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floods and encourages percolation. Natural vegetation also helps stabilize the banks by establishing roots deeper than the typical 3-inch turf rooting structure; many native grasses’ rooting structure ranges between 4-to-6-feet deep. When development is nearby, the

vegetation also helps absorb some of the excess lawn chemicals before they reach the waters. When excess phosphorous from fertilizers reaches the water it may cause excessive algae blooms, removing soluble oxygen from the water supply. Higher quality, beneficial water organisms cannot survive in the degraded waters. Desirable water organisms prosper from the presence of tree cover because of its cooling effects.

The benefits of protecting and restoring native plant communities along waterways include providing wildlife habitat, biodiversity, cleaner water and air, and less soil erosion. In addition, taller native vegetation offers a sense of safety and cover to wildlife as it migrates along the stream and river corridor. Providing safe migration corridors lessens conflicts between humans and wildlife.

Fragmented corridors put wildlife in harm’s way, causing interaction with humans on roadways, bike paths and private property. The stream corridors are the natural “road” network for wildlife.

A 2001 Midwest BioConsulting report concluded that Kiwanis Riverway Park was “one of the best remaining tracts of riparian habitat along the Scioto River in Central Ohio.” It noted the floristic diversity was impressive, specifically the endangered bottomland aster (aster ontarionis), threatened satin brome (bromus nottowayanus), potentially threatened white cedar (thuja occidentalis), sessile tooth-cup (ammannia robusta), and clasping heart-leaved aster (aster undulates), which was previously unrecorded in Franklin County. Kiwanis Riverway Park, with its boardwalk and trail system, serves as a fine example of integrating public access and education while preserving the delicate riparian corridor.

In addition to protection and improvement of water quality, stream corridor protection can result in the creation of greenways that allow for connections between destination points for humans and animals. Much of the existing stream corridor in Dublin is public land, with future developments anticipated to provide additional public stream corridors.

In October 2005 the City codified Stream Corridor Protection Zones (SCPZ) in its Storm Water Management and Stream Protection Code – Chapter 53 to preserve the riparian