Across Western North Carolina, landscapes are under increasing pressure—flooding, erosion, drought cycles, and declining water quality. Our team offers full-stack land healing packages. We are a bioregionally-focused, community-oriented, hydrological design studio. If you are curious about how we can help, take a look at some of our past projects.
Stream Bank Repair
Fairview, NC: Late winter stream bank repair, including boulder garden, riparian pollinator buffer, fruit trees, steps, and a spillway.
Fairview, NC | Enchanted Waters Farm | Stream bank Repair
We craft functional landscapes that breathe - like living art. Using carefully placed stone, wood, and native plants, we repair stream banks to stop erosion, reconnect channels to their floodplains, and rebuild habitat complexity—pools, riffles, rootwads, and vegetated terraces. Each intervention follows the site’s natural patterns, restoring groundwater recharge, slowing runoff, and re-establishing seasonal flows. The result is resilient creek corridors that support fish, pollinators, and riparian wildlife while stabilizing soil and renewing the hydrological cycle. Practical, native-focused design makes every restored reach both beautiful and ecologically productive for generations.
This site was significantly damaged by the flooding during Helene in September 2024. It didn’t help that the stream was channelized by landowners in the 1970’s and before. With support from Riverlink, we re-graded sections of the bank, installed boulder armor in several locations, added 100 live stakes, rivercane, and seeded for a wetland riparian buffer.
Fairview, NC | Stream bank Repair
Channelized streams with steep banks cannot always be completely redesigned with meanders, permits, and giant machines. Simply making space for water to spread out and slow down makes a big impact when heavier flows arrive. This site was also significantly damaged by the flooding during Helene in September 2024. We re-graded sections of the bank, installed shelves in several locations, added live stakes, rivercane, and seeded for a wetland riparian buffer.
Water Capture
Hundreds of tons of silt, sand, and rock deposited here during the floods in 2024. Using techniques from our studies in Rajasthan, India, we crafted a water capture feature similar to the Indian ‘Johad’. Rajendra Singh taught us how India has been practicing rainwater harvesting for centuries. One of the most remarkable methods is the johad, a simple crescent-shaped dam that has helped communities thrive in arid landscapes by storing precious monsoon rains. Notice the stone spillway in the later photos.
We incorporated this design here in order to catch a half acre of runoff at the bottom of a small catchment. The basin is already becoming a thriving wetland, not only catching rain, but supporting a rich biodiversity of plant and animal life. This is a great example of a full-stack land healing, where we installed an entire ecosystem in place of an ecological disaster. Not only did we plan for a wetland, we designed flows to move well with future high waters.
Fairview, NC | Water Capture | Indian-style Johad
Ponds provide concentrated pockets of habitat and water that support biodiversity, offering breeding and foraging sites for amphibians, birds, insects, and aquatic plants. Thoughtfully designed and maintained, ponds bolster landscape resilience, enhance ecological connectivity, and deliver lasting benefits for both wildlife and watershed health. We work with and without liners, depending on the soil and needs of the site.
Fairview, NC | Frog Pond
Spring Development
Clyde, NC: Spring tapping, including extensive pipe installation, and watering trough connection.
We design and build sustainable, site-specific water systems that work with the landscape’s natural patterns. Our approach combines hydrological assessment, practical engineering, and hands-on earthwork to capture and store runoff, protect springs, and distribute water where it’s needed most. Systems are low-maintenance, durable, and made from locally sourced stone, wood, and earth to blend with the site and minimize embodied energy.
Services
Spring development and protection: trace recharge areas, secure springheads, install settling and overflow structures, and design safe delivery to tanks or troughs.
Water harvesting and conveyance: ponds, infiltration basins, check dams, and berms sized to local rainfall and soil conditions to maximize capture and groundwater recharge.
Erosion control and channel stabilization: rock step-pools, grade-control structures, and vegetative reinforcement to slow flow, reduce sediment, and protect downstream resources.
Material-sensitive construction: use of on-site stone, native timber, and compacted earth to create resilient, repairable structures that age gracefully.
Of the Earth
In service to water
