by Alex Brooks
At the Annual Meeting of the Little Hoosic Watershed Association (LHWA) on March 19, President Carl Greene announced the four stream improvement projects which are on the group’s agenda. Greene and other members of the group have walked most of the river along with river experts from the US. Fish and Wildlife Service (USF&W), and consulting among themselves, came up with these four projects as the ones most in need of work.
Martha Naley and Carl Schwartz from USF&W have made several visits to the area to meet with members of the Little Hoosic Watershed Assn and walk the river with them, and to work on the design of the four projects. A description of the four projects written by Naley was circulated at the Annual Meeting.
The first two projects involve removing existing flood control structures which, according to the USF&W report, have not been maintained and are not functioning. Both are just upstream of where Southeast Hollow Creek meets the Little Hoosic River, one on Southeast Hollow Creek and one on the Little Hoosic River. The one on Southeast Hollow
Creek, which has a vertical drop of 6 feet, will be replaced with six “cross vanes” made out of large rocks. The six structure will be spread out over 900 feet of stream length. The one on the Little Hoosic, which has a vertical drop of 8 feet, will be replaced with eight structures of the same type spread out over 1200 feet of stream length.
Greene says the debris dams are supposed to be cleaned out on an annual basis, so that silt and debris being pushed down the river accumulates behind them and cleans the water. But now that they are filled in behind the dams they no longer function as intended. The last time they were cleaned out was in 1996 and 1997. Greene says EPA will no longer give a permit to dig out behind the dams.
The third project, known as the EQIP project because it already has funding associated with it from the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, is to restore a “badly braided” reach of The Little Hoosic about a mile south of the center of Berlin, which has eroded a lot. It is a stream crossing point for vehicles, but Greene says the trouble came not from vehicles crossing, but because a beaver dam a few years ago shifted the stream from its normal course to one along the edge of an adjacent agricultural field. The project involves about 300 feet of stream length, four rock structures to restore a natural channel design, stabilizing the bank, as well as a 15 foot wide rocked structure to accommodate vehicle crossings at times of low flow.
EQIP is a program of the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), a branch of the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture. The local office in Troy is run by Eric Swanson, who assisted the LHWA to secure the funding. Greene says there is about $1800 of funding for this project, which is not enough for the whole project, but it’s a great start.
The final project is up in North Petersburgh, about a half mile south of Route 346, where a section of the Little Hoosic has badly eroded the stream bank alongside of an agricultural field. The project will construct a terraced section about 400 feet long, referred to as a “bankfull bench,” designed to accommodate river overflow. The project also involves extensive riverbank restoration and revegetation.
Except for the EQIP project, the Association does not yet have funding for these projects, and cost estimates have not yet been undertaken. Members of the Watershed Association plan to assist Naley & Schwartz with surveying and measurement work aimed at fleshing out the design of these projects to get them ready for construction and cost estimating. The Watershed Association plans a public meeting soon at which Naley and Schwartz will talk about the four projects in more detail, but a date for this meeting has not yet been set.
One of the Watershed Association’s priorities this spring will be to seek funding for these projects. Its first step will be to submit its application for 501C-3 non-profit status. Several motions related to this were passed at the Annual Meeting, and Greene says the package is just about ready to send off.
Frank Cuttone from the local chapter of Trout Unlimited attended the Little Hoosic Watershed Assn meeting, and spoke about grants for stream improvement that his group can apply for from the national organization of TU. These are typically several thousand dollars for a project. Applications are due in September, so the funding would be available for work to be done in the summer of 2010.
Greene says there are a number of other funding opportunities which come along on a pretty regular basis, and with help from their friends at Fish & Wildlife, NRCS, and the State Soil and Water Conservation District, his group will be submitting applications wherever they can to fund their four priority projects.