Various classes at Bucknell have contributed to the restoration of Miller Run over the years.
Bucknell University’s Miller Run Watershed Restoration Project undertook this task in 2012.
According to Ben Hayes the recently completed restoration project was funded by a grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, so it came at little cost to Bucknell University. The grant only covered the cost of restoring a small part of the stream, but on those parts water quality, wildlife variety, and flood safety have increased dramatically. The great improvement that restoration has made proves the necessity to continue the project, restoring the reaches which lie further down the stream.
The Golf Course was the first target of the restoration effort. A quarter mile of the stream was daylighted. In this process, a stream confined to an underground pipe is brought to light. An off-channel wetland replaced a portion of the rough of the golf course. This wetland does not contain standing water, but fills with water after heavy rains. The water from the wetland slowly drains into Miller Run to flow away with the river. Added native plants work as filters in the stream, filtering out fertilizer before it flows downstream. Without the wetland, rainwater would commonly flood the area and ruin basements in nearby houses. In addition, nearby residents have praised the landscape the wetland has created, and real estate values have increased as a result.
The project continued to restore the stream along the Golf Course and Smoketown road, but the project was halted as the stream ran onto lands which were artificially flattened with coal ash. This segment of the project requires extra care as the coal ash could pollute the stream if the terrain was reverted to a more natural state. The project is seeking additional grants to complete this segment along with the others further downstream.
Look at an overview of what has been done to Miller Run and what still needs to be done here