The Cooper Creek Collaborative is a partnership of organizations and community members who have come together to restore our creek. We are working to rebuild a healthy natural stream system to be enjoyed by our community and local wildlife. Our efforts will also protect private and public property from excessive streambank erosion and reduce downstream flooding. The Collaborative is harnessing resources from national, regional, and local partner organizations to invest in our community and our creek.
To learn more about our creek and the work that the Collaborative has planned in the community, please access the information and resources provided via the links at the top of the page.
To learn more about our creek and the work that the Collaborative has planned in the community, please access the information and resources provided via the links at the top of the page.
What’s a Watershed?
A watershed is the land area from which rainwater drains to a specific location. The Cooper Creek Watershed encompasses all the land that drains to the mouth of Cooper Creek, where it flows into Mill Creek. The way we manage our land has a huge impact on the health of our creek.
A watershed is the land area from which rainwater drains to a specific location. The Cooper Creek Watershed encompasses all the land that drains to the mouth of Cooper Creek, where it flows into Mill Creek. The way we manage our land has a huge impact on the health of our creek.
Explore the Cooper Creek Watershed?
Use the Google Map below to explore the Cooper Creek watershed (expand to full page in another tab by clicking on the upper right corner of the map).
Use the Google Map below to explore the Cooper Creek watershed (expand to full page in another tab by clicking on the upper right corner of the map).
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Note that the yellow polygon shows the boundary of the Cooper Creek Watershed and the red polygon, the Demonstration Watershed, is a sub-watershed located within the Cooper Creek Watershed.
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News Feed:
Deer Park High School Rain Garden Installed :
Restoring our creek & educating our students
The Cooper Creek Collaborative (a group of organizations working to restore the Cooper Creek) and Green Umbrella (a regional sustainability alliance for the Greater Cincinnati area) have teamed up to install a rain garden at Deer Park Jr/Sr High School. The rain garden will reduce the impact of the School’s footprint on Cooper Creek and serve as an educational tool to teach students about hydrology, ecology, and how human activities can impact our local environment. The rain garden was funded with a grant Green Umbrella received from the Duke Energy Foundation. It was installed by staff from OKI Regional Council of Governments, Metropolitan Sewer District of Greater Cincinnati, Mill Creek Alliance, and Hamilton County Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD).
The rain garden was designed by the SWCD’s Stream Specialist and Coordinator of the Cooper Creek Collaborative. The rain garden is located between the tennis courts and the back-parking lot of the school. It captures stormwater runoff coming from three tennis courts and allows the rainwater to slowly soak into the ground, rather than flowing straight into the storm sewer system which would quickly route the water to Cooper Creek, contributing to highly erosive flashy urban flows in the creek (to learn more about this problem visit www.CooperCreek.org). The native plants in the rain garden were carefully selected to maximize the proportion of the year when flowers and fruit are available to pollinators and other wildlife.
One of the SWCD’s educators will work with Deer Park science teachers to develop lesson plans that utilize the rain garden to make abstract concepts observable and relatable. The rain garden will serve as a reminder of these lessons as students continue to see it from day-to-day and year-to-year. Students can recreate aspects of the design process for applied lessons in hydrology and geometry. The native vegetation in the rain garden will create opportunities for lessons in ecology and how human alteration of the landscape impacts the wildlife who are able to survive in these landscapes (e.g. birds and insects). Additionally, Green Umbrella is working on creating a permanent educational sign to be installed beside the rain garden, so the education component can extend beyond the classroom and into the community.
The rain garden was designed by the SWCD’s Stream Specialist and Coordinator of the Cooper Creek Collaborative. The rain garden is located between the tennis courts and the back-parking lot of the school. It captures stormwater runoff coming from three tennis courts and allows the rainwater to slowly soak into the ground, rather than flowing straight into the storm sewer system which would quickly route the water to Cooper Creek, contributing to highly erosive flashy urban flows in the creek (to learn more about this problem visit www.CooperCreek.org). The native plants in the rain garden were carefully selected to maximize the proportion of the year when flowers and fruit are available to pollinators and other wildlife.
One of the SWCD’s educators will work with Deer Park science teachers to develop lesson plans that utilize the rain garden to make abstract concepts observable and relatable. The rain garden will serve as a reminder of these lessons as students continue to see it from day-to-day and year-to-year. Students can recreate aspects of the design process for applied lessons in hydrology and geometry. The native vegetation in the rain garden will create opportunities for lessons in ecology and how human alteration of the landscape impacts the wildlife who are able to survive in these landscapes (e.g. birds and insects). Additionally, Green Umbrella is working on creating a permanent educational sign to be installed beside the rain garden, so the education component can extend beyond the classroom and into the community.
5/26/2020 Final day of installation
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6/4/2020 Collecting rain water...doing it's job...
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Cooper Creek in the news!
The Cooper Creek Collaborative was highlighted in the USEPA'S Science Matters newsletter. Click on the image below to read the full article.
Cooper Creek Drone Flyover at Bechtold Park
Partners
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*The National Homeland Security Research Center of the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Water Infrastructure Protection Division is participating in a collaborative effort to integrate and retrofit urban stormwater infrastructure networks with technology to improve water quality and moderate flows. EPA’s interest in the retrofit project is associated with its potential as pollution containment/treatment infrastructure in the event of a large-scale contamination event (such as an industrial spill or in the aftermath of a terrorist attack or natural disaster). This collaboration will investigate ways to install pollution absorption media upstream, downstream, or in-line with stormwater system flow control devices. Options will also be explored for methods and procedures for closing-off portions of the network in response to large-scale contamination events to prevent further spread of the contamination. USEPA will supply and install experimental pollution absorption media and associated housing infrastructure. Additionally, EPA will install equipment for real-time, cloud-based monitoring of stormwater discharge and flow control operations.