Well, we all have our theories....my personal one is the lack of water. Without water, the vegetation won't grow and the water we're seeing now is just filling the bare minimum main channel. All those exposed mud flats should be under 8-12" of water. I've been harping about it pretty regularly, but look at all the spring creeks in the Cumberland Valley, they are all low, low and lower. Cedar Run dried up last year in spots, Alexander Spring went dry and the top main spring on Mt Rock Spring Creek was completely dry this spring. The bubble there in Boiling Springs where I fill my water jugs has been dropping. Big Spring Gage is still hovering around 18-19cfs when then median should be up around 33. We simply don't have any water in the ground to feed the springs. Anecdotally, a buddy saw him and then I also witnessed a young farmer kid pumping water out of the left branch off Spring Garden St into his tank for use on the farm. Apparently their well is no longer keeping up so they're looking at having a deeper one dug. In the meantime they're drawing out of the creek (which is ok according to the DEP guy we worked on the sinkhole with, farm use...)
But I digress, here are some pictures:
Letort, middle of the stretch above 81, Nov 26. Good weed growth still, typical for late fall, but notice the tops of the plants in the lower right dieing off after it's above water line. You can also note the lower water level as normally I'd expect that rock on the far bank to be at waters edge.
Dec 26: Stretch across from the old Houser place. Can still see good vegetation, but also note a lot of the tops are exposed and the low water can be noted by the drop off the far bank.
March 9: Back in January/February I spotted this barrel while out poking around the far bank. It had begun to pop up out the weeds that had engulfed it over the years, it had a an inch or two of water flowing over it. This is what I found on March 9, this is downstream of Vince's in the Barnyard/Mailbox Meadow.
May 2:
This is the same barrel, notice the lower stream level? Notice how that barrel would be submerged if the stream were running bank full? That benched area behind the barrel is normally a weed bed that would stretch pretty much to what is now the water's edge.
May 17: Sinkhole issue. Over the wknd DEP reached out to CVTU about a sinkhole that had been discovered. So we scrambled our jets, DEP was great to work with, the quarry donated material and we began to reestablish the breached bank. We put in about 100 sandbags of clay and some with limestone dust. But note in this picture, is if the stream were at it's normal flow, those sandbags would be about 6-8" under water. That woody debris at the far end of the bags used to be at waters edge. I've flooded hip boots in this stretch, now it's mid shin to maybe knee deep. These sandbags are just short term fix as we monitor their effectiveness and determine how to tackle the hole itself.
So, that's my personal take on it, the stream is just that freakin' low right now, that there's not the water there to support the vegetation. Notice also where this has happened. The stretch from Otto's at the new sinkhole down to the the park in town is probably one of the lowest gradient stretches over the entirety of the stream with the most poorly defined banks, (not counting the cress farms or duck pond above Trego's.) So, I think with the low water the stream has retreated into its main channel and simply can't feed those lush flats of weed beds. Remember that there's always been that main silt bottomed channel snaking through the weed beds, which has now been laid bare. My fingers are crossed that we see some new plant growth in the main channel and also hoping for a very wet summer around these parts.
