Aiken's Hitchcock Woods Being Eroded By Runoff

Aiken's Hitchcock Woods Being Eroded By Runoff (Added: September 28, 2011)

0 Ratings | 25 Video Views

Credit: Kait Rayner

Runoff from recent storms is eroding land in Aiken's historic Hitchcock Woods. The city helped with a water catching system in the downtown parkways, but it's not enough. The problem is so huge, you have to see it to believe it. WJBF News Channel 6's Kait Rayner takes us into the canyon that gets deeper every time it rains.

By: Kait Rayner | WJBF News Channel 6
Published: September 28, 2011

Aiken, SC --

Aiken's historic Hitchcock Woods is among the largest urban forests in the nation, but what most people don’t see...is that it is also home to the natural phenomena...a sand river.

The efemeral stream only flows when it rains. Executive director of the Hictchcock Woods Foundation, Doug Rabold, says most of the water that flows through there comes from downtown Aiken.

Doug Rabold, Hitchcock Woods Foundation executive director: "We're seeing a community-oriented environmental problem that's destroying one of its very only resources. It's very unfortunate."

The water created canyons walls several stories high. Twisted tree roots couldn’t hold on and their dead trucks just lie there. Six months ago, a fence was put up to keep people out, and was planted in the ground. The canyon got bigger and now it hangs in mid-air over a cliff. Unless something more is done, sand river will continue to grow deeper and wider.

Kait Rayner, reporting: "The problem with erosion is that it gets worse over time. As water flows through sand river, it undercuts the canyon walls, which causes landslides that create the canyon."

Rabold says city efforts, like the Green Infrastructure Project, help. The parkways collect some of the water that flows downtown, but he admits it's a massive problem… and there's already a lot of damage done.

Rabold: "Hopefully, we can get our minds together and find the funding to expedite and accelerate this process, because the longer we wait, frankly, the more expensive it could potentally become."

Even you can help stop some of the water from running into Hitchcock Woods. You can create a water garden, a pond, or get a rain barrel...right in your yard. Rabold says every drop helps to save the woods.