Carver Ravine

This stabilization project helps keep silt and nutrients out of Carver Lake.

Carver Ravine is an intermittent stream leading from a residential development to Carver Lake. The Ravine is entirely on City Park land. The City of Woodbury brought this problem to the attention of the District and asked for District help in stabilizing ravine erosion and siltation of the lake.

The project design called for backfilling several severe erosion scarps, relocating the channel where necessary, installing two boulder drop structures to control flow velocity, and constructing three ponds for storm water treatment. One pond was constructed by a private developer to treat runoff from his development. Another pond was created from a low emergent wetland area with little or no standing water. This wetland was a gravel pit prior to the construction of the subdivision. The third pond was constructed at the downstream end of the ravine as a final sediment pool prior to discharging to Carver Lake.

The private development pond has been cleaned out twice at the owners expense, since the sedimentation was due primarily to inadequate erosion control on his development. The gravel pit pond has performed well, but has recently been plagued by beaver problems. Beavers have been plugging the outlet, requiring the District and the City to remove the debris and trap the beavers.