River restoration to improve trout habitat

[Bucksnbows]

I'm in the middle of putting together two Power Point presentations on the same topic for different audiences regarding the benefits and how-to behind river restoration for improving not only trout habitat, but overall water quality.  One of these presentations I'm giving Sunday at the sportsman's show in Edison and the other for a teacher and friend that posts here, in fact.

 

In light of a disease outbreak at the state's Pequest trout hatchery that may have some impact on trout stocking this year, it is even more important for us to focus on improving trout habitat for our wild fish.  Stocking began in the late 1800s in response to man's degradation of our rivers and streams.  At the time, we believed that pollution being dumped into our rivers during the early Industrial Age would continue unabated forever more and that the trees we had cut virtually 100% in states here in the Northeast (which is where the overwhelming bulk of the US population was still centered at the time) was also always going to be the norm.  The odd thing is that once we stopped wide-scale pollution into our waterways thanks in part to the Clean Water Act, we never slowed down the stocking of fish into those waterbodies.  Only enlightened states like Montana have stopped stocking trout, both native and non-native, into their wild trout waters.  NJ remains behind the curve and relies, IMO, far too heavily on stocked fish versus putting funds into restoring the resource.  But river restoration, while still relatively new, is the wave of the future.  Here are some before and after photos to get the fishing juices flowing in this freezing cold weather.

 

Here is a section of the Musconetcong River we restored in Feb. 2012 as seen looking dowstream before the restoration.  Note a lack of riffles or pool habitat as well as no boulders.

 

 

And here is why this stretch was so degraded - it was channelized by a farmer prior to 1930 where he actually moved the channel.  You can clearly see the former channel between the tree lines and even note the trees leaning out over what was then the river's channel.

 

 

And our work to restore the newly created channel (new as in the early 1900s after it was moved over).  Notice the scallops created by scouring from a combination of not enough native vegetation holding the banks together and the river's velocities against these banks because the original channel was moved.

In this one, you can see how we moved the thalweg or deepest part of the channel to the far, stable bank and how we repaired the "scallop" in the bank that used to see all of the river's flow against it.

And more post-restoration of this same channel.  

 

 

 

 

Here's an old eel weir we restored.  Basically, you see a time-lapse of our work starting with the weir itself being removed and ending with a very deep pool that has connected to cooler groundwater, giving trout thermal refuge in the hot summer months as well as escape from overhead predators.  It is also a bug factory now, giving off far more aquatic biomass to feed our trout, wild and stocked.

 

 

And looking downstream at the new pool about a year and a half later...

Edited January 9, 2014 by Bucksnbows

[BowhunterNJ]

Man that makes me want to get out in the river!

Awesome set of pics and great job on the restoration!

[Bucksnbows]

Thanks, Matt.  My contractor, Urbani Fisheries out of Bozeman, MY sure does make us look good.  I love their work and we have been tearing it up throughout NJ's trout country the past few years with lots more coming soon!  I love the design phase which is the fun part.  The in-stream work is almost anti-climatic as it goes so quickly.  Same with dam removals.  You take a few years to line everything up and the dam is out in two days.  But watching Mother Nature respond over time is the exciting part, and we study those effects over a 3 or 5 year period to demonstrate the effectiveness of our restoration work, Trout Unlimited and our partners combined.  

[Haskell_Hunter]

I think it's awesome, but I hate hitting those damn rocks in my kayak!  

[Rusty]

Can't wait to see your presentation next week!    

[robnj]

Interesting work your involved in. Looks rewarding.

[Axiom]

nice work....

[LittleM]

_{Hey B&B -}

 

_{What is the permitting process like?  I assume it's through NJDEP DLUR and likely requires freshwater wetlands and FHA, at a minimum?}

[Palawman30]

That's awesome!!!!!

[Bucksnbows]

_{Hey B&B -}

 

_{What is the permitting process like?  I assume it's through NJDEP DLUR and likely requires freshwater wetlands and FHA, at a minimum?}

We just need a General Permit for this work which is free with a sponsoring state or federal agency.  In the Highlands, they issue me a GP-1 and outside the Highlands a GP-16.  Both are identical more or less, but the GP-1 is Highlands specific.  We get LURP signatures from our landowner(s), my contractor that prepares my (un-stamped) plans, and yours truly who prepares the permit applications and holds the permit once issued.  The BS work you have to go through in the permitting process is a PITA, but we have no issues in obtaining them.  In fact, DEP now directs landowners and townships to me who approach them wanting to restore failed banks and degraded river channels.  

[WALLPACK]

GREAT WORK

[BowTechExperience]

Nice work

[Gruntmaster]

Outstanding work...

Nice to see such great work to improve our trout steams.

Thank You.