Stream Restoration

[Joe D]

Check out these videos of spawning habitat restoration:

YouTube- Stream Restoration Part 1

YouTube- Stream Restoration Part 2

[JeffK]

You will be able to see that in person at Pt Mountain this August. Joe Urbani will be working on the featureless middle section of the stretch.

[Rusty Spinner]

Classic situation where attempts to thwart flooding and erosion only exacerbate it. The one area of about 1/2 mile of river we will be restoring later this year on the Musky was channelized many years ago and then the trees were cut down along the banks so it could be farmed to the edge, widening it and making it far more shallow. It now floods its banks regularly in this area. We need to redefine the thalweg (deepest part of the river's channel) and build back in the meanders that allow a healthy river to dissipate some of its energy during high water events as we narrow the channel in base flows. I wish those working on these important Catskills projects much luck with funding and convincing the local townspeople of the need for this project after so many years of hard-armoring and adding rip rap in a few problem areas which causes much larger problems downstream due to increased velocities (the sheer stresses mentioned in the video). It will certainly have a big impact on the fisheries as so many of these tribs that have been manipulated over the years are the spawning tribs to the upper D.