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Spotlight - Success! Brook Trout Found Below Middle Branch Passive Treatment System
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After more than a decade of work by Trout Unlimited to repair damage from highly acidic, abandoned coal mine drainage in the lower Kettle Creek Watershed, native brook trout have returned to a once-dead section of Middle Branch, a tributary to Twomile Run.
"Improving water quality so that brook trout, Pennsylvania's state fish, can once again thrive is a jaor milestone," said Amy Wolfe, Director of Trout Unlimited's Eastern Abandoned Mine Program. "The 13 years of our hard work is paying off, thanks to thousands of hours spent by the dedicated volunteers of the Kettle Creek Watershed Association who have helped make this happen."
Trout Unlimited and the Clinton County Conservation District conducted a fish survey on the stream and found that brook trout are now living in the once-biologically dead section of Middle Branch.
A healthy population of brook trout have always existed in Middle Branch above the mine drainage.
The stream has also seen an increase in stonefly and caddisfy activity in the restored section, another sign of healthy water quality.
The improved water quality in the Middle Branch is a result of the passive treatment system that the KCWA and TU rehabilitated in 2007.
The KCWA and TU continue to work in partnership on additional restoration projects within the Twomile Run subwatershed to address mine drainage impacts.
This milestone is proof that those years of hard work are finally paying off.
(Reprinted from the April issued of Kettle Creek Watershed Association News.)
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4/25/2011 |
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