Stormwater-driven road salt is a chronic and acute issue for streams in cold, urban environments. One promising approach for reducing the impact of road salt contamination in streams and adjacent aquifers is to allow “accidental wetlands” to flourish in urban areas. These wetlands form naturally as a byproduct of human activities. In this study, we quantified the ability of an accidental wetland in northwestern North Carolina, USA, to reduce the timing and peak concentration of road salt in a stream. Monitoring suggests that flow and transport processes through the wetland reduce peak concentrations and delay their arrival at the adjacent stream. We expand these findings with numerical simulations that model multiple meltwater and summer storm event scenarios. The model output demonstrates that small accidental wetland systems can reduce peak salinities by 94% and delay the arrival of saltwater pulses by 45 days. Our findings indicate that accidental wetlands improve stream water quality and they may also reduce peak temperatures during temperature surges in urban streams. Furthermore, because they find their own niche, accidental wetlands may be more effective than some intentionally constructed wetlands, and provide opportunities to explore managing stormwater by letting nature take its course.

Existing studies have demonstrated a lack of consensus on the relationships between what the public sees when viewing a river, the actual ecological quality of that river, and a perceived need for management measures for that river. More specifically, there is insufficient information available about public perceptions of high-quality rivers. Therefore, this study, conducted in North Carolina, assessed public perceptions of a high-quality river, including links between perceptions of how attractive or how natural the river appeared and perceptions of specific ecological conditions on the river. The study also assessed the public's perceived need for flood protection or river rehabilitation. The study's results show that public perception of the river studied is complex and, in some ways, aligns well with available monitoring data collected from that river, but simultaneously reflects the public's lack of knowledge about what constitutes a high-quality river, which influenced a perceived need for flood control and rehabilitation.