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Spotlight- Major Trout Unlimited Fish Habitat Project Complete On Spring Creek, Centre County
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By Mark Nale

It was an unsettling sight for Trout Unlimited members to see a trackhoe sitting in the famous trout stream and a huge offroad dump truck using Centre County’s Spring Creek as a highway. Those were the images motorists witnessed as they traveled between Bellefonte and Milesburg last August.

However, those associated with the project say this shortterm disturbance will lead to a long-term habitat improvement for this well-known Class A Wild Trout Stream.

Photo: Clearwater Conservancy project grant manager Katie Ombolski (foreground left) and Trout Unlimited volunteer Bob Carline (right) look on as limestone is unloaded by a trackhoe and used to secure a log deflector on Spring Creek. Other Trout Unlimited volunteers rest on the bank until it is safe to reenter the stream.

In-stream work has been completed on another large Spring Creek project. Last summer's work was concentrated upstream from the site of the former McCoy-Linn Dam, which was removed in August, 2007. Project partners included the Spring Creek Chapter, Pa. Fish & Boat Commission and the ClearWater Conservancy. Approximately $125,000 in funding was provided by DCNR, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and a private donor.

"The first good thing is that we got that dam out of here," said PFBC Stream Section Chief Karl Lutz. "Now we are stabilizing the banks and making better habitat for the trout. This stream section was basically one long riffle, with a few trout holding in the small slack areas. Through this project we are creating more of that slack water and using the log deflectors, mudsills and root wads to provide cover for the fish."

Work started August 3, with Gleim Environmental Group of Carlisle bringing material on site and moving thousands of tons of soil to create a high-water bench to handle flood-level flows. On August 10, volunteers began constructing the many habitat improvement devices, as well as seeding and mulching the areas that had been disturbed when the riparian area was recontoured.

TU project manager Cliff Wurster said that three large limestone cross vanes were constructed mainly by Gleim and large random boulders were strategically placed in the channel. Then, volunteers and the PFBC habitat crew built nine log deflectors and two mudsills and assisted with finishing the rock vanes. Root wads were placed immediately downstream from the rock vanes and the log deflectors.

Most of the devices are multi-purpose, designed to protect the banks from erosion, provide holding water and cover for trout, and stabilize the stream channel by diverting the flow towards the center. Impressive large Ashaped rock vanes stretch from bank to bank. Nearly 1,000 tons of block limestone were used in the construction of the three rock vanes.

According to Lutz and Wurster, the vanes will cause the largest immediate effect. Trout holding water will be created above the A-shaped vane and in the middle of the structure and below, where a larger tumble pool will form. Root wads were placed below each device on the railroad side of the creek.

"You can already see the deeper water that was backed up just upstream from the first rock vane," Wurster said. "It will take a little time for the current to dig another pool just downstream from the rocks. Those root wads are already providing overhead cover for the trout."

Wurster was ecstatic how smoothly this habitat work has gone: "This stream is a treasure for our community and the entire state, and it is wonderful how all of the partners have come together to make it a true and effective collaboration. I just can't say enough about it. Members of the Little Juniata River Association and the Lloyd Wilson TU Chapter (Lock Haven area) even came up to help. There has just been incredible cooperation on this project."

Improvements were also done at the McCoy Dam site last September as TU and PFBC crews built five stone deflectors and stabilized the outflow from a nearby wetland.

"Last year's work was a good start, but the work we did on the wetland outflow at the McCoy site last year was inadequate. The first big high water just took it out," Wurster noted. "We used more and larger stone this year and hopefully our work will solve the problem."

Although the in-stream habitat work is finished, more needs to be done to return the riparian area to a natural state.

Over 700 native trees and shrubs were slated to be planted along the stream later this fall, according to ClearWater Conservancy coordinator and project grant manager Katie Ombalski: "We are going to buy 400 trees and shrubs and also use about 350 shrubs that were grown as part of our Growing Native volunteer program. Trees will include silver maple, pin oak, sycamore and black willow, and the shrubs are silky dogwood, ninebark, American black current, red-osier dogwood and others. Although volunteers grew many of the native shrubs, we are going to use a contractor to plant them. The number of trees and the distance that the materials have to be transported would make it very difficult for volunteers."

According to Ombalski, another phase of the project will improve the parking area and plan and construct a kiosk or small pavilion near the parking lot. This would be a place for anglers to put on or take off their fishing boots, and the organization will post some signs explaining the project.

"This hasn't all come together yet, but we need some sort of panels telling the history of the area, documenting the dam removal and explaining the habitat improvement," she said. "We would like to tie these three ideas together in a functional, yet attractive way -- a design that really fits the site, not just something that is thrown together."

-- Outdoor writer and PA Trout Unlimited member Mark Nale lives in Port Matilda, Centre County. His article was originally published in the Pennsylvania Outdoor News

Reprinted from PA Trout, the newsletter of PA Council of Trout Unlimited

11/30/2009

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