Having fun looking for aquatic life!
NCDOT making great improvements!
A small crayfish found in the stream.
Checking the water quality in the stream.
Volunteers helping to clean Little Alamance Creek in our 2016 clean up.
Volunteers cleaning up Little Alamance Creek at our 2017 clean up.

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The Little Alamance Creek Healthy Streams Cooperative intends to promote community involvement and awareness about Little Alamance Creek (LAC) to improve the water quality within our community. The City of Burlington, the City of Graham, and NC Department of Transportation formed a partnership committed to restoring the health of the LAC Watershed. The project partners hope to educate the public on stormwater related issues and inform the community about the importance of water quality.  The restoration process involves fostering stormwater pollution prevention by creating a culture of environmental stewardship for stormwater mitigation and management now and into the future.

The Little Alamance Creek watershed is a highly developed urban watershed located in Alamance County, North Carolina, within the upper Cape Fear River Basin. The watershed is approximately 15.9 square miles in size and includes portions of the cities of Burlington and Graham. Little Alamance Creek flows southeast into Big Alamance Creek, approximately three miles upstream of its confluence with the Haw River.

Watershed
Infographic Image

Watershed

A watershed is an area of land that drains all the streams and rainfall to a common outlet such as the outflow of a reservoir, mouth of a bay, or any point along a stream channel. The word watershed is sometimes used interchangeably with "drainage basin" or "catchment."
Streambanks

Streambanks

A streambank consists of the terrain alongside the bed of the stream. The grade of the bank can vary from vertical to a shallow slope.
Buffers

Buffers

A stream buffer, also known as a riparian buffer, is the vegetated land adjacent to a streambank. These buffers are extremely important for streambanks. The vegetation stabilizes the banks and reduces erosion, which keeps the stream clean. The shade provided by the buffer keeps the water cool and supplies the necessary food and habitat for many aquatic organisms that live there. This supports biodiversity within the ecosystem, and leads to a healthy stream! If you would like to learn more, please go to our Stream Buffers page.
Aquatic Life

Aquatic Life

Aquatic life encompasses all living things that spend either all or a portion of their life in a body of water. This broad term includes fish, mollusks, benthic macroinvertebrates (such as stoneflies, mayflies, and caddisflies), and other insects. If you would like to learn more, please go to our Aquatic Life page.
Flow Rate

Flow Rate

Water flowing in streams comes from surface runoff from adjacent slopes in the land, from groundwater flow out of the ground, and from water discharged from pipes. As these waters combine in the stream the rate and amount of water increases. During rain events the flow rate is a major contributor to stream bank erosion.

Do I live or work in the watershed?

  • Watershed Area
  • City of Burlington
  • City of Graham
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