Clemson Researchers monitoring Historic Campus Creek

A Clemson University Experiment Station grant of more than $100,000 will enable researchers to monitor and restore part of an historic creek that flows through and around the campus. The one-time funding must be spent by June 2013, but it will set in motion a long-term program on local wetland enhancement and stream restoration. Hunnicutt Creek and Clemson have a long relationship, one that goes back to the founding of the university. In 1890, state lawmakers approved using convict labor to make bricks for Clemson’s first buildings from the clay in what then was called Mill Creek. Now, Hunnicutt Creek will have research and teaching roles, becoming an “intelligent creek,” part of Clemson’s Intelligent River project, and a living laboratory for faculty and students focusing on ecosystem assessment and restoration.