Big Spring Creek Restoration

[dryflyguy]

Nice piece in the june/july issue of FF magazine about the 10 year project to restore the wild trout fishing on this stream.
It's being led by a partnership - which includes the cumberland valley TU chapter,the PA fish and boat commission. and the big spring watershed association.
Beginning last year, they've already done some channel habitat work.
But the big question is - will this restore the brookie fishery, or make it more of a rainbow fishery.
Apparantly, years ago, the stream had numerous mill dams - which made a lot of good holding areas for the brook trout, which grew quite large then. Fox and Marinaro even proclaimed it the best brookie fishing in the US
Now that these dams are all gone, there is a lot of doubt that the fishery can ever be what it once was.
And I guess that there is some consideration of possibly putting some dams back in there. In this era of dam removal, that's pretty interesting IMO
We've been pretty much led to believe that dams are always bad for trout streams. But maybe that isn't always the case after all?

 

[Tups]

Provided the stream in question has relatively high water quality and an abundant food supply, trout also need protective habitat to complete the triumvirate of ecological criteria necessary for large growth. Habitat is provided, in a case like Big Spring, either by overhead cover or deep pools, or both. Without those habitat features, it is unlikely that trout will grow large in any stream. Pools are created in one of 2 ways: by scour, or by damming. Big Spring creek has been classified by the PAFBC as a B4c type stream (Rosgen classification system). Without getting too technical, that means that the stream valley is narrow and has a gentle slope, and the bedload of the stream is composed primarily of gravel. In such a stream with gentle flows and little bedrock, we wouldn't expect deep scour pools to predominate. In a natural state, streams like BSC rely on large woody debris and debris fields (aka log jams) to create its scour pools and overhead cover. But the BSC valley, though rural, is not heavily wooded and therefore lacks an abundant supply of useful woody scour-making material. In the old days, by happy coincidence the local mill operations provided the dam-pool habitat necessary to grow big trout in the absence of woody scour material. If you have ever fished Mountain creek through the Pine Grove Furnace SP, you no doubt observed the necessity of coarse woody debris in creating scour pools and habitat

 

[troutbert]

dryflyguy wrote:

We've been pretty much led to believe that dams are always bad for trout streams. But maybe that isn't always the case after all?

That is correct. There are many options to choose from. Making the correct decision means analyzing the specific details of the dam, stream, and floodplain.

 

[dryflyguy]

I've never fished Big Spring creek - but have read numerous articles about it's decline. And if I remember correctly, most of that was attributed to the hatchery at the streams source. Can't really remember hearing about the old dams that were there, until this article.
Anyway, it will be interesting to see what they do with the rest of the restoration project.

On a similar note, I've posted before about the wonderful fishing that I enjoyed around the 2 dams that were on the lower part of spring creek - below Bellefonte. And since their removal - the fishing there has been just a shadow of what it was before IMO.
Although some stream restoration has been done there the last few years now too

 

[troutbert]

dryflyguy wrote:

On a similar note, I've posted before about the wonderful fishing that I enjoyed around the 2 dams that were on the lower part of spring creek - below Bellefonte. And since their removal - the fishing there has been just a shadow of what it was before IMO.
Although some stream restoration has been done there the last few years now too

They did some habitat work at the McCoy Dam removal site.

But no habitat work was ever done at the lower dam removal site, i.e. the West Penn Power Dam site, which was located a little ways upstream from the transformer stations near Milesburg.

 

[Chaz]

Big Spring will never be as it was in the good old days, in part because of human impact and in part because the rainbows will keep it from being anything good.
They may want to create habitat for the fish, and that's fine, but I doubt that building new dams is the right thing. We're talking about a stream here that by 1800 was known for it's large brook trout. People travleed from Philly and NYC to fish Big Spring, which back then was no small task.
Back before they did any habitat work and before PFBC decided to allow the bows and brookies to fight it out, the brookie fishing was beter than it is now.

 

[Fishidiot]

They're not putting any dams back in Big Spring. The brook trout in this stream thrive in areas of slow current and this was the case in the mill days. The current restoration is intended to improve habitat for brook trout by narrowing and slowing the stream (which the restoration accomplished). Whether this will help increase brookies in the future remains to be seen. It will take a few years before this can be accurately assessed vs the control section. My personal view is that those who've written BS off as a brook trout stream are jumping to conclusions prematurely.

There will be more info on the stream to follow in the near future.
Stay tuned.

