Though urban streams are often seen as biologically and visually bankrupt (as per the “Urban Stream Syndrome" framework), we suggest that urban communities can still develop strong connections to them, especially when viewed using historical, ecological and “Natural History” perspectives. Urban residents are unfortunately accustomed to a landscape dominated by impervious surfaces, dense artificial drainage networks and highly engineered stream ecosystems. We are left with decidedly poor stream habitats and environments that do not support adequate natural resources. This should not be a "fait-accompli" since these are still unique, complex aquatic ecosystems with impressive, functional ecological patches. They are worthy of protection and appreciation by urban communities, especially when communities realize they are much more than just storm drainage networks.
We will discuss how urban communities can re-claim their streams using a diversity of novel restoration approaches. First, a cultural approach can highlight extensive lost (buried) stream networks, thereby enriching residents’ knowledge regarding societies of their watersheds, before urbanization and suburbanization overwhelmed the natural landscape. Second, we talk about educational programs of the Natural History Society of Maryland that bring microscopes and scientists to an urban park to reveal the biological wonders of Dead Run, an urban stream in Baltimore’s Leakin Park that is among the oldest and largest of our urban parks. Lastly, we suggest that a “Natural History” approach is a particularly useful framework for revealing to residents that they are important members of a truly socio-ecological ecosystem. To do this we draw upon the very rich foundations of ecological studies that we call “Natural History. This is helpful, because of its emphasis on hands-on observational approaches, and because they harken back to a time before the study of nature was partitioned into so many specialized disciplines and technologies that are now inaccessible to residents.