A HIDDEN GEM
This unnamed stream is in my immediate sub-watershed. It drains part of the OSU airport and my suburban neighborhood. It’s just under 1mi long with a drainage area of 630acres that has 43% impervious surfaces.
What is special about this stream is that at least a portion of it starts the “natural way” as a seep from groundwater. All other urban streams that I have followed to their source, started from underground sewer pipes. That’s why I call this stream a “hidden gem”.
How do I know it’s groundwater? The seeps are surrounded by skunk cabbage, and I had learned that skunk cabbage likes to grow near groundwater springs or seeps. This little treasure was hidden until recently by a thick honeysuckle cover, but its owners, Dublin Park Apartment Complex, removed honeysuckle in 2024 and did fairly extensive tree maintenance, removing dead limbs and grape vines. The entire stream corridor is forested and can be seen as a cool spot on Columbus’ heat map. I’m looking forward to finding mayapple later this spring like I did last year, and I’m curious about the owners’ continued restoration plan, because if let unattended, the honeysuckle will merrily grow back.
From that apartment complex, the stream crosses West Case Rd, flowing into a condo complex along Kingstree Dr and Barry Trace. Here the stream has formed a ravine that gets progressively deeper going towards the Scioto River. It becomes deep enough that some of the condos along the ravine have 2-story lower floor walkouts. The stream corridor has a good tree canopy, but the ground cover is mostly lawn.
Next, the stream flows on the south side of the multi-story “Scioto Ridge” apartment complex on the east side of Riverside Dr. The ravine is 50-60ft deep here. Sadly, the edge is totally overgrown with a dense honeysuckle thicket. In the winter, one can peek through and see a pretty, little waterfall at the bottom. And unfortunately, this is where the beauty of this stream ends. Not just one but two fat pipes (gas and sanitary sewer?) cross the ravine, and the bottom is full of trash where the creek dives in a culvert under Riverside Dr just north of the Hayden Run Rd Bridge.
Before flowing into the Scioto, the stream runs through a narrow strip of City owned land between Riverside Dr and the River. I tried to get a better look at the mouth of the stream, but the area is a true wasteland – extremely full of trash, overgrown by invasives and made impenetrable by fallen or cut down trees at the intersection by Hayden Rd Bridge.
There is another unnamed stream on the south side of Hayden Rd. It could be seen running from a pond near and behind what used to be Sawmill Athletic Club. Now there is a construction site for a big new multi-story apartment complex. It remains to be seen what happens to this stream once the construction is done. From there, that stream runs around Straders Garden Center, crosses Riverside Dr in a culvert and flows into the Scioto just south of the bridge. This stream is only partially mapped on the Franklin County Auditors website and is not differentiated on EPA’s StreamCat.
I find it very regrettable that we so obscure and abuse our urban streams. Outside cities in less disturbed landscapes, waterfalls are visitor magnets. For example, West Virginia has a “waterfall app” that guides tourists to different falls. Urban streams have nice features too, but they are obscured by trash & honeysuckle and not accessible, so nobody notices. If anybody cared and cleaned up, there could be a footpath into the ravine, or at least a nice view from the apartments.
The city owned strip of land along the Scioto River stretches all the way north to 161, but is interrupted by 3 private properties at Quarry Ln, a gated community. The city also owns the land along the river going south to Lane Rd and the north end of Griggs Reservoir Park. This strip of land is too narrow for a bike path, and there likely is not enough space under the Hayden Rd bridge, but perhaps a footpath may be feasible. More extended networks of trails would give urbanites more access to Green Space and thus more appreciation of natural spaces.