 

[Tups]

FI: It is likely that you are more familiar with the restoration plans and goals of the BS project than I am. I am just an observer, having been to the stream only once since the work was completed. However I have had some basic training in stream classification and restoration techniques, so i made some assumptions. Generally, when you narrow a stream that was formerly over-wide due to natural or man-made causes, the result is to increase its flow velocity. The increased velocities cause an increase in erosive forces which can be offset by either increasing the length of the channel or by adding drop structures. The drop structures, such as those at the BS project re-direct the stream energy in a vertical direction thereby creating scour pools. This controlled scouring uses the energy of the stream in a productive manner creating pool habitat, something that was lacking in the BS outside of the ditch (which was created by the existing mill dam). Often-times the drop structures also serve as grade control, preventing the stream from future head-cutting and incisement, though I am not sure the BS structures were intended for this purpose. I am very curious about this project and hope that you folks who were involved in the project can further enlighten me. Thanks.

 

[Fishidiot]

Tups,
You're certainly correct in your observations. I follow Big Spring closely and am pretty familiar with its history but I was not part of the group that designed this restoration. That was done by Rivers Unlimited and their chief hydrologist. My understanding is careful measurements were made regarding stream gradient and, despite the new plunge pools, over the length of the restored area, water flow rate has been reduced by 60%. If you're familiar with what the area previously looked like, I think you'll agree, if you look at the entire restored section....it clearly can be seen to be slower water now.

 

[Mike]

For those who would suggest the addition of dams to improve the abundance of large Big Spring brookies, there is a modern example at Big Spring that did nothing to improve their abundance. The former fish barrier was nothing more than a very low, low-head dam that had the additional feature which, when kept free of accumulating piles of aquatic plants, prevented fish from jumping over the dam. This dam created a long, fairly quiet pool, but held very few trout and did nothing to improve the abundance of large brookies.

As for the old mill dams on Big Spring, they were silt traps that helped embed the natural rubble-gravel stream bottom with sediment, destroying spawning habitat even after the dams were removed, and there-by contributing to the brook trout population's decline.

Yes, pools above man-made mill dams will occasionally hold a big trout or two, but the abundance of mid-size and small trout is sacrificed. Additionally, streams with narrow, deeper channels and complex structure usually hold large trout as well without the near total sacrifice of mid-size and smaller trout that is seen in mill dams. Picture the Logan Branch of old when it had plenty of water. It was the best large trout stream in Pa. The abundance of browns over 20" was amazing.

 

[troutbert]

Mike wrote:
Picture the Logan Branch of old when it had plenty of water. It was the best large trout stream in Pa. The abundance of browns over 20" was amazing.

Mike, what happened to Logan Branch's water flows?

 

[dryflyguy]

I've noticed on maps that there is, what appears to a small dam and lake at the source of logan branch.
I tried to check it out once, but the road leading back to it is posted and gated off.
I've kinda assumed that it's being used as a municipal water supply.

 

[TimMurphy]

Dear dryflyguy.

IIRC that is a private pond at the headwaters of Logan Branch.

I used to fish Logan Branch when I attended PSU many years ago, it held quite a few large trout but it is probably one of the first places in PA that was spot burnt.

An article was written about it and since it was under general regs people flocked to it and those who were successful quickly removed most of the large fish.

Today we have whats left of it.

Regards,

Tim Murphy

 

[TimMurphy]

troutbert wrote:

Mike wrote:
Picture the Logan Branch of old when it had plenty of water. It was the best large trout stream in Pa. The abundance of browns over 20" was amazing.

Mike, what happened to Logan Branch's water flows?

Dear troutbert,

That's a fair question but the answer is one that seems to be rather intuitive.

Take a rural valley and double the population while at the same time reducing the water absorbing surface area by 10 to 15% and voila', you have what we have today.

Places that never flooded are subject to flash flooding and streams that ran pretty much constantly at the same level even during periods of prolonged heavy rain are now subject to reduced flows during times of low rainfall/snowfall.

I don't want to start some convoluted debate about zero population growth but people really do need to realize the importance of clean water.

All the water on Earth is presently contained in the atmosphere. Think about it, if you double the population in an area doesn't it stand to reason that you are to wind up with a few dry spots from time to time?

Regards,

Tim Murphy

 

[dryflyguy]

TimMurphy wrote:
Dear dryflyguy.

IIRC that is a private pond at the headwaters of Logan Branch.

I used to fish Logan Branch when I attended PSU many years ago, it held quite a few large trout but it is probably one of the first places in PA that was spot burnt.

An article was written about it and since it was under general regs people flocked to it and those who were successful quickly removed most of the large fish.

Today we have whats left of it.

Regards,

Tim Murphy

Thanks Tim.
When I saw how seriously blockaded that pond is, it got me thinking water supply area.
Regardless, I'll bet there are still some nice trout in it!