2013 Summer Conservation Corps

This field season started out by changing locations for the Black River Restoration Crews’ equipment and supplies from the trailer in Hillman to the Self Storage in Atlanta. The first week of work consisted of moving supplies over to the storage and orientation. In the second week the crew finished up transferring supplies and building shelving in the storage unit. The week progressed and the crew made the first trip up to the Black River meeting at Richard Bruot's residence on the Black River to receive some orientation and layout of the land. He provided his expertise for installing structures, staging material, and contacts for landowners where work will be performed in the upcoming weeks. The crew began and finished out the third week by staging mat erials at various waypoin ts to prepare for installation, removing log jams downstream from the Town County Stairs, attending CPR and First Aid Training, and Chainsaw training at the Carlson residence. Due to high water on the Upper Black river, structures were not installed, but the crew anticipates the river will be at normal flows in the week to follow.

The river crew was hindered by inclement weather and high water during the week of 5/20/13 - 5/26/13, but used this time to stage materials on the Upper Black River downstream of the Go tt s c halk property. The following week, 19 structures were installed on the Upper Black River between the Go tt s c halk and Bentz properties at waypoint SPRG - 10. The structures were installed to catch silt, provide structure for adult and juvenile Brook Trout, and to narrow a wide stretch of the river. The crew finished the week off by clearing trees from the seasonal roads off of East Branch Road leading to the public fishing and camping access sites.

The week of 6/02/13 - 6/08/13, the crew continued staging materials and insta lling structures for the waypoints SPRG - 11 and SPRG - 12, which included a long narrow lunker style structure on the back side of a popular fishing hole, for a total of 4 structures for these waypoints. The crew finished the week off by starting waypoint S PRG - 13, a large woody debris structure was installed extending along the big bend on the right bank.

The River Crew continued building structures Monday thru Wednesday downstream from the Go tt s c halk property to the up - stream property line of the Bentz property. The crew completed waypoint 13 which included two structures for juvenile trout, which were framed tight to the right bank under a stretch of shallow gravel river bottom. The permit descriptions for these structures asked for no fill due to the shallow water and already abundant overhanging Cedars. The crew began working on Waypoint 14, completing 5 large woody debris structures for adult and juvenile trout, which included a long lunker style structure tight to the left bank. We continued transferring staged materials from the Go tt s c halk property down - stream to t he Bentz property in order for the crew to complete Waypoints 14 - 16. We complete d the week by floating from Bruo t’s property to the Upper Black River’s main bridge road crossing removing 8 large log jams that constricted the rivers’ flow and blocked passa ge for recreational activities. The crew will be moving downstream to the Gio r danos’ property beginning June 17 th to begin working on Waypoints 18 and 19. This will give the Upper Black River committee the opportunity to see some structures installed and meet the crew on June 20 th .

The river crew continued staging mat erials and installing structures beginning the week of 6/19/2013 between the downstream property line of the Got t s c ha lk cabin and upstream of the Bentz’ property covering waypoints 14 - 18. Twenty large structures were installed in this stretch filled with large woody debris. These structures will provide habitat for adult and juvenile fish and act as sediment basins to catch debris during high water events. The river crew began the week of 6/24/2 013 staging both framing and fi ll materials to start waypoint 19; a stretch of river that will have large and small woody debris structures installed aggressively on alternating banks. This waypoint will be completed by 4 th of July Holiday weekend. The r iver crew has now completed waypoints 10,11,12,13,14,17,18, and in progress of completing 19. The crew has completed 46 structures in this stretch of river. The crew anticipates relocating to Canada Creek Ranch after the holiday weekend but will return t o the Upper Black River to complete the remaining waypoints.


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