Fish Habitat Restoration in Wright’s River

The Habitat Unlimited crew installed 14 digger logs and a 25’ long bank crib in a Pleasant Valley tributary. Additionally the crew installed 11 structures in Hartshorn Brook and 4 in Brierly Brook. At Hartshorn Brook the crew installed 5 deflectors (2 of which were multi-tier deflectors), 4 digger logs, a rock sill, and a 10’ long bank log. In Brierly Brook the crew diverted the stream back into its original channel and built 2 cover devices and an 18.2 m bank crib. The brook was diverted by moving debris from the original channel into the gap in the bank where the brook was entering the adjacent forest and digging through the gravel bar (approx. 1-2 m long by 4m wide by 0.5m high) that was deposited in the original channel during the storm. The crew planted over 250 trees (primarily elm seedlings and oak saplings) into the riparian zones of Brierly Brook, the West River, and a tributary of the Right’s River. The arrangements to meet this objective have been made, and are finalized. Students in the first year Aquatic Resources 100 class at St. Francis Xavier University will spend an afternoon in the first week of October learning about stream ecology and participating restoration activities.