end of all natural areas on the watershed. Although scientists have not studied how channelization will specifically affect the Clear Creek ecosystem, researchers have studied such impacts in other states. The water dynamics create patches of fast and slow water, riffles and pools that fish and invertebrates use. In channelized streams, says Benfield, increased water velocity disturbs the substrate, causes erosion and changes the habitat for aquatic organisms. Substantial numbers of shrimp are commercially harvested where Clear Lake opens into Galveston Bay.