WINS to Improve Fish Habitat

Story and Photo by Kathy Mohney
Allegheny National Forest



The Northern Research Station facility at the Kane Experimental Forest (south of Kane) started its historic weeding study in 1936. The objective of the study was to test precommercial thinning of young stands of trees. The research tracked the volume of the trees in the stands to age 70 years. The 2003 July windstorm damaged the trees in the research. Now what?

Forest Road 130, called the Lamonaville Road, parallels Spring Creek just north of the bridge near State Game Lands 28. Roads were historically built near streams to take advantage of level ground. But, streams tend to wander and re-arrange themselves with major flood events over time. Erosion had become a problem near the bridge. Stream banks were collapsing. Large woody debris to create pools for trout was missing. Now what?

The Allegheny WINS (Watershed Improvement NeedS) Coalition, formed in 2007, is composed of members whose mission is “to promote protection, restoration, and habitat improvement activities in watersheds within the Allegheny National Forest (NF) through collaboration and partnerships.” Fish habitat and riparian improvement in Spring Creek were identified as one of the group’s goals. The Allegheny WINS Coalition plans to reduce sediment to the stream, stabilize eroding streambanks, improve in-stream fish cover, and restore riparian areas. But how?

The Youth Conservation Corps (YCC) crew of young people age 15-18 started work on the Allegheny NF and needed to be introduced to hands-on conservation of natural resources. Now what?

Enter the Pennsylvania Boat and Fish Commission with technical expertise to recommend log structures to improve fish habitat in Spring Creek, and a partnership habitat restoration project was born.

The Northern Research Station renewed their important long term research study and began the second generation weeding study; they gave over 100 hemlock logs removed from their research sites to benefit the fish. Employees of the Allegheny NF, the YCC crew, and two volunteers provided the labor and heavy equipment operation to turn the hemlock logs into 10 log deflectors and two mud sills on Spring Creek. Over 1200 feet of Spring Creek was stabilized and overhead hiding cover for fish was created. History and hemlocks improved trout habitat!

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