After designing and grading were completed, volunteers from ECWA and the Watts-Hillandale neighborhood helped plant some 2000 native shrubs and wildflowers along its edges. The installation is now a featured stop on NC State educational tours. N.C. State and the staff at Hillandale Golf Course for their commitment to restoring Ellerbe Creek. Here, in a view from Indian Trail soon after planting, is the stormwater wetland's forebay, the first in the series of three 6 foot deep pools, separated by more shallow areas. Stormwater coming through the culvert under Indian Trail spills into the forebay, dropping most of its sediment there.
Maintenance consists of occasionally digging sediment out of the forebay.
Prior to planting. Here is the third pool, with spillway. The wetland holds back 6 inches of floodwater after a storm, which is then slowly released through the drawdown pipe mounted in the spillway. The more runoff that can be temporarily held in wetlands like this, the less flooding and erosion will occur downstream during storms